David’s Sin of Adultery and His Repentance
453
Many, reading the history of David’s fall, have inquired, “Why
did God see fit to throw open to the world this dark passage in the
life of one so highly honored of Heaven?” Infidels have pointed to the
character of David and have exclaimed in derision, “This is the man
after God’s own heart!” Thus God and His word have been blasphemed,
and many, under a cloak of piety, have become bold in sin.
But the history of David furnishes no countenance to sin. It was
when he was walking in the counsel of God that he was called a man
after God’s own heart. When he sinned, this ceased to be true of him
until by repentance he had returned to the Lord. “The thing that David
had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Though David repented
[525]
of his sin, he reaped the baleful harvest of the seed he had sown. The
judgments upon him testify to God’s abhorrence of sin.
David himself was broken in spirit by the consciousness of his sin
and its far-reaching results. He felt humbled in the eyes of his subjects.
His influence was weakened. Now his subjects, having a knowledge
of his sin, would be led to sin more freely. His authority in his own
household was weakened. His guilt kept him silent when he should
have condemned sin. His evil example exerted its influence upon his
sons, and God would not interpose to prevent the result. Thus David
was severely chastised. Retribution which no repentance could avert,
agony, and shame would darken his whole earthly life.
Those who, by pointing to the example of David, try to lessen the
guilt of their own sins should learn from the Bible record that the way
of transgression is hard. The results of sin, even in this life, will be
found bitter and hard to bear.
God intended the history of David’s fall to serve as a warning that
even those whom He has greatly blessed are not to feel secure. And
thus it has proved to those who in humility have sought to learn the
lesson He designed to teach. The fall of David, one so honored by
the Lord, has awakened in them distrust of self. Knowing that in God
alone was their strength and safety, they have feared to take the first
step on Satan’s ground.
Even before the divine sentence was pronounced against David,
he had begun to reap the fruit of transgression. The agony of spirit he
then endured is brought to view in the thirty-second psalm: