David’s Sin and Repentance
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of the Lord.”
2 Samuel 11:27
, margin. And the Lord said to David by
the prophet, “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the
Lord, to do evil in His sight? ... Now therefore the sword shall never
depart from thine house; because thou hast despised Me.” Though
David repented of his sin and was forgiven and accepted by the Lord,
he reaped the baleful harvest of the seed he himself had sown. The
judgments upon him and upon his house testify to God’s abhorrence
of the sin.
Heretofore God’s providence had preserved David against all the
plottings of his enemies, and had been directly exercised to restrain
Saul. But David’s transgression had changed his relation to God. The
Lord could not in any wise sanction iniquity. He could not exercise His
power to protect David from the results of his sin as he had protected
him from the enmity of Saul.
There was a great change in David himself. He 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.
Hitherto his prosperity had been attributed to his conscientious obedi-
ence to the commandments of the Lord. But now his subjects, having a
knowledge of his sin, would be led to sin more freely. His authority in
his own household, his claim to respect and obedience from his sons,
was weakened. A sense of his guilt kept him silent when he should
have condemned sin; it made his arm feeble to execute justice in his
house. His evil example exerted its influence upon his sons, and God
would not interpose to prevent the result. He would permit things to
take their natural course, and thus David was severely chastised.
For a whole year after his fall David lived in apparent security;
there was no outward evidence of God’s displeasure. But the divine
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sentence was hanging over him. Swiftly and surely a day of judgment
and retribution was approaching, which no repentance could avert,
agony and shame that 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. Though like David they should turn from their evil course, 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 and favored are not to feel
secure and neglect watchfulness and prayer. And thus it has proved