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May 31, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge." Psalm 51:4
The 51st Psalm is a revelation of the heart of David, recognizing the enormity of his heinous sin against mankind, but especially against God Himself, and the cleansing and restoration he sought from a merciful God of love. Let us look at only one consideration of the many found in this psalm of repentance by David. Let us never forget, our sin is but the overt act of what has been within our heart for some time. It is an expression that has been withheld for whatever reason. Most often, it simply needed the right occasion to manifest its insidious results. The occasion did not make us sin; it just provided the opportunity. The lust was within our hearts and simply blossomed when the occasion presented itself.
David had been elevated from a lowly shepherd to the throne of Israel as a mighty king. However great were the pleasures and grandeur of royalty, protected and served in royal splendor, a model of one who wholly followed God, a faithful servant of Jehovah, David underestimated Satan's infiltrating and insidious ways. Satan always attacks us in the weakest and most vulnerable areas of our lives. After David sinned, there was not a more miserable wretch in all of Israel.
But what I want to emphasize is not just the enormity of his sin and the widespread effect it had, but the ONE that his sin focused upon more than any other--GOD. In the minds of most, sin is but a light and unobjectionable evil. Everybody's doing it; what's wrong with it? So thinks today's liberal mind. But it is God to whom we are responsible and to whom we will have to give an account, either here, or before His judgment seat. How widespread was David's sin? It was a sin against Bathsheba, whom he had defiled; against Uriah, whom he had murdered; against Joab, whom he had made an instrument to effect the murder; against all the soldiers, who were murdered at the same time; against the friends and relatives of all who were slain; against his own army, which was weakened and discouraged; against the whole nation, whose interests were endangered; against the nation of Israel, which was scandalized; and against the ungodly world, which was hardened in its iniquities.
Taking all these sins into consideration, David realized that his sin was chiefly against God. "Against thee, thee chiefly, have I sinned." The enormity of his sin was so great that it almost swallowed up and annihilated every other consideration, as the sun reduces to non-existence the millions of stars. Nothing compared with the fact that he had sinned against God. No man can truly repent until he sees that his whole life has been one continuous state of rebellion against a holy God, and that everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord is his just dessert. The enormity of our sin is only exceeded by the greatness of God's condescending love and His fathomless mercy and grace. David cried out to God, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." May we pray like David: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-05-31&print=1
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