Realizing Our Need for Repentance
For the choir director. A psalm by David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, God, according to your mercy. Erase my acts of rebellion according to the greatness of your compassion. Scrub me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
It is likely that you are familiar with 2 Samuel chapters 11-12. You may or may not know the chapter reference, but if I say David and Bathsheba, you remember some of the story. Even if you only remember parts, you may have wondered, “How could King David do that?” David’s snowballing sinfulness started with laziness he decided to lounge around the palace instead of going to battle, and it escalated quickly—a downhill roll that picked up lust…adultery…lies…schemes. How big did that snowball of wickedness finally get? So big that David felt he had no choice but to kill one of his most trusted and mightiest men: Uriah the Hittite.
What happened was terrible. David stayed home from battle, and from his palace roof he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing. He called her to the palace and slept with her, conceiving a child. In an attempt to cover up his sin, he brought Uriah home from battle so that Uriah would sleep with his wife then it would seem that the child was his. When the honorable Uriah wouldn’t enjoy the comforts of home while the men were out at war, David ordered his commander, Joab, to have Uriah killed in battle by putting him in the front line and then having the army draw back from him.
David had fallen and fallen hard! Worst of all, he was impenitent. He thought he had gotten away with everything until God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. Nathan carried it out masterfully. He told David a story of a poor man with a pet lamb that he loved very much and a rich neighbor who stole this lamb to feed his guests even though he had flocks of his own to choose from. When David burned with anger at this rich man’s audacity, Nathan dropped the bomb: “You are the man” (2 Samuel 12:7).
In sincere sorrow, David freely confessed that he had sinned against the Lord. In his grief, he fasted and spent a week lying on the ground. And he accepted the painful consequence of his sin: the son who resulted from David’s sin with Bathsheba would die. When the child died, David went and worshiped (2 Samuel 12:20). Repentance is powerful! By the work of the Spirit, the gracious God who forgives sin—even David’s horrible sin called David to repentance and moved him to worship.
The sinful nature in all of us hasn’t changed in the thousands of years since David lived. In this Lenten season, as we walk to the cross of Calvary and the empty tomb of Easter with great David’s greater son, Jesus, we are meditating on Psalm 51, written by repentant David His inspired words lead us to Realize Our Need for Repentance.
We cannot cover up our sin.
The book of Psalms is the Old Testament hymnal. The psalms were sung in the public worship life of God’s people, like our hymns are sung today. Often the psalmist would write a heading containing some information about the psalm, such as the author’s name, some musical instruction, or the occasion for which it was written. These headings are part of the inspired Word of God because they are in the original text. In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, the heading is often listed as the first verse. Sometimes, like in Psalm 51, the occasion listed in the heading gives us some insight into what the psalmist was thinking as he wrote.
This is the heading David wrote for Psalm 51: “For the choir director. A psalm by David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.” Nathan the prophet found a King David who had not repented of his sins. David had worked feverishly to cover up his sins with lies and schemes. He didn’t think it was necessary to confess his sin and plead with the Lord for forgiveness or receive God’s grace…because he thought he had gotten away with everything.
When people find themselves in a bad spot created by their sins, like David did, they often think, I got myself into this, and I have to get myself out.
Perhaps David was arrogant because he was the king. Perhaps he feared losing the respect of his people. Maybe he was concerned about Bathsheba’s reputation or Uriah’s good name. Maybe he was thinking about how people would look at Bathsheba’s son.
Whatever his motivation for lying and scheming, his sin had backed him into a corner. His refusal to repent led to more and more sin, including murder. Even worse, in his impenitence, his rejection of God’s grace.
It’s a hard lesson to learn: Sin cannot be covered up with more sin. David is far from alone in this. We know that lying only makes things worse; we’re taught that from early on. But as we grow and age, we still have the default approach: “I got myself into this, and I have to get myself out.” And so we lie to avoid consequences. Or we try to justify our sin: “I had no choice given the circumstances.” “What I’ve done isn’t as bad as what so-and-so did!” “Everyone else does it, so it must not be a big deal.”
And more subtle but just as dangerous to our faith is the attempt to ease a guilty conscience by redefining our sins, calling them mere mistakes…lapses of judgment…moments of weakness. We become spiritually complacent, denying the reality of God’s condemnation of anything that goes against his holy will.
We may fool ourselves and even the people around us but we cannot fool God. He knows all sin and confronts it. Through Nathan, the Lord made it clear that David couldn’t justify or sugarcoat his sin. His impenitence had put him on the road to hell.
What the Lord did with David, he does with us. Through his law, he lays bare our sinful hearts. There is no way we can be justified on our own. We are guilty. Nothing earthly can change that. None of the things David had could help him and they can’t help us either: no status, no wealth, no power, and no prestige can remove what is ours: everlasting punishment in hell.
God’s law is clear. It shows us how badly we need our Savior. It brings us to our knees just as Nathan’s words “You are the man” did to David (2 Samuel 12:7). God has brought you and me and all of God’s people to Realize Our Need for Repentance.
II. We rely entirely on God’s grace.
They Holy Spirit used Nathan to lead David to repentance: to turn to the Lord for grace and mercy. When David pleads with God for forgiveness, you don’t hear him base his request for mercy on a promise to do better next time. No, he relies entirely on God’s grace: “Be gracious to me, God, according to your mercy. Erase my acts of rebellion according to the greatness of your compassion. Scrub me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.”
Our God is gracious and merciful, and David knew it.
He remembered how from Eden God had promised to send the Savior from sin. He knew that despite the repeated unfaithfulness of the people of Israel, the Lord had renewed his promise again and again.
He believed that the Lord would keep his promise to send the Redeemer. God graciously renewed David’s hope, filling him with confidence in his mercy.
David was forgiven. His rebellion was erased. Though he still faced bitter consequences for his sin, God wiped his eternal slate clean. Even his son’s death the result of his sin focused David on God’s grace because he realized that he deserved far worse. You can hear his trust in the Lord’s mercy when he prayed not that God would change his situation but that God would change his heart and make it pure.
David asked the Lord to scrub him and purify him, and the Lord granted his request. When David asked that, he was thinking of the same cleansing we know cleansing with blood sacrificed for sin. Long ago, God commanded his people to offer sacrifices to foreshadow the once-for-all sacrifice for sin Jesus would offer on his cross.
David’s prayer of repentance is an excellent example for us because we also rely entirely on God’s grace in Christ. We don’t need those Old Testament sacrifices because Jesus has offered the ultimate sacrifice. In Lent we remember the compassion of our Savior who deserved only glory yet endured God’s wrath for our sin, willfully submitting to the judgment we deserve so that we can share in his glory. Through Baptism, God scrubbed us clean, graciously working repentance in us both sorrow over sin and trust in Christ for forgiveness. The Lord’s grace abounds. He renews and strengthens sinners so that like David, we worship our Savior.
In worship we receive God’s grace. Like David, we come with sins to confess and guilt to lay down, offering a prayer like the one we offered at the beginning of our service: Father, I have sinned against you and am no longer worthy to be called your child. Yet in mercy you sacrificed your only Son to purge away my guilt. For his sake, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and in the joy of your Holy Spirit let me serve you all my days.
By God’s grace, we Realize Our Need for Repentance. Nathan spoke words of absolution to David. Through the Spirit’s work, we also receive forgiveness as the pastor who is called to serve us speaks to us the words of absolution: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
David’s great sins of adultery and murder may or may not be the same as my great sins or your great sins. Whether they are or not, our need for repentance is the same because the damning nature of every sin is the same. Only when God enables us to Realize Our Need for Repentance can we even begin to grasp the extraordinary depth of his grace, mercy, and love for us in Christ. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.