APRIL 2, 2010

BE YE HOLY-

AND REPENT

Scripture Reading- Psalm 51:1-10

David was guilty! He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person, and doing the wrong thing. Second Samuel 11:27 says that "the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." His adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah, were secret sins; but God knew about them. Nathan the prophet exposed the scandal in the palace when he confronted David about his sin. Under God's conviction, David declared in 2 Samuel 12:13, "I have sinned against the Lord."

Nathan followed David's simple confession by saying, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin" ( v. 13 ). David could and would be clean before God again. Some people are afraid to confess their sin to God because they fear they're letting God in on a secret. For this reason, they allow their life to remain contaminated and corrupted by unconfessed sin. David's sins were severe, but he refused to blame, defend, or explain them away.

Human beings hate to admit wrongdoing. Just watch the typical toddler try to talk his way out of something he did wrong. He didn't touch the birthday cake-or so he says. Yet there's icing all over his face. He didn't write on the wall, he says, but there's marker on his hand. The evidence is obvious, but fallen human nature causes us to struggle with being honest about our sin.

David was a man who enjoyed God. Just read the Psalms. Yet in Psalm 51, he didn't enjoy God. He was guilty of sin, and he knew it. Rather than making excuses, he sought in this prayer to be holy, as pure as God is, by agreeing with God about his sin. Needless to say, David soon knew the excitement and enjoyment of the God he'd known before.

APPLICATION: Read 1 John 1:8-10. What two events occur when we say we have no sin?

-Tom Palmer-