He disciplines those whom He loves

O Lord our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.  --Psalm 99:8

Have you ever had somebody love you so much that they would sincerely tell you if you were wrong?  Having our shortcomings pointed out is never pleasant.  Our pride might get bruised, our self esteem may be damaged, but if we are truly in the wrong, wouldn't we want somebody to let us know?

2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12 reveal a major sin that David the king of Israel committed.  God loved him enough to send a prophet, Nathan, to set him straight.  Here is a synopsis:  In the spring, when kings go out to battle, David stayed home.  He sent his generals to fight his battle for him, but he was fighting an internal battle that no one knew about--the battle of lust.  He liked to take walks on his roof or balcony, and he spied his neighbor's wife while she was bathing.  He asked around, and found out her name was Bathsheba, and that she was the wife of one of his generals named Uriah.  

David knew that Uriah was out fighting, because David himself had ordered his generals to go wage war without him.  Having both motive and means for mischief, David sent for Bathsheba.  When she visited the king's house, David seduced her.  Later, Bathsheba sent word to David that she was pregnant, and the baby had to be his, because her husband was out fighting battles against Israel's enemies.  David sent word to the front lines to send Uriah home.  However, Uriah was an honorable man, and would not go home to his own bed and his own wife, because the other soldiers and officers were at war and could not afford that luxury.  David saw that Uriah did not sleep with his wife, so David sent word to the other generals to have Uriah killed.  He asked that Uriah be put on the front lines of the battle, and then had the army retreat, leaving Uriah vulnerable.

The plan worked.  With Uriah dead, David made Bathsheba one of his wives.  No one questioned whether the child that she bore months later might not be David's (at least not out loud).  God knew the truth.  In His own time, after David might think he had gotten away with it, God sent the prophet Nathan to the king.

Nathan told David a parable.  "Once upon a time," he said, "There were two men, one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had many flocks and herds.  The poor man only had one little ewe lamb, that he loved dearly.  A traveler came to visit the rich man.  Rather than take from his own flock, the rich man stole the little ewe lamb from his poor neighbor, and slaughtered the animal so that they might prepare a feast for the visitor.  What do you think should happen to this rich man?"

David was indignant.  With an oath, he declared that the rich man should die for this crime against the poor man.  At the very least, he should observe Jewish law and restore fourfold what he had stolen from the poor man.  Nathan looked squarely in David's eyes, pointed an accusing finger, and said, "You are the man!"  He described how David had been given the kingdom, and multiple wives and concubines, but he was not satisfied.  David took the wife of Uriah, an honorable man, and dishonored her.  David lusted after that woman whom Uriah had truly loved.  Therefore God would judge David severely.

This is the background to the writing of Psalm 51.  This is a psalm of penitence, of repentance and remorse.  It is so powerful that many prominent people have spoken it as their last words.  Historians note that this psalm was recited in full by Sir Thomas More and Lady Jane Grey when they were about to be hanged during the violent reign of Henry VIII and Queen Mary.  Missionary William Carey, who pioneered a ministry to India, requested that this psalm be the text of his funeral sermon.

Let's look at this psalm together, and try to unpack its pearls.

A Prayer of Repentance

A Plea for Mercy

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  --Psalm 51:1-2

In the opening lines of this psalm, David owns up to his shortcomings.  Three times he references my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin.  There is no blaming others.  There is no playing the victim.  He alone was responsible for his actions.

I think there is a greater spiritual truth here, one that David will revisit a number of times in later verses.  That universal truth is that we are wretched sinners, unworthy of the attention of a holy God.  Assumptions are made about God here, as well.  Yes He is holy, without question.  But He is also merciful, able to overlook our sins because He desires fellowship with us.

Acts 3:19-20 says, "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you--Jesus."  In the Old Testament, God instituted a system of animal sacrifices for the sins of the people.  Under the New Covenant, Jesus became a sacrifice for us, the Anointed One sent by God.  He took on our sin so that we could take on His righteousness. Colossians 2:14 says He forgave our sins "by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross."

A Prayer of Confession

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against You and You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.  --Psalm 51:3-4

David had turned a blind eye toward his sin before being confronted by Nathan the prophet.  Once his eyes were opened, however, he saw there were many reminders of his sinful act.  There was Bathsheba's pregnant belly when he took her into his house.  There was the child, who died as God's judgment for the sinful acts.  There was Nathan's convicting sermon culminating in the accusing phrase, "You are the man!"  David doubtless played that scene over and over in his mind. 

When David said, "Against you only have I sinned," he did not mean to discount the sins committed against Uriah (murder, adultery), against Bathsheba (seduction, adultery, being responsible for the loss of her son), against the nation of Israel (betrayal, failure to lead righteously), and the army (not leading them into battle, making them complicit in Uriah's death).

1 Corinthians 8:12 says, "Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ."  Our sin has a ripple effect that sometimes we don't even see.  Ultimately, however, the sin against God is the most damning.

Plunging the depth of David's need

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart.  --Psalm 51:5-6

There were no scandals surrounding David's birth.  Most commentators believe that David was making reference to Original Sin.  Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned."  We are all under Adam's curse.  Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden and more importantly out of the presence of God because of his sin.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior.

But God is faithful.  I don't want to leave this passage without going back to a phrase used in verse 1.  David pleaded for God's mercy because of His "steadfast love".  The Hebrew word here is ḥeseḏ which is variously translated merciful goodness, loving kindness, Godly faithfulness or favor.  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our since and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Without the faithful mercy of God, we would be surely lost.

Prayer for Restoration

Restoration through the blood of sacrifice

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice.  Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  --Psalm 51:7-9

The word purge implies more than just an outward whitewashing of sin.  It literally means to "de-sin me."  This is usually commemorated with a religious rite.  Hebrews 9:19 says, "For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people."  Blood was sprinkled on the people as a sign of their obedience.  Under the New Covenant, baptism is a way that this sign of obedience is commemorated.

Why would David say that he rejoiced in his brokenness?  Charles Spurgeon said, "A broken heart can never long be divided from the broken Savior."  We are brought low so we can look up to Him.  We are broken and spilled out for our good and His glory.

Restoration of the Heart

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  --Psalm 51:10-11

Augustine wrote, "Our hearts are restless til they find their rest in You."  We all need to be cleansed from the inside out, no matter our nationality or language or culture.  Acts 15:9 says, "He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith."  Ephesians 4:23-24 says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  Surely we cannot do that with our old hearts.  We were born sinful; we must be born again.

We long to be in the presence of Christ.  It is a tragedy to be shunned from His presence.  Romans 8:9b says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ."  There is diversity of thought in God's kingdom, and diversity of peoples, but not diversity in the Spirit.  There is only one true faith.

Restoration of the Joy of Salvation

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to you.  --Psalm 51:12-13 

Thank God for second chances through repentance.  Think how Peter must have felt when he denied Jesus three times.  But Jesus singled him out in Luke 22:32.  "But I have prayed for you, Simon," Jesus said, "that your faith may not fail, and when you have returned, strengthen your brothers."

Before God's mercy is bestowed on us, sin separates us from God.  After we are met with His mercy, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.  Our salvation is secure, but sin can separate us from the joy of our salvation.  God can restore our joy if we confess our sins and repent.

Restoration of Praise

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  --Psalm 51:14-17

Our unrighteousness separates us from God.  Jesus came to be our sacrifice, to shed His own blood for our bloodguiltiness, so that His righteousness could be counted on our behalf.  1 John 1:9 again: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

David recognized this when he was confronted with his own sin.  He responded with remorse and repentance in hopes of restoration into God's embrace.  We should have someone in our lives who loves us enough to confront our own sins, so that we can repent and be restored in our hearts to joy and praise.

Desperado

 

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  --1 Corinthians 1:18

 Many stories in the Old Testament read like a Hollywood action movie script.  One such story is found in 1 Samuel chapters 21 and 22.  Let me set the scene for you.

Young David works in the court of King Saul, but Saul is very jealous of him.  Saul vows to kill David.  Saul's son, Jonathan, warns David of his father's intentions.  David escapes with only the clothes on his back.  He runs to an outpost in a village called Nob and meets the priest there.  The priest comes to meet David, but is afraid because David is travelling alone--no one in the king's court would travel without an army or an entourage of some kind.

David lies to the priest, saying that the king has sent him on a secret mission, but he has no supplies--no food, no weapons.  He asks the priest for bread, and the priest gives him the bread off the altar.  David also asks for a weapon of some kind, for he has no spear or sword of his own with which to defend himself.  The priest probably suspects that something is up.  He says the only weapon he has is the sword from Goliath, whom David had killed in battle (and the most likely reason that Saul is jealous of him).  One of those going in and out of the place of worship there is a man named Doeg, who is an ally of Saul.

David flees to the country of Gath, where Goliath was from.  He seeks asylum from the king of Gath, but someone in the king's court recognizes David.  "Isn't this David who works for the king of Israel?" he asks. "In Israel they sing, 'Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands'."  They fear that David has come with an advance army to make war against Gath and defeat them, making the nation a vassal state of Israel.

David sees that they aren't going to help him, and that fleeing there was probably a mistake.  He can't sneak away, so he starts drooling, and making marks on the doors of the king's gate, and acting all crazy.  The king of Gath sees his behavior, does not believe he is a military threat, but doesn't want to welcome him into the court or grant him asylum, either.  "Don't I have enough madmen around me?" he asks.  "Why have you brought this madman into my presence? Get him out of here."

So David escapes from there and makes camp in a cave near a region called Adullam.  When word gets out, David's brothers and all his father's house come to meet him there (remember they were the ones who had made fun of David when he arrived at the battlefield where Goliath had threatened Saul's army).  Not only did David's family show up there at the cave, but so did 400 other desperate men and women.  "Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him."  Like Robin Hood, David attracted those who had been disenfranchised by the king.

Meanwhile Saul get's word that David has escaped.  He gathers his people around and demands intelligence from them. Doeg says that he saw David with the priest at Nob.  Saul sends people to kill the priest, and David sends his mother and father to Moab to be safe.

Thrilling couple of scenes, right?  Would work right into an action film; with the right director and cast, it would make people sit on the edge of their seat.  So how does this fit in with our current study of the Psalms?  I'll tell you.  Psalm 34 has a preamble that cites this passage, indicating that David wrote it with these events in mind.  In fact, Psalm 34 may have been a song composed right there in the cave off Adullam, and sung to the 400 desperate followers to teach them of the Providence of God.  The psalm was written as an alphabet acrostic, meaning that each verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and was presented in alphabetical order.  This was likely done so that they could remember the lessons more easily.

Desperate People Need a Savior

Let's look at the first lesson David gave to the people.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.  This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.  Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack.  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.  --Psalm 34:1-10

Winston Churchill once said, "History is written by the victors."  Indeed, many of history's great leaders wrote glowing accounts of all their victories and all their accomplishments.  But Solomon wrote, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." (Psalm 127).  We all know the poem Ozymandias where Shelley wrote, "...And on that pedestal, these words appear:/ 'My name is Ozymandias, King of kings;/ look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'/  Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay/ of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away."

David did not magnify himself.  He did not share the story of how he fled from Saul, and escaped the king of Gath by relying on his wits and quick assessment of the situation.  Instead he magnifies the Lord, giving Him glory.  The people fled to David because they thought that he could save them from their situation.  David reminds them that God is their refuge.  David compares himself to a young lion, who was left hungry and in want.  In his desperation, he cried out to God, and God delivered them.  The people who were so desperate that they fled King Saul and his house to meet David in a cave in the wilderness also need to cry out to God, for He alone can save them.

Desperate People Need to Repent

Let's look at David's next lesson to the desperados in that cave.

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.  What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?  Keep your tongues from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.  Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.  The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.  The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.  When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  --Psalm 34:11-18

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  David imparts wisdom borne of experience when he shares these words to the people.  We all desire a long, fulfilling life; we all want good for ourselves and our family; we all want peace and prosperity.  To do that, we must repent; we must turn from evil and do good.  Evil men will be cut off, but the Lord gives grace to the humble.

Jesus told a parable about a pretty desperate fellow in Luke 15:17-24.  You remember the story of the Prodigal Son.  This guy found himself in dire straights, and he repented.  He went from feeding pigs, and being so hungry that he was starting to eye the scraps and husks in the pig's trough, to deciding to go to his father and humbly ask for a position as a household servant.  You remember the father's reaction?  When he saw the son afar off, he ran to greet him.  The father restored him as a son and an heir, and clothed him with a new robe and put new sandals on his feet.  The father threw a banquet in honor of the son who was so desperate that he came home humbled.  This is the idea of "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."

Desperate People Need to Remain Faithful

David was not promising a panacea.  Good people see their fair share of evil.  Let's look:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.  Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.  The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.  --Psalm 34:19-22

Taken to its logical conclusion, we might miss the point of David's lesson.  If bad people get bad things and good people get good things, then all we have to do is be good and we will get good things always, right?  We all know better than that.  Good people will see sickness and sorrow and sadness.  That's life.  The good news is that we have a Savior who will ultimately come through for us.

Jesus is our Savior.  He remained faithful unto death.  We must look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:2).  Jesus is our model and our guide, not David, not any man.

I want to quickly point out one thing about this passage, when it mentions not one of his bones will be broken.  This is a Messianic verse, prophesying how Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  You may recall that in Exodus, when God gave Moses instructions on preparing the Passover, the people were to prepare unleavened bread and roast the lamb whole.  They were specifically instructed not to break any of the lamb's bones.  When Jesus was crucified, the Roman guard was instructed to break the legs of the men on the crosses that day, to speed along their deaths.  When the guard came to Jesus, he saw that Jesus was already dead--Jesus did not need to have His legs broken, because He was not clinging desperately to life.  He gave up His life willingly so that we might be saved.

Desperate men need Jesus.  I hope you will forgive the image of the movie poster above--no, Antonio Banderas is not a messianic figure.  It just reminded me that David was a desperado; he was a warrior, and had weapons to use, but he also had a musical instrument.  David's instrument was a harp, not a guitar, but you get the point.  David composed and sang songs of desperation.  And this reminded me of the Eagles hit song written by Done Henley and Glen Frey.

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
(Let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you before it's too late

David the desperado sought shelter from those who would hurt him; instead of kingly riches he sought the heart of God.  The desperate men and women who joined him in that cave were motivated by their pain and hunger.  David's song to them was that God could turn their rain into a rainbow if they would let Him love them.