April 6, 2022: Day 74 – II Samuel 11-15 and Psalm 51

The story of David continues and we get to the point of the story that is very conflicted and we see the sin of David reveal itself.  David is an adulterer who takes the wife of one of his soldiers and then sends that soldier into battle purposefully to die on the battlefield.  Nathan, the prophet of David, calls David out and says that the child that is to be born to Bathsheba, the woman he raped, will die.  David goes into mourning until the child dies and then he comes out of it.

Just to interject here, Psalm 51 which we read is a psalm that David wrote as a result of Nathan confronting him with this egregious sin.  This psalm contains phrases that are memorized the world over.  Just about everyone has heard this phrase:  “Create in me a clean heart oh God.”  We are also familiar with this phrase: “You do not delight in sacrifice…the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

It seems as if things get worse in the household of David, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.  One of David’s sons rapes one of David’s daughters.  The brother of that daughter then kills the one who raped his sister.  Absalom is the one whose sister was raped and who killed his step-brother.  He is banished from Jerusalem until he isn’t.  He comes back to Jerusalem and conspires against David by sitting at the city gate and speaking poorly of David and trying to gain the trust of the people himself so that they would turn and serve him. 

As a result it becomes clear to David that his reign is not viable so he better boogie out of Jerusalem.  He boogies out and Absalom comes in.  That is where we leave it.  We know that the Lord is with David and that this is just going to be a brief blip on the screen of David’s rule, but let’s see what happens.