King David, a Model of Repentance
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Psalms 51:1).
One of the questions candidates are usually asked at a baptismal service is, “Do you acknowledge yourself a sinner in need of redemption?” This acknowledgment is an essential part of growing a relationship with God. With that acknowledgment must come the acceptance of God’s forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We then strive to “clean up our act” through works of repentance and holy living. Paul describes this as the “washing of water of the word” (Ephesians 5:26). We study to become familiar with God’s moral requirements and then strive to conform our lives to these principles of righteousness.
Repentance means ceasing from sinful activities and completely turning from thoughts and conduct leading to sin. It means redirecting one’s life with respect to transgression. This is a new way of thinking: constantly harnessing our thoughts to bring them in line with God’s principles. But dealing with sin in one’s life can be a difficult proposition, especially endeavoring to repent from deeply ingrained habits of sin. God promises to help us and, if we submit to His leading, it guarantees victory. But we will still be faced with a daily battle! By God’s grace, we have examples in the scriptures of those who took proper steps in dealing with sin. The example considered here is that of King David.
King David, Repentant
KING DAVID’S SIN
God had great love for David. God told Solomon of His high assessment of David in 1 Kings 9:4,5: “If thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do ac cording to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments … I will establish thy throne.”
David loved God and desired to do His will to his deepest core. Thus one might wonder how a man such as David became enmeshed in deadly sin. Sin often acts in exceedingly subtle and deceptive ways. It disarms defenses and seduces us before we realize the position we are in. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). This was exactly the situation with King David.
Sin entered David’s life at an unexpected moment. On his balcony one evening he chanced to see a neighbor lady bathing. This was, of course, Bathsheba, and the sight of this prompted David to have her brought to his palace. This was the start of a string of sins that included adultery, lies, and murder. The whole sordid account is found in 2 Samuel 11. The last verse reads, “The thing that David had done displeased Jehovah.”
Because God loved David and saw the good in him, it was important that David be recovered from the awful sins that had ensnared him. Accordingly, God employed the prophet Nathan to help awaken David to his sinful condition. To point out the dreadful sin of a King must have been a fearful proposition for Nathan. As King, David held the power of life and death over his subjects. But Nathan was a wise man. In 2 Samuel 12, we read how he artfully painted a picture for David using a parable of a rich man dealing unjustly and taking the lamb of a poor man. Nathan cleverly used David’s own righteous heart in revealing his sins. David sees the injustice and immediately judges that the rich man should die (verse 5). Nathan then strikes at David’s heart by informing him “Thou art the man!”
As a prophet of Jehovah, he then delivers the full judgment of God. Nathan tells David that God would have given him anything he asked. But now that he acted so sinfully, God decrees that “the sword shall never depart from thine house.” Furthermore, God says that the things that David did in secret would be done to him in public.
David painfully grasps how far into sin he had come and is overcome with grief and confesses, “I have sinned against the LORD.”1 This is the appropriate response when ones see their sin. As a result of that admission, David is told that Jehovah had put away David’s sin and he would be spared from death. But the child born of adultery would die.2 David recognizes that this child is bearing his judgment and is driven to humble himself before God.3
RECOGNIZING AND CONFESSING
Reviewing this entire experience allows us to see several distinct steps which are part of repentance. The first step is: recognizing and confessing the sin.
One cannot repent from sin unless they know what that sin is. This was King David’s situation. The first sin of adultery was followed by more sins. David had lost sight of the fact that these were sins. How could this happen? We surmise that David probably rationalized in his mind that as King of Israel he had powers and privileges above that of his subjects. After all, he might have reasoned, he was Jehovah’s Anointed. This, of course, was true. But such rationalization blinded him to the deceitfulness of sin and caused him to justify a terrible wrong he was perpetrating on Uriah and his family. He needed to be brought to the point of recognizing the terrible sins for what they were.
Nathan to David, “Thou are the man.”
For a consecrated Christian, the lesson is to strive for such moral clarity in our lives that we will be able to see the “sin which so easily besets us” (Hebrews 12:1). If we are to achieve the Kingship and Priesthood offered to us, we must study and pray to more clearly see God’s will, and whether we are conforming to his laws and principles in every endeavor (2 Corinthians 13:5). If we do this daily, it may not be necessary for God to draw our attention to the sin like he did with King David. But if that should happen, if some dear brother or sister brings to our attention some sin in our lives, we should see it as God’s mercy toward us and not direct any anger to the messenger.
When we recognize the sin, we can begin to deal with it. Confession to God is an absolute requirement. It may also be to our benefit to share a confession with another! The subject of confession is not one that we discuss much. The idea of sharing your sins with someone can be a fearful thing. Yet God’s word suggests that the confession of our sins to another brother or sister can be a helpful in our effort to repent. Consider the following scriptures:
- “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:15).
- “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
This essential first step is to see and acknowledge the sin in us, and then confess it to God. King David certainly did this. The 51st Psalm is a prayer of David in the wake of his sin with Bathsheba that he put to music.4 How many of us would put our confessions of sin to music? Verse 3 says, “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”
This is heartfelt confession — his sin is ever before him. There is no attempt to whitewash it, rationalize it or diminish it in any way. He stands exposed before the God of the universe, who knows everything.
PENITENCE
The next step in repentance is penitence. This is deep regret and godly sorrow for the sin, accompanied with a desire to atone for the sin, to set things straight, to undo, if possible, whatever damage the sin caused. Penitence is deeply personal between the sinner and God. It is a serious manifestation of a grieving heart over the sin. David understood that his sin would have significant outward effects, the most immediate of which was the sickness of his newly born son.5 David’s actions now are penitent. We are told in 2 Samuel 12:16: “David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.”
By this act of penitence, David demonstrates a sincere regret for his sin. Further, David hoped that by afflicting himself in this manner, he might find mercy from God for the life of the child. “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who knoweth whether Jehovah will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?” (verse 22).
We also see David’s penitence in the 51st Psalm. Notice his fervent expressions:
“Wash me thoroughly … cleanse me” (verse 2) “Purge me … wash me” (verse 7)
“Create in me a new heart … renew a right spirit” (vs. 8) All of these and other expressions indicate that David was truly sorry for what he had done. He wanted the sin to be put away from him and to be restored to a righteous state. He realizes the condition of heart that God looked for. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (verse 17). Similarly in our lives, after we have acknowledged a particular sin and confessed it, we must have godly sorrow. For those whose hearts are firmly consecrated to God, this should be a natural reaction. When the Apostle Paul wrote a severe reprimand to the church in Corinth regarding sin in their ecclesia, there was great anguish among them. Titus later informed Paul of their penitence.
Solomon, second son of Bathsheba, receiving the Queen of Sheba
Paul mentions their response in 2 Corinthians 7:910: “I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” This “godly sorrow” that Paul speaks of is proper penitence. False sorrow has no lasting benefits. True, godly sorrow, leads to salvation.
REPLACEMENT
The last step in repentance is replacement. The idea is to replace sinful behavior with the opposite behavior. For example, the liar must now practice telling the truth. The repentant thief must now practice generosity the opposite behavior of stealing. The impure must strive for purity. Wrong thinking and wrong conduct must be specifically noted and replaced with the correct, opposite behavior. If we fail to replace sinful behavior, it will deceive us and continue to ensnare us.
King David followed this procedure. Psalm 51 speaks of the replacement action that David desired. “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall show forth thy praise” (vss. 13-15).
David committed his terrible sins in secret. But now he publicly demonstrated the behaviors he wants to characterize his life from now on. His sinful lies are replaced by praise. He wants to teach other transgressors and sinners, of which he was one, to be converted. He desires to replace the sinful behaviors with these positive ones.
These activities are elements of true repentance. As we find sins in our life, we must acknowledge and confess them to God, express true sorrow, and replace a sinful action with an opposite and righteous one.
KING DAVID’S SECOND SIN
In 1 Chronicles 21, Satan provoked David to sin against God by taking a census in Israel. We surmise that the nature of this sin was trusting in numbers rather than having faith in God. God was displeased with David and showed it by smiting Israel (verse 7). David regained his senses and realized what he has done, demonstrating again the steps in the process of repentance.
What was his first reaction? He acknowledged and confessed his sin. Verse 8: “And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
God accepts this sincere acknowledgment of sin, but there would still be punishment. Three alternatives are offered: 3 years of famine, 3 months of destruction at the hands of his enemies, or 3 days of pestilence at the hand of God. David chooses to put his fate in the hands of God, knowing His mercy (verse 13). The result was a pestilence that took the lives of 70,000 men. In the midst of this, David did further acts of penitence.
King David, at the Threshingfloor
“David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said unto God, ‘Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, O Jehovah my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against thy people, that they should be plagued’” (verses 16, 17).
David’s penitence is clear. He had already donned sackcloth and fallen upon the earth, setting an example followed by the elders. Seeing the avenging angel of Jehovah, he pleads for the innocent lives and asks that God’s hand be upon him instead. This penitent action stayed the hand of the angel. David is then instructed to set up an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. He asks Ornan for permission to do so, and Ornan offers to give the land along with sacrificial animals, firewood and a meal offering (verse 23). David shows his nobility by refusing to take these things and instead pays 600 shekels of gold.
In numbering the people, David’s sin was a covetous and unfaithful act meant to establish the greatness of his own kingship and military might. The appropriate replacement behavior then would be to honor the greatness of God at whatever cost to himself. The pestilence ended with God’s command to set up an altar. David’s choice of action was to provide the most praiseworthy altar imaginable. From this experience he determined that this would be the place of God’s holy temple, a house for God. And that precise location is where Solomon’s Temple would be built (2 Chronicles 3:1). In the very next chapter (1 Chronicles 22), David begins gathering all of the material that would eventually be needed. God had already told David that he would not be permitted to build the temple. That would be left to his son Solomon. But David participated in the start of the project and glorifies God in so doing.
SUMMARY
King David showed the steps necessary to repent of sin. They are:
- Acknowledging the Sin and Confessing it
- Showing Penitence, godly sorrow and regret
- Replacing the evil behavior with righteous behavior.
As we wrestle against sin in our own lives, following these steps will ultimately, with God’s help, lead us to victory over the flesh. As Paul so wonderfully said of the brethren at Corinth:
“For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter” (2 Corinthians 7:11).
— Br. David Stein
(1) There are multiple occasions in scripture where individuals make the statement “I have sinned” in an act of confession. But in most cases it does not reflect a true and sincere confession of the heart. Using the words alone is not sufficient.
(2) There is a difficulty here that this innocent child is dying because of David’s sin. The child will, of course, be raised in the Kingdom. But under the Law, David should have been stoned to death for this sin. However, this would appear to be yet another picture of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus. He who was innocent paid the price for the sin of Adam thus redeeming the whole world.
(3) God desires to forgive the sins of those who ask. We can always receive forgiveness from the Father because of the sacrifice of Jesus. However, while God forgives our sins, he seldom takes away the consequences of sin. We must learn that actions have consequences, and they are ours to bear even though we are forgiven the sin itself.
(4) The superscription of Psalm 51 clearly identifies this Psalm in connection with David’s sin. It says, “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
(5) The birth of the child reminds us that this judgment of God had come about nine months after the initial sin! God’s patience is considerable, but there is no escape from the consequences of sin, even if they take a long time to come.
(6) Paul writes clearly in Romans 14:23 that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” This is a serious principle that all of God’s people should reflect upon.