Dwell | Week Six | Psalm 51, 2 Samuel 12:1-14

Good morning. Good to see you guys. So we are in a series right now going through the Psalms. And so today we're going to be in Psalm 51. But before we read that, we're going to read some in second Samuel chapter 12.

So you're going to have to go to the left in your Bibles from psalms and find 2nd Samuel chapter 12. We're going to talk through this and look at a little bit of the life of King David. And when you get to 2 Samuel chapter 12, to understand it, we really have to understand what just took place. So David, the Bible says during the season, during the time where the Kings would go off to war, and it was, I guess they had a battle season, I don't know. And so he was intended to be fighting, leading the army of Israel.

It says that he was. Had remained there. And he was actually up walking around on the roof and sees this beautiful woman bathing. Her name is Bathsheba. And so David sends to find out more about her.

And she's the wife of a man by the name of Uriah who is actually out fighting at this time. David sends for her, he sleeps with her. She ends up getting pregnant, which is an issue for multiple reasons. But especially now, David is in a situation where he's got to cover this up because Uriah has not been home. So as we know, he could not be the father of this child.

So David sends for Uriah, brings him back. Uriah is such an honorable man. He's like, I'm not going to go and sleep with my wife while the other people are out fighting. And so David ends up coming up with this plan for Uriah to be killed in the battlefield. And so under David's direction, Uriah is killed.

David basically, in a roundabout way, murders him to cover this up. He takes Bathsheba as his wife. She has the child. And that's where we're going to read. Now, what's crazy about this is this is the man after God's heart, right, that we see in scripture.

This is David who defeated Goliath. And yet we realize that this moment when he really was sort of at the pinnacle of his kingship, he has a really drastic fall. And so we're going to read what happens after this. David has tried to cover this up. He's really used everything he could in his power, not just to sin and to use it to sleep with Bathsheba, but now also using his power to try and cover it up.

But what was covered up in the eyes of man was not covered up in the eyes of God. And so God sends a prophet named Nathan to speak to David. And it says this in 2nd Samuel, chapter 12, verse 1. It says, the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, there were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him.

Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him. And we look at this. Obviously what Nathan is saying is, david, you've got all this stuff. He had multiple wives. He had all these things, and yet he took from Uriah the one thing that belonged to him.

Verse 5 says, David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die. He must pay for the lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, you are the man. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. I anointed you king over Israel and that delivered you from the hand of Saul.

And I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if this had not had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why do you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.

You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. This is what the Lord says out of your own household. I'm going to bring calamity on you before your very eyes. I will take your wives and give them.

This happens later, before your very eyes. I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel. Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied, the Lord has taken away your sin.

You're not going to die, but because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord. The son born to you will die. Now, if we go to Psalm 51, what we're actually reading in Psalm 51 is David wrote this during this time. He wrote this after Nathan had come to him and had called him out on this and told him that the Lord had exposed this and called David to repentance. And so we'll read first four or five verses and then we'll pray and start with the message.

It says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness. Even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray today, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts. I pray, God, that you would bring conviction to the areas that we need to be convicted. God.

I pray that you would even bring rebuke in areas that we need to be rebuked. I pray, God, that you would teach us, train us to walk in your ways, Lord, let your spirit move in our hearts. I pray, Father, that as we hear your word, our hearts would not become hardened, but they would become softened. We would not become hardened, but we would be humbled by your word. That we would receive it, God, that it would find good soil in our heart and it will produce, Lord, fruit for your kingdom.

God, do a mighty work in us now, God, that we are not just opening a regular book, we're opening a word that is living and active. And so I thank you, God, for that. I thank you that right now we're here to be in the presence of a living God, a God who has taken on death, hell and the grave, defeated them all, and sits at the right hand of the Father who has sent back your Holy Spirit. And I pray that he would work amongst us in a mighty way, God, to show us more of who you are, to correct incorrect thoughts, to bring us to a place of repentance, a place where our minds are changed about who you are who we are, how we see others and and our purpose in this world. Help us to become more Christlike through your word today as you work in our heart.

Lord, let the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, do its work in us as we read it and discuss it today. In Jesus name, Amen. I mean it's usually a little bit younger crowd at 11. All the old folks come at 9 most of the time. So how many of you here have children?

I mean have children here? So quite a. There's more old people here than I thought. And so. But would you be more aggravated with your child if you.

Let's just say you give them something to do. Like you say, go clean your room and they don't. Right, Never happens. Or you tell your kid don't make a mess and they do. Which one's more frustrating?

I'll be honest, I think both of them are just as frustrating. I don't think one of them is any greater than the other. I think one of them is really them just ignoring what you say. The other one is just them going completely against what you say. And what we see with King David in 2nd Samuel 11 is both of these things.

He had been anointed king of Israel to lead the armies of Israel. He's not fulfilling his purpose, he's not doing what he's supposed to do. And not only is he ignoring what God's called him to and what God had put him there for, but he also then begins to commit other sins by taking a another man's wife and sleeping with her and then trying to cover it up through murder and using all this power that he's accumulated to try to cover it up and protect his reputation, protect his name does not let anybody know what's happened.

And we need to understand this, that sins of omission are just as rebellious and perverse and self centered as sins of commission. To not do the things that God's called us to do is just as sinful as doing the things God's told us not to do.

David was neglecting his responsibilities, his purpose that was given to him. He become content and comfortable in such a dangerous place to be. He committed unthinkable sin. He broke God's commandments figuratively and spiritually. His life, his house, his kingdom, his relationship with God were on fire, being destroyed because of his sin against God.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again. When I was in college one summer I worked for a framing crew and it was the first construction job I ever had. And we would. We're building a building here in town. So at lunch I would go home and I would just eat a sandwich really quick and I would try to just get like a 15 minute nap.

It was during the middle of summer, you know, it's hot as Hades. I mean, it's just awful. And so I just try to get just like a 15 minute nap, then go back and finish work. And so one day I'm laying on the couch and I'm about to get my little 15 minute nap and somebody just frantically starts beating on the door, just like they're going to knock the door down. And I open it and it's a lady that lived next door to us.

And she's like, my house is on fire.

I'm like, call the fireman. All right? And so she's like, help, help. And so I go running out and I don't know, I saw a hose pipe. So I grabbed a hose pipe and I'm like, have you called 911?

And she's like, yeah. So I grabbed the hose and I start into the house and I'm looking around and there's nothing on fire. And so I'm kind of just walking through the house with the hose. And then I stepped into the kitchen and the whole wall.

And so I just unkinked the hose and I sprayed it down really good and wet it all down really good. I kinked the hose back up, walked out the front door. About that time the fire department got there, I said, I think I got it, guys. Put the hose down, cut the water off and went and lay back down on the couch. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life.

But here's the thing, is like, the lady knew her house was on fire, right? Here's the thing. I feel like for many of us here today, some of our houses are on fire. And we're just kind of watching it burn.

Sin is or has brought destruction to our lives, our families, our future.

Some of you just given up as if there's no hope. Some of you are crushed under the weight of guilt and shame. Some of you are paralyzed by the fear and anxiety of what you have to face. Some of you are just going through the motions of life. Some are tired.

Here's the thing. I can tell you that sin seems to in some way breed sin. And it seems to become this downward spiral, the trajectory of life. We never make our best decisions when we're walking in a place that we're hopeless, or walking in condemnation and guilt and shame, or walking afraid or apathetic, exhausted.

But I know that's where many people are today.

Then Nathan comes to David. David's house is figuratively on fire. Everything is falling apart around him and he's trying to hold it together. And God sends Nathan, this prophet, to bring his word to him. And what we see is the power of the Word of God to teach, teach, rebuke, correct, and train us to walk in God's ways.

That's what it says in second Timothy 3, 16, 17, that all of Scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training us. So we'll be thoroughly equipped for every work that God's called us to. And so we see God's Word is living and active, has the power to change hearts and lives. This is the effect that God's Word should have on our lives. But what I can tell you is this.

Typically when we are confronted with the truth, one of two things happen. We are either humbled or we are hardened. We are humbled or we are hardened. When the truth is told to us, or God confronts us or convicts us with truth, either we harden our hearts or we humble ourselves before him. My prayer today is that we would humble ourselves before God.

Because what I can tell you, I've seen over the years, and this is over 20 plus years, is that when repentance comes from being caught by someone, it's usually shallow and an attempt to not lose something.

And repentance being like a change of direction, a change of mind, it's a change of heart that leads us in a different direction. It's when we have a correct thought that replaces an incorrect thought. And so the choices we make become different, the direction of our life becomes different. We begin to think differently about God, ourselves, others, the world around us and our purpose. Begin to think more correctly about God and we turn from sin, we turn to him.

But when repentance comes from being caught by someone, it's usually shallow and it's usually an attempt to not lose something. Your reputation, like David, your marriage, your. Your job, your kids. It usually only lasts as long as it takes to get back what you've lost.

There's no real heart change, there's no real change of direction. So there's no true repentance. You just regret being caught. You just need the issue resolved so you can get on with your life the way you like it.

That's not what God calls us to repentance. That comes from being Convicted by God's word is driven by the Spirit of God. So it is a deeper work of God that is sincere repentance that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. And the conviction of God's word leads to brokenness and humility. Heart change, a change of mind, a change of direction.

It begins to matter that we've sinned against God. As David said, I've sinned against you.

You truly want to be cleansed, to be pure, to honor God. And this is what we see in Psalm 51 from the heart of David. When I was about 8 years old, I think it was around 8, my grandfather called him Pops, he World War II vet. He probably was only like 5, 8, but like, like to me, like 10ft tall, bulletproof guy and like, just. Just a different type of dude.

Man, just tough, tough as nails. And I remember when I was about 8 years old, this, this dates me. Not that this doesn't date me, but. But this was in like the mid-80s, and he had to have his second open heart surgery, like bypass surgery. And nowadays it's almost like, you know, having your tonsils out, you know what I mean?

It's just like, got to be a thing that's a lot more common, you know what I'm saying? Like, used to, you went in and it was like you were there forever. And now it's like, all right, throw a band aid on it. Let's get them out of here. But I remember this being his second one, and I knew there was concern about it, but I overheard my mom and dad talking to my aunt and uncle, and I heard them say that he had a 30% chance of making it off the operating table.

And me and him were tight. Like we were really close. One of the most influential people in my life. And I remember being so worried that night and that next morning. And I remember he was in the hospital room, and we were kind of all gathered around there.

And then they came in to take him to the operating room. And I remember us all walking out into the hallway and they come and they will him by. And he had this kind of gruff voice, you know, and he comes by and I was trying to be tough. I didn't want to cry, but I had one tear coming down my face. And he saw it and he reached out and grabbed my hand and he said, I'll see you in a little while.

Like, that's like a Clint Eastwood movie to me, right? That's like the coolest thing ever. He's like, I'll see you in a little while. And he did. He went through the surgery, lived years and years after that.

And guess what I wanted to be after that? I wanted to be a cardiologist. I wanted to help other people like that doctor had helped my granddad. I wanted to be able to work on people's hearts and to help them. And then I came to the same realization of Forrest Gump, and I realized I'm not a very smart man, And so I'm not a cardiologist.

But here's the thing. Psalm 51 gives us insight into what's going on inside David's heart and the heart work that God is doing.

When we look at this, it's really incredible because David knows. Verse 3. He says, I know my transgression and my sin is always before me. He says, against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. He understands like, I've sinned against God.

He's not denying it. He's not deflecting it. He's owning it. He says, so you're right and you're verdict and justified when you judge. He knows what he deserves.

He's not trying to rationalize it or make it go away. He knows.

And he makes this statement in verse three. And this is something that really grabbed my attention because I think this is where a lot of us live. In verse three, he says, my sin is always before me. He says, I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. When he says, I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me, he's not just saying, like, I acknowledge what I did.

What he's saying is, it's always right here.

It's like I can't get past it. If I go to the left, it's before me. If I go to the right, it's before me. If I go straight ahead, it's before me. If I turn around, it's before me.

Like a nightmare, it haunts me.

He's crying out to God. He realizes the depths of what he's done.

He knows the right verdict is that God would judge him, find him guilty, and cast him away.

We know from verse five and six, and we just know from Scripture, that God's always desired faithfulness.

Verse 5, he says, surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desire faithfulness. Even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place. God desires faithfulness from us, for us to be faithful, to live and do the things that he's called us to do.

The problem is we can't do it.

The problem is we all fail.

Every single one of us have sin in our life that needs to be dealt with.

God's always desired faithfulness. We've never been able to deliver it. I told you, I'm not a very smart man. I took three physics, made all A's because I found the right teacher.

But who knows Newton's first law? Anybody? Who's the smart people in here? Law of inertia.

I didn't know it. I googled it. Not gonna lie.

I think it goes something like this. An object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed and in a straight line unless an external unbalanced force acts upon it. Is that about right? Smart people.

There were 100% many of you who had no clue about that. And you nodded yes.

You're just as dumb as I am. And you're like, that's right.

An object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed in a straight line unless an external unbalanced force acts upon it.

See, the trajectory of David's life was not good.

And he realizes from the time he was born, the trajectory of his life was not good. Here's what we need to understand. From the time we were born, we're no different than David. We were sinful at birth. The same nature resides in all of us.

And our trajectory was not good. The trajectory of every human being is an eternal separation from God. That's called hell.

This is the nature, the trajectory we were born with. But God intervened in history to alter that trajectory.

Our trajectory was headed towards hell. But God supernaturally acted in a way that our trajectory could be changed. He did this through Jesus.

One of the things that David says later is he says, cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. In verse seven, he's talking about the hyssop. The hyssop plant was what they would use to spread the blood of the sacrifice in the temple. He's saying, cover me with the blood of the sacrifice and I'll be clean.

Cover me with the blood of the sacrifice. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have no concept of Christianity and to walk into church and see the words to some of the songs we sing?

Nothing but the blood. Like we would cherish these psalms. We sang one today. It's all about blood. And if you've have no concept of this how odd.

But what we know is that the blood that covers our sin is not the blood that is sprinkled with a hyssop plant from a sheep or some animal that was sacrificed, but it's the blood that Jesus shed on a cross when he went as an innocent man, sinless, but took upon himself our sin and the punishment for it, that we could be made clean. That us, even us and all of our sin and all of our own darkness in the corners of our hearts, of the things that we've tried to tuck away, the things we've tried to hide that God says, listen, I have covered that sin through the sacrifice of my son.

And the only way David could be cleansed was through the blood of Jesus. And you can say, well, David lived way before Jesus, and he did.

But Jesus paid the price for every sin that was committed before, during and after his life.

And he drank every ounce of God's wrath that was poured out upon him for everything.

I mean, we could look at David and we could be like, look, he murdered someone. He stole their wife.

He covered all this up.

He should get what he deserves. How can that be forgiven?

It's why grace is amazing.

Because Jesus didn't just die for those little things.

He died for everything that would separate us from God. He intervened to change our trajectory from hell to his presence.

David knew that God had to intervene in his life. He knew the things that he had done. Only God could alter the trajectory of his life. Only God was qualified and able to do the deep, hard work that David needed in his life. And if you look at this from the very beginning, he's crying out for mercy.

And I want you to hear in verses 7 through 15, I want you to listen to the power of these words and hear the heart cry of a broken and contrite man. Listen to these passages and you think about where David is. You think about maybe your situation. And it says this, verse 7. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.

Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you've crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Don't cast me from your presence or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and. And grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressions your ways so that sinners will turn Back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God, my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praises. And he says, you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure and burn offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, you, God, will not despise. As we look at this, we see a man who is truly broken over his sin.

He's not just trying to regain something. He's not just trying to get back something he's afraid of losing. But his heart has actually been pierced by conviction, by God's word, by the Spirit, and he is truly coming back to God. David didn't just want to escape the circumstances of sinful decisions. David wanted to be cleansed.

He wanted to be made right before God. He wanted to be washed as though he had never sinned. He wanted to have joy restored as he had with God before he sinned, to have the weight of regret and condemnation lifted that he could walk upright again. To be truly pure in heart, not just having a shallow appearance of godliness, to be consistent in his devotion and steadfastness and faithfulness with God. To dwell once again in God's presence, to walk in the fullness of the power and purpose of God and his Holy Spirit in which he had been anointed, to tell others of the goodness of God and to sing and declare the facts that that the righteous one makes the unrighteous righteous.

David's sin was always before him, Constant reminder of failure, death, destruction.

And David's sin spoke death and guilt and shame.

We know from what he wrote that he knew very well what he deserved.

And we all know that that voice of condemnation can be extremely loud.

The voice of the enemy is very good at robbing our hope. That the enemy is crafty and able to come and kill, steal and destroy the life of God in us, and that sometimes his voice is very loud in our ears. That was true of David as well. But David also knew something even more powerful, that is the character and nature God.

And David cries out to this God whom he knew, and he says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. See, David understood his sinfulness. David understood his predicament. David understood that the trajectory of his life was not great, but he also knew this that God is merciful, that his love is unfailing, that he is compassionate and slow to anger, that he is willing to forgive our rebellion, that he's able to wash away our perversion of the life that he's given us. That he's able to cleanse us from the left by sin, that he's able to give us joy in place of the crushing weight of condemnation.

That he's able to give us a new heart, renew our spirit, fill us again with the power of his spirit. Deliver us from guilt and let us once again sing praises and declare his marvelous work.

How could that happen?

There was one verse that caught my attention, and I think it is so powerful, so powerful. It's verse 14 of Psalm 51. And David cries out to the Lord, and he says, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God.

You who are God, my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. This is what caught my attention. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God. Here's what hit me when I read that is that Jesus was delivered over to shed his blood so that David could be delivered from the guilt of bloodshed.

Jesus didn't kill Uriah, but Jesus willingly gave his life. That the killing of Uriah, the adultery of a king, the corrupt and perverse use of power to manipulate and cover sin, the lies told, that all of these things could be taken away, as it says in 2nd Samuel 12:13.

And the same is true for us.

Jesus was delivered over to shed his blood so that we could be forgiven.

But today and every day, God calls us to a place of repentance.

He calls us to a place of looking into His Word and allowing it to shape and change our mind, to be the lens through which we see, to change our worldview in how we see God, ourselves, others, our purpose, to allow his truth to correct incorrect thoughts that lead to new choices, that lead to new life through the power of His Holy Spirit.

And when I look at this, and I look at what Jesus has done for us and taking our sin and taking our place and taking God's wrath and dying for us and rising to defeat death and ascending to the right hand of God in victory and in sending back his spirit, it continues to amaze me that God would do this for us. Continues to amaze me that God would do this for me.

Going back to Forrest Gump.

I'm not a smart man, but who knows the rest of that quote? What is it?

But I know what love is. He's talking to Jenny. Y' all Remember Jenny? Oh, Jenny. Her life wasn't on a good trajectory either.

And he says, I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is.

And this is what I know. I'm not a smart man. A lot of people in this room smarter than me, but I know what love is.

Romans 5:8 says, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

When I was reading that again today, it jumped out at me. It says, but God demonstrates. It doesn't say God demonstrated. It says, God demonstrates, as in the present tense.

He demonstrates that the work of Christ still demonstrates. The work of Christ still declares the love of God for sinners, the love of God, the kindness of God that Romans 2, 4 tells us leads us to repentance, a change of mind about God, ourselves, others and our purpose, a turning from sin and a turning to God. The work of Jesus still speaks. It still demonstrates and declares forgiveness, deliverance, restoration, life purpose that God has for each of us.

We say this often times flippantly, but God knows we need it.

This has just been something that's been kind of. Just a part of. Some of this has been kind of brewing in my heart. The last several days is.

First John, or the first chapter of the Gospel of John, tells us when Jesus came into the world. It says, the light shined in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

And I just believe that God would call us out of darkness, not that we would be shamed, but that we would be healed.

I would just ask if you would. Would you just stand with me? Just stand with me for a moment.

This is what I know there are people in here right now.

There's some really deep things that need to be dealt with.

Some heavy weight that you've been carrying.

For some of you, there's some conversations that you need to be had.

The first one of those is with God, and it's to be real and transparent with the one who knows all your stuff and loves you anyway.

And today he doesn't call you out by name to rub your face in it.

He calls you to cleanse you and to heal you, to make you whole.

He calls you that marriages and families and lives could be restored.

He calls you into the light because that's where things live and grow and are fruitful.

I want to give you opportunity that you can come and pray here. Maybe just need to come and take a posture of laying it down.

Maybe you need to call upon the mercy of God, ask him to create a new heart to fill you again with his spirit.

Whatever your cry is, God's here to meet with you.

You can stay at your seat.

He can hear you from there.

But my prayer is that this would be the first step towards deliverance and redemption and healing from some things that are ever before you.

Why don't you hand those things over to God today and let him begin the process of healing and restoration.

As Sierra plays I'm going to pray and then you're invited. If you'd like to come be prayed for, you can pray in your seat. And shortly I'll dismiss us. But Father, we thank you for opportunity to be able to come and pray, to lay our sin before you, to come out of the darkness and into the light.

Lord, we thank you. Your desire is not to shame us, condemn us, but it's to heal us.

So I pray for a great work in our hearts today. We love you, Lord, and we thank you that you are so good and merciful, faithful even when we're not so, Lord, continue to work even after we've left this place. Continue to work in the hearts of your people. In Jesus name.