David's experience was similar in these chapters. He was incredibly unselfish, kind, and generous with Mephibosheth, who said, "Who am I that you pay attention to a stray dog like me?" (9:8). David's response was to treat him "just like one of the royal family" (9:12). Then, David's besetting sin - lust - takes over in chapter 11 and we have the whole scene of adultery and murder. Sigh. Quite the two extremes in this "man after My own heart".
There's a big difference between my response and David's response to sin. I make it about me, either I'm all good and God approves or I'm all bad and God withholds His love. Neither extreme is truth. We read in Psalm 32 that David held to the truth and turned to God after confessing his sin with Bathsheba:
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be - you get a fresh start your slate's wiped clean. Count yourself lucky - God holds nothing against you and you're holding nothing back from him.
When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans. The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
Then I let it all out; I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God." Suddenly the pressure was gone - my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared...
God-defiers are always in trouble; God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around. Celebrate God. Sing together - everyone! All you honest hearts, raise the roof!David held the two "extremes" of God in tension - God's covenant love and His loving discipline. God did not void his covenant (7:8-16 ) because of David's sin and He also did not withhold his discipline (12:7-12) and forgiveness (12:13-14). So, David holds nothing back from God and celebrates God with an honest heart
Father, help me to be a God-affirmer, holding nothing back from You because You have withheld nothing from me.
4 comments:
Staci, I so relate to having the holy, spiritual moment, then immediately reacting in anger and frustration a few minutes later. I think of the verse that says, "Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing...this should not be so."
But David's story encourages me. He was merciful with Mephibosheth, he danced before God in joy, he was a man after God's own heart, yet he also committed adultery with Bathsheba, he took numerous concubines, he disobeyed God's law regarding the Ark of the covenant.
Knowing this does not give me license to sin, but prevents me from wallowing in self-condemnation.
I truly love the picture of Mephibosheth. We are like him. We are the crippled people being invited to eat at Jesus' table. We don't deserve His mercy, we don't deserve His favor, but we are being treated as royal guests. What a beautiful picture of grace!
I can relate too, Staci! It is amazing to see how David continues to come back to God with a pure and honest heart, confessing his sin and accepting the consequences. He certainly is able to hold the two extremes of God in tension in a way that is difficult for me.
Amanda - loved the comparison of Mephibosheth to us around Jesus' table. Such a picture of God's grace that we absolutely don't deserve!
On another note, Eugene Peterson's commentary in Chapter 12 was interesting to me:
"God's Word, however it begins and however long it takes to get there, always ends up direct and personal, addressed to you and me. The Word of God isn't about somebody else. It's always a personal address, never a general, abstract truth. The biblical revelation is never a commentary on ideas or culture or conditions; it's always about actual people, actual pain, actual trouble, actual sin. It's about who you are and what you have done, and it's about who I am and what I have done.
The task of all Christian discourse, whether in word or music or image, is to get around third-person defenses and compel a second-person recognition, which enables a first-person response."
Praying that God will reveal Himself to me today AND reveal more of the truth about me - warts and all!
Staci, Would love to listen to Tim Keller's "take" on this with you, Our Splitness---Romans 7, on DVD. Just say when. Ranks up there as one of Top 10 sermons I've ever heard in 30 years. Easier for David to show kindness outside his home yet within the walls, he wasn't happy in his own skin and needed more. 2 Sam 11:7 "Brazen Contempt" ~ Sinned against God---doesn't say against man. And we read from our own homes built at times on sinking sand. Raise the Roof! Hope for our sin!
Wow, just yesterday in the Pursuit of God, Tozer, I was reading about God's speaking voice. How God not just "spoke but is now speaking"! This is so real to me today because Cici, like you commented on Eugene Peterson's commentary, the Word always ends up personal! It is so amazing to me how God is NOW SPEAKING.
loved all the comments. it's really getting personal isn't it? this journey through the love story. This is exactly what I need to be reading, by the grace of God. Yesterday I felt as if I'm soaking myself with the Gospel-having amazing times with Jesus and nearness. Then the next minute I get discouraged and my eyes fall away from Him in sin, unholiness. Just like David here. But He doesn't sulk in the sin- He turns His eyes back in worship at God- not Himself. If we look at ourself- nothing will change. It's only when we look at our Lord and Savior that we can be changed. Tozer writes, "Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus."
I'm encouraged by knowing all I have to do is look back up at Him, out not in. And He'll do the rest. It's hard right now. But Tozer always encourages that it will become habit, it will become a practice- as we grow in our faith. And I'm hopeful because of Christ! So thankful for His unending love in the midst of my two extremes.
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