Following his debacle with Bathsheba which ended up with a man’s blood on his hands, David came to learn a painful but necessary lesson – God has written cause and effect into the life of the universe. In other words, if we choose to live life according to our own agenda, if we choose to go our own way and break God’s laws, the effects ripple through our lives and the lives of others, causing all kinds of heartache and pain.
Like all of us, David wanted to avoid the consequences of his selfish choices. Fortunately for David, there was a courageous and wise prophet in the land by the name of Nathan. He knew that a straight forward accusation would be met with big-time royal defensiveness. So he told a story about a rich man who abused his power and privilege at the expense of a poor man. David’s sense of moral outrage was aroused. And then came the telling blow as Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Sam 12).
It’s always easier to see sin and shortcomings in other people’s lives. It’s not so easy to see these things in our own. But painful though it may be, what a gift it is when we are helped to see the truth of our selfish choices and the consequences that they trigger in ours and others’ lives.
It’s a gift because while the consequences of our selfish choices cannot be avoided, by God’s grace they can be redeemed. What this means is that even the mess we make of our lives can somehow be used by God to bring about God’s purpose for us, even if it means that God’s purpose must be worked out in the dysfunctional network of bruised and broken lives that are the product of our arrogant attempts to live without God.
Jim Harnish writes, “Although we are bound together in a tangled web of human relationships, we are not prisoners of fate within that web. We are influenced by our past, but we are not bound by it. Although we stand before the justice of God being worked out in human history, we can also receive the gifts of God’s unexpected mercy…. For God’s grace is not bounded by the limitations of human cause and effect.”
In the end, David learned his lesson. It made him a humbler person, better able to recognize that his own sense of self-sufficiency was just an illusion, and that he was wholly dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. He continued to live with the toxic effects of his actions for years to come with all kinds of dysfunctional dynamics in his family. And yet, through it all God’s steadfast love was known and the house of David continued to be a part of God’s liberating activity for the whole world.
This is the hope and encouragement we can take from David’s story for our own lives. God is not finished with us. No matter what we have done, a new chapter of grace in our lives waits to be written.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. According to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a pure heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Amen (Psalm 51:1 3,10)
FOCUS SCRIPTURE
Psalm 25:4 11, 15 (The Message)
A psalm of David
Show me how you work, God;
School me in your ways.
Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!
God is fair and just;
He corrects the misdirected,
Sends them in the right direction.
He gives the rejects his hand,
And leads them step by step.
From now on every road you travel
Will take you to God.
Follow the Covenant signs;
Read the charted directions.
Keep up your reputation, God;
Forgive my bad life;
It's been a very bad life.
But if I keep my eyes on God,
I won't trip over my own feet.
