Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Forgiveness is a wonderful, difficult, complex experience, isn’t it? I’m confident you’ve received forgiveness many times in your life from people you’ve hurt and then apologized to them for your words or behavior. Can you remember the process of accepting the forgiveness extended to you? How long did it take for you to forgive yourself and work your way back to emotional health again after failure, confession, repentance and receiving forgiveness? And of course, it’s one thing to receive forgiveness from a person you’ve hurt, but it’s quite another to receive and accept forgiveness extended to us from God, isn’t it?
In the past several days we’ve been walking with King David through his deep valley of failure, truth confrontation, confession, repentance and forgiveness. The story is found in 2 Samuel 11 & 12. I left you yesterday looking at five key steps David experienced in his recovery from the terrible failure of adultery, murder and coverup. We don’t have much detail about how King David worked his way back to emotional health, but I presume it took David quite some time before he allowed himself to feel fully restored in his role as king of Israel, or his relationships with God, his wife Bathsheba, and his spiritual advisor Nathan.
We have only this glimpse from the Biblical record: “Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved the boy; and because the LORD loved him, God sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.” (2 Samuel 12:24,25)
Now let’s not interpret this to mean having physical intimacy with his wife Bathsheba was David’s way of restoring himself back to emotional health. Rather, let’s read this to tell us that over time, David and Bathsheba were restored in their relationship to the point that they could once again have God honoring intimacy which resulted in a God blessed child.
The name “Solomon” means “peace” and perhaps King David and Bathsheba hoped this son would bring peace to their troubled hearts and their marriage which had begun in such deception. But God sent word to King David and Bathsheba, through Nathan the prophet, that the child’s name should be “Jedediah” which means “loved by the LORD”.
I see an important lesson here in restoring relationship with God, in David’s story. While we humans long for peace to be restored after forgiveness is extended and received, God wants more. When God extends His forgiveness to us God wants us to understand that His love is powerful, real, unconditional and He wants us to live forgiven and restored in His life changing love. Remember, Scripture teaches us, and the incarnation life, death and resurrection of Jesus proves to us that God’s love is unlike any human love. God’s love is powerful beyond measure and is life transforming for ANY person!
But the truth is when we have failed badly, and when we’ve needed to confess and repent and ask for forgiveness, it may take a long time for us to forgive ourselves and allow our hearts to love again and experience full restoration. I find it very interesting that while God instructed Nathan, David and Bathsheba to name this new child Jedidiah, throughout his lifetime he was called Solomon and perhaps you remember he succeeded his father King David on the throne of Israel and was the famous King Solomon who built the great Temple of God in Jerusalem. I wonder why the name Jedidiah never stuck for Solomon.
Now friends I don’t know exactly when David wrote Psalm 32, but I suspect it may have been in the weeks following the birth of this child Jedediah/Solomon. Listen to these powerful words and it should not be difficult for us to envision King David writing and perhaps even singing this Psalm, for like so many which David penned, it was a song: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the person whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1,2)
Oh, the miracle of forgiveness! Oh, the great joy of knowing your sin is forgiven and you are deeply loved by God. Have you had that experience, and have you celebrated its powerful truth first by ACCEPTING God’s forgiveness and then by RECEIVING the heart healing work of God’s Holy Spirit as God’s forgiveness is applied by the Spirit in cleansing you from your sin and defeating the accusations of the dark kingdom?
David would never forget the agony of those months when he refused to admit his sin and he worked so hard to hide the secrets and live a lie. David wrote: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD – and You forgave the guilt of my sin!” (Psalm 32:3-5) You see David’s progression of honest confession and repentance with God and then God’s forgiveness response? This is God’s forgiveness formula and there’s no other way, my friends. And of course, God’s pardon of our sin is only possible because Jesus, God the Son, paid our sin debt with His death!
David was evidently not ashamed to speak of his forgiveness experience so he next wrote: “Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You, O God, while You may be found… You are my hiding place, You will protect me from trouble, and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:6,7) Do you hear David’s confidence in the predictability of God’s faithful, forgiveness response to genuine confession and repentance?
Finally, David wants all those who read his Psalm, even now 3000 years later, to understand that God was speaking to David very powerfully during this time, and here’s what David heard God say to him, which David believes God will speak to us when we are in that place of healing through God’s forgiveness: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or mule which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle… Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds those who trust in Him.” (Psalm 32:8-10) Do I hear you shouting, ‘AMEN, I AGREE with you David’? Do you welcome God’s instruction and teaching and counsel or do you sometimes resist God, believing you see a better way?
Finally, David closes this Psalm of his healing and restoration with this celebration: “Rejoice in the LORD and be glad you righteous; sing all you who are upright in heart.” (Psalm 32:10,11) Oh my friends, do you see David is restored to a place of rejoicing in his relationship with God? David is glad in the restored purity of his heart and do you see David’s heart is lifted up, encouraged, committed to living a God honoring life once again! That, my friends, is the miracle of the healing, restoring power of God’s forgiveness and God’s unconditional love. And I hope you are living in that today and can teach others, as David was, about this miracle.
And so, here’s a song to help us join David in celebrating God’s forgiveness:
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:24, 25 & Psalm 32.
Choose below to read or listen.
2 Samuel 12:24-25
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Psalm 32
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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