We need a better King than David, One who never sinned, but who also can make us clean.
The Sunday School teacher pinned a large bedsheet up in the classroom. In the lower corner was a blot where he had accidentally spilled ink. “What do you see, boys?” he asked. They all pointed to the stain. Not this large, white bed sheet? No, just that awful blemish! Thus began his lesson on King David. What fearless courage in fighting the lion and bear! What trust “in the name of the Lord of hosts” in Elah’s vale (1 Sam 17:45). What delightful sentiments from the sweet singer’s psalms! But no. A thousand years after, it would be written on the front page of the world’s greatest biography, “David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah” (Mt 1:6). Another Biographical Psalm and the fourth Penitential Psalm, we read in the title of Psalm 51, “A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” How can we forget the spine-tingling words, “You are the man!” (2 Sam 12:7). You may have heard the line that pathologists have all the facts—one day too late. It’s too late to keep David from his great sin, but not too late for us. Psalm 51 is an autopsy of sin—its characteristics, causes, corrosiveness, and cure. The purpose is prevention. The record of David’s sin is a warning, but Psalm 51 is more. It’s a strategy to keep its readers from falling into the same trap. David is not only eager to repent, but also to testify about the path of recoverability through God’s grace. An outline of the psalm might look like this: the Problem (vv 1-6); the Process (vv 7-12); the Proclamation (vv 13- 15); and the Praise (vv 16-19). We’ll take a closer look in our next meditation, but we rejoice in a God like ours who, when we have failed, delivers us rather than discarding us.