The Joy of Repentance

The story of David and Bathsheba is, at its heart, an “everyman” tale about sin and confession, forgiveness and consequences. We often talk about men and lust with this part of David’s history (as well we should) but every Christian can relate in some way to David’s sin in this event.

Try this exercise. Read through the events in 2 Samuel 11 and following, and when you get to chapter 12 verse 13, after David says, “I have sinned against the Lord,” jump off to Psalm 51, which David wrote in response to this very sin. About four verses in David, in addressing the Lord, says something very similar to the line in Samuel: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

This may sound odd to our ears. David does not seem to acknowledge the devastation he caused to Bathsheba and Uriah. David is not ignoring the damage he caused. Rather he is getting to the heart of the issue. The sum total of our sins against each other is that we have sinned against God. This does not mean that we should not seek forgiveness from those we wrong, but it does mean that we have first to seek forgiveness from the God of our salvation.

This is why David makes the connection in verses 5 and 6 between being conceived in sin (in other words, in the line of Adam’s sin) and God delighting “in truth in the inward being.” David wants “wisdom in the secret heart,” in that place where his inherited instinct is to carry out his darkest desires.

Small wonder that David spends six verses dwelling on the imperative of God’s act of forgiveness and restoration. Cast your eyes down the list of imperative verbs: purge, wash, hide, blot, create, renew, cast me not, take not, restore, uphold. To look at them is to take a tour of what God does in our souls when he forgives us and restores us.

Sandwiched amid these words are two lines that seem different from the others. “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” The word rejoice here literally means to dance. David has been broken by the Lord, but longs to be able to express the joy of the Lord. This is not a selfish desire. God does not want us to wallow in guilt but to rejoice in his redemption.

All of us have, at some point, had to face our evil intentions, our desperate efforts to cover up secret sin, and the inevitable hypocrisy that results. This is why Psalm 51 can be prayed by every believer after committing any sin. It has a universal truth that David, guided by the Holy Spirit, thankfully set down for us. His personal anguish became a vehicle for us to use to express our own.

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.