GUILTY/NOT GUILTY – Friday June 16, 2017

REVERBERATIONS FROM DAVID’S PSALMS

PSALM 6 “O Lord, do not… discipline me in your wrath” (v.1)

PSALM 7 “Judge me, O Lord … according to my integrity.” (v.8) 

GUILTY/NOT GUILTY                                

                      

These two Psalms would be reversed if written in the order of their experience.   Psalm 7 happened first and is beautiful!  In this one, David is pleading for Justice because of his righteousness and his integrity. (v.8)  He is telling the Lord that he is innocent of whatever he was accused.

Obviously, Psalm 7 was written in David’s youth, probably when he was still strumming for King Saul and after killing Goliath. The rumors were flying around that he was out to take the throne from the King.  He has so much honesty, he simply says to the Lord, “If I have done this and there is guilt on my hands, then let my enemy pursue and trample my life to the ground.” (v.3-5)  Ok, we believe he is innocent of the charges! He knows God sees the heart, so he adds, “O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence.” (v.9)

But, Psalm 6, oh my!  In this one, he is guilty of something he has not faced yet.  It shows the agony of guilt without repentance, so the consequence rages in his body.  All he can do at this point is appeal to God’s loving kindness (mercy). He chides the Lord with a reminder that he needs to be delivered because God is a God of love and “no one remembers you when you are dead, and who praises you from the grave?” (v.5)  He is “worn out from groaning and weeping…” (v.6)

Scholars believe these are David’s writings the year after he sinned with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed.  He hadn’t yet been fingered as guilty of anything, and he has not asked for forgiveness or received any.  Yet, in verse 9, he does say, “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.”

Nathan, the prophet, shows up as God’s answer and the judgement follows.  David is now forced to face his sin, repent, ask for forgiveness, and face the consequences.

My Bible teaching dad once said to me, “I thought you were perfect until you were 30!”  Meaning, I had to face some serious confessing and changing once real life happened in order to get back on the straight and narrow.

Our lesson here is to realize that when we are pretending something is ok and right, and we know it isn’t, and we fail to face our sin or guilt, it will eat away at our insides, too, like it did David’s.

Forgiveness is cleansing… think about that.