April 2 Devotion

Amazing Grace
2 Samuel 12, Psalm 51

David was a king. He was the most revered king of the Old Testament. God chose him to be king, and sent Samuel to anoint him. He united his country in a way it had never been united, and never would be again. You would think that David would have "everything together."

David was a sinner. He looked out his window and saw a beautiful woman bathing. He wanted Bathsheba, and it didn't matter to him that she was married, that maybe she didn't want him, or that what he was about to do would meet disapproval in God's eyes. David wanted Bathsheba, so he took her. To cover his sin, and the paternity of the child that they had created, he had her husband killed.

David was eventually repentant. God sent Nathan to tell David, who had gone a year without recognizing his own sin, that what the king had done was wrong. What Nathan did was brave. How many of us would choose to approach a king, and say, "Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?" (2 Samuel 12:9a). Could it be that what David did was even braver, even more full of courage than what his prophet did? David looked at Nathan and replied, "I have sinned against the Lord." (13a)

David was a child of God. Even in the guilt of his sin, he did not leave the presence of God. I imagine that he felt ashamed, naked in his guilt, and yet he still relied on his Lord. In the middle of this stuggle with God, David wrote Psalm 51, which inspired these words:

Please, father, have mercy.
I know you love me;
May you remember your love
You compassion,
And forget my sin.

I pray your love will be so large
That it will wash away my sins,
As huge as they are.
I know I have sinned.
I know I have disappointed you.
My sins are like a pile of garbage,
Impossible to miss.

I know I have disappointed you,
Done what you have told me was wrong.
You have every right to shine a light on my wrongdoings,
And to judge my faults.

I can't remember a time when I didn't sin.
My mistakes, my faults and my selfishness
Have been with me forever.

Transform me, Father.
Make me clean, from the inside out.
I have faith that you, and you alone,
Can take away the darkness in my soul.
I long to hear joy and gladness.
My crushed spirit begs to feel happiness.

Make my sins invisible,
And hide my wrongdoings.
Recreate me, God,
So that my heart beats for you,
And my spirit can fly on your wings.

Do not send me away from you,
I would die without your Holy Spirit.
Restore in me the joy of my salvation.
I have lost faith that you can save me
As I stand in the shadow of my sin.

If you can help me, Father,
I will have the courage to teach others of your glory.I
will have the means to convince others
Of your goodness.
I will sing your praises forever.

If I knew another way, dear God,
I would do it.
If forgiveness were in my power,
I would reach for it.
It lies only with you, God
I pray you will accept my repentance.
I pray you will find gladness in saving me.
My only hope is that you will forgive me.

Nathan said to David, "Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die" (13b). The consequences of David's actions were not changed, but God did not turn David away, and God did not turn his back on his child, in spite of David's sin.

Do you know what that is? It's grace, and it's amazing. Philip Yancey wrote, "we are "brought back to common ground, as sinners equally desperate in our need of God." What is our common ground? It is that we are all sinners, and that none of us is considered untouchable, undesirable, or unlovable by God. Grace makes life unfair, and we should thank God for it.

Kim Matthews