King David didn't write Psalm 51 until he had nowhere to hide. It’s not that he didn't know what he had
done. He just thought he'd gotten away with it. It began when glancing
over the balcony he caught sight of Bathsheba bathing and “look don’t touch”
was not enough to satisfy his lust. But his sweet emotion soon turned sour when
“the rabbit done died” (Aerosmith) and the consequence of his carnal knowledge
with another man's wife threatened to show. As with most people in power honesty is
the last option to be exercised so the offense is compounded as Uriah the
righteous husband refusing to cooperate with David's scheme is killed to protect the king's deceit. David might have been able to live with the lie for a long time, most
of us can, were it not for the prophet Nathan who tells the story of a rich man
stealing a poor man’s lamb and King David unaware that he is the subject of the
story demands the death of the offender. “You are the man” is the end of
Nathan’s sermon and the beginning of David’s confession. “Against you only have
I sinned” might appear to put Bathsheba into the backseat again, save for the
understanding that violating the sanctity of another human being is always a
crime against the One to whom all life is precious. That might be the one thing
that David gets right and in the end makes him the man after God’s own heart.
If our confession acknowledges God as the one we wrong when we harm another,
including self, maybe the only persuasion we need in order to be honest with
ourselves and others is the desire to return to the God who wants nothing more than to continually
create in us clean hearts.
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