David and Bathsheba

The Sunday school lesson I taught this week was on David & Bathsheba. Quick recap: David, king of Israel, saw Bathsheba from his rooftop and invited her over, then impregnated her. To keep his misdeed from coming to light, he tried to get Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to go home to her. Uriah, a good solider, said “Nothing doing”, so David had him killed.
David put himself in a compromising position, and then, when he feared exposure, compounded his sin by doing something worse: murdering Uriah. Most of us won’t ever face that particular combination of circumstances, but all of us can learn from his example. When Nathan came to chastise David, his first reaction wasn’t to deny his sin or try to minimize it; he owned up to it, saying “I have sinned against the LORD”. He had to suffer for his sins, but his sincere repentance for his wrongdoing helped him to get back on the right track and stay there. His prayer is simple: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Try it; it can work for us too.