The Sin of King David

Today we have become patients instead of penitents. We have rationalized our guilt to the extent that it hardly makes sense anymore to ask anyone, '”Why did you do it?' The answer will be a mere rationalization. Remember the story of David. He was out on his sundeck one day when he saw Bathsheba in the opposite apartment. He invited her over to see his etchings. She became pregnant with his child. Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, was at war, so David sent for him and told him to go home to his wife. That way he could transfer paternity to the husband. But Uriah replied, “I can’t go home to my wife we are at war.” So David got him drunk, but he still didn't go home; he slept in David's front yard.  Then David sent Uriah back to battle and said to the general, “Some are killed in battle. Maybe Uriah will be killed.” Of course Uriah was killed. David had no sense of guilt whatever until Nathan came to him one day with a social problem. He talked about a poor man who had one ewe lamb. The neighbor, a rich neighbor, killed that ewe lamb to serve his friends. And David said, “That man shall restore fourfold and pay with his life.” Nathan replied, “Thou art the man. You stole the ewe lamb of Uriah.” Then David wrote Psalm 51, and his guilt came out.