Another Hero's Understanding

David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 4:7-8)

          Paul continues with the Jewish heroes. Yesterday, we considered faith and works with Abraham as our example. Today, the hero with Paul’s attention is David, the greatest king of Israel. Now, if you asked David for which of his acts he most wanted to be remembered, I’ll bet he would say either “designing the temple and collecting the building materials,” or “bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem,” or perhaps “defeating Goliath.” If you were to ask most people today, they would probably say either “his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband,” or “defeating Goliath.”

          David understood what it meant to have sins forgiven. He committed a few that we consider “big” sins. In addition to the debacle with Bathsheba, he also didn’t show proper respect to God in his treatment of the Ark of the Covenant the first time he tried to bring it to Jerusalem. That resulted in a death. Then there was the time that he decided to review his strength by counting his soldiers instead of trusting God, in direct violation of God’s command.

           David knew that he had messed up. The only way he could be right with God was if God forgave him, and God did. That doesn’t mean there weren’t consequences for the things David did. People died because of David’s sins. David could have been bitter about God’s punishments, but he rejoiced that his sins were forgiven, that his relationship with God could be restore not because he beat Goliath, or brought the ark to Jerusalem, or designed and collected the materials for the temple, but because the Lord forgives. That was what made him blessed.