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.
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