Healing From Sin Series

Senator John Edwards was the Democrats 2004 nominee for vice president. His political future is currently in doubt as he has admitted to an affair in 2008 with a campaign worker. He had won sympathy during the campaign as his wife had been campaigning next to him as she fought cancer. Calling it a “very serious mistake,” Edwards admitted cheating on his wife during her fight with cancer. His web of deceit is now only fully coming to light as he allegedly was planning a wedding with his mistress once he wife’s died of cancer. In addition to all of this treachery, the media is now wondering if Edwards is the father of a nineteen month old child. Still, former Sen. John Edwards isn’t the only politician to have an affair.

Nor are affairs the stuff of Democrats only. Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an affair while he voted to impeach former President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. And Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina also concealed paternity of his child for a generation. Worse still, he breathed out racial segregationist rhetorical fire while he denied the very existence of his African-American daughter. Whether it is the teenage boy who skips town once his girlfriend sees two pink lines in her pregnancy test… Or it is the middle-aged man who offers $300 to his lover to “put it all behind us,” the lives of so many of us are deeply marred by the tragic consequences of sexual sin.

Psalm 51 is the story of the clean up after a train wreck – the train wreck of King’s David’s affair with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.?2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.?4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.?5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.?6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.?8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.?9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.?10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.?11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.?12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.?14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,?O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.?15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.?16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.?17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;?19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar” (Psalm 51:1-19).

This is David’s prayer of confession after falling into deep, dark, and dreadful sin. David never imagined that when he sinned, that God would put it in a book for the whole world to read. The account of David’s affair with Bathsheba is a sordid affair (2 Samuel 11:1- 12:25). Allow me to give you a very short account from the Bible’s pages on how the events unfolded.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant” (2 Samuel 11:2-5).

It began with luxury, it continued with leisure, and it concluded with lust. The pattern is as old as the Garden of Eden and is as current as what is happening in our times. For some time, David tried to cover his sin. King David sent his troops off to battle (11:1). He saw Bathsheba from the roof of his palace (11:2). He took Bathsheba and slept with her (11:4). Bathsheba was conceived with child and sent word to David (11:5). David killed Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to cover his sin (11:17). While trying to cover his sin, David was an absolutely miserable individual (Psalm 32).