Review: P = Praise. If you start your prayers with praise, you will end them in peace.
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51
David’s Sin, Cover-Up, and Misery (2 Samuel 11-12)
It started with just a look. In the end, it brought David more heartache than he could ever imagine.
It is a spring night. King David can’t sleep. He’s wondering how the Israelite army is doing. He normally went with them, but this time he had decided to stay home. That was a decision he later came to deeply regret.
David grabs the TV remote—150 channels but nothing on. So he gets out of his bed and walks around on the roof of his palace. He admires his impressive city. Just as he is ready to go back to bad, he sees a beautiful woman bathing. Instead of turning away, he allows his mind to be filled with lust.
David asks one of his servants about this woman. He is told that her name is Bathsheba. She is the wife of Uriah—one of his soldiers. She is married. David should have proceeded no further. But by this time he feels the temptation is too strong. David sends a messenger to get Bathsheba. She comes to him, and he sleeps with her. Then she returns home. David thinks that’s it. I got away with it. But a few days later, Bathsheba sends a message to David: “I’m pregnant.”
What is he going to do? Imagine if the Jerusalem tabloids hear about his affair. It would destroy his reputation. It might even affect his reign. Instead of doing the right thing, David attempts to cover up his adultery, which tragically leads to more and more sin.
David picks up his cell phone and calls his general Joab: “Send me Uriah.” When Uriah arrives, David asks him how Joab is, how the soldiers are and how the war is going. Then David says to Uriah, “Go down to your house and see your wife.” David is hoping that Uriah will go home and sleep with Bathsheba and think that her child is his. But when Uriah leaves the palace, he doesn’t go home. Instead, he sleeps at the entrance to the palace with David’s servants.
David is informed that Uriah didn’t go home. David is shocked. He asks him, “Why didn’t you go home?” Uriah answers, “My master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” Uriah’s answer fills David with guilt.
But David doesn’t give up. He says to Uriah, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” At David’s invitation, he eats and drinks with him, and David gets him drunk. But again Uriah doesn’t go home. Once again he sleeps on his mat with David’s servants.
David is frustrated with Uriah. In the morning David sends an email to Joab. It says, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
A few days later, Joab gives David an update on the battle. At the end of the message, David reads the words “Uriah is dead.” David returns this message: “Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.” David is trying to make himself and Joab feel better about Uriah’s death. David reasoned, “If Uriah hadn’t died, another soldier would have. He was probably going to die sooner or later anyway.”
David thinks that Uriah’s death ends his problems. Eventually Bathsheba becomes his wife…and they live happily ever after, right? Wrong. “The thing David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Sam. 11:27).
Not only did his sin displease the Lord; it also haunted David day and night. His sin affected him physically, mentally, and spiritually. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer” (Ps. 32:3-4).
One day Nathan the prophet makes a surprise visit to David’s palace. Nathan tells David a story:
“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe Lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him” (2 Sam. 12:1-4).
David burns with anger against the man and says to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Nathan looks David in the eyes and says, “You are the man.”
David had not stolen a man’s lamb; he had stolen a man’s wife…and had killed that man. David confesses, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Sam. 12:13).
Prayer and Our Sin
Did God hear David’s prayers after he sinned? He was guilty of lust, adultery, deception, and murder. Did God overlook all of that and still hear David’s prayers? Does God always hear our prayers?
We can find the answer to that question in Isaiah 59. “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:1-2).
Sin acts like a brick wall between us and God. (Of course, God “hears” all of our prayers—He is all-knowing—but He doesn’t answer our prayers when we are tolerating sin in our lives. When the Bible talks about God “hearing” our prayers, it means that He answers our prayers.)
The psalmist wrote, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18).
God said to the prophet Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when the call to me in the time of their distress” (Jer. 11:14).
The Big Idea: If you want your prayers to be heard, repent so that sin’s brick wall will be knocked down.
Text: Psalm 51:1-6 (A psalm of David)
When I repent…
• My MIND is changed: “My sin is WRONG.”
• My FEELINGS are changed: “I HATE my sin.”
• My ACTIONS will be changed: “I RENOUNCE my sin.”
1. The brick wall shouldn’t make us think that God is UNINTERESTED in us or our prayers.
Notice how David describes God: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (vv. 1-2).
A. He is a God of “MERCY,” “UNFAILING LOVE,” and “GREAT COMPASSION.”
B. He is a God who hates “TRANSGRESSIONS,” “INIQUITY,” and “SIN.”
If God had answered David’s prayers in spite of his sin, that might have encouraged David to continue in his sin, to dig himself into a deeper hole.
C. He is a God who longs to “BLOT OUT,” “WASH AWAY,” and “CLEANSE.”
The forgiveness of God:
• “Blot out”: Like erasing writing (a list of our sins) on a piece of paper.
• “Wash away”: Like washing dirty clothes.
• “Cleanse”: Like purifying gold.
The forgiveness we seek is not pardon from an angry judge, but mercy from a grieved father. He is not hesitant in His forgiveness.
David: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (Ps. 32:5).
2. The brick wall stands as a reminder that sin hurts GOD more than anyone else.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (vv. 3-4).
Some scholars don’t believe that David wrote this psalm because he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” Didn’t David also sin against Bathsheba and Uriah? Yes. It’s hard to imagine a person being more wronged that Uriah was by David. But God is always hurt the worst.
• Joseph: “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9).
• Paul (Saul): “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).
• “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Sam. 11:27).
3. The brick wall is a constant problem because of our NATURE.
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (v. 5).
I must confess: “I have a problem with sin.” When I get myself into trouble, it’s not God’s fault; it’s my fault. This is what David was saying. Sin was not an aberration in his life; he was sinful from birth. In other words, he was admitting, “I am a sinner. That’s why I do the things I do.”
God said of man: “Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Gen. 8:21).
Because sin is a constant problem for us, repentance needs to be a constant part of our prayers.
4. The brick wall teaches us that God wants our HEARTS, not just our prayers.
“Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place” (v. 6).
Ritual without repentance will never please God: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (vv. 16-17).
“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer me many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong” (Isa. 1:13-16).
God desires a “clean heart”: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me” (vv. 10-12).
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place” (2 Chron. 7:14-15).
Application
God wants to hear our prayers. He wants sin’s brick wall knocked down. Don’t stop praying. But don’t ask until you first repented. If you come to God honest about your sin and seeking God’s forgiveness, God will hear your prayers.
P.R.A.Y.: A Model for Prayer
R = Repent
David’s sin, cover-up, and misery (2 Sam. 11-12; Ps. 32)
Did God hear David’s prayers after he sinned? Does God always hear our prayers? (See Isa. 59:1-2; Ps. 66:18-19; Jer. 11:14.)
The Big Idea: If you want your prayers to be heard, repent so that sin’s brick wall will be knocked down.
When I repent…
• My _______________ is changed.
“My sin is ______________________.”
• My _______________ are changed.
“I ______________________ my sin.”
• My _______________ will be changed.
“I ______________________ my sin.”
Text: Psalm 51:1-6 (A psalm of David)
5. The brick wall shouldn’t make us think that God is ______________________ in us or our prayers (vv. 1-2).
D. He is a God of…
• “_________________,”
• “___________________________________,” and
• “___________________________________.”
E. He is a God who hates…
• “____________________________,”
• “___________________,” and
• “____________.”
F. He is a God who longs to…
• “____________________,”
• “____________________,” and
• “________________.”
6. The brick wall stands as a reminder that sin hurts ___________ more than anyone else (vv. 4-5).
7. The brick wall is a constant problem because of our __________________ (v. 5).
8. The brick wall teaches us that God wants our __________________, not just our prayers (v. 6).
Application
God wants to hear our prayers. He wants sin’s brick wall knocked down. Don’t stop praying. But don’t ask until you have first repented.
