[on Psalm 51:13 when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.“]
David is impassioned about helping others find the magnanimity of a divine love and wisdom that alone can rescue them whose remorse is burdening their future, pulling them back into their past, and taking away from them the joy of Lord in the present. David will introduce them to his God, Who alone resolves the misery of a self-inflicted punishment.
David has learned much about God’s approach to healing the soul who is hopelessly desperate to find help from a guilt or a misery that badger-like has attached itself to their life. When he thought God would punish him severely, God forgave him outright. Like the good Samaritan who poured in the oil and wine,1 salvation is a welcomed experience. When David thought God would strike him, God draped His great arm around him and whispered “Be still” to his soul!
Sinners will “turn back to You” David envisioned. And why not!? There is no healing like God’s when He removes the agony of sin and the sin, too! When He strengths us and gives us a steadfastness, a resolve, to overcome temptations. David is teaching repentance, the sole guiding principle, back to God for those who cannot find the way. Had David known the song, Love Lifted Me,2 he probably would have gone about humming and singing its message.
Love lifted me!
Love lifted me!
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me!
A Christian Idea
As Paul instructed the Galatian believers:
“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” [Galatians 6:1-2].
Consider his encouraging words to the Philippians : [my free interpretation/translation. David’s heart in ecclesiastical terms},
“If there is, therefore, any opportunity to encourage3 another in Christ, if any opportunity to lovingly persuade4 another struggling with discouragement, if there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit by your common experience or fellowship5 to use you who have overcome to help another overcome, if the compassion6 Jesus knew that sent Him to Calvary is in you as His disciple, if any empathy,7 confirm my praise of you by your being united with the Savior in your concern8 for one another” [Philippians 2:1-2].
If this is indeed David’s heart—and I think so—his remorse over all he did to Uriah is now well along on a healing path. David discovered in a prayer of repentance that only God can deliver us from ourselves!
1 Luke 10:33-34 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him
2 written by James Rowe, 1912
3 παράκλησις in John 14:16 this is the Spirit’s ministry of guidance and instruction but not in a harsh or threatening tone but with an encouraging, supportive tone.
4 παραμύθιον persuasive words which both calm and inspire, console and at the same time encourage the disheartened to try again. cp. 1 Thessalonians 2;1 “as a father doth his children.”
5 κοινωνία πνεύματος Christian community based on sharing. Quickened or made alive by the Holy Spirit cp. 1 John 1:3 “truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
6 σπλάγχνα A heart of mercy (Philippians 1:8 “of Jesus Christ”) unlike the Greek’s understanding of “the seat of violent emotions” in our Bible it follows the Hebrew thought of the seat of the tenderer affections, esp. kindness, benevolence, and compassion. Used in Scripture of Christ and His followers. The verb form is not found earlier in Greek literature.
7 οἰκτιρμοί pity. an inward feeling abiding in the heart which is more likely to be accompanied by prayer and tears. cp. 2 Corinthians 1:3 “The Father of οἰκτιρμοί is the God of all παράκλησις,”
8 σύμψυχοι A biblical word only meaning unanimity of thought and purpose.
