One of the things that is often missed with respect to repentance is how the whole of one's life is involved in it. The concept is something that, if not foreign to the way many view Christianity, is not a major focus in our thinking about the faith. When I say "whole life" I am referring to the reality that Christianity is not a compartmentalized relationship - only focusing on Sunday - but one that drives, informs and frames every aspect of our lives. In a phrase it is a Christ-centered life, where Christ's fame, honor and glory are the central focus in every area of life.
When we hear David pouring out his heart in this Psalm (Psalm 51) and when we give thought to the events that occasioned his sin we learn something powerful. We learn that when the whole of our lives is not centered around the Lord or guarded and protected by His glory, we open ourselves to a deception that can lead to sexual depravity, deceit and murder (literally and or figuratively speaking). Let's see what precipitated David's sin. Second Samuel 11 sets the stage and if we are not alerted to something here we will miss the singular event that started this spiral into sin. Consider verses 1-3:
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants
with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David
remained at Jerusalem. 2 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?”
I want to reverse the order of these verses to show you how, when your life is not centered on the Lord, you are an easy target for the devil and sin. Notice the following:
· David sent to have Bathsheba come to him so that he could sleep with her (verses 3-4)
· While David was laying on the couch he looked outside and saw this beautiful woman, Bathsheba, bathing on the roof (v2)
· Though it was the time when kings go out to battle David sent everyone, but he stayed at home (v1)
Note the flow of events:
· Why did David sleep with Bathsheba? He saw her bathing on the roof and became sexually aroused.
· How is it that David saw Bathsheba on the roof? Because he was laying on the couch.
· Why was David laying on the couch? He was home when he should have been at war because he was the king.
Do you see it? David let leisure rob him of his role and responsibility as Israel's king and because he was unguarded in that moment, sin (the flesh) pounced on him.David's role was to go to war in the spring. That was his God given role as the king of Israel, but his first mistake was to abandon his calling and purpose for pleasure.
At that moment he displayed a breakdown in his whole life devotion to the Lord and His purposes. If David had attended to his duties; if he had simply gone to war despite what he was feeling and the reasons and if he had gone to war and lived his life before God at that moment, he would have not been on the couch and he would have not seen Bathsheba and he would have not committed adultery.
When any part of our lives become detached from devotion to the Lord it begins a series of actions and reactions that, if not seen and checked, can lead us to remarkable feats of sin! We see in David's situation the need to guard every area of our lives and every moment of our day. We see that even leisure moments, laying on the couch, are dangerous moments if Christ is not central to our affections and devotion. A glance at one thing on the T.V or the computer screen can put the vice grip on us leaving us captive to its motions, movements and influence. David did not lay on the couch looking to get into something. This we can be sure of. The problem is, however, that in his heart he was not looking to the Lord either.
Leisure without the Lord can be lethal!
If we are to battle against sin we must understand and live our lives with the Lord at the center and not our pleasures, our wishes, desires, plans, etc.,. Yet, this is what far too many of us do because we think that Christ is amazing and to be feared on Sunday morning only. We have totally detached every other aspect of our lives from the Lord such that, for example, we watch shows that we know He would not watch. Yet, what David came to realize is something so powerful that it is as shocking as it is terrifying. We foolishly think that God is not involved in everything we do but the truth is this: He sees everything we do!
David was alone with Bathsheba, so he thought, but when Nathan come to him he realized that God was on the roof too! In the midst of his adulterous act with Bathsheba the Lord was looking on. Every moment, every detail, every word - the Lord was present, watching, listening and knowing! David, in those moments, forgot that the Lord was omnipresent (He is everywhere) and omniscient (He knows everything - even the heart). When we sin, Jesus is watching us. When we watch certain shows, Jesus is watching us. When we think certain thoughts, Jesus knows our thoughts. There is absolutely no area of my life that Jesus cannot see, no thought that He does not know, nor a place where He cannot go. My whole life (every part of it) is before Him.
The David described in 2 Samuel 11, - the version that lived like God couldn’t see or know - when he understood that every area of his life was under the eyes of the Lord, became the David with a heart and mind to write Psalm 139:
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise
up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are
acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know
it altogether (Psalm 139:1–4).
Lord, help us to learn from the life of our brother, David and to live in the truth that you want, see and command that all of our life be lived coram deo – before the face of God.