What we love about this Psalm is occasioned by something that is dark, deceptive and an expression of human depravity. The beauties of repentance can only truly be seen up against the backdrop of David's heart and actions in this season. Let's briefly consider what David's heart looked like.
David's was an adulterer
This is what prompted the writing of this Psalm. David was confronted by Nathan who made him aware of the fact that the Lord has seen David’s actions even when David thought none had! David's adultery with Bathsheba, though in private, was public before the eyes of the Lord. This is why David says in verse 3, "...my sin is ever before me.” David, out of pure lust and arrogance as the king, took another man's wife for his own pleasure. At the root of his adultery was a heart that was purely self-indulgent and gave no consideration to the Lord or to the feelings of others. Bathsheba was in a vulnerable position when David approached her. He was the king and, perhaps, used his power to intimidate or at best, coerce Bathsheba into compliance. On top of that, she was pregnant!
David orchestrated the murder of Uriah
Bathsheba was married to Uriah and David, wishing to cover his actions, organized Uriah's murder. In something out of a Hollywood production, David goes to extreme lengths to get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so that he would believe that baby she was carrying was his. When this did not work David asked Joab to ensure that Uriah would be in the most vulnerable position in battle where death would be highly likely. Joab complied and Uriah died (See 2nd Samuel 11 for the full story). David, the adulterer was now the organizer of murder.
David was a master deceiver who was also deceived
David, the king, plotted his way into the bed of Bathsheba and then led Joab and others into an organized deception to first trick and then, when that did not work, to put Uriah in the path of death. David deceived everyone around him, and he did so to get what he wanted, when he wanted it and how he wanted it. To achieve those ends he deceived and tricked others to live in ways that were contrary to God, holiness and simple human dignity. That did not matter to David. All that matter was that everyone understood that life was always and only to be about him and from the death of Uriah, they all saw what non-compliance could mean.
David was not simply a deceiver, but he was a deceived man. After all of his explosive sin: adultery, murder, deception, etc., David lived, for at least nine months, as if he had done nothing wrong! Think about that. For nine months David blocked all of his sin out of his mind and lived in deception. He actually thought, as we can foolishly do, that he had gotten away with all of the mess he had made of the lives of so many not to mention his own. This tells us so much about sin's purpose and power. Its purpose is to continually numb our conscience against its design of moving us away from the presence and power of the Lord. Its power is to seduce us and then to put its claws on us so as to trip us up regularly (Hebrews 12:1). But then, in the midst of David’s own deceived heart, MERCY COMES!
Mercy, by definition, means to not receive what we deserve and being given a chance to get it right - to repent. This is why repentance is a gift because it is the fruit of mercy. What does mercy look like? Many things, but for now consider this: mercy comes in the form of Nathan.
David was wallowing in his own spiritual vomit for months, swimming in it like it was a clean and crisp pool on a hot summer's day. He was at home in his sin with no sense or need to change. Then God brought Nathan and it was not until Nathan confronted him that he saw his actions for what they really were: sinful, detestable and ungodly.
Mercy looks like someone coming to you and being honest with you about you. That does not always ... well, it never, feels good. Yet, Lord wants us to see someone confronting us about our character as His means of mercy to us. In order to embrace this, we have to understand and be honest to see that our natural bent is to see only the positives about ourselves. If, on occasion, we do see negatives, they are treated like pennies: when you drop one you don't scramble around to find it. A dollar? Yes. Ten dollars, we might shift some furniture. One hundred dollars, we are having a family meeting!!! Our failures, to us, never amount to anything more than a dollar!
Yet, in His mercy He sends us a Nathan whose only job in that season is to show you, you!
How God designs this is different for each person and circumstance. That He sends people who expose all of the bad in us - yes, that is His mercy to highlight for us what He does not like in us. So, maybe the person who gives you the most fits and frustrations are actually God's Nathan to you. Perhaps they are still giving us fits and frustrations because, unlike David, we have not truly seen ourselves
I did not like Nathan's before I read and understood the context behind Psalm 51. I still don't like to see him coming, but I've learned that his presence is God's love to me. This Is What Mercy Looks Like.
Who’s your Nathan? Can you name him?