Do You Want Relief … Or Repentance?

But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him. And he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing.” (II Samuel 24:1o)

Food For Thought: Have you ever wondered why King David was called a man after God’s own heart but King Saul was a man rejected by God? On the surface, it seems that David’s sins were equal to, if not more grievous than Saul’s. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed to cover it up, and now, he had taken this census of Israel’s fighting men—a sin that demonstrated a lack of trust in God’s protection and pride in David’s own military prowess. When you look at Saul’s sins, it seems that he had merely failed to follow the prophet Samuel’s advice to the letter (I Samuel 13 & 15).

The difference between these two men was in how they responded to Godly conviction. When a distressing spirit came upon Saul (I Samuel 17 & 18), he would send for his young assistant David to soothe his chaotic mind by having him play the harp. The problem was, Saul was only seeking relief from feeling bad rather that repenting for acting bad. On the other had, when David experienced a guilty conscience, he would fully own up to his wrongdoing and seek the Lord’s forgiveness. When caught in wrongdoing, the true condition of Saul’s heart was revealed by his justification and minimization of the sin; the true condition of David’s heart revealed that he deeply cared about the things that God cared about.

That’s what it means to have a heart after God’s own heart: Not that you are perfect and never fall into sin, but that your heart is tender toward God and the things of God and quick to repent when you have violated God’s command.

Prayer: Father, as David prayed in Psalm 51, so I pray this morning: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—and my sin is always before me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” O Lord, give me a clean heart, a heart after Your own heart. Help me to passionately care about the things You care about—this is my deepest prayer. Amen!

On this day… in 1961, English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter, “Any fixing of the mind on old evils beyond what is absolutely necessary for repenting of our own sins and forgiving those of others is…usually bad for us.”