IN JUDGMENT, REMEMBER

King David was a man after God's heart; a man who sought out the heart of God-how He operated, what He desired, what brought God pleasure and was made Him angry.



David's sin with Bathsheba brought dire consequences. Psalm 51, the great Psalm of Repentance for that affair revealed David's realization of his foolishness and crimes against what he had to realize was against everything that God stood for; yet he sinned anyway. Sin and the desire of the flesh are ever before God's children. We will reap what we sow. Yes, we are forgiven, but the harvest will arrive, even though forgiven.


I like what one man with a heart for God said - although the harvest will surely arrive, as we sow good seed after repentance, the good seed can overtake the bad. This is an act of mercy on God's part of the equation.


When David was caught red handed by the Prophet Nathan, he immediately repented of his sin. Psalm 51 shows that it was not a shallow act of repentance; it was from the heart of David and he could not believe that he had done such a thing. A man who had his history with God; the slaying of the bear and lion, being anointed as a small child to be king over all of Israel, the great slayer of the giant, the one who gathered his rag tag army that fled continually from King Saul, the king who realized that God was behind it all, fell into confusion and disrepute as he fell under the condemnation of Nathan the Prophet.


God accepted David's prayer and contrition; he was forgiven. BUT, Nathan told David on that great day of discovery of sin that one would rise up out of his own house to bring evil upon his kingdom and his own house would be exposed before all of Israel. David's foolishness brought shame to God and he tried to hide it; God said that His reaction to David's deed would be exposed for all to see; he did it secretly, God responds in broad daylight for all to see.


Evil arose in the form of his own son Absolom starting a rebellion against his father. King David realized this as a fulfillment of Nathan's words.



Most important of all; what was David's response? Did he get bitter? Did he think that his repentance was for nought? Did he get angry with God? Psalm 3 answers this most important question ~

" LORD, how are they increased that trouble me!
Many are they that rise up against me.
Many there be which say of my soul, There is no hope for him in God. Selah.
BUT THOU, O LORD, ARE A SHIELD FOR ME;
MY GLORY, AND THE LIFTER UP OF MY HEAD! "


Even when a bitter harvest surely comes to fruition as a result of our foolishness of the past, we MUST cry out to the LORD of all and recognize that He is a God of forgiveness, He is still the lifter up of our heads, He is still and will always be our shield and help in the day of trouble.


The good in the harvest will overtake the bad seed. Both seed grow together. He will never leave or forsake us; we must be the same way on our end of the equation. We must never become bitter, feel forsaken, our doubt the faithfulness of our LORD.


As Father Abraham stated so appropriately and assuredly, " Shall not the God of the whole earth do right? "


As we cry unto the LORD with our voice, He hears us out of His holy hill. As we lay down and weep over our foolishness the LORD of all sustains us. As He fortifies us in the midst of our trouble, and this is a process, we will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that set themselves against us round about. We must continue to cry out, "Arise, O LORD, save me, O my God! " He will smite our enemies upon the cheek bone and break the teeth of the ungodly.


Salvation belongs unto God; His blessings are upon His people! No matter the circumstance, get the hymnal and the book of Psalms and sing and praise our mighty King!


Our enemy, that ancient serpent of old that started this whole mess of rebellion and confusion is upset when we praise our God when things are going well; but, he gets furious when we continue to offer up the sacrifices of praise when things are going bad!


Sing aloud in the midst of the fires! From the ends of the earth praise will go up before the throne of God.