CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – King David is regarded as the greatest in Israel’s history. He was brave in battle. A wise leader who led his nation to prosperity. And his faith in the God of Abraham was unshakable. Today Israel’s flag is adorned with The Star of David.
Yet David, as we all are, was a flawed man… someone who fell short of God’s standard. David was an adulterer. He became infatuated with Bathsheba. Together, they bore a child. And so he could have her all to himself, King David ordered Bathsheba’s husband into a hopeless military battle, where he was killed.
This man is a hero? How so?
God sent his prophet Nathan to King David, and told him that God knew of these sins. And a king humbled himself and prayed for forgiveness. But the child he had with Bathsheba died; a bitter punishment for his transgressions.
What’s the lesson? We are all sinners. We all fall short of God’s glory. Yet not a single one of us knows the depths of God’s grace. We are told to call on God and confess our sins, and the page is wiped clean – a glistening white.
David wrote many of the Psalms that we still read today. Consider his words in Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
We all fall short of God’s glory. The issue, really the only issue, is whether we come before God to ask Him to forgive us.
Chris Conley
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