Moore to Ponder

Scripture reference;

Psalm 51 (King James Version)

¹Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

⁵Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

⁹Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

¹²Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

¹³Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

¹⁶For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

¹⁸Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

The last time I posted I mentioned that I was touched by some things in this psalm and thought I might type a few posts devoted to the things that caught my eye. Well, here I am today thinking that I should first explain what prompted King David to write this psalm. Here are the first two verses as they appear in another version of the Bible:

Psalm 51 (English Standard Version)

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when^(A) Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

^1(B) Have mercy on me,^[a] O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your^(C) abundant mercy
^(D) blot out my transgressions.
^2(E) Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and^(F) cleanse me from my sin!

There are some who will read this post and know right away what that was all about, but for the sake of anyone who might come along and still not know I will provide some more information. I think I will just give it to you straight from the Bible.

2 Samuel 11 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

David’s Adultery with Bathsheba

¹ In the spring when kings march out [to war], David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. ^(A)

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. ³ So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he reported, “This is Bathsheba, ^(B) daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah ^(C) the Hittite.” ^[a]

⁴ David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. ^(D) Afterwards, she returned home. ⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to inform David: “I am pregnant.”

⁶ David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going. ⁸ Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ When it was reported to David, “Uriah didn’t go home,” David questioned Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹ Uriah answered David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers ^[b]are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!” ^(E)

¹² “Stay here today also,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.

Uriah’s Death Arranged

¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote:

Put Uriah ^(F) at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies.

¹⁶ When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah in the place where he knew the best [enemy] soldiers were. ¹⁷Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the men from David’s soldiers fell [in battle]; Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸ Joab sent someone to report to David all the details of the battle. ¹⁹ He commanded the messenger, “When you’ve finished telling the king all the details of the battle— ²⁰ if the king’s anger gets stirred up and he asks you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you realize they would shoot from the top of the wall? ²¹ At Thebez, who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? ^{[c] [d]} Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the top of the wall so that he died? ^(G) Why did you get so close to the wall?’—then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ” ²² Then the messenger left.

When he arrived, he reported to David all that Joab had sent him [to tell]. ²³ The messenger reported to David, “The men gained the advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we counterattacked right up to the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ However, the archers shot down on your soldiers from the top of the wall, and some of the king’s soldiers died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

²⁵ David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this matter upset you because the sword devours all alike. Intensify your fight against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him.”

²⁶ When Uriah’s ^(H) wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, she mourned for him. ^{[e] 27} When the time of mourning ended, David had her brought to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. However, the LORD considered what David had done to be evil. ^(I)

2 Samuel 12 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Nathan’s Parable and David’s Repentance

¹ So the LORD sent Nathan to David. ^(A) When he arrived, he said to him:

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. It lived and grew up with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest. ^[a]

⁵ David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.” ^(B)

⁷ Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, ^(C) and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms, ^[b] and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more. ⁹ Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing what I consider ^[c] evil? ^(D) You struck down Uriah ^(E) the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword. ^{(F) 10} Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house ^(G) because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife.’

¹¹ “This is what the LORD says, ^(H) ‘I am going to bring disaster on you from your own family: I will take your wives and give them to another ^[d] before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them publicly. ^{[e] 12} You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel and in broad daylight.’ ” ^[f]

¹³ David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” ^(I)

Then Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has taken away your sin; you will not die. ^{(J) 14} However, because you treated ^[g] the LORD with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.” ^{(K) 15} Then Nathan went home.

The Death of Bathsheba’s Son

The LORD struck the baby that Uriah’s ^(L) wife had borne to David, and he became ill. ¹⁶ David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went [home], and spent the night lying on the ground. ^{(M) 17} The elders of his house stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.

¹⁸ On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

¹⁹ When David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, he guessed that the baby was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?”

“He is dead,” they replied.

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground. He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to the LORD’s house, and worshiped. Then he went home and requested [something to eat]. So they served him food, and he ate.

²¹ His servants asked him, “What did you just do? While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food.”

²² He answered, “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let him live.’ ²³ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me.” ^(N)

This is the same David that slew the giant Goliath when he was a mere youth. He believed in the Lord, loved the Lord, and had faith in the Lord. Yet he still was able to be tempted and capable of committing some awful sins. When he really comprehended what he had done he turned and confessed his sin and sought forgiveness. The Lord forgave Him, but David lost his child. Then the Lord blessed David again. Some people might wonder how David could be willing to do something that should have been so obviously wrong. This should serve as a warning to us that all of us are vulnerable…things that should be black and white can be blended into a murky shade of grey when we lean to our own understanding. David’s son Solomon also wrote these words:

⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

⁷Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. Proverbs 4:7 KJV

I think I will stop here, and continue this look at Psalm 51 in my next post. Here is a link  to another post I wrote with some more  thoughts on just how vulnerable Christians are:   https://pronetoponder.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/psalm-40-the-lord-inclines-part-5/

I am thinking about the words to a particular verse to the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther. Here they are below:

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

Here is a version of the entire hymn I found on youtube:

Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord?  Please click here:https://pronetoponder.wordpress.com/category/about-salvation-very-important-words/ and make sure.

Do you have a Bible? If you don’t have one, you need not worry. Just click here:www.biblegateway.com They have many versions and translations of the Bible that you can read. Some of the best things in life are free!