Mulish Disposition

In my Wednesday night Bible study at Skycrest I have been teaching through the Samuels and have finally come to the soap opera that is David's home life. WOW! If only he had exercised a little vision, a little restraint, a little self-control, if only ....

But as you know, he didn't. When he should have been off leading the troops in Holy War against God's enemies, he was at home waging war against boredom. On that fateful afternoon boredom won and David and Bathsheba, Uriah, the royal family, the nation of Israel, and God's kingdom were all dealt a devastating blow whose repercussions would be felt for generations.

We know that for about a year David went on with business as usual until Nathan the prophet dropped by on God's behalf and told David that the jig was up, the secret was out. Nathan knew and, of course, God knew. David was going to have to pay because, as God put it, "You despised me." God couldn't allow himself to be mocked and David immediately began reaping the rotten fruit of his indiscretion.

Out of this period of devastation emerge two wonderful psalms. We are all familiar with Psalm 51. It is the song that David wrote as he dealt honestly with his sin, begging God to forgive him and restore the joy of his walk with God--the joy of God's salvation. But we may not be as familiar with the psalm that presumably followed this confession, Psalm 32.

Psalm 32 begins with David acknowledging the blessing of God's forgiveness and the fact that God holds no grudges once our sin has been dealt with. Then David describes what his life was like before he acknowledged the elephant in the room of his heart. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." (Psalm 32:3-4)

The sin between he and God made David a shell of his former self. His unwillingness to acknowledge his sin was sucking the life right out of him because the hand of the Lord against him was suffocating his spirit. While he had convinced himself that he had gotten away with it on the outside, it was killing him on the inside. So God sent Nathan along in the lifeboat of truth to instigate the healing and the health of God's gracious forgiveness.

Now looking back, David teaches us how to avoid the painful lessons of unconfessed sin--don't be like a mule! Seriously, take a look at Psalm 32:9! "Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you." In order for us to avoid the unnecessary pain of unforgiven sin, we have to overcome our stubborn mulish tendencies and choose the self-discipline of confession.

David clearly did not do that. The day Nathan came he put the bit in David's mouth and led him back to the Lord. Now in retrospect, David realizes that this was a grace from God that he didn't deserve and may not even enjoy the next time. David's admonishment to the reader is to avoid that painful scenario by recognizing when God is inviting confession and offering the relief of reconciliation. "Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found ..." (Psalm 32:6)

David understood that the agony of his soul was an invitation from God. It was the healthy guilt that God sends that demands attention, that alerts us to the fact that now is the time that God can be found. When this gracious guilt is present, we must not choose a mulish disposition, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge our shortcomings. Instead, we should humble ourselves and admit to God our need for him so we can enjoy the blessings of his forgiveness.