“The Lord’s Beloved”

Pastor David Moore

Old Testament reading: Psalm 51:1-19 (NRSV)  

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned  and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.  

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.  

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and  contrite heart you, God, will not despise.  

May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.  

Theme today: God is good with us, He has forgiven us, but we still need to answer for our behavior to other people, to society or whoever might have been harmed by our sins.  

Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 12:13-25 (NIV)  

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  

Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”  After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had born to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights  lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.  

On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How  can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”  

David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was  dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.  

“Yes,” they replied”, he is dead.”  

Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went into his own house, and at his request  they served him food, and he ate.  

His servants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and  wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”  

He answered, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him  back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” 

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedediah.  

We want our sins to affect only us, but our sins affect other people–that is sometimes a difficult pill to swallow. ~D. Moore  

David has something wrong with his heart that needs to be addressed. It is not payback, its surgery, intended to heal. ~D. Moore  

Suffering is always a surgery on our trust. Suffering is most reliable and the fastest way to make radical personal change. There is a redemption connection in our suffering. The connection between progress of redemption in our lives and in the world, and honors God, through our suffering helps us reorient ourselves to trust God in such a way that we are invulnerable. ~D. Moore  

David’s mistake is that he concludes that he knew what was best for himself, not God. That is when things begin to fall apart. ~D. Moore  

When David gets off the floor and is able to say again that he hates evil, he hates sin, he hates the brokenness of the world, he realigns himself with God against evil in the world. ~D. Moore  

God says to David, “If redemption is to go forward in the world, your son has to die. It is the only way to get you (David) back.” ~D. Moore  

The Bible says God did not create evil and suffering, He uses evil and suffering in our lives and if we are willing to reorient our trust during these difficult times in our lives, we will end up peaceful and cleansed.  Through this process if you allow it you/we will be more like Him (God).  

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. ~CS Lewis  

Be vulnerable, allow God to work in your life and purge your heart from sin and unclean thoughts.  Believe in the grace that you have been saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection on the Cross for our sins.  

God bless, have a good week.