“Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just” (Psalm 51:4 NLT).
David wrote this psalm in repentance after committing adultery with Bathsheba. Although he surely recognized he had sinned against her and her husband, he felt more grieved that he had sinned against God.
This is the mark of true repentance. Not that we admit that we have broken the law, but that we recognize the magnitude of having sinned against the Lawgiver. David was grieved that he had sinned against God. He further recognized that God was just and blameless when it came to David’s sin. He did not blame God, nor anyone else, for his transgression.
As the apostle Paul wrote, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). David took full responsibility. He recognized that God would be blameless in whatever justice He dispensed upon him. He recognized God’s righteousness, but he also knew God’s mercy. So, he cried out that God would “be gracious” towards him, not according to anything David could offer, but according to God’s own “abundant compassion.”
It was this same abundant compassion that moved God not only to answer David’s prayer, but to answer the need of the whole world. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for forgiving us our sins. Examine our hearts and reveal to us any transgression that we might confess and be made clean. Especially help us with those besetting sins that continue to defeat us. Give us victory over them that we might become more and more like Jesus. For it’s in His name that we pray, amen.