LESSON 7: Repentance Prayer of King David (Psalms 51)
LESSON 7
Repentance Prayer of King David (Psalms 51)
Psalm 51 is the repentance prayer of King David when he sinned. He committed two sins together which were adultery and murder. David was a good king. He loved God and tried to be kind to people and do what God said. But he was not always good. In today’s story, we will learn about one time when King David did something very wrong.
One day during the spring, when it was nice outside, King David went up on the roof of his palace to walk around for a little while. While he was up there, he looked down and accidentally saw a woman taking a bath in her house.
The woman’s name was Bathsheba. Bathsheba already had a husband, and his name was Uriah the Hittite. But Uriah was not at home with Bathsheba. He was a soldier and was away fighting battles with King David’s army. Bathsheba was alone.
David heard that the woman, Bathsheba, was married, but he thought she was so pretty that he didn’t care if she was married or not. David ordered his servants to bring Bathsheba to the palace. Then, even though David knew she was married to someone else, David slept with Bathsheba and made her pregnant. He slept with Bathsheba like a husband sleeps with a wife. That is called adultery, and it is a sin. One of God’s rules is that we’re not supposed to sleep with anyone that we’re not married to.
When David found out that Bathsheba was pregnant and going to have a baby, he got scared and thought that everyone would find out the wrong thing he had done. He had the army commander send Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, home from the war. If Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, came home from fighting battles, he could be together with Bathsheba again. Then, everyone would think that Bathsheba’s baby belonged to Uriah.
But Uriah was a good soldier and worried about the other men he left behind. Uriah did not even go home to see his wife, Bathsheba. Uriah thought it would not be fair if he got to see his wife, but none of the other soldiers got to see their wives. David even tried to trick Uriah into going to see Bathsheba. He got him drunk, but Uriah would still not see Bathsheba.
That plan did not work, so David did another terrible thing. So, David got another plan. He sent Uriah back to the war, and he sent a letter to the army commander, ordering the army commander to send Uriah up against the toughest enemies and not to help him.
When David heard the news, he sent for Bathsheba and married her. Now, when Bathsheba had her baby, David thought no one would ever find out what he had done.
But God knew what David had done. Then, Nathan the prophet came to David and said, “God says, ‘I protected you when King Saul was trying to kill you, and I made you the second king of Israel. Why did you do all these wrong things? Now, I am going to punish you by killing your new son.”
Bad things did happen to David. The baby that Bathsheba had just died. David’s other sons began to dislike him, and there was always fighting in David’s house.
Finally, David realized what he had done. He had sinned against God. David was very sorry for his sins. He prayed to the Lord and asked him to forgive him.
The Lord knew what was in David’s heart. He did not just SAY he was sorry; David was sorry for what he had done. The Lord forgave David of his sin. Psalms 51 is the repentance prayer to the Lord.
David was very sad that his baby son had died, but he knew that it was a punishment from God for all the wrong things he had done.
A little while later, he and Bathsheba had another son, and because Bathsheba was David’s wife this time, God let this new son live. His name was Solomon, and he grew up to be the wisest king Israel ever had.
Video Ref:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REobn7MHpMg
What did you learn from David’s sin with Bathsheba?
David loved God with all his heart, but he didn’t always do what God wanted him to do. Sometimes, David had heart trouble. Oh, it wasn’t the kind of heart trouble you could hear with a stethoscope, but David knew he had heart trouble. He knew that he had sinned and done wicked and evil things in God’s sight. So, what did David do about his heart problem? He went to the One that he knew could fix it — he went to God. David prayed to God and said, “O God, I have sinned against you and I have done evil things in your sight. Create in me a clean heart, and give me the right spirit.”
Sometimes you and I have heart problems too. We might have some things in our heart that shouldn’t be there. Things like bitterness, anger, jealousy, selfishness, pride, and greed. When we come to church, everything may look great on the outside, but God may look inside and see that our heart isn’t right. When we know that we have a heart problem, we need to do what David did. We need to pray to God and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Do you have some things in your heart that shouldn’t be there? Let’s ask God to fix it! Dear Father, we know that you can see what is in our heart and we know that there are some things there that shouldn’t be there. Create a clean heart in us, O God. Amen.