Against You, You Only, Have I Sinned...

First, congrats to the anonymous poster who did recognize the quote in my May 1st post as coming from Mother Teresa. If a person that all agree was one of God's lifelong and true warriors can have doubts, I think we can take comfort in the doubts that will plague us from time to time. It's natural, it happens, but the take-home message is simple--God will NEVER leave us. As promised, I'll give $50 to the Kids Against Hunger campaign.

I strongly resisted writing for these past two days, but I kept hearing a nagging inner voice telling me to write what I think. I don't claim any external inspiration for what I'll write, so here goes. Psalm 51 is a beautiful psalm, and David's post hit the important verses. One of our common Offertory responses is found in 51:10-12, which is an excellent reason for us to give the best to the Lord--he HAS forgiven us, and our meager offerings are nothing compared to what he gave us through the death and resurrection of his son.

However, every commentary I've ever read (including this Bible) states this psalm was written as a response to Nathan's rebuke, and in particular, the verse that has today's title has always driven me crazy--"Against you, you only, have I sinned..." I won't speak for others, but I suspect Uriah might have a different view regarding that verse and the truth behind it.

I recognize the power of David and the great things he did as a warrior for the Lord in his life, but he sure took a David-centric view of the world at times, but I guess that's the part of the story that can give us the greatest hope for ourselves. I'll go out on a limb, but I'm pretty sure none of us will send out a friend's spouse to his/her death so that we can cover up an affair. If David can be forgiven for an action as heinous as that, shouldn't we also be able to go before the Lord with our sins and be confident that we'll be forgiven?

One last note--I haven't read ahead, but I sense this is the last of David's truly abhorrent behavior. We read in 2 Samuel 3:1-3 that he was the Shawn Kemp of his day, having six sons with six different women, and he seems to pick up wives the same way people shop for shoes. But when we read his psalms, we see a man who is repentant and ready to change. I could be wrong--we still might read of some bad things he'll do, but it's just another reminder of what we are as Christians--we're not perfect, just forgiven.

Scott