King David, You and I!

I've been meditating on Psalm 41 verses 4 and 12. In my view these two verses provide a summary and even a goal, a target for a spiritually authentic , ethical, healthy life and relationship with God.

David wrote this prayer lyric as part of the worship hymnal of Israel.

The context of the psalm includes both a cry and dependence on the God Who is faithful, a theme of a flawed man seeking protection and trusting in God's justice with regard to his enemies, betrayal of a close friend and deep faith in God and His deliverance.

Yet I submit to you the two verses I am citing which accent powerful, illuminating truths of David's life all followers of Jesus can and even must live out:

v4 As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”

v12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And You set me in Your presence forever.

In my view David was one of less than a handful of truly "good" kings of Israel and/or Judah, the other being Josiah. And yet he set up the good, loyal commander of his army to be killed so he could add the man's wife to his already large harem of beautiful women! "Integrity"?! Well keep reading.

Moses murdered an Egyptian and was found out. Surely the victim had family, someone who cared about him but Moses simply fled and disappeared for a time. We could cite more re. Moses and others in both Testaments but I'll end by mentioning the noble yet seriously flawed Peter who upon Jesus' arrest denied he ever even -knew- Him not once, but 3 times... later being rebuked in public by Paul regarding Peter's duplicity in living an example of grace and Christ's own acceptance of gentiles into the kingdom of God. Whew.

Considering all I see behind bars in my many travels, concerts, Bible studies and worship leading I can tell you defining these people of God based on their quite serious sins/flaws/slips is like you or I being judged an unrepentant, unchangeable demonized sinner due to one or more episodes of your/my life -only worthy of scorn, slander and disgust. If "all have sinned and fallen short" I suppose we are each and all included, no?

DID David sin with Bathsheba, did Moses, Peter, etc.? Absolutely. And yet such is not the defining of their true and eventual character, growth, practical redemption as they repented, sought God's mercy and lived out lives of service to God and others with grace, compassion and doing justice. Is such impossible for you, myself, anyone??

When I really paid attention to Psalm 41.4 I see David repenting in the most public manner for what he did- not what he was accused of but what he truly did, knew and facing it. Thus- this is why he is able to add verse 12 in his prayer-song using the term "integrity".

I suggest we take great care as we think about and internally define who a person is. Or was!

If we don't have "Do all you do in love" in our own thinking we may fall into the trap of defining someone as unworthy of God's love, grace, redemption -and if we should reap such judgement from God ourselves, then what?

We had better value the grace and mercy of God to redeem, live out and share such a message with those we dislike. Oh I know it's truly counter-intuitive due to our own judgement and old nature... but we need the new nature of God as do all sinners. Again and again I see David as testament of deep and massive blunders and yet one of the best examples of what a broken, flawed person who truly walks with God is.

God give us grace and extend that grace through us!

As always, thanks for stopping by! -Glenn