Meditating on Ps. 51 this week, having finished 1st and 2nd Samuel last week, I'm very moved by the fact that this Psalm was even published. How many of us would write out our confessions to God, our cries for forgiveness for our greatest sins, and allow them to become public writings to be read aloud in congregations? One of my favorite lines is"let the bones that you have broken rejoice." David spoke to himself and told him to rejoice over the conviction the Lord had given to him and also the judgment Nathan had pronounced to him.
In the past few weeks, going through the Old Testament, I've really seen how God's judgment on his people is as much His grace and love as anything else. If He didn't allow them to see the consequences of their sin, didn't show them that they were doing something wrong, the people would have had no opportunity to repent. If God had done what we think would be loving, which is just to keep letting them sin and forgiving them without consequences, they would have walked further and further from God and their exile would have come much sooner.
I think David felt this way too. He realized that God's judgment on him opened his eyes to his sin and his reduced intimacy with God which he loved so much. David considered it God's grace when God was faithful to the words of warning He spoke if one should reject His law.
For us today, I think it's so easy for us to miss the consequences of our sin as they get lost in the mix of things we call 'normal'. God has forgiven us for our past, present and future sins, but we also bear the physical and spiritual consequences of these. I've prayed that God would open my eyes to how my sin affects me and those around me. He's shown me how my interaction with people changes drastically as I walk away from Him in sin and how this leads other people down mental paths they wouldn't have gone had my course of action been different. Today, we need a revelation of the impact of sin in our lives, even more so that our sin is covered by Christ's blood on the cross. As believers, we should see even more how sin impacts our lives, those around us and how it's affected the world in general.
Most of all, we need a revelation of the fear of God. We get lazy when times get good and, like David, we let our most foundational values slip leading to the most outrageous of sins we could have never imagined ourselves committing. It is God's grace that there are consequences to our sin because God knows that in relationship with Him we can live the best lives possible. If He was less loving, He'd let us do our own thing and never say a word about it.
Rejoicing in punishment sounds kind of insane... But, David had somethin' right. :)
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