Daily Devotional

One thing I love about the Bible is, it’s not afraid to tell us about the failures of its heroes. If I were to ask you about a hero in the Bible who failed, it probably wouldn’t be long before you’d come up with the name David.

King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then, rather than admit his sin and confess it to God immediately, he tried to cover it up. He called Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from the war and tried to get him to sleep with his wife. And rather than go home to his wife, Uriah chose to sleep at the door of David's house. When David asked him about it, Uriah said (2 Sam.11:11) “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?” When that didn’t work, David tried something else. (2 Sam.11:13) “Now David called him (Uriah), and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.” So as a last ditch effort, David decided to send Uriah back to the battle lines. He wrote a letter to Joab, the commander of the army, saying (2 Sam.11:15) “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” Joab did that, and Uriah died. So David allowed Bathsheba time to mourn the loss of her husband, and then (2 Sam.11:27) “David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.”

So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David in his sin (2 Sam.12). Nathan told David the parable of a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. And after hearing the story, David got angry and said (v.5), “As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.” And Nathan said to David (v.7) “You are the man!”

Convicted, David finally admitted his sin saying to Nathan (v.13) “I have sinned against the LORD.” and Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.” But (v.10) “the sword shall never depart from your house,” and (v.14) “the child also that is born of you shall surely die.”

After David despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight, he lost the joy and delight that came from his relationship with God. He wrote in Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,” Did David lose his salvation? No. He was asking God to bring back the feelings of happiness and delight he had once experienced in his relationships with God. He realized he no longer had the inner joy and peace that only God can provide.

How’s your joy? Are you experiencing the joy of your salvation right now? If not, like David, go before the Lord and confess your sins. Admit what you have done that has grieved the Holy Spirit. Then pray and ask God to forgive you and cleanse your heart. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit and sustain you. Ask Him to lead you toward obedience. And in your renewed relationship, find joy in Him, not your circumstances. Hard times will come and go. But the Lord Jesus Christ never leaves us. He will walk with us. Turn to Him. Find comfort in your relationship with Him instead of worldly things. And let your witness for Christ be strong as you show the love of Christ to a lost and hurting world. Live in the joy of your salvation.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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