When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.  After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.  But the thing David had done displeased the LORD. 2 Samuel 11:26-27

“There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him,” wrote Solomon 3,000 years ago.  Numbers three and four on that list of character disorders which the Bible calls sins are “hands that shed innocent blood,” and “a heart that devises wicked schemes.”

I have no way of knowing whether Solomon thought of the circumstances of his own family, especially involving his own father and mother, but he well could have.  His father was David; his mother, Bathsheba.   “In the spring, at the time when kings go to war,” begins 2 Samuel 11:1, David stayed at home.  One evening when he was on the rooftop of his palace, he saw a beautiful woman bathing–the woman who eventually became Solomon’s mother.  Do you remember the story how David took Bathsheba and slept with her?  After all, he was the king, and he was not accustomed to having anyone deny him.

But then when Bathsheba became pregnant as the result of this adulterous affair, David’s conscience began to deeply trouble him.  Bathsheba was married to another man, and a good man, at that.  For David to take Bathsheba as his wife, Uriah had to be destroyed, and it had to appear to be a grave accident.   Without taking time to recount the details which I would encourage you to read for yourself, if ever a man devised a wicked scheme and shed innocent blood, it was David who was responsible, completely and fully for the death of Uriah, the rightful husband of Bathsheba.

Just a minute, you may be thinking.  Is this not the one who took a slingshot and in the name of the Lord and went against Goliath?  Is this not the one who wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” (Psalm 23:1, KJV).  And, of course, the answer to all these questions is yes.

Should you take the time to ponder the six things which God hates and look at the life of David, you will find an example of almost every one in David’s life.  He was proud and arrogant.  He lied.  His hands shed innocent blood.  His heart devised the wicked scheme to put Uriah in the forefront of the battle, then order the troops to pull out leaving him exposed to the enemy.  His feet rushed to do evil, and he deliberately hurt the woman who became the object of his lust.

Though Solomon did not mention his father’s adulterous affair with his mother, he undoubtedly thought of the consequences which followed his wrongdoing:  the death of his brother who was the love child of David and Bathsheba, the public humiliation which came as the result of his sin and the ongoing conflicts which resulted in his personal, immediate family because of what David did.

But–and this is the point that I want you to get–there is forgiveness and healing for our wrongdoing, no matter what it may be.  As the Psalmist–perhaps David himself–wrote, “If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Psalm 130:4).   David paid a price for his wrongdoing–a substantial one, yet in repentance he poured out his heart before God and asked for God to restore the joy of his salvation (see Psalm 51).

Friend, if you see yourself in these six things which God hates, do what David did.  Confess your wrongdoing, forsake it, and find God’s strength.  That is what grace is about. And, that is what God will do for you too, friend. Just as He did for David.

Resource reading: 2 Samuel 11:1-36