Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. (ESV)

Today’s verse presents a very humbling image of King David. His affair with Bathsheba resulted in a child, and in King David’s attempts to cover up, he had her husband killed. After the child was born, Nathan prophesied that the child would die as punishment for David’s sin. The child became sick, and David petitioned God to spare the child while fasting and laying on the bare floor for seven days.  

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What we see in verse 20 is the end of ‘Shiva’ (‘seven’ in Hebrew), which is an intense period of mourning that typically begins on the day of death. On the seventh day, they changed the clothes on the body and prepared it for burial with an anointing. It is odd that David neglects to observe the burial traditions after the child’s death, and even his advisers take note of it. If we look at David’s actions after Nathan told him the child was going to die, though, we can see another death of sorts. David visibly displays all the signs of mourning and receives the burial rites on himself, changing his clothes, anointing himself and pursuing God by going up and worshiping. King David realizes his failure, falls to his knees and ‘dies’ to himself.  

Samuel prophesies in 1 Samuel 13:14 that King David would succeed King Saul as a man after the Lord’s own heart. However, here we witness a specific consequence for King David’s acts of open rebellion against the favor that God had bestowed on him. The prophet Nathan highlights David’s separation from God, stating that he only had to ask for more, but his pride prevented it. God wanted to be in relationship with David, but David’s hard heart required a significant repercussion to truly soften his heart and bring David back to God. It is difficult to look past God using the death of an innocent child to bring King David to his knees. However, there is a vivid parallel between King David’s blameless son’s death as a redeemer for David (2 Samuel 12:13 “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (ESV)) and Christ (the Son who was also blameless) redeeming all of humankind to bring us back into relationship with our Father.  

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Have you ever had a period in your life where you stopped asking for God’s favor? Did you feel distant from him? Did you slip increasingly into sin, become numb to it, or even attempt to justify it? When we do not repent, we develop a “hard heart,” which creates a barrier between us and God. Where there is repentance, there is redemption. King David wrote Psalm 51 as a prayer of repentance for his sin and to signify the change in his heart. God wants a relationship with us, but without repentance, God cannot work in our lives, and indeed, he would not have been able to continue to bless King David in the way that he had planned – through his lineage that brought Jesus.  

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God does not want to cause calamity in your life to bring you closer to him. He wants to bless you and be in communion with you, but we cannot do that with sin building and maintaining the barrier. Christ died to dissolve that barrier and allow for God’s grace to cover all sin and remove all blame from us. I challenge you to join David in his posture of kneeling with open hands and confessing today the sins God places on your heart.

Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you for pursuing me and calling me into a relationship with you. I have only sinned against you. Please forgive that sin that keeps me so far from you. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Lord, make me clean. Help me to hear your Holy Spirit, that I may delight in your will and bring glory not to me, but to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen!