Hastings: The way of divine restoration

“As long as I kept my stubborn silence, my bones grew weak … your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped.” — Psalm 32:3-5 The Inclusive Bible

The above words are part of a teaching poem by David, showing the way of divine restoration after one has sinned. David’s experience of forgiveness may have occurred after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah as a cover-up. The law’s penalty for these sins was death. David, as king, avoided death but suffered greatly in body, mind and spirit as a result of his sins.

God reached out to David through the prophet Nathan. Nathan told a story about a rich person who wanted to show hospitality to a traveler. But rather than taking one of his own many lambs to prepare a meal, the rich person took a poor family’s only pet lamb. The story outraged David who pronounced the death penalty upon the rich person. Whereupon Nathan said, “You are that corrupt person!”

Heart-stricken by Nathan’s story, David confessed, “I have sinned against YHWH.” And Nathan said, “YHWH forgives your sin and you will not die...” But there were severe consequences: “Because you outraged YHWH by doing this, the child who is to be born to you will die.”

David and Bathsheba went through the painful loss of their child and the grief which followed. In time, they also experienced God’s restoring grace. They were blessed with the birth of a son whom Bathsheba named Solomon meaning “Peace.” And YHWH sent special greetings through the prophet Nathan to name the child Jedediah — “Beloved of YHWH” — a child who would become king and lead the nation to its zenith.

In David’s experience, one can see the brokenness of divine relationship caused by human sin, the painful consequences of sin to David and his family and the grave threat to a nation caused by sin in the leadership. One can also see the divine restoration God brings when a leader confesses sin — and how God’s redeeming grace extends to the royal family and the nation.

One can only wonder what might have happened had there been no way of divine restoration. It is known that when sin is denied and not confessed — especially in leadership — problems multiply. But when God’s tenacious love seeks out the sinner and sin is sincerely confessed, God forgives completely. And in the midst of oft-painful consequences, God shows us the way of divine restoration.

The Rev. Celia M. Hastings has a master's degree in religious education from Western Theological Seminary in Holland. She is author of “The Wisdom Series” and “The Undertaker’s Wife.”

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Hastings: The way of divine restoration