This Gift is for Us

Earlier today I was reading 2 Chronicles 7. It is at the part where Solomon dedicates a magnificent temple to Lord God of Israel and that night, the Lord appears to Solomon and affirms that He has heard Solomon’s prayer and has chosen to dwell in the house made for Him. God promises to hear His people when they pray to Him in the temple (vs 15), and then He tells Solomon something quite remarkable, “If you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statues and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father…” (vs 17, 18).

What comes to mind when you think of David? A handsome, brave young shepherd who killed a giant with a stone? Or maybe you see him soothing King Saul’s soul with some sweet tunes? What about David the Warrior, hamstringing a 100 horses, wiping out entire villages. Maybe you, like me, thought of the David who slept with another man’s wife and committed premeditated murder to cover up his sin. We must ask ourselves, why did God see David as faithful?

The answer is found in Psalm 51, David’s song after being called out by Nathan, the prophet, for the Bathsheba debacle. It isn’t what sins we’ve committed that keeps us from being close to God, it is how honest we are about them:

• Apart from God we cannot help but sin against Him.
• It is only by His sacrifice and love that the weight of our demise can ever be lifted and justice still be served.
• When we are truly repentant, we are given new hearts, new desires, a new song.

If you really believe this, you will be overwhelmed. Stop and think. Consider your sins, and consider His sacrifice. Breathtaking, isn’t it? We begin to understand how wretched we each are and out of that understanding is thankfulness born.

There is nothing we can do to earn this gift from Him, but we can thankfully and fully offer ourselves back to the Giver. Every time we sin, and we will on this side of Glory, instead of getting discouraged, we ought to use our folly as a humble opportunity to remember who we were and then rejoice and thank God for who we can be in Him! We should mimic the Master and take something awful (as all sin is) and use it for something wonderful — a testament to God’s glory. Of course I say all this, not to encourage sin, but to encourage honest humility and earnest worship of the Lord God of Israel. Though we are weak, we are made strong in Him. Though our hands are red as blood, He makes us white as snow. This is the good news – We all have a chance to be women and men after God’s own heart, just like David.

“ And David danced before the Lord with all his might.”

(2 Samuel 6:14)