therefore, though he thereby published and perpetuated his own shame, he wrote some of his penitential Psalms, and set them to music for the use of penitents in that and all succeed- ing ages. Being " vile in his own eyes," it was a matter of small concern to him that he was vile also in the eyes of others : he lothed and " abhorred himself," and therefore sub- mitted readily to be abhorred by others.]
The truth of his repentance being manifest, we proceed to notice, II. His acceptance consequent upon it —
Very remarkable was the answer of the prophet to the royal penitent. We remark from it that David's acceptance with God was,
1. Immediate —
[There was no interval of time between the confession of David and the reply of Nathan. The very instant that David repented, God forgave him. This is particularly noticed by David himself as a marvellous expression of God's love and mercy ; "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin'." We should have expected that God would suspend his forgiveness, till David should have evinced the truth of his repentance by a subsequent life of piety : but " God's ways and thoughts are not like ours ; yea rather, they are as much above ours as the heavens are above the earth^." God acts in a way worthy of himself. His grace is his own, to dispose of according to his sovereign will ; and he dispenses it to whomsoever, and in whatever way, he sees fit. He shews, if we may so speak, peculiar pleasure in manifesting his compassion towards repent- ing sinners. He represents himself as falling on the neck of the returning prodigal, and as interrupting his confessions by testimonies of his parental love and pardoning grace. Towards the dyuig thief also our incarnate God displayed the same readi- ness to forgive, in that he not only complied with his petition, but far exceeded, without one moment's hesitation, his most enlarged desires'.
Thus has he given us a practical comment on his own gra- cious declarations, and demonstrated, for our comfort, that he is " slow to anger and ready to forgive."]
2. Attested —
[Nathan spake, not as a man who suggested only a sur- mise or doubtful opinion, but as a prophet who was inspired to declare what God had really done. God willed not that his
' Ps. xxxii. 5. k isai. Iv. 8, 9. ' Luke xxiii. 42, 43.
317.] David's humiliation and acceptance. 273
repenting servant should be kept in suspense ; and therefore ordered Nathan to communicate to him the joyful tidings, not that God would put away his sin, but that he had put it av^- ay, and that the penal consequences of his transgression should never come upon his soul. It is thus that God frequently acts towards his people: as he made known to David by his prophet, so he reveals to them by his Spirit, that their iniquities are forgiven, and their sins covered™. He desires not the con- strained service of a slave, but the willing and grateful obedience of a child. " Though he cause grief, yet will he have compas- sion according to the multitude of his mercies " ;" and will cause his believing people to enjoy an assured sense of their accept- ance with him°.]
3. Complete —
[The sins which David had committed were from that very moment " blotted out as a morning cloud :" neither his adultery nor his murder, nor one particle of guilt of any kind, was im- puted to him. There were indeed some temporal judgments entailed upon him : the fruit of his adulterous commerce was blasted, and the child stricken vnth death. David's own wives were all defiled publicly by his son Absalom : and the sword, according to Nathan's prediction, never departed from his house. These things however were merely temporal, and were designed as much for the benefit of others as for his correction : they tended to impress on all a sense of the malignity of David's crimes ; and to shew that, however God might pity and forgive a sinner, he utterly and unchangeably abhorred sin. But, notwithstanding these rememh'aticers of his iniquity, his sin was " cast, as it were, into the very depths of the sea ;" as ours also shall be, if we truly repent ; nor will God ever remember them against us any more for ever^.]