Psalm Three
This psalm is written by David as he deals with the fallout of the Bathsheba incident. What really stands out in that story is the complicity in the death of Uriah. Perhaps a more apt title would be the Uriah affair. Now David was guilty, he had blood on his hands. Under the law he was sentenced to death and should have been on death row, not sitting on the throne of Israel. So why wasn’t he? Well in countries that have the death penalty, it is usual for there to be the possibility of a judicial pardon. Alternatively the sentence can be commuted to life imprisonment. This is usually a right reserved to the President or ruler of the country. For David there was no higher authority in the land. He was himself the ultimate court of appeal. Ironically, it was in that very capacity that Nathan approached him with the story he used to confront David with his guilt. There was and is a higher court which reviews cases and that is God. There is no question that David had blood on his hands but a higher court pardoned him. God commuted his death sentence. He did not go so far as totally exonerating David because He spelled out very clearly that there would be consequences. The death of Bathsheeba’s child was one, the rebellion of Absalom was another.
The life of David is steeped in typology. I firmly believe that his sin and forgiveness is one of them. The Israeli courts were designed to uphold the laws of God , the Torah, which required the death of David. It is within God’s power to pardon us, just as He did David. There was no suspension of justice, the courts did not take a holiday or become perverted in such a way as to declare the death of Uriah justifiable. No David’s sin was dealt with by God’s pardon at the time. The sin itself was also dealt with in the New Testament when the Lamb of God was sacrificed.
