152 Cardio: A Contrite Heart, Pt. 1

Have you ever had a season where day after day you find yourself asking: Why am I so blue? Why do I feel so empty? Why am I so angry all the time? 

King David understood that feeling all too well. In Psalm 38 he describes that season for him. His body and soul literally ached. Why? Because of his “sinful folly.” (v. 5)

There can be various triggers for our internal struggles. Physiological and psychological factors play into it. But many times the cause for our season of discontent is rooted, like David, in “sinful folly.” 

Like sand in your car’s gas tank, eventually, sin will foul up your system to the point where there’s performance breakdown.  And internal dissonance – anger, apathy, depression, lethargy – is like the flashing light on your dashboard telling you something is wrong.  

David’s sinful folly is described in 2 Samuel 11. It was spring, the time of year when kings of that day went off to war. But David stayed home. He sent his armies off, while he remained in his palace in Jerusalem. 

Alone one night, he got up from bed and went out on the roof terrace. Looking out over his city, he notices something. A woman bathing. A beautiful woman bathing. 

David sent someone to find out who she was. “She’s Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of your loyal soldiers.” David sent for her. And he slept with her. And she got pregnant.

Hearing of the pregnancy, David goes into cover-up mode. He calls her husband home from the front and tries to coerce him into sleeping with his wife. But the soldier had more integrity than the king. 

When his plan fails, David acts with cold-blooded calculation. He sends Uriah back to the battle carrying the orders for his very own murder.

With Uriah out of the way, David marries Bathsheba, and she bares him a son.

You hear this story and it’s easy to think: This is the man after God’s own heart? How could this happen?

I think there are three warnings we can find in this story that we would do well to heed for our own lives. 

1.     David stopped doing what he should have been doing.

He should have been on the battlefield with his soldiers. When we are engaged in doing the Lord’s work, temptation often loses some of its leverage.

David was also alone when this happened. As far as we know, he had no community or accountability. He was vulnerable.

Have you stopped doing what you should be doing?

2.     David failed to heed the warnings God provided.

“She’s someone’s wife!” But David ignored the warning.

Are the people you know and love noticing signs that something is off in your life? 

Have you ignored the warnings you’ve been given?

3.     David refused to face up to what he had become.

The consequences of sin will lead to one of two results – either confession and repentance or cover-up and more sin. Sadly, for David, it was the latter.

David thought the great danger of his life was that somebody might find out.  But, his greatest danger was that no one would find out, and his soul would be destroyed.

Will you face up to the state of your heart and seek to understand it?

Text: Psalm 38; 2 Samuel 11 

Originally recorded on June 18, 2006, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.