Unlimited: How David Learnt Forgiveness
Oct 20, 2021 1045
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:1–2, NIV).
When David, the one who would become king of Israel, was young, he thought he understood about forgiveness, but he didn’t. Like so many of us, he learnt forgiveness the hard way.
David learnt his need of forgiveness when later in life he awoke one day and realised what he had become – a lustful adulterer and a vile murder.
In his great Psalm of repentance (Psalm 51) he cried out to God,
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;…
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
There is nothing more important in life than learning your need of forgiveness, and its cost.
David learnt the cost of forgiveness when even later on, his own son rebelled against him. When King David heard of Absalom’s death,
The king was overcome with emotion. He went up to the room over the gateway and burst into tears. And as he went, he cried, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son” (2 Samuel 18:33, NLT)
From David’s life we learn the two great lessons of forgiveness: how free it is from God, and how costly it was to God.
We are forgiven only because of God’s mercy and compassion. We are forgiven because God gave us his one and only Son who died at Calvary.
There is nothing more important in life than learning your need of forgiveness, and its cost. – Eliezer Gonzalez
Reflection: For me, the last sentence in this devotional was an important realisation in understanding my own relationship with God and the Gospel. Do you agree? If so, reflect on how you have learnt your own need of forgiveness, and its cost, in your own life. If not, what things do you believe are more important in life?
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