Jitterbugging for Jesus

David saw beautiful Bathsheba and couldn’t resist.

The lectionary for this 5th Sunday of Lent includes the psalm that poured out of David after the prophet Nathan made him own up to two Whopper Burger sins: murder and adultery.

Psalm 51 begins with David’s unflinching confession of guilt:

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.

The great spiritual writer and pastor Eugene H. Peterson says this in his book Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality For Everyday Christians:

In the Christian life our primary task isn’t to avoid sin, which is impossible anyway, but to recognize sin. The fact is that we’re sinners. But there’s an enormous amount of self-deception in sin. When this is combined with devil-deception, the task of recognition is compounded.

We don’t want to face sin because we don’t want to lose our god-illusions; we’re afraid that if we’re not the gods of our lives and actions we’re nothing. … We think that if our sin is taken away, we’ll be less. What happens is we become more.

I see our craving for power over ourselves and others — or our fear of letting go of power — as the driving force of our “self-deceptions” and “devil-deceptions.” The fear that, as Peterson suggests, we’ll be less — nothings, nobodies.

We fear we will be — or perceived to be — (to use a word we hear a lot these days) losers!

We love us some winning, right? And winning requires power.

What could be better for a manly man than winning a hot babe like Bathsheba?

Peterson notes:

“The subtlety of sin is that it doesn’t feel like sin when we’re doing it, it feels godlike, it feels religious, it feels fulfilling and satisfying — a reply of the episode in Eden when the tempter said, ‘You shall not die … ye shall be as gods” (Gen. 3:4-5, KJV).

“David didn’t feel like a sinner when he sent for Bathsheba; he felt like a lover — and what can be better than that? David didn’t feel like a sinner when he sent for Uriah; he felt like a king — and what can be better than that?”

It was good to be King David: He got hot Bathsheba into his bed after all.

It’s like the hilarious Mel Brooks says repeatedly in “The History of the World: Part 1”: “It’s good to be King!”

It’s good because power is intoxicating. Having the power to summon a beautiful woman like Bathsheba over to the palace, and having the power to have her husband offed, didn’t feel like sin to David. The power of it all just felt good.

Power makes us feel like winners. Vulnerability feels a little scary, if not a lot scary.

For sure, moral consequences for David’s Double Whopper Sins dogged him the rest of his long life. (The heavy price David paid for his sexual sin seems to be lost on those who compare David’s sinful ways to a certain unrepentant American leader’s wrongs.)

But Psalm 51 was a big part of his recovery from his wrongs. It started with his recognizing and owning up to his. In his being honest-to-God to himself and to God, he found his true humanity.

David didn’t feel like a sinner when he took Bathsheba to be his. He just felt like a powerful lover. (Bathsheba holding king David’s letter by Willem Drost, 1654, Louvre Museum)

And here’s the kicker: as whopping big as they were, his sins were outdone by God’s grace.

Peterson notes that it’s always a mistake to concentrate attention on our sins; it’s God’s work on our sins that matters.

“Our sins aren’t that interesting; it’s God’s work that’s interesting. … After it (sin) has been recognized and confessed, the less said about it the better,” he writes.

This connects with what the great prophet Jeremiah said in one of my own favorite pastoral scriptures:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

Here is the whole of Psalm 51 (NRSV):

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

51:4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

51:5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

51:6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

51:11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

51:13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

51:14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

51:15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

51:16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

51:17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.