This week we come to the end of our series of sermons about emotions. Over the last four weeks we have looked through David’s eyes and David’s experience at the power of our human emotions. We have lived with him through surprise and shock, fear and terror, friendship and love, grief and mourning.
In many of the stories, David seems to have had his emotions under control when the temptation must have been to let them boil over.
When David was hunted by Saul, twice David had the opportunity to kill Saul, once when Saul was relieving himself in the very cave where David was hiding, just a sword’s-thrust away; and another time when David and Abishai entered Saul’s camp in the dead of night, and David stumbled across the king, fast asleep. Pin him to the ground with your spear, said Abishai, that’ll be an end to it. But David refuses, preferring to hope against hope that Saul will one day relent and welcome him back.
On another occasion David did completely lose his rag when he was insulted by a pig-headed wealthy land-owner called Nabal. David ordered his crack-troops to saddle up and charge in for a day of slaughter and revenge. But he is met half-way by Nabal’s wife, Abigail, who calms him and prevents the bloodshed.
Sometimes David finds the resources within himself or from his faith in God to help him overcome the danger of emotions boiling over; sometimes he is fortunate to have the counsel of others to keep him from an extreme reaction.
But sometimes David does not keep his emotions in check and they boil over with consequences for all who get in his way.
Do you remember the story from last week when a messenger brought David the news that Saul and Jonathan were dead? David was so grief-stricken that he could not bear to look at the messenger a moment longer, and had him stabbed to death there and then. David’s grief boils over into violence and bloodshed. “Don’t shoot the messenger…”
And this week we have the story of David and Bathsheba. You know the story: David is up on the palace roofs one day when he spotted a woman bathing – a very beautiful woman.
Billy Graham once said, “You can’t avoid the first look, but you can avoid the second.” David could have taken that chance glimpse, that first look, and gone back downstairs praising God for the beauty of the human form. Maybe he could have sought out one of his wives Michal or Abigail or Ahinoam, and celebrated with them the beauty of the human body and the miracle of pleasure that God has given us in the gift of sex.
But he didn’t. David took a second look and a third, he became a voyeur, a peeping Tom, and he goes back downstairs to brood and to fantasise until he is driven wild with lust – he must have this woman – whatever the cost.
And the cost is heavy. David has Urriah, Bathsheba’s husband killed in the thickest of fighting, and puts at risk the lives of many of his fighting men, to say nothing of the pain born by Bathsheba as she is dragged from her home into Palace life on the whim of a King’s fantasy.
When our emotions explode out of control it is almost as if we are blinded. We are blinded to obvious consequences, we are blinded to the needs of others. We are literally blinded. We talk about people flying into a blind rage and lashing out at whatever or whoever is nearest. We talk of love being blind. What does she see in him? Can’t she see that he’s no good for her?
And David, most certainly, is blinded by his lustful fantasies about Bathsheba. All of it is painfully obvious to the rest of the Royal Court, to his other wives, to his servants, to his people. But David is blind to it all, living in his own little world.
You do that don’t you? I do that. When we are consumed by lust or anger or jealousy we are blind to the consequences, we are deaf to the opinions of others – even those closest to us. It is a source of great frustration for those around us and sometimes all they can do is ride out the storm and wait for us to come to our senses.
But when you are king, there is no such luxury. There is a Kingdom to be run, there are people to be served. People quickly becomes restless. David has to be brought to his senses, and remembering the story of last messenger who brings David bad news, there are not very many people volunteering for the job!
Nathan is the man for the job! Read 2 Samuel 11:1-7a
David is condemned, he steps blinking into the blinding light of the real world, dragged kicking and screaming from fantasy-land into the cold light of day. And in one horrific moment he can suddenly see it all….
Where next?
Digital technology promises us a world where we can choose what kind of ending we would like to see for a film on TV. If you could just get Stan to press a button on the mixing desk, what sort of ending might you select for this sermon?
Several endings suggest themselves, perhaps the most obvious going like this:
There you have it folks, anger and jealousy and lust are wrong and have some pretty horrible consequences, so don’t do it! Amen.
That’s not where we’re going today. Through David’s eyes and David’s experience we have looked at some very powerful emotions – emotions that are gifts from God, emotions that enable to explore and enjoy, experience and respond to the world he has made. Intense sexual desire, and anger both play their part in the rich tapestry of life that we are made to enjoy. To muzzle them or to banish them for good, or to immunise ourselves against them in order to live safe lives would be to impoverish life.
So where is this sermon going?
I want to suggest that David’s experience (though it is an extreme example) mirrors our own experience of life. We have powerful emotions which are a natural part of who we are. These emotions are usually under some kind of control and they enable us to enjoy the world around us. But every now and then our emotions gain the upper hand and begin to run our lives for us. We become blind to the consequences and to the needs of others and deaf to the opinions and advice of those closest to us.
What I want us to grasp today is David’s response, and ultimately God’s response to this human pattern of life.
When David was hunted by Saul and we read the story recorded in the first book of Samuel, you will remember that we were allowed a glimpse into David’s mind through the psalms that he wrote at the time. Well, today we have a similar opportunity, for when Nathan brought reality crashing back in to David’s world, David wrote Psalm 51. (read Psalm 51)
What did David do with his guilt? What did David do when he realised he had made a monstrous mess of his life and the lives of others? What did David do when he thought he’d blown it and ruined everything he had been living his life for?
He turns to God, recognises his sin, blames no-one and nothing except himself, and asks God to wash him clean. There is probably no intention, but this whole story begins with Bathsheba washing herself, and ends with David asking God to wash him clean. David turns to God in desperate prayer.
What doesn’t God do? God does not wave a magic wand and remove the past. God does not wave a magic wand and remove the consequences of the past.
But God does do this: He assures David that he is forgiven, and that He still intends to achieve great things through David.
That’s what I want to hear when I’ve made a total mess of things – I want to hear that there is hope, that the future is redeemable. I want to hear that there is a point in going on. I want to hear God saying he has not abandoned me, I want to hear God saying that he has not given up on me even if everyone else has, even if I have. If I can only hear God saying that… then I can face up to the consequences of the past knowing that there is some point in going on
And thanks be to God, that’s what God does say. Thanks be to God that David heard God saying that. Thanks be to God that we have heard God say that loud and clear in the life and death and rising again of his son Jesus Christ.
Amen.