In 1985, I was ministering to a quite a few people who felt their sin was too vile or far-fallen for God to deal with. I remember feeling the same way before Jesus rescued me. David committed adultery and David committed murder, yet David is remembered as being a man after God’s own heart! How could that be? Adulterer and murderer, yet a man after God’s own heart? The question I asked myself was, “If God could do that for David, could He do that for me?” Could He cleanse my depraved heart and help me seek His heart the way He sought mine?
In 1 Samuel we find this account of what the Lord thought of David’s heart when Dvid was a young man, before his sin with Bathsheba had taken place:
1 Samuel 13:13-14 KJV
13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the LORD commanded thee.
But what did God think of David long after David’s death? Read on to find out:
Acts 13:22 KJV
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the [son] of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.
During a period of several weeks in February and March of 1985 as I meditated on 2 Samuel 11, the story of David’s sin with Bathsheba, the story/song, “David”, came to me. The reason I was meditating on this portion of David’s story?
“David” was born out of a need I saw in the Body of Christ…the need for repentance and the need for people to believe God could handle any sin and adequately deal with it…leaving us clean and renewed and stronger and more humble in the process.
Although the sin portrayed in this recording is David’s sin of adultery and the sin of murder, the answer is the same for whatever sin we find ourselves faced with. The bottom line is this: God knows about our sin regardless of how well we think we hide…and He knows our sins will find us out.
Why do we think we can hide from God or from the truth? The very truth we fear is actually the first step in the process of being set free. You will know the truth (get honest that you have a need) and the truth will set you free (restore you to intimate relationship with the Redeeming God of Grace through the cleansing blood and resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ).
Although this story song was written 38 years ago, I believe the message is timeless. If you think you have fallen too far for God to reach or to redeem, think again. He can reach as far as we can fall. Listen to “David” with your heart and be set me free this very day!
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast episode featuring the story/song “David”, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/david-77958302
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/03/27/16/09/help-4974118_1280.jpg