As we boomerang back from the middle of this chiasm in chapters 11 and 12, we’re both hopeful and fearful of what may come back around. Chiasms are literary devices that have an ABCBA kind of pattern to them, bringing us back to where we began. Therein is our hope—that we will boomerang back to the David we knew before all of this mess. Bring back the lion-like conqueror and the lamb-like servant of Yahweh who shows covenant lovingkindness!
But we’re also afraid. We’re afraid of what David’s sin might bring back around from earlier in the book of Samuel. The prophet comes with a word for David in his sin. Every time the word of God came to Saul, it only exacerbated his sinfulness. The prophet comes to Saul with a Word from God. Saul disregards the prophet. The prophet returns with another word. Samuel declared to Saul, “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).
But Saul was a king like the nations. He was never a man after God’s own heart. The saints may sin like sinners, what sinners cannot do is rise like the saints. They cannot repent and pursue righteousness as the saints do. Thomas Brooks wrote, “Ah, souls, you can easily sin as the saints, but can you repent with the saints! Many can sin with David and Petter, that cannot repent with David and Peter, and so must perish forever.” The saints can sin the same sins, but they cannot sin in the same way, for they have a new heart—a heart that hates sin and loves righteousness.
Still, sin deadens and deafens. Sin is drifting and sin causes us to drift. What truly separates the saint from the sinner is the Savior. The answer for faith and repentance is always never found within but without. The saints persevere because God preserves. God not only saved David in the past. He is saving David in this moment. And He does so, by His word.
David is both the most dramatic picture of the Messiah and the most dramatic picture of our need for the Messiah. Walter Bruggeman says that this text tells us “more than we want to know about David and more than we can bear to understand about ourselves.” This is a hard word, but it is a gracious word. It tells us all that we are sinners. It tells us all that Yahweh is a Savior.
Nathan’s word of judgment proves to be a word of grace, bringing David to repentance. This hard word softens hearts. By His Word, God saves sinners and sanctifies the saints. David in his climb has been exemplary and stunning, but David in his fall is comforting. There is grace for sinners. There is grace for saints.
There is comfort. There is grace. But there is no going back to the way things were before. But perhaps there is hope for something even better in the future? Surely David’s story left some Israel saying, “Oh, if only the Lord’s Anointed could come to us and manifest Yahweh’s grace without the sin!” Perhaps this was the hope held out for his son, Jedidiah, beloved of Yahweh. No. He too would fall.
But then came great David’s greater Son, the true builder of the true temple. The High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are and is yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The sinless Son who died for sinners. Here is great David’s greater Son, who died so that David, and all sinners might know forgiveness. We have not a sinful king who lived. We have a sinless King who died. And then He rose triumphant over all, over Satan, sin, and death. We have not gone back to where we were before. We have gone forward to something far better. Though we too fall, though we may not go back, we have assurance that something better lies ahead.
No Other Boast 