“And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”
– 2 Samuel 11:27
Thus ends a chapter that would define David’s life in so many ways. As he sinned against a woman, he sinned against her husband. And ultimately, did you hear the last phrase there in 2 Samuel 11:27, “The thing David had done displeased the Lord.” Picture David in this story, he has sinned against God and he has tried to cover it up with murder, with sending Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to the front lines to be killed. And David thinks, okay, I’ve covered this up. But the reality is, and what we’re reminded of in 2 Samuel 1:27, is that we cannot cover up our sin before a holy God who knows everything. And we are foolish to think we can.
2 Samuel 11:27 Reminds Us We Can’t Hide Our Sin from God
We cannot cover up our sin before a holy God who knows everything.
And at the same time, oh, there’s so much to pray. And so I want to lead us to pray prayers of confession today in all of our hearts based on 2 Samuel 11:27. I’m going to trust the Holy Spirit to lead in your heart, just as he’s leading in my heart, that God would help us to see our sin, specific sin in our lives for what it is and to turn from it and in this, and this is the beauty of confession before a God who’s not only holy, but he’s gracious and merciful. Why would we try to cover up our sin when God has made a way for our sin to be covered up for us? God has made a way for us to be forgiven of our sin. Jesus has taken the payment due our sin upon himself.
2 Samuel 11:27 Leads Us to Confess Our Sin
So let’s be quick to confess our sin, to confess our need for God’s grace and to receive his mercy. Not to be so foolish as to think that God doesn’t see our sin, doesn’t see our hearts, our thoughts, our desires, our words, our actions, either things we do or don’t do. So let’s pray. 2 Samuel 11:27.
God, we want to please you. I want to please you in my life in every way I want to please you in my life, in my marriage, in my family, in your church and every relationship I have. In every thought I have and every desire I have and every word I speak and every decision I make and everything I do, and God I trust I am praying this on behalf of all of us. God, we want to please you. We want to honor you. We want to glorify you.
And we pray that you would keep us, all of us. I pray this over myself and every single person listening right now, help us. God, keep us from the blinding effects of sin. First and foremost, in that moment of temptation, God, we pray that you would help us. As you promised to do in 1 Corinthians 10 to overcome temptation.
This Verse Leads Us to Ask For Help
We praise you for your spirit in us, for your power in us to turn from sin all day long, to walk in obedience to you. We praise you for the promise of Ezekiel 36, that you’ve put your spirit in us to enable us to walk in your ways. So help us to walk in your ways today oh, God. Help us to live lives that are pleasing to you and God if or when we sin in any way, God, we pray that you would help us to be quick to confess sin.
That you would give us sensitivity toward sin in our lives and your Spirit’s conviction in our lives that you would not let us continue on and sin with a hardened heart toward you and your Spirit’s prompting conviction in our lives. And God, we pray that you would guard us from the foolishness of thinking we can cover up our sin before you.
This Verse Leads Us to Praise Jesus
God, we know that you see everything, you know everything. Even better than we do, you know everything in our lives. And so we pray that you would give us humble hearts before you every day, all day long, that are quick to confess sin, that are open to conviction from your Spirit of sin, even as we praise you for your grace.
Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sin. We praise you for paying the price so that when we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All glory be to your name, our savior from sin. So help us to live in power over sin, help us to live in your grace and help us we pray. 2 Samuel 11:27, to please you in all that we do today in Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
