Still Amazed!

I’m always amazed that in spite of having read through the Scriptures numerous times, my re-reading of familiar passages can touch me again and again in fresh and powerful ways. I experienced this “fresh touch” from the Word this morning when reading the very familiar account of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his continued sin in murdering her husband, Uriah. As I read, it seemed every detail jumped off the page, with the concluding paragraph of the chapter gripping me in its intensity and bluntness. I consumed the page detailing how Uriah’s uncommon and superior commitment to his duty exposed the extent of David’s consuming and unholy passions. I was aghast as I read of David’s effortless launching of the plan that led to Uriah’s demise. I was stunned as I recounted how David wasted no time in capitalizing on the opportunity to take Bathsheba as his own immediately after his treacherous plot of betrayal and murder had been carried out. More than any of this, I was stopped in my tracks as I read the last sentence of the chapter – a chilling phrase that serves as the greatest indictment any human being can experience:

“But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27).

Why was I so shaken by this verse? Simply this: I recognize myself in David and know that like him, there lies within me the ability to displease God without batting an eye merely for the sake of my own convenience. I could easily replace my name with David’s:

“But the thing that [Sam] had done displeased the LORD.”

It was at that moment I found myself at the point of realization that the Apostle Paul expresses in Romans 7:22-25,

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

I am so very aware of my frailties and how much I really deserve God’s justice, but I am absolutely overjoyed with gratefulness because of the forgiveness and cleansing that comes through faith in Jesus Christ! Not only am I overjoyed – I’m amazed!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.