I’m sure that every believer has a favorite Old Testament biblical character or two. The Old Testament’s pages contain stories of complex characters involved in the most dramatic of tales. Noah and the flood, Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac, Moses and the Exodus, Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, and the list goes on. The Old Testament character that is mentioned most in the canon, however, is King David. Is there a better-known story in the Old Testament than David and Goliath? The story of a shepherd boy knocking down his towering opponent with only a sling and stone acts as the quintessential underdog story — hardly any season of any sport goes by without an allusion to this most unlikely of victories. Yet in all the stories of David — and there are many — the Bathsheba account mars his remarkable narrative.

The story of these two starts with an ominous line where we read, “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel … But David remained at Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1 NKJV). David, the great warrior king, didn’t feel like going to battle. What subsequently unfolds is a story of idle hands becoming the devil’s tools.

I won’t elaborate greatly on the ensuing story except to say David had an affair with Bathsheba — a married woman — and the cover-up led to the deliberate death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. David then took Bathsheba as his own wife and thought he’d gotten away with things. That was until David received a visit from Nathan the prophet. Nathan pointed the finger at David and exposed his sin, causing David, a man after God’s own heart, to confess, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13).

David had a special relationship with God. Indeed, God made a covenant with David, saying, “Your throne will be secured forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). When his sin was completely exposed by Nathan, David was cut to the core. He was devastated, and he wanted, more than anything in the world, to restore his special relationship with God. David then did what he had done so many times before: he wrote a poem to God. This poem, chronicled as Psalm 51, is a gift to the believer. It is a model of forgiveness that demonstrates perfectly how to be forgiven. There are eight stages of forgiveness that we will look at as we read through this Psalm.

The first stage is conviction. God does this convicting. For David, it was through the prophet Nathan. Because of our sin, our conscience is pricked, and we have to decide whether to ignore our conscience, make up an excuse, or, as in the case of David, struggle to live with it.

Next comes hatred of our sin. In verse 3 of Psalm 51 (NIV), David says, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” If you’ve ever hated anything or anybody, you will know that one can become consumed by the hatred, and every waking thought seems to be about the person or thing that you hate — it is ever before you.

An important step towards forgiveness is a feeling of deep sorrow. David writes, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:2 NIV). Here, David’s sorrow leads him to want it gone, to be washed and made clean. When we become fully aware of our sin, we feel dirty, and we wish we’d never done it. Indeed, our sorrow should be compared to mourning as we mourn the separation between us and God.

Proverbs 28:13 says, “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.” Renunciation, the commitment to never doing it again, is a very hard part of the process. Our sins give momentary pleasure, and often, the anticipation of that pleasure drives us to sin. To renounce the sin is to deal with the anticipation. When I’m trying to lose weight — which is most of the time — I must contend with my desire for a chocolate bar. I look forward to that sweet, chocolatey taste and think, “It’s only one.” When I step on the scale at the end of the week, having eaten only one chocolate bar… several times, I greatly regret my weakness. I should have made the decision not to eat any more chocolate bars because short-term pleasure brings long-term frustration. With sin, the short-term pleasure results in an eternity of pain. Renounce that sin!

Famously, in verse 4, David wrote, “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned.” His sin was not against Uriah, even though David had Uriah killed. It wasn’t against Bathsheba, even though he had used his power and authority to sleep with her. David’s sin, just like you and me, is against God. Yes, God knows your sin, but He still wants you to confess your sin to Him

How often I’ve heard the words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). In the context of the story of David and Bathsheba, and considering David’s fall from grace, this is a sincere plea to be forgiven. Forgiveness is what our merciful God desires to offer us, and here, David is pleading for and experiencing forgiveness. God sits in judgment of us all, but His seat of judgment is a mercy seat because that is what He desires to offer: mercy. Follow the model David presents in Psalm 51, and you will receive forgiveness.

Often, as Christians, we struggle to submit to God. Submission is bowing to a greater authority. Once we are forgiven, we become aware of the bigness of the God who spoke the world into existence, the God who keeps a count of the hairs on my head. David bows to the omniscient God when he says, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You” (Psalm 51:12-13 NKJV). Perhaps many of us have not experienced forgiveness for a long time because, through our submission, we have been called to the world to which God said, “GO…” Perhaps the world would be a better place if we were to truly submit to God.

In verse 17, we read another well-known portion of this Psalm as David writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17 NKJV). Having presented his offering to God, David now experiences restitution. His sins are forgiven, and he is now restored in the sight of God.

While this is not an exhaustive Bible study on this magnificent Psalm, I hope it’s helpful for anybody dealing with sin. It should be noted that the forgiveness God offers David is complete, but it doesn’t exempt David from the consequences of his sin. What it does is spiritually restore David as a righteous man. If God can do that for David, He can do that for me and for you.