Psalms 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
(What was David talking about? Didn’t his actions also greatly trouble Bathsheba? Yes, it did.What about Uriah and the child, didn’t they die as a result of this? Of course, this greatly affected them.David was not discounting, nor ignoring, the trouble that he caused to others.However, David saw, and knew, what reality actually is.The LORD is the source, cause, and definition of all that is good and right.Everything about David, every hair, every cell, even his very beginning, is within the hands and care of the LORD.Every word that David spoke, every thought, even every motive, is either in the fellowship with the LORD, or out of fellowship.Throughout his life, David either pleased the LORD, or this time:)
II Samuel 11:27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
(Not only was this reality the case with David, but this was simultaneously the case with every other person on the earth.The infinite knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of the LORD:)
Psalms 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
(And no matter where any of the billions of people are, the LORD is there:)
Jeremiah 23:23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
Psalms 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
(David saw this reality, and understood this, even if only to a small degree:)
Psalms 139:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
(David wanted his son to know this:)
1 Chronicles 28:9a And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts:
(But what about with everyone else in the world?)
Psalms 10:4b God is not in all his thoughts.
(To them, and possibly to most of us, reality is only this world we live in – what we can see and touch.And if there are thoughts about the LORD, they are thoughts that are outside of our reality.To us, this is the real world, and Jesus is out there, somewhere, in another world.That is why we so often say to people, “Invite Jesus into your life”.When the truth is, we should be saying to people, that Jesus is inviting them into his life.I’m writing this, now, but, sadly, I don’t think that I ever actually said it that way to anyone, either.Why is that? Perhaps, everything in this world looks so real, where that other world seems almost a dream.)
I John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
(But, why can’t we see things like David did?)
II Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
(Yeah, but wait, we believe, so the devil is no longer blinding us to the gospel, right? So what’s going on?We don’t even consider that the enemy still is blinding our minds to all the other realities of life in Christ.We are missing out on so much of the reality of Christ, and we don’t even see it.)
Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
(Do we think that only applies to when we were lost, and first got saved?No, there is so much that our eyes need to be opened to, now that we are saved.We’re like Peter, who didn’t realize that one moment he was speaking by the Father, and 6 lines later he spoke by the devil.Then, later, in his reality, he saw himself as never denying Jesus, but he sadly found out that his reality wasn’t real at all.No, even though we are already saved, our eyes need to be opened, and enlightened, even more than they already are:)
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
(But, why is that still necessary?)
I Corinthians 13:12a For now we see through a glass, darkly;
James 1:23b he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.25a But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
(However, Jesus can open our eyes far more than they already are:)
II Kings 6:15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
(Reality wasn’t the fearful world that the man was beholding, but it was a totally, different, wonderful world, that he now saw.For us who are saved, Jesus should be our reality, not this sin filled, corrupt, selfish, cold, and fearful world that we see about us.To us, everything in our life should be in Jesus, not only when we pray, read the Bible, or go to church.And not only when we are thinking about Jesus, or pleasing him, but like David, even when we displease him.If Jesus is everything, our true and only reality, then when we displease him, it should break our heart, like it did David.We need to realize that Jesus is everything:)
Hebrews 10:7a Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)
Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Hebrews 2:10a For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
(Everything was made by Jesus, and it is all for Jesus:)
Proverbs 16:4a The LORD hath made all things for himself:
Isaiah 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
(This is reality!)
I John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
(But what we sadly experience in the world we see, by still being somewhat blinded by the devil, is not reality at all.David saw reality, and so can we.Why not pray like David, every time we look in the scriptures:)
Psalms 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Luke 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,