Sin Against God

 "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."- Psalm 51:4

In Psalm 51, David wrote a glorious Psalm of Repentance under the Holy Spirit's inspiration. The story of Bathsheba is one of warning. On the other hand, David's song of Repentance in this Psalm is one of hope—that great sinners can always turn to God and, by Christ, be accepted.

In the fourth verse of the Psalm, David declares, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned." At first, this seems to contradict what happened. David sinned against Bathsheba in an adulterous affair, and he had Uriah the Hittite murdered. David sinned against many people. So, how could David honestly say this? How could David boldly declare that he sinned against "God alone?" Is David trying to minimise his sin and not accept that he had sinned against others?

In short, the answer is "no". David realised what the Lord Jesus teaches in Matthew 22: 37-39, that the first and greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love your neighbour as yourself. David had not loved God or neighbour. But David realised that if he loved God, he would love his neighbour and vice versa. These things are connected, and David knew it. When he sinned, David realised that he sinned against the Holy God: the Divine Law Giver and His Redeemer.

It was, after all, God who instituted marriage in Genesis 2:22-25, God's creation ordinance that David had so violently trampled underfoot. It was God who, in Genesis 9:6, forbade murder because man is made in the image of God. David saw his sin, though he sinned against his neighbour, it was rebellion against God. David wasn't minimising; instead, he was maximising- looking to the Holy, Divine Law-Giver, whom he had offended.

David saw his sin as against God. Now, when the believer sins against others, the believer has to deal with the consequences of their sins. Have you, dear believer, ever thought about your sins in the sight of God? Have you thought about the affront they are to God's holiness? Have you thought about how God has to judge sin?

If you want to see how God views your sin, you must look to the cross. God had punished His own Son in the stead of His people. Think of the agony Christ endured. Do you see now the price it took to pay for sin? Do you see how David fundamentally saw his sin as against a Holy God?

Do you see your sins in some measure as God sees them? Do you know the price it took to obtain forgiveness of sin? A Christian should see his sin in light of who God is and Christ's actions. In doing so, he has confidence in forgiveness and awareness of sin's heinousness. May you realise that you have sinned against God alone and that God provides the remedy for sin in Christ's atoning work.