o the bald
facts are repeated next in the fewest, strongest words. Nor can the
message close until a rigid law of retribution has been proclaimed, the
slow operation of which will filter bitterness and shame through all
his life. "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord."
Two words (in the Hebrew) make the transition from sullen misery to real
though shaded peace. No lengthened outpouring, no accumulation of
self-reproach; he is too deeply moved for many words, which he knows God
does not need. More would have been less. All is contained in that one
sob, in which the whole frostwork of these weary months breaks up and
rolls away, swept before the strong flood. And as brief and simple as
the confession, is the response, "And Nathan said unto David, The Lord
also hath put away thy sin." How full and unconditional the blessing
bestowed in these few words; how swift and sufficient the answer! So the
long estrangement is ended. Thus simple and Divine is the manner of
pardon. In such short compass may the turning point of a life lie! But
while confession and forgiveness heal the breach between God and David,
pardon is not impunity, and the same sentence which bestows the
remission of sin announces the exaction of a penalty. The judgments
threatened a moment before--a moment so far removed now to David's
consciousness that it would look as if an age had passed--are not
withdrawn, and another is added, the death of Bathsheba's infant. God
loves His servants too well to "suffer sin upon them," and the freest
forgiveness and the happiest consciousness of it may consist with the
loving infliction and the submissive bearing of pains, which are no
longer the strokes of an avenging judge, but the chastisements of a
gracious father.

The fifty-first psalm must, we think, be conceived of as following soon
after Nathan's mission. There may be echoes of the prophet's stern
question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to
do evil in His sight?" and of the confession, "I have sinned against the
Lord," in the words, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done
evil in Thy sight" (ver. 4), though perhaps the expressions are not so
peculiar as to make the allusion certain. But, at all events, the
penitence and prayers of the psalm can scarcely be supposed to have
preceded the date of the historical narrative, which clearly implies
that the rebuke of the seer was the first thing that broke up the d