Psalm 3 and the National Enquirer

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Eoghan

Puritan Board Senior
In psalm 3 (you may be seeing a pattern in my posts) David is dealing with the fallout of the Bathsheeba incident.

I remember speaking with some Jews on the Ask Moses site about Davids sin and repentance, their reaction was that David was perfect and we misunderstand!

Anyway, Nathan confronted David but we also have the whole story recorded in 2 Samuel. The adultery, the honesty and godliness of Uriah the Hittite and the treacherous way David covered up by arranging his death.

Is it going too far to say that Israel knew what was going on? The taunts are barbs that drive home David's culpability surely. I don't know how word spread in the OT but we have the Sun here that deals in a lot of gossip and you have the National Enquirer in the US. Am I wrong in assuming that David's sin was public knowledge? It is after all recorded in scripture "warts and all" as Cromwell would say.

I had not really thought about it but once everyone knows you are tarnished. The reason you get damages for libel and defamation is because of the damage done to your reputation. Gagging orders have the function of preventing things becoming public knowledge. Did David prevent the story going public until after his death - I don't think so. He was writing psalms about the whole experience for crying out loud! OK singing out loud :rofl:

Was the Uriah/Bathsheeba incident an open secret?
 
It has not occurred to me before that David made his sin known publicly as a part of his repentance. It's a great question!

The fact that he wrote psalms about it does suggest a certain openness. Openness also fits the nature of repentance; in true repentance, hiding ceases and confession flows.

But there are other factors to consider, I think. The first is that it may have been useless for David to keep trying to hide his sin even if he had wanted to. Remember how his cover-up effort that involved bringing Uriah home from the war was an effort that failed. And although Plan B to get Uriah killed seemed to work, the whole timing of the thing and the peculiar orders involved may have been enough to cast great suspicion on David. Nathan, for one, was aware of what David had done, and we are not told that God revealed it to Nathan in a special way.

Secondly, if the deed was not already known, kindness toward Bathsheba might have been a reason NOT to go public—a reason that outweighed the value of more open repentance. This also makes me think that perhaps the act was already widely known, or at least suspected.
 
In psalm 3 (you may be seeing a pattern in my posts) David is dealing with the fallout of the Bathsheeba incident.

I remember speaking with some Jews on the Ask Moses site about Davids sin and repentance, their reaction was that David was perfect and we misunderstand!

Anyway, Nathan confronted David but we also have the whole story recorded in 2 Samuel. The adultery, the honesty and godliness of Uriah the Hittite and the treacherous way David covered up by arranging his death.

Is it going too far to say that Israel knew what was going on? The taunts are barbs that drive home David's culpability surely. I don't know how word spread in the OT but we have the Sun here that deals in a lot of gossip and you have the National Enquirer in the US. Am I wrong in assuming that David's sin was public knowledge? It is after all recorded in scripture "warts and all" as Cromwell would say.

I had not really thought about it but once everyone knows you are tarnished. The reason you get damages for libel and defamation is because of the damage done to your reputation. Gagging orders have the function of preventing things becoming public knowledge. Did David prevent the story going public until after his death - I don't think so. He was writing psalms about the whole experience for crying out loud! OK singing out loud :rofl:

Was the Uriah/Bathsheeba incident an open secret?
Just to clarify, the prescript doesn't say anything about the incident w/ Bathsheeba. David is fleeing from Absalom. You might argue that the downward spiral began w/ Bathsheeba. I'd agree. But this psalm in particular is one about David on the run, sleeping in caves (thus v. 5), and being delivered by God.

Incidentally, I'm preaching this text Dec 23.
 
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