The Story of the Bible

And David showed such sorrow for his sin that Nathan said to him, "The Lord has forgiven your sin; and you shall not die on account of it. But the child that Uriah's wife has given to you shall surely die."

Soon after this the little child of David and Bath-sheba, whom David loved greatly, was taken very ill. David prayed to God for the child's life; and David took no food, but lay in sorrow, with his face upon the floor of his house. The nobles of his palace came to him, and urged him to rise up and take food, but he would not. For seven days the child grew worse and worse, and David remained in sorrow. Then the child died; and the nobles were afraid to tell David, for they said to each other, "If he was in such grief while the child was living, what will he do when he hears that the child is dead?"

But when King David saw the people whispering to one another with sad faces, "Is the child dead?"

And they said to him, "Yes, O king, the child is dead."

Then David rose up from the floor where he had been lying. He washed his face, and put on his kingly robes. He went first to the house of the Lord, and worshipped; then he came to his own house, and sat down to his table, and took food. His servants wondered at this, but David said to them, "While the child was still alive, I fasted, and prayed, and wept; for I hoped that by prayer to the Lord, and by the mercy of the Lord, his life might be spared. But now that he is dead, my prayers can do no more for him. I cannot bring him back again. He will not come back to me, but I shall go to him."

And after this God gave to David and to Bath-sheba, his wife, another son, whom they named Solomon. The Lord loved Solomon, and he grew up to be a wise man.

After God had forgiven David's great sin, David wrote the Fifty-first Psalm, in memory of his sin and of God's forgiveness. Some of its verses are these:

Have mercy upon me. O God, according to thy

loving kindness

According to the multitude of thy tender mercies

blot out my transgressions

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin,

For I acknowledge my transgressions;

And my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,

And done that which is evil in thy sight.

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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

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Hide thy face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me,

Cast me not away from thy presence;

And take not thy holy spirit from me,

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

And uphold me with a free spirit.

Then will I teach trangressors thy ways;

And sinners shall be converted with thee.

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For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it:

Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise.

David's Handsome Son, and How He Stole The Kingdom

II Samuel xiii: 1, to xvii: 23.

Not long after David's sin, the sorrows of which the prophet had foretold him, began to fall upon David. He had many wives, and his wives had many sons; but most of his sons had grown up wild and wicked, because David had not watched over them, and had not taught them in their youth to love God and do God's will. He had been too busy as a king to do his duty as a father.

The oldest of David's sons was Absalom, whose mother was the daughter of Talmai, the king of a little country called Geshur, on the north of Israel. Absalom was said to be the most beautiful young man in all the land. He had long locks of hair, of which he was very proud, because all the people admired them. Absalom became very angry with Amnon, another of David's sons, because Amnon had done wrong to Absalom's sister, named Tamar.

But Absalom hid his anger against Amnon, and one day invited Amnon with all the king's sons to a feast at his house in the country. They all went to the feast; and while they were all at the table Absalom's servants, by his orders, rushed in and killed Amnon. The other prices, the king's sons, were alarmed, fearing that they also would be slain; and they ran away in haste. But no harm was done to the other princes, and they came back in safety to David.