Did David use his sinfulness from birth as an excuse for his later sins? (Psalm 51:5)
Did David use his sinfulness from birth as an excuse for his later sins? (Psalm 51:5)
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
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Asked January 13 2019
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
To me, David did not intend the acknowledgement of his innate sinfulness to be an excuse or a mitigating factor for his actions, but simply an expression of reality. If David's intent had been to excuse himself, or to portray God as unjust in His actions, the judgments that God brought upon him as punishment for his sins (such as the death of his infant son with Bathsheba, Absalom's revolt against him, and the plague sent by God in response to the census that David ordered) would have caused him to turn away from God, but he did not. In each case, David accepted those judgments as righteous, and repented of his actions, which God acknowledged, as shown by Nathan's informing David that God had put away his sin (2 Samuel 12:13); Absalom being defeated (2 Samuel 18:9-15); and God ordering the death angel to cease his destruction (2 Samuel 24:15-25).
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