Do-Overs
When a child realizes that things aren’t going as expected, they want the luxury of calling a “Do-Over.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could, actually, have that privilege?
King David was one of the people in biblical history that desperately needed the opportunity for a Do-Over. David ordered a man to be killed so David could marry the man’s wife. David’s family was dysfunctional. His sons had no respect for each other or for David. Looking at David’s life we see that he was a great leader; but he wasn’t a perfect man. He had reasons to wish for a Do-Over so he could erase his mistakes and cancel his shame. But! There is a “But” in David’s story. Throughout his life, the 63rd Psalm tells us that David had thirst for God. When David woke in the morning, his first thoughts were of God. He remembered God’s power, glory, and love from his lifetime experiences with God.
But, when David’s life was ending, he began to define himself as a failure. David’s shame filled his last days with remorse; and he wanted to spare his son the pain of such sorrow. He called for his son, Solomon, to come to his bedside; and David told Solomon. to “prove yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies…”
Though David defined himself as a failure, the apostle Paul records David’s legacy that was formed by God to help us understand what God desires from us. In Acts 13:22, we read: He raised up for them [Israel] David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.”
Through David’s legacy, God clears away David’s messed up past and shows us that it isn’t David’s mistakes that were prominent; it was David’s thirst for God that shaped David’s legacy. And, through David’s advise to his son, God shows us that it is the path we walk and the commandments we follow that are important.
Instead of giving us Do-Overs, God sent His son to wash away our sin; the sin that is our shame. Rather than defining ourselves through hopeless remorse and sorrow, our Lord, in His mercy, offers the Living Water of Jesus
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall
Give him will never thirst.
But, the water that I shall give him
Will become in him a fountain of water springing
up into everlasting life
John 4:14
The Living Water: Isaiah 12:3, Jeremiah 2:13, John 6:35