The Drift Away

In Psalm 51 is David's classic confession of sin, set against his greatest fall into sin. Beneath the title of Psalm 51 in my Bible are the words, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. That pretty much sums up the sad tale of King David's tragic fall into sin.

We ask ourselves, how can a man so favored of God, whom God said about him, that he was a man after mine own heart, how can a man like that fall like that? The same way we do, friends, when we trip and fall into our own mud puddles of sin. It begins with a drift away, and that's the title of my message today, friends, the drift away. The key verse in Psalm 51 is not verse 10, which states, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Although this is a necessary step back into fellowship with God, the key verse is found in verse 17, which declares, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Because by maintaining the spiritual posture of verse 17, one avoids the spiritual cleansing of verse 10. You see, friends, before his fall into passion with Bathsheba, David had already begun to fall away from God in his passion toward Him, by a slow drift away from Him.

The drift away is the first downgrade to sin. We get a sense of this from 2 Samuel, in the first verse of chapter 11. And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel.

And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. Notice our text states that it was a time when kings went to battle.

David was king over Israel. And the text lists the exploits of that war. Ammon is taken, Rabbah is besieged.

But David, those two words are telling on him. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. He shirked his role as general of the battle over to his friend Joab.

The drift away has begun. Instead of choosing to fight this battle for the Lord, David passes. He stays home in the comfort of his palace.

He indulges himself a little. And he lounges around the palace, taking respite in its comforts. And verse 2 records the downward descent into sin.

And it came to pass, in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

Is it a wonder, friend, that the evening is mentioned here as the setting for David's fall? Evening often is a time when we can fall into sin as well. It was evening when Jesus told His sleepy-headed disciples at Gethsemane to pray that ye enter not into temptation. I believe it's easier to give way to sin's temptations in the evening when we are more physically fatigued from a busy day.

Our guard is down in the evening more than throughout the rest of the day. The devil can catch us then more off guard. This seems to be the case with David.

The time, the place, the setting was a perfect storm, so to speak, for David to take his eyes off God and gaze at the naked flesh of a woman. There are three major steps here into sin. Number one is to drift away.

We notice this in our own walk with God. Our passion and zeal for Him cools. Our love for others wanes, and our evangelistic efforts cease.

We seldom pray, and when we do, we have dry eyes when we pray. Our prayers focus on ourselves and our needs more than the needs of others. The drift away gradually turns into our second aspect of sin here, and that is a hardened heart.

We grow spiritually callous on our heart as we lose our sensitivity toward God, and we become desensitized to sin. Then thirdly, there comes the great fall into sin. The fall into sin shocks us as we wonder, how in the world did this happen to me again? But like the stock market, which is an indicator of the economy, our fall into sin is our ship's barometer of the fact that the atmosphere is already indicating a storm is here.

The fall into sin awakens us to the fact that we were already away from God in our walk with Him. But it all begins with the drift away. Again, verse 17 reminds us, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

If we would stay in the atmosphere of verse 17, and have wet eyes when we pray, as we stay in a close walk with God, and keep our heart sensitive to sin, and be more watchful in the times that are more prone to sin, like the evening, then we will be able to better maintain the practice of keeping the coals on the altar of our hearts glowing in a red-hot love relationship with Him. Let us pray.