As we come to the Easter remembrance this weekend, we are celebrating our hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We remember the gospel, we remember that we have a risen Lord, and hopefully we contemplate our great need of salvation because of sin. If there is one thing that has become more apparent to me as I contemplate the death and resurrection of Jesus, it’s that the wonder of the cross abounds in the reality of my sin. I don’t think that Paul was overstating the truth when he said that where “sin increased, grace abounded all the more” – Romans 5:20. In one sense, we need sin to increase so that we might see the wonder of grace. By no means am I (or Paul) saying that we should actually sin more to see more grace: “May it never be (Romans 6:1).” What Paul is saying is that as we become more aware of the quantity and intensity of our violations of God’s holiness, we see the greater magnitude of his grace in salvation. We realize that we are not just a law breaker who’s getting ready to pay their fine. We are God despisers who have rejected the very glory and perfection of our Creator. We deserve the punishment that only traitors against the all-powerful God can receive.

Perhaps you don’t see that you are or have ever been a God despiser. Perhaps even when you recollect your life before knowing Christ, you can’t remember ever having an actual hatred for God or his word. Well, in the recorded history of the biblical narrative, God has given us an example that should make us all sit up and take notice and re-evaluate our assessment of ourselves.

In 1 Samuel 13:14, God is rejecting Saul as king in order to replace him with David. The first description given about David is that he is a man after God’s own heart. Surely every Christian on planet earth would give our right arm to be described this way by God. David may have killed a giant, but David himself was a giant in the landscape of biblical history as the pointer toward the Messiah and King yet to come. When we hear the words that describe David, we expect so much. We expect holiness and purity and goodness. We expect all that pleases the heart of God. We never expect God to say that David despised God and his word.

2 Samuel 11-12 is the account of David having the biggest brain explosion of his tenure as king. In the first verses of 2 Samuel 11 we read that David was at home while his men were out at war. He saw Bathsheba bathing, he saw that she was very beautiful, he sent for her, and he took her, and she became pregnant. While we cry at the atrocity of so many people who cover up their sexual indiscretion through abortion, David covered his up by murdering Bathsheba’s husband as he tactically placed him in harm’s way in battle. In 1 Samuel 11:27 we read, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” The fact that these acts displease God is not a surprise to us even though we are surprised by David doing them in the first place. This is far from a heart that is supposed to be after God’s own heart.

It took the prophet Nathan to cleverly reveal to David the reality of his own heart. As this reality hit David square between the eyes, Nathan asked, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do evil in his sight?” – 2 Samuel 12:9. When did David despise God’s word and thus despise God? I put it to you that David despised God when he saw what he should not see and continued to look. David despised God when he meditated on beauty that was never meant to be beautiful for him. David despised God when he acted toward his temptation, and he despised God when he gave himself over to sin and then grievously sinned to cover it up. In every step of moving in sin and toward greater sin, the greatest sin in every step was despising God’s word to do it.

If you know what happened next, you know that David immediately called upon the mercy and grace of God and experienced and knew that grace in all of its infinite glory. In one simple phrase, the Lord put away David’s sin (1 Samuel 12:13). Surely God’s grace is even more shocking to us than David’s grievous sin. Psalm 51 is in our Bibles today as a public testimony of repentance from a king who was supposed to have a heart for God but instead despised God and then experienced the boundless mercy of our God who puts away sin through repentance and faith in him.

I know we probably don’t like the word “despise.” Compared to David, maybe you think your sins are more like misdemeanors. What we need to see is that David was despising God’s word by disobeying it and coveting something that wasn’t his. Adam and Eve did the same thing as they looked at a piece of fruit in the Garden of Eden.