Past Commentary by a Common Terry
Big or little, it still hurts us
June 28, 2026
I have referenced King David consistently for the last few weeks in these articles. He was the greatest Jewish king. He was the standard all other kings were compared to. Jesus’ earthly lineage directly descended from him (Jesus was referred to several times as the Son of David). Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
However, David also demonstrated extraordinary human weakness at times. He sinned when he knew better. He sinned when he ignored God’s holiness. He sinned because of lust, pride, or the ensuing actions to cover up his sins.
So, David also knew what it meant to feel guilty. One of the most spot-on examples of carrying the guilt of sin and what it can do to a person is David after his sins against God in the shameful Bathsheba affair (a slight pun in the word affair). He forced himself on her (maybe coming close to a sexual assault), though it was certainly wrong in every sense as she was another man’s wife. And not just any man, but a man who was away from home serving in the king’s army at the battlefront. When Bathsheba informed the king she was pregnant, he immediately sent for Uriah, her husband, so he might spend time with his wife and maybe people would assume the child was his. Maybe Uriah would assume the child was his.
That didn’t work. Uriah was much more honorable than the king. He refused to be with his wife while his fellow soldiers were entrenched in battle and unable to be with their own wives and families. David eventually had Uriah killed by ordering his commander to abandon him on the front line. What a mess of sins David cooked up! If you want to catch the details, you can read all about it in II Samuel 11.
When and how does the guilt show up? That would be chapter twelve. Nathan, sent by God as His prophet, speaks a situation to the king’s ear. A rich man has taken a poor man’s only lamb, using it to feed an unexpected guest instead of using a lamb from his own expansive flock.
David’s reaction is severe, perhaps even excessive. “That man should die!” David did not consciously realize he was the rich man in the scenario. He took another man’s wife, at great cost, and now a year later (maybe more, maybe a little less), he is still affected by the guilt. The Law did teach that the rich man should repay the poor man fourfold. That’s Exodus 22:1. The Law did not teach that the rich man should die, which were the first words out of David’s mouth. His own guilt skewered his perspective and blinded him to his own sin until Nathan said, “You are the man!”
You can get the whole story in II Samuel 12.
The burden and the heaviness of sin can be huge. It can be relentless. Or it may be small, but nag at us with devastating effectiveness. For David this entire incident led him to write Psalm 51. It is the great repentance chapter. It is not possible to read Psalm 51 and fail to appreciate the onus of sin carried by the sinner.
This is easy to understand when we talk about those really big sins, the ones that make the list of worst things we can do. The guilt can be crippling.
But what about the sin that isn’t so big? The sin that doesn’t make any huge list? It is still there and it is still wrong. Regardless of our perception of the size of our sin, we will still be guilty, and we will still be unhappy.
The other day I ended up with three mosquito bites on my left hand. I don’t know when I was visited by the little bloodsucker, but I sure knew later. One of them was on my ring finger, next to my wedding ring. Right by it. Of the three, that one in particular nearly drove me crazy! Cream helped very little. I tried not to scratch it, but it was in just such a spot that it distracted me often. It was such a little thing! It’s not like I sliced my hand open with a butcher knife or something. That would be a huge burden! All that blood and stitches and stuff. That’s heavy.
It was small, but irritatingly effective. Like our spiritual enemy, not every missile he fires at us is nuclear. Some are small and dangerous and oh-so-very guilt-causing.
The one good thing David did through all this, showing why he was a man after God’s own heart, was that he owned it. When Nathan confronted him, his first words were, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And the burden began to lift.
However, David also demonstrated extraordinary human weakness at times. He sinned when he knew better. He sinned when he ignored God’s holiness. He sinned because of lust, pride, or the ensuing actions to cover up his sins.
So, David also knew what it meant to feel guilty. One of the most spot-on examples of carrying the guilt of sin and what it can do to a person is David after his sins against God in the shameful Bathsheba affair (a slight pun in the word affair). He forced himself on her (maybe coming close to a sexual assault), though it was certainly wrong in every sense as she was another man’s wife. And not just any man, but a man who was away from home serving in the king’s army at the battlefront. When Bathsheba informed the king she was pregnant, he immediately sent for Uriah, her husband, so he might spend time with his wife and maybe people would assume the child was his. Maybe Uriah would assume the child was his.
That didn’t work. Uriah was much more honorable than the king. He refused to be with his wife while his fellow soldiers were entrenched in battle and unable to be with their own wives and families. David eventually had Uriah killed by ordering his commander to abandon him on the front line. What a mess of sins David cooked up! If you want to catch the details, you can read all about it in II Samuel 11.
When and how does the guilt show up? That would be chapter twelve. Nathan, sent by God as His prophet, speaks a situation to the king’s ear. A rich man has taken a poor man’s only lamb, using it to feed an unexpected guest instead of using a lamb from his own expansive flock.
David’s reaction is severe, perhaps even excessive. “That man should die!” David did not consciously realize he was the rich man in the scenario. He took another man’s wife, at great cost, and now a year later (maybe more, maybe a little less), he is still affected by the guilt. The Law did teach that the rich man should repay the poor man fourfold. That’s Exodus 22:1. The Law did not teach that the rich man should die, which were the first words out of David’s mouth. His own guilt skewered his perspective and blinded him to his own sin until Nathan said, “You are the man!”
You can get the whole story in II Samuel 12.
The burden and the heaviness of sin can be huge. It can be relentless. Or it may be small, but nag at us with devastating effectiveness. For David this entire incident led him to write Psalm 51. It is the great repentance chapter. It is not possible to read Psalm 51 and fail to appreciate the onus of sin carried by the sinner.
This is easy to understand when we talk about those really big sins, the ones that make the list of worst things we can do. The guilt can be crippling.
But what about the sin that isn’t so big? The sin that doesn’t make any huge list? It is still there and it is still wrong. Regardless of our perception of the size of our sin, we will still be guilty, and we will still be unhappy.
The other day I ended up with three mosquito bites on my left hand. I don’t know when I was visited by the little bloodsucker, but I sure knew later. One of them was on my ring finger, next to my wedding ring. Right by it. Of the three, that one in particular nearly drove me crazy! Cream helped very little. I tried not to scratch it, but it was in just such a spot that it distracted me often. It was such a little thing! It’s not like I sliced my hand open with a butcher knife or something. That would be a huge burden! All that blood and stitches and stuff. That’s heavy.
It was small, but irritatingly effective. Like our spiritual enemy, not every missile he fires at us is nuclear. Some are small and dangerous and oh-so-very guilt-causing.
The one good thing David did through all this, showing why he was a man after God’s own heart, was that he owned it. When Nathan confronted him, his first words were, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And the burden began to lift.