Daily Worship

Second Chances

Liz Crumlish March 25, 2014 0 0

2 Samuel 11:1-5

David and Bathsheba

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

The higher they climb
the harder they fall
and we, from our lowly perch
feel little sympathy
for celebrities 
and politicians
and those who lord it over us
when it all comes crashing down
around their ears.
God give us the grace 
of compassion
to be mindful
of shattered dreams
and crushed hopes
and mangled lives
in which loved ones too are involved
And from that place of grace
enable us to pray for love
and mercy
and the gift 
of second chances

 

Liz Crumlish, Castlehill Parish Church, Ayr