There are times in scripture when the words seem to jump off the page and grab your attention as you read it. Listen to King David in Psalm 38 verse 5, “My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins”. It gets your attention, doesn’t it? Now while it’s possible that David is recounting an injury that was caused by sin, I think a better explanation is that David uses this seemingly grotesque imagery to let us know the seriousness of festering sin because he had experienced it in his life. While we do not know a lot about this Psalm, it seems to be written near the end of David’s life. He’s reflecting on the sorrow and regret that his sin has caused him, and he wants the reader to know that sin stinks and sin will always fester. But what does that mean? Well, I think we all know what stink means, but how about fester? A good way to define it is, “something that just keeps getting worse when it’s ignored”. Sin surely fits this definition.
I think a good place to start is beginning with the situations that caused David to write this in the 38th Psalm and in 2 Samuel 11. This is when David started to let his sin fester.
Festering sin always has a starting point. – 2 Samuel 11:1
1 In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.
For whatever reason, David was not where he was supposed to be (on the battlefield) at the time he was supposed to be there (during the spring). Disobedience, even when we think it’s unimportant, is sin. This action that David took was where the seed of sin was planted. When we start justifying our sins (no matter how small) we will see them begin to dig in and start to fester. All festering sins have a starting point and most never seem like a big deal in the moment, but be assured - ALL sin is a big deal because ALL sin caused Jesus to come to die.
Sin festers when we don’t deal with temptation. – 2 Samuel 11:2-5
2 Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. 3 He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. 5 Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”
Temptation in itself is not a sin; it’s how we handle it that makes the difference. After all, Hebrews 3:15 tells us that Jesus was tempted but never sinned. In these verses, David was presented with a choice. He could be like Joseph when confronted by Pettifer’s wife and flee from the temptation, or take a second look. David chose to look again and sin was birthed in his heart. James 1:14-15 was being played out in his life right at that moment. At any minute David could have stopped and repented of his sins, starting with the ones that he had committed in his heart, but David chose to let the sin continue, and his sins began to fester more and more.
Sin festers when we try to cover it up. – 2 Samuel 11:6-13
6 Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. 8 Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. 9 But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. 10 When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?” 11 Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.” 12 “Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.
I said it before, and I must say it again, “Sin must be dealt with properly”. I want you to imagine finding black mold in your home, you have two choices - you can either treat it or you can ignore it. Which do you think is the most effective way to treat the mold? David chose to ignore his sin and try to cover it up instead. He had a seemingly brilliant plan to cover up his sin, but Uriah was a good man who wanted to honor his commitment as a soldier and would not go along with the king's plan. The sin that started with a “simple” act of disobedience had now grown into lust, adultery, deception, and it had no plans of stopping there. Sin had gotten this far, all because David allowed his sin to fester.
Sin festers and will take you places you never thought you’d go. – 2 Samuel 11:14-25
14 So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. 15 The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” 16 So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. 17 And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers. 18 Then Joab sent a battle report to David. 19 He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king. 20 But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? 21 Wasn’t Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?’ Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.’” 22 So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David. 23 “The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate, 24 the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.” 25 “Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!”
I often wonder what was going through David’s mind during this time. Did he ever imagine that this seemingly innocent sin of omission, his small second glance, and his giving into temptation in a moment of weakness would lead him to this moment? I can’t imagine that anywhere along this journey he ever thought he’d murder someone, let alone someone considered one of his “Mighty Men” to cover up an affair. But sin had taken him down a road that he never wanted to go. When sin festers we see this snowball effect happen. It spreads and spreads and spreads, it cannot be stopped, and we cannot ignore it or sweep it under the rug. Sin must be dealt with.
Sin festers and causes us to glory in our sins. – 2 Samuel 11:26-27
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.
When we take care of our sin Biblically, we are brought into humility, and our entire trust is in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of that sin. But when we don’t handle sin correctly, we become arrogant about those sins that should humble us. David took glory in a situation where he deserved none. He wanted to be the hero, and I’m sure he got some of that praise he was looking for, but sin is always like that. It’s fun until it isn’t. There are always consequences and the longer it festers, the bigger the consequence.
The aftermath. – 2 Samuel 12:1 – 15:37
It wasn’t long until David found out he didn’t get away with these sins at all. God sent a prophet named Nathan to confront him with his sin. Just as the scripture says - be sure your sin will find you out. Not only was he confronted in a very unique way (I encourage you to read the account of this confrontation). He also told him of the consequences of those sins. You would think that once David experienced the consequences of those sins, that it would serve as a warning to David to never let sin fester again, but sadly that wouldn’t be the case.
David had a son named Amnon who raped his daughter, Tamar. This sin was great and David was mad at the sin, but we were never told that the sin was confronted. Being mad at sin is not the same as confronting sin. This lack of action frustrated David's other son, Absalom, who waited two years for his father to punish Amnon for his deed, but David let that sin fester as well. Because of this sin that was left to fester, Absalom started undermining his father the king, and soon he led a rebellion against his father which resulted in the death of 20,000 individuals.
When sin is allowed to fester it will destroy families, it will destroy communities, it will destroy everything it possibly can. When we look back at the 38th Psalm, David was right when he declares “My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins”. David had been an eyewitness to this truth in his very own life.
But how about us? If the person called, “A man after God’s own heart”, could fall for this trick to ignore his sin and let it fester, how much more should we be on guard for festering sin in our lives? We must ask ourselves if there are sins in our lives that need to be dealt with? If we honestly look at our lives, do we find ourselves in a moment where our sins seem inconsequential? Or maybe we are a little further down the path that David found himself on. Wherever we find ourselves one thing is for sure - sin is deadly and needs to be taken care of. But how? Well, it’s only through Jesus Christ. We need to confess it to Him, we need to repent and turn away from it, and we need to put safeguards in place so we don’t find ourselves in those situations again. Let the life of David be a warning. Never let sin fester.
