Revisiting Abraham's "faith reckoned as righteousness" - Part 3 (The Blessed Man of Rom 4:6-8)

As I've been continuing on the quest of reading the Bible beyond the surface level, particularly Romans 4, I am excited to present another inspiration that I had. In a recent post (HERE), I emphasized how the Adoption theme (i.e. children, heirs, fatherhood) was undoubtedly the main theme of Genesis 15 and Romans 4. That was an expansion of "Part 2" (HERE) of this unexpected "series" on Abraham. To add yet another dimension to all this, I began to wonder if Paul's mentioning of King David in Romans 4 also had an Adoption theme to it, which seemed highly likely. As I thought about it, I came to realize that "we" have gotten used to reading Paul's mention of Psalm 32 as an isolated Psalm, focused only on forgiveness, completely divorced from the historical narrative that the Bible gives us of David's repentance. So I opened up the Bible where it talked about David's sin, and I was pleasantly surprised. 

Let's take a look at that text:

2 Samuel 12:1-24 And the Lord sent Nathan to David: “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”

15 And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. On the seventh day the child died. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done?” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

24 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him 25 and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.

In 2 Samuel 11, we hear the infamous story of David committing adultery with Bathsheba, then David had her husband murdered, and she gave birth to an illegitimate child. David quickly married Bathsheba, but the child was still born of adultery. When the prophet Nathan confronts David, the infant child is at least a few months old. This means that the entire pregnancy up until now, David was living in unrepentant sin for at least a whole year. Hence the need for God to send Nathan. Probably a good lesson on how we can delude ourselves, begin a new lifestyle under this sin, and be blind and numb to living in mortal sin. It is also fascinating to see just how brutal the punishment that David was to receive, which included not only the loss of an innocent baby's life, but a terrifying prophecy that "the sword will never depart from your house" (meaning his lineage would be full of violent family rivalry) and that David's wives would be given over to lesser men who would get to have sex with them. All this even though Nathan says David was "forgiven".

David being "forgiven" in this situation is noteworthy, because his repentance during his prayer and fasting is where it is understood he wrote his two main Prayers of repentance, i.e., Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. Paul mentions both of these Psalms in Romans (3:4 and 4:6-8), both of which have significant apologetics value against Protestants (e.g. HERE and HERE). Most important though is that the sin which David committed could not be forgiven under the Mosaic Law (HERE), and instead such grave sins required the death penalty. Nathan said David was forgiven and not going to have to die. This prompts the question: how was David forgiven if the Mosaic Covenant did not provide forgiveness or atonement? The only explanation is that some other covenant, outside of the Mosaic Covenant, granted that forgiveness. This is what I think is Paul's point in Romans 4 when Paul is discussing the issue of God justifying the Gentile, i.e., the uncircumcised ("ungodly," see HERE), since Abraham had faith prior to circumcision, and per Paul's words in Romans 2:25, David's sin forfeited his circumcised status (HERE). This leads us to the main highlight of this post.

This tragically sinful time in David's life actually resulted in an extraordinary blessing. Rather than David sliding downhill, God instead gives David a new son, a gracious son, the glorious Solomon. The name "Solomon" means "Peace," which some people think refers to a "Peace Offering" showing that David was again at Peace with God. This repentance resulting in reconciliation would have allusions to Romans 4:25 and the "Let us have Peace with God" within Paul's same thought process in Romans 5:1 (HERE). We unfortunately tend to associate the name "Jedidiah" (Jedi?) with redneck folks, but the actual name is beautiful, and we are told here that this was Solomon's actual name, given directly by God, meaning "Loved by God". Now we can see some very yuge ramifications with this context. Now we can see exactly why David explained himself as "Blessed is that man". Not merely because David was forgiven, but because David was blessed with a son despite not deserving that son. We see here a clear example of the astonishing Christian teaching of "where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20), for in God's Providence, He only allows evil if a greater good can result (e.g. allowing His Son to be killed). And with the "son" appearing within the David story, we now have a more complete theme with that of Abraham and Genesis 15 and Romans 4. David's special son is directly part of the Messianic lineage promised to Abraham through Isaac.

And with this, we can see some parallels Paul could be drawing between David and Abraham's lives. In both cases, both men were well accomplished, and their good "works" testified to this. But these men also had unfortunate "works" they became involved in (particularly sleeping with women who weren't their wife, Hagar), resulting in an illegitimate heir (Ishmael), and thus their "wage" was a sort of negative consequence (the heartache of losing a son and family unrest). Yet, despite this, God still gave them mighty blessings, particularly in regards to a special male heir to replace their loss (a resurrection theme), who would succeed them and thus blessing the whole world though them, as their lineage continued up to Jesus. Both Isaac and Solomon are "Types" of Christ. We also see a liturgical theme in both, since both men are seen offering sacrifices here and worshiping.

Not only does this reading of Romans 4 come across as a lot more fulfilling, it makes everything fit a lot better, showing where David fits into this. We know that in Romans 4:6-8, Paul says David's Psalm 32 is an example of "reckoning righteousness apart from works," yet the Psalm says nothing about faith, righteousness, or works. This can only mean Paul was getting at something beyond the surface level, and I think the Adoption theme is precisely what Paul had in mind.