Scripture Readings
The verses before and after this extract from 2 Samuel help us to understand the enormity of David’s sin. To get Bathsheba for his wife, David had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, killed by sending him into the fiercest fighting and then withdrawing the other troops from around him. When Nathan told a parable to show David how grievously he had sinned, David admits his sin, and Nathan tells him God forgives him.
The psalm praises this readiness of God to forgive our sins, with all fault and guilt taken away as if the sin had never been. So that we become “at one” with God, “justified”, with all our obligations to God fulfilled. We cannot do this alone – only God justifies.
But Paul tells the Galatians that they are not justified by the works of the Law, ie the rituals of the Law given to Moses. It is the faith of Jesus Christ in His Father, and our faith in Jesus Christ, that justifies or saves us.
In today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel the unnamed woman’s sins are forgiven, as shown by her loving actions, which are more important than the Pharisee’s concern over outward appearances.
Psalm Response: Forgive, Lord, the guilt of my sin.
(2 Samuel 12:7-13; Psalm 31(32); Gal 2:16-21; Luke 7:36-8:3)
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