When Nathan had gone, David beat out his brief confession into Psalm 51. He knew that he was clean, because purged with hyssop, Exod. 12:22; that he was whiter than snow, because the hand of the "Redeemer had touched him, and the joy of God’s salvation had been restored. And now he bowed himself before the train of evil consequences that must ensue. Sin may be forgiven, but the Father must needs chasten his child.

The little babe died. It cuts us to the quick when innocent children suffer for our wrong-doing. Two years after, David’s sin was repeated by one of his sons, while another sought to dispossess his father of the throne. In Amnon’s offense David beheld the features of his own passion, and in Absalom’s revenge, his own bloodguiltiness. Psalms 41 and 55 are supposed to record his sufferings during those dreary years, when it seemed - as if the sunshine had passed forever from his life. The wonder is that he treated Rabbah so harshly; but it may” be, as some think, that its fate was decided during the months which preceded his confession, when the misery of his soul made him petulant and exacting.