2 Samuel 11:26-27
And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.  And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son.  But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

The story of  David’s infamous sin offers us many lessons, not the least of which is that no matter how dedicated we are to the Lord, no matter how strong our relationship is, no matter how much faith we have, we are all susceptible to giving in to temptation.  Spiritual maturity does not make us immune to the desires of our flesh.  Having God’s favor upon us does not mean we will no longer make wrong choices.  A true heartfelt desire to serve and love and honor God does not mean we can’t fall into some grievous sin in a moment of weakness.

And though it may have seemed at first that David had gotten away with everything he had done, there was this one caveat—that what he’d done had displeased God.  Though it might have been hidden from others, God knew all along.  And God is merciful and full of grace, but He hates sin, and maybe especially sin in His people, His choicest servants.  It is unbecoming of the saints of God.  It tarnishes His name and severs that relationship.

David allowed his initial situation to compound into something a lot more messy than it otherwise would have been.  He had opportunities along the way to make right choices instead of continuing on the path that led him here.  But maybe we can relate to David.  Sometimes our first instinct is to hide, to try to fix the situation ourselves, maybe even to get away with it if we can.  But doing that usually makes things worse.  And then our fear or our pride or our guilt just drives us down this path where we’re scheming and plotting and making everything so much worse for ourselves and anyone else involved.

Sin always does damage.  It’s impossible for it not to hurt us or someone else, but most of all, it hurts God.  Sin is something that does not belong in our world.  It doesn’t belong in the hearts and lives of God’s people.  It interferes with our relationship with God and everyone around us.  He doesn’t like the sin in us and the things it makes us do and think and feel.  So may it be something displeasing and unacceptable to us as we seek instead to live in a way that is pleasing to our Lord.