Can someone who loves God sin? Sadly, yes. Does even this king after God’s own heart have a heart that always beats with God’s? Thump. Thump. Bump. Blump. No. David did many good things, and he loved and praised God most of his life. But he also did some pretty bad things—terrible sins that showed he didn’t always trust and obey God.

One day David was on the roof of his big palace. He looked down and saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. He decided then and there, “I must have this beautiful woman for myself.” Ah, but there was only one problem: David was already married. Oh yeah, and another problem: Bathsheba was married too! David didn’t care. He set his heart on her, a heart that was no longer beating with God’s heart. So, here’s what he did. It was really, really bad. He took her anyway. And she became pregnant. To cover his tracks, David commanded Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to fight at the front of a battle. Uriah was a brave soldier. He accepted the order. He fought. He died. (Just liked David had planned.) David immediately married beautiful Bathsheba. David was an adulterer, murderer, and a thief.

What David did was not what a man after God’s own heart would do. God was upset, that’s for sure! So he sent the prophet Nathan to David with a hard message. Nathan shared a story about a rich man with everything who stole a little lamb from a poor man who had nothing. When the story was over, David was furious, “What a terrible thing to do! That man deserves to die!” Then, Nathan surprised him. “You are the man!” he said. David’s heart hurt. He saw now that he was the wicked man. He deserved to die. So here’s what he did next: he bowed low and asked God to forgive him. And God did. God always forgives those who come to him. Later, he wrote a song about what happened, in which he said: “Oh God, I have sinned against you. Have mercy on me and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart and restore to me the joy of your salvation” (see Psalm 51). David now knew that he was a terrible sinner who worshiped a wonderful Savior.