Apology of the Prophet David

Contents

Reading pages: 1–35 · 36–60 · 61–85

1. 1Ambrose writes to defend David against those scandalized by his adultery and murder.
2. 2Scripture tells how David desired Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, and arranged Uriah’s death.
3. 3God himself has justified David and repeatedly praised him, so no one should sit in judgment on him.
4. 4David, living from youth amid wealth and power, fell only once, by the sin that brought down even angels; his census was another fault.
5. 5Unlike most, David confessed at once when rebuked by Nathan, and his deep repentance won swift pardon.
6. 6The saints, unlike others who defend their sins, rise from a fall more eager to run; one fall should not define them.
7. 7God allowed the saints to fall so that we might see them as fellow human beings and learn repentance from them.
8. 8God allows the saints to fall so that they will not grow proud, as Paul learned from his thorn in the flesh.
9. 9As God tested Job by suffering, he tested David by showing how he would amend his fall, to teach us repentance.
10. 10If Christ was made sin and reproach for us, David may well have borne one fall for our instruction; but only Christ was sinless.
11. 11Many Old Testament events are figures, as Paul shows with the bronze serpent and Abraham’s two sons; so too Jacob’s two wives and Judah’s twins.
12. 12Joseph and David prefigure Christ; even David’s sinful sons, Amnon and Absalom, figure the people that crucified Christ, as Psalm 3 shows.
13. 13Solomon’s grave sins kept people from thinking him more than human, though some took him for the Christ.
14. 14Bathsheba may figure the church of the nations, united to Christ beyond the law, while Uriah (“my light”) figures the devil disguised as an angel of light.
15. 15Taken literally, David sinned as kings do but repented as kings do not, confessing publicly; falling is human, but such confession is rare virtue.
16. 16No one is without sin: Samson was mastered by love, and Jephthah by a rash vow that cost his daughter’s life.
17. 17Even priests have sinned: Aaron made the golden calf, and with Miriam spoke against Moses’ foreign wife.
18. 18Miriam’s leprosy prefigures the blindness of those who despise Gentile believers, figured by Moses’ Ethiopian wife.
19. 19Knowing himself prone to fall, David sought pardon and trusted God’s mercy.
20. 20In Nathan’s parable the rich man is Christ, who left the ninety-nine to seek the lost sheep that the devil had fed and led astray in Adam.
21. 21The poor man’s ewe lamb, fed by the devil on worldly food, was taken by the rich man (Christ) for a sacrifice that redeemed us.
22. 22Christ took up our flesh and offered it in sacrifice; Nathan’s verdict and the fourfold restitution point to his death and the resurrection.
23. 23When David understood the mystery of Christ and the church, he confessed his sin, confident of pardon through baptism and the Spirit.
24. 24Our deeds are weighed in a balance; the just, whose good works go before, have their sins covered by love and by the cross.
25. 25David covered his sin with love and constant tears, as Peter’s threefold confession and bitter weeping covered his denial.
26. 26David’s victory over Goliath, saving the whole people, far outweighs one private crime.
27. 27David spared Saul and waited for the kingdom God had promised; Ambrose contrasts this with the usurpations and civil wars of his own day.
28. 28David danced before the ark and set aside royal dignity for the honor of God.
29. 29David gave way before Absalom, asked that he be spared, and mourned him bitterly.
30. 30David bore Shimei’s curses patiently, seeing them as a trial permitted by God.
31. 31David saw Shimei’s curse as permitted by God, who would repay him for it.
32. 32Bearing insults patiently wins God’s pardon and reward.
33. 33David fought the giants, one of whom nearly killed him.
34. 34In the valley of Rephaim David refused the water his men risked their lives to bring and poured it out to the Lord.
35. 35Spiritually, David thirsted for Christ, born in Bethlehem, and for the sacrifice of his blood.
36. 36David’s many good works covered his one bloodguilt, which arose not from cruelty but from temptation; his honoring of Abner shows his mildness.
37. 37After the census, David chose to fall into God’s merciful hands rather than men’s, and the Lord relented.
38. 38David offered himself in place of his people, and like Moses won pardon.
39. 39David himself teaches that confessed sins are covered and forgiven, as Nathan confirmed.
40. 40David’s sin was forgiven and covered by love and good works, since it was a lapse, not malice, and he confessed it.
41. 41David wrote Psalm 51 (Vulgate 50) about this sin, placing it before psalms about earlier events.
42. 42Psalm 50 (Vulgate) bears the number of remission, as shown by the parable of the debtors, the jubilee, Pentecost, and the law of fifty shekels.
43. 43In Psalm 51 David repeatedly confesses his sin and asks for great mercy, as God’s great power at the Red Sea prefigured baptism.
44. 44David asks for a thorough washing, which the law could not give but baptism, fulfilling all righteousness, does.
45. 45Alternatively, many cleansings (word, confession, good thoughts and deeds) prepare the soul, as repeated dyeing produces true purple, for the full grace of baptism.
46. 46Few truly acknowledge their sin; many boast of it, unlike a good horse that lies still after a fall.
47. 47The wise man keeps his sin always before him, accusing himself; feeling the wound of sin is a sign of life and the way to healing.
48. 48A guilty conscience torments, as with Adam, Eve, and Cain; shame at past sin keeps one from repeating it.
49. 49Iniquity, the root, is forgiven in baptism; sin, its fruit, is covered by good works and love.
50. 50Some refer the two verses to baptism and penance: Peter, already baptized, covered his denial by threefold love and was charged to feed the sheep.
51. 51As king, David answered to no human law, but he was subject to God; and God alone, being sinless, can judge sinners.
52. 52We sin before God, our witness; yet our injustice makes his justice shine.
53. 53God’s words about human sinfulness are proved true; confessing sin justifies God, denying it makes him a liar.
54. 54God submits to judgment and prevails, recalling his benefits, as with Israel in Micah and with David through Nathan, who then confessed.
55. 55Confession of sin justifies God and the penitent is justified by him, as with the tax collectors baptized by John.
56. 56David’s penitence acknowledges sin from conception; we are conceived and born amid the parents’ sin and the impurities of birth, though marriage is good.
57. 57Only Christ, conceived and born of the Virgin, was free from the contagion of human origin; David lamented that stain in himself.
58. 58Confessing his sin, David was suddenly granted a prophetic vision of the truth in Christ and of the sacrament of baptism.
59. 59David asks to be sprinkled with the law’s hyssop and washed whiter than snow by the Gospel’s baptism, which he foresaw in other psalms too.
60. 60David rejoices to hear of the coming forgiveness, and the humbled “bones” (virtues, souls, the church) will exult.
61. 61David asks God to turn his face from his sins, not from him, so that they may be blotted out and forgotten.
62. 62Sin is forgiven by grace, blotted out by the cross, covered by love; better still is to uproot iniquity, the root of sin.
63. 63Christ blotted out the bond against us by nailing it to the cross, erasing with his blood the debt Eve wrote.
64. 64David asks for a clean heart, created by the Spirit’s renewal, without which none sees God.
65. 65The soul’s “inward parts,” renewed by the spirit, are its good thoughts, pursuits, and conceptions.
66. 66The “right spirit” may be the Spirit of truth or a right conscience, but Ambrose takes it as the Holy Spirit to be poured out.
67. 67As masters banish offending slaves, being cast from God’s face is the worst punishment; David would rather be scourged.
68. 68To be cast from God’s face is outer darkness; his face is light, as when Christ looked at Peter.
69. 69Adam and Cain were cast from God’s face for hiding and denying; David instead offered himself and won pardon.
70. 70The saints remain before God; we must keep the Spirit’s grace, as Peter clung to Christ.
71. 71The Spirit is given and withdrawn only by the Lord’s will, yet acts freely; so the Trinity has one will.
72. 72The “princely spirit” gives joy and firmness, freeing from slavery to sin.
73. 73Some read the right, holy, and princely spirits as the Son, the Spirit, and the Father; David fears to lose the grace he received.
74. 74Others take the princely spirit to be the human spirit, which knows a person’s inner self.
75. 75As the best pilot or teacher handles the hardest cases, David will teach sinners, as Christ came to call sinners.
76. 76God’s teaching can convert the wicked; repentant sinners like David are models for those who fall.
77. 77David’s prayer to be delivered from blood refers to Uriah’s death, which, though king, he felt deeply on his conscience.
78. 78Since God forbids sinners to declare his justice, David’s praise shows his sin was not imputed.
79. 79God opens the lips of the just and acquitted to praise him, as Paul prayed for an open door for the word.
80. 80Read of Christ, the swift pen is the Word and the tongue his virgin-born body; he offered the humble heart God prefers to burnt offerings.
81. 81Christ, the true and humble David, speaks here; how can sin be imputed in the type of the mystery that brings remission of sins?
82. 82David’s prayer for Zion and Jerusalem looks to the gathering of the church of the nations, the free heavenly Jerusalem.
83. 83Jerusalem’s walls are the faith and the churches throughout the world, built of living stones.
84. 84The “sacrifice of righteousness” is Christ’s body, offered when the church of the nations is blessed, together with believers’ spiritual offering.
85. 85The calves offered on God’s altar are the martyrs, whose souls John saw beneath the altar.