Scripture Verse

It came to pass one evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. 2 Samuel 11:2

Introduction

portrait
John Newton (1725–1807)

Words: John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779), Book 1, num­ber 29. Da­vid’s fall.

Music: Ban­gor Will­iam Tan­s’ur, 1734 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
William Tans’ur (1700–1783)

Lyrics

How Da­vid, when by sin de­ceived,
From bad to worse went on!
For when the Ho­ly Spir­it’s grieved,
Our strength and guard are gone.

His eye on Bath­she­ba once fixed,
With poi­son filled his soul;
He ven­tured on ad­ul­te­ry next,
And mur­der crowned the whole.

So from a spark of fire at first,
That has not been des­cried;
A dread­ful flame has oft­en burst,
And ra­vaged far and wide.

When sin de­ceives it hard­ens too,
For though he vain­ly fought
To hide his crimes from pub­lic view,
Of God he lit­tle thought.

He neith­er would, or could re­pent,
No true com­punc­tion felt;
’Till God in mer­cy Na­than sent,
His stub­born heart to melt.

The pa­ra­ble held forth a fact,
Designed his case to show;
But though the pic­ture was ex­act,
Himself he did not know.

Thou art the man, the pro­phet said,
That word his slum­ber broke;
And when he owned his sin, and prayed,
The Lord for­give­ness spoke.

Let those who think they stand be­ware,
For Da­vid stood be­fore;
Nor let the fall­en soul des­pair,
For mer­cy can re­store.