Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. So in 2 Samuel 12:9; 2 Samuel 12:13, the sin, though externally against Uriah, is represented as having its chief malignity in being against "the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight;" and David's confession is, "I have sinned against the Lord." That we are not to think that the sins which he confesses are merely against the first table of the law, appears from Psalms 51:14, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness." What makes an offence against our fellow-man a sin is, that it is against one who bears the image of God, and for whom God hath provided a redemption; and so is against God Himself (cf. Genesis 9:6). The more vivid the sense of sin is, the more the penitent will feel the malignity of sin (even of that against one's neighbour) to lie in this, that it is against the holy and loving God, our Father, to whom we owe such a deep debt of gratitude. So when the godly Joseph was tempted to adultery by Potiphar's wife, he did think of the offence against his master as the chief thing, but said, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Though primarily David had been guilty of the two foulest crimes against his fellow-man, yet now that he sees sin in its essence, not merely in its accidents, he loses sight of all else except his sin against God-the God who had raised him from a sheepfold to the throne of God's own people. 'I do not regard whether men, by way of flattery, extenuate my guilt; I feel thee to be my judge; conscience drags me to thy tribunal' (Calvin). Hope also enters into the thought that David's sin has been against God; because, this being so, it rests with God alone to grant forgiveness. He need not therefore despair because he can make no reparation to the injured Uriah, now long deceased, nor can ask forgiveness from him.
That thou mightest (or mayest) be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. David recognizes the mystery that God permits sin "in order that" х lªma`an (H4616) must be so translated] His own righteousness may be manifested in judging the sinner, as it was through Nathan in David case, and thus that His holy name may be glorified at the same time that His children are brought through chastisement to penitence and salvation. Paul so takes this passage (Romans 3:4); for otherwise there would have been no semblance for the blasphemous allegation which he refutes, that man's "unrighteousness," is not punishable because it is the occasion of "commending" or bringing to light "the righteousness of God." The sinner's guilt is none the less because God's righteousness is thereby magnified in His judicial dealing with it. Nay, it is the greater, in that, whereas he might be a conscious and willing instrument of God's glory, he perversely, by sin, makes himself an unconscious instrument of glorifying and justifying God in his own condemnation. The sin is wholly of man, willfully led by his own lust (James 1:13-15). Its manifestations are overruled by God for His own glory (1 Samuel 26:19; 2 Samuel 16:10; 2 Samuel 24:1; Romans 9:17-18) and for the ultimate salvation of the sinner if a believer, or for leaving him without excuse if a reprobate (Proverbs 16:4). When the penitent is led to justify God, as King Rehoboam and the Israelite princes humbled themselves under God's chastisement through Shishak, saying, "the Lord is righteous" (2 Chronicles 12:6), then he withdraws the rod, the end designed having been attained.