Problem
2 Samuel 24:10 says:
And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
But 1 Kings 15:5 says:
Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
David obviously sinned more than just with the matter of Uriah (in which he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and had him killed in battle). 2 Samuel 24:10 says that David sinned in commanding the census.
But 1 Kings 15:5 only mentions the Uriah incident, so is this verse wrong?
Solution
David sinned by having Uriah killed, by committing adultery, and by commanding the numbering of the Israelites (he was glorifying himself – the sin of pride), among other things.
However 1 Kings 15:5 does not claim that David only sinned once. It says that “David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord,” referring to an overall sense that David was a good guy by God’s standard of righteousness; which is faith. And then the text says that David “turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” This verse is about how King David disobeyed a direct commandment from God. The verse is not about how many times David had sinned.