2 Samuel 12:7

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. These awful words pierced his heart, aroused his conscience, and brought him to his knees. The sincerity and depth of his penitential sorrow are evinced by the psalms he composed, (Psalms 32:1; Psalms 51:1; Psalms 103:1.) He was pardoned, so far as related to the restoration of the divine favour. But as from his high character for piety, and his eminent rank in society, his deplorable fall was calculated to do great injury to the cause of religion, it was necessary that God should testify His abhorrence of sin by leaving even His own servant to reap the bitter temporal fruits. David was not himself doomed, according to his own view of what justice demanded (2 Samuel 12:5); but he had to suffer a quadruple expiation in the successive deaths of four sons, besides a lengthened train of other evils.