The Lord sent the Prophet Nathan to talk to David. Nathan approached David and said, “There were two men in one city; one rich and one poor. The rich man had a vast amount of flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little female sheep, which he took care of. The small lamb grew up with the man and his children. It ate from the man’s plate and drank from the man’s cup. The man held it and treated it like it was his own daughter.   

Then a traveler came to the rich man and instead of taking from his own flock or herd to prepare a meal for the traveler, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest. 

David was becoming very angry at the man who did this thing, and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man that did this must die. He must repay the man with four lambs because he did this and had no pity for the poor man.” 

Here comes the clincher … 

Then Nathan said, “You are this man. The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have anointed you king over Israel and saved you from the hand of Saul. I have given you a beautiful house to live in, wives, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. If that wasn’t enough for you, I would have given you more.

 Why have you despised the Word of the Lord and done this evil thing in front of me? You killed Uriah the Hittite, and have taken his wife to be your wife. From this time on, the sword will be a threat to you and your family because you have despised me and have taken Uriah’s wife and made her your own.’ The Lord says, ‘I will cause rebellion within your family and will take your wives and give them to someone else, and they will sleep together in public view. Since you did all of this secretly, I will do this before all of Israel to see.’”

 At this, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” 

Ahhh, the beautiful sound of repentance. This Psalm that David wrote explains it all:

 Nathan said, “The Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die because of your sin. But, because what you did has given the enemies of the Lord reason to blaspheme, the child that will be born, will die. 

You might be wondering why God still punished David even though He forgave him. Check out this verse:

Nathan then left David. And the Lord caused the baby of Bathsheba and David to become very sick. David approached God on behalf of the child and begged for him to live. David fasted and lay all night on the ground. The leaders of Israel tried to convince David to get up and eat with them, but he refused. On the seventh day, the child died. 

The servants of David were afraid to tell David that the baby had died. They said, “While the baby was still alive, but sick, David ignored us. How is he going to react when we tell him the baby has died?” But when David saw his servants whispering, he knew the child had died.  He asked them, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes.”

Then David got up, washed himself, anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the Tabernacle and worshipped. When he returned to his own house, the servants gave him something to eat as he requested. Then one of David's servants asked him, “What are you doing? When the baby was alive, you fasted and cried for the child; but now that the child is dead, you eat.” 

David responded, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept because I wondered if God could be so gracious to me and keep the child alive. But now that he's dead, why should I continue to fast? Can I bring him back to life? I'll go to him one day, but he can't return to me.”

 David comforted Bathsheba, and went in and slept with her. She became pregnant and had a son, and named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan, that his name should be Jedidiah (beloved of the Lord), because the Lord loved him. 

DAVID AND NATHAN THE PROPHET BIBLE STORY INFORMATION WITH DAVID AND NATHAN THE PROPHET BIBLE STORY MEANING

Something important to remember in all of this, is that the Lord forgave David because he REPENTED. He was sincerely sorry for what he did from his heart.