2 Samuel 12:14

To blaspheme. Although the Lord forgave David for his sin, that did not bring an end to its influences for evil. Many a skeptic, pointing to this experience, has blasphemed the name of God and cast reproach upon the church.

Shall surely die. David had given the judgment that “the man that hath done this thing shall surely die” (v. 5). By his own sentence David was the one who should die. But instead, God decreed that the child of his sin should die (see PP 722). To David the death of the child would be a far greater punishment than his own death. As a result of the bitter experience he would pass through, David would be brought to a full measure of repentance and conversion.