There are two ways of making a better past.

One is the way of the world: forging historical facts, erasing documents, retouching photographs to correct the errors of the leadership and the politicians.

Slaying and eliminating the witnesses of the crime in a cover-up or "cleanup".

Or beheading the prophets who warned of wrongs, like Herodias and Salome
did to John the Baptist.

In fact, those are already three ways to deal with the errors of the past.

But this was not David's way. And not God's way.

David chose to confess and leave a testimony to this day of his
crime of adultery with the wife of his best soldier and proxy-murdering
him by the hand and the sword of the Amorites.

He then chose to go down on his knees, and this is how Psalm 51 was
made (not to be confused with the Area 51):

Psalm 51
King James Bible

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

(2 Samuel 12:1-12)

1 {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came
unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.} Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 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.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden
part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Notice that David said "I was sinful from my conception in womb, in
sin my mother conceived me".

David was the seventh or the eighth son of his father, and his mother was
not adulterous and neither was he conceived out of the wedlock.
So how was he conceived in sin?

David reminds his Creator of the natural inclination of man to evil
that comes from eating the fruit of the accursed tree.

We know that David's remorse was accepted, and he became
the ancestor of the righteous line that eventually brought forth
the Lord Jesus Christ. David was called the man according to God's
heart, because unlike many mighty rulers and mighty men in power,
he chose to repent rather than to conceal his wrongs, i.e. extending
diplomatic secret beyond the human lifespan or putting those who
witnessed or leaked about his crimes on a virtual life sentence.

in the name of the LORD God Merciful, Almighty
Amen

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