The Full Price!

I was reading a few weeks ago in I  Chronicles about King David's sin in numbering the people.  The  narrative is also recorded in the 24th chapter of II Samuel. 
Joab faithfully protested, but the king's word prevailed.  Joab then gave the number unto the king, but God was displeased.  In II Samuel 24:10, we read:  "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."

I find it very interesting that the Lord offered David three things and told him to choose one of them.  Wow!  Isn't it sad that we sometimes say or do things, seemingly, without thinking of the consequences!  Surely David's heart must have been filled with shame and regret as he made his choice.  "I am in a great strait:  let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are His mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.  So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel."

As the angel of the Lord was destroying, "...David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.  And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?  even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done?  let Thine hand, I pray Thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on Thy people, that they should be plagued."

Then David was commanded to "go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan.  Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the Lord:  thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people."

Ornan's answer is quite interesting.  He basically said:  "Oh, don't worry.  You don't need to pay me anything!  It's not a big deal -- I'll just give you the oxen and the threshing instruments and the wheat."
That sounds like one of the devil's compromises to me!  If we are going with God, we must answer as king David did:  "Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost."
When we pay the full price, we find that "nothing sweeter can be known than full surrender"!