The Lord is with us!
A clean and pure heart. It sounds a bit like the stuff of sappy love stories and Lifetime Channel movies. But truth be told, when we think about it, we all want a clean heart. We want a heart unburdened by guilt and regret. We want a heart guided by pure motive and strong values instead of something we worry about protecting from hurt or injury. We want to be free of the scar tissue our hearts seem to accumulate through our bad choices and we want to be rid of the insidious sludge and tar that gets into the nooks and crannies. We want to be free from temptation and we want to only want “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…” as the apostle Paul says.
But we don’t. We all know that we don’t. We all struggle with wanting things that are less than true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. We struggle with wanting and taking things that are not of God. We rebel against God. We have an illness that saps our spirits and dirties our hearts. On our own, there’s nothing we can do about it. We can fight and struggle and weep and shout at the sky but nothing we do apart from God will have affect we desire, the result we want.
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. If it did we wouldn’t have any hope. With God there is a process by which we can get clean. It is one that requires cooperation between both the Great Physician and His patients. The Physician has the cure but we have to tell Him our symptoms. We have to confess our sins. Psalm 51 is just such a confession. Written by David after his affair with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah, this is a heartfelt cry to God for forgiveness. Such a cry only comes from recognizing sin for what it is and understanding the need we have to be cleansed of it.
There’s not much I can write about the psalm that isn’t pretty obvious from reading the psalm itself but there are a few things I can say about using the psalm. For many of us in the Protestant tradition of our faith, we have no experience with a formalized process of confession of sin and reconciliation to God and with the community or people we might have hurt by our actions. For many of us, confession and forgiveness is thought to be a private action between ourselves and God. The idea being that we don’t need someone to go to the Doctor for us (which is an inaccurate understanding of the process practiced by other Christians) or with us to get healed. The problem, however, that many of us then struggle with is that we lack a sense of resolution to an issue or a real sense of what forgiveness entails. In our doctor analogy our practice of private confession might be a bit like going out to WebMD, researching some disease or condition and its symptoms and then deciding that’s what we have. We might be right but we’re not always sure and then we don’t always know what to do about it.
One course of action is to begin a regular practice of going to God and standing before Him with an attitude of awareness of our sins and contrition for them. In this endeavor, Psalm 51 and other “psalms of contrition” (such as Psalm 32) are of great benefit. They help us form the words that are often hard to think when we desire to go before God in prayer. They help us to face up to the reality of our sinfulness and give us a way to express our awareness. This is one very important benefit to including Psalm 51 in our regular prayer time. Another gets back to something Gary mentioned yesterday; metanoia. As he mentioned in yesterday’s devotional, metanoia is the Greek word used to describe the change of heart we are all called to experience as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is the change that takes us from a “me” centered view of reality to a God or Kingdom centered one. While the senseless repetition of Psalm 51 will never achieve this goal, repeated heartfelt reading and reciting of this psalm will change us because when we pray Psalm 51 we are praying that our hearts be changed.
This psalm is one of the most commonly used general confessions throughout Christianity. For centuries it has guided God seeking men and women into a deeper and more authentic relationship with God and their faith communities. Personally I find that praying this in the evening helps me to review and reflect on my day and how I can do better tomorrow and living the grace of God in to my life and the lives of others. Perhaps you already do this, but if not, as you go through this weekend I invite you to practice this with me. Pray this psalm slowly and with deep intent each evening and see where it leads you. Examine your heart each time and see what changes get made and whether you feel a bit cleaner.
Grace and Peace.
In Him,
Chad
Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your unfailing love;
according to Your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in Your sight,
so that You are proved right when You speak
and justified when You judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Surely You desire truth in the inner parts;
You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from Your presence
or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will turn back to You.
Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise.
In Your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight You;
then bulls will be offered on Your altar.
