Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God
 |
| "Nathan Rebukes David, as in 2 Samuel 12" by James I. Tissot |
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
A star athlete gets intoxicated, starts a fight,
and spends the night in jail. The next afternoon, he holds a press conference:
“I’m ashamed of what I did,” he says. “That’s not who I am.” A politician gets
caught in an adulterous affair. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’ve embarrassed my
family and damaged my reputation. That’s not who I am.” A comedian gets pushback
for an offensive tweet. “That comment was inappropriate,” she says. "I’m sorry
if I offended anyone. It’s not who I am.”
Others take the opposite approach. They refuse to
recognize their sin as sin, insisting “This is who I am. God doesn’t make
mistakes, so He wouldn’t have made me this way, if it is wrong.” As Lady Gaga preaches
acceptance of alternative lifestyles: “I’m on the right track, baby, I was born
this way.”
There seems to be, in our world today, a huge
aversion to taking ownership of our own actions. But more than that, there is a
huge misunderstanding about sin. Both those who say, “I can’t help it because I
was born this way” and those who excuse their behavior with “that’s not who I
am,” miss the point that David is making in our text. Sin is a serious problem,
one with temporal and eternal consequences. Failure to properly understand the depth
of our depravity leads us to fail to recognize the full measure of the richness
of God’s grace and mercy bestowed upon us for the sake of Christ’s atoning
death.
Psalm 51 is one of the most familiar psalms. I’m sure as
we spoke it responsively a few minutes ago there were several verses that you
recognized because they are used in some of our liturgies: Verses 10-12 are
used in the Offertory for Divine Service 3, and verse 15 is the opening
sentence of Matins and Vespers.
The background to this psalm is the story of David’s
adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah, as he
tried to cover up his sin. While the psalm is personal, the heading and the closing verses also indicate that it is intended for public worship, for the whole nation to pray (cf.
verses 18-19). Although written for a specific occasion, it expresses general
truths that are universal and timeless in their application regarding repentance
and forgiveness.
David prays: “Have
mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your
abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:1-2).
David’s plea is not based on God’s justice, nor on
any action or attitude of David, but rather, on God’s mercy, God’s unfailing
love, and God’s great compassion. It is by grace that we are forgiven and
cleansed, not by deeds we have done or payments we have made.
The deep stain of sin is emphasized by the heaping
up of terms—transgression, iniquity, and sin. Sin is rebellion against God,
hatred for God, violation of His law, and failure to live up to the standards
He has set. Sin is a perverse rejection of God and His will. Sin produces an
ugly distortion of God’s good creation.
Although the disastrous effects of sin are great,
the cleansing from sin is thorough and complete. Sin is blotted out—it is
washed away, and we are cleansed from it. “The blood of Jesus, His Son,
purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
These verses are one of the clearest and most beautiful
statements of the doctrine of forgiveness in the Old Testament. They closely
parallel beautiful statements in Paul’s epistles, especially in Romans, and
show that there always has been only one way to peace with God. From Adam to
the end of the world, the one way to salvation has been and always will be
through forgiveness based on God’s grace and delivered through faith in His Son
Jesus Christ.
David says: “For
I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only,
have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified
in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (vv 3-5).
David first confesses his actual sins. But he recognizes
that his sins were not merely sins against Bathsheba, with whom he had
committed adultery, and against Uriah, whom he had treacherously murdered, and
against the people who were offended or misled by his sin. His sin was, above
all, an offense against the holy God. His sin was gross ingratitude for the
many blessings and privileges God has given him. The offense of his sin was
compounded by the hypocrisy of his cover-up. His shameful record fully
justified the strong verdict God delivered to him through Nathan and the
chastisements the Lord imposed on him.
In this confession, David also acknowledges
original sin. David knows that it is not only what he occasionally does wrong
that he must confess. His evil brought to the surface the depth of his
sinfulness. Luther writes: “This hereditary sin is such a deep corruption of
nature that no reason can understand it. Rather, it must be believed from the
revelation of Scripture. (See Psalm 51:5; Romans 6:12–13; Exodus 33:3; Genesis
3:7–19.)”[i]
Corrupt actions flow from a corrupt nature. David
could not truthfully say, “That is not who I am,” but neither would he claim it
was not his fault because “I was born this way.” Like all of us, David had been
conceived and born with a corrupt nature inherited from Adam. He had been born
as an enemy of God, one whose will was opposed to God. He had been born as a
condemned sinner, worthy of damnation. But through faith in the promise of the
coming Messiah, one of David’s own descendants, he had been freed from the rule
of his sinful nature. Sadly, David had allowed it to regain control over him,
and he had fallen into terrible sin.
Though it was an extreme example, David’s sin was
no fluke. He, like you and me, was a poor, miserable sinner. His sinful actions
were an expression of the corrupt nature that lurks within, even when it is
covered with a veneer of decency. David realized that his need for forgiveness
extended beyond forgiveness for a few gross sins, horrible as those may have
been. He recognized a need for a complete renewal. Therefore, he continued: “Behold,
You delight in truth in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret
heart” (Psalm 51:6).
Dealing with sin requires more than cleaning up one’s
act and behaving a little better than before. God wants more than improved
outward performance. He wants a change of heart. But this change of heart,
David could never produce for himself. Nor can we. This change of heart and
renewal must come from God. So, David prays: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and
gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my
sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take
not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and
uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:7-12).
To be denied access to God’s mercy is the worst of
all possibilities to David. The tragic example of Saul’s rejection might have
motivated this urgent request, as David contemplated the ultimate end of hardened
heart: separation from God. Luther writes: “When holy people—still having and
feeling original sin and daily repenting and striving against it—happen to fall
into manifest sins (as David did into adultery, murder, and blasphemy [2 Samuel
11]), then faith and the Holy Spirit have left them. The Holy Spirit does not
permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so it can be carried out,
but represses and restrains it from doing what it wants [Psalm 51:11; Romans
6:14]. If sin does what it wants, the Holy Spirit and faith are not present.”[ii]
David prays for cleansing from sin. Hyssop is a
plant with hairy branches that the priests used as a sort of sponge or
sprinkler to apply the cleansing blood or water of Old Testament ceremonies to
the worshiper. The application of blood with hyssop symbolized the cleansing
that David received, in reality, by the application of the blood of Christ to
him before the throne of God.
God’s forgiveness of our sin is also described as
God hiding His face from sin so that He no longer sees it, as God blotting out
sin from His record book, and as God washing us whiter than snow. This last
picture especially emphasizes the completeness of forgiveness. “The blood of
Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
The result of such forgiveness will be joy and
gladness in place of the fear and grief cause by unforgiven sin. Another result
will be love that produces an eagerness to serve God out of gratitude for sin
forgiven. David prays for such a cleansed heart and willing spirit so that he
will be eager to serve God and remain faithful to Him. The psalm itself is the
best evidence that his prayer was answered. How different is the David who
speaks in this psalm from the hypocritical schemer trying to cover up his sin
who is described in 2 Samuel, chapter 11.
Confident that God will answer his prayer, David
makes a promise of what he will do when his prayer is answered. “Then I will
teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. Deliver me from
bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of
Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your
praise. For You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; You will not
be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a
broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Do good to Zion in Your
good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will You delight in right
sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be
offered on Your altar” (Psalm 51:13-19).
Genuine repentance produces an intention to avoid
sin and to serve God more faithfully. David promises that if God gives him a
renewed heart, he will praise God joyfully, he will offer sacrifices motivated
by true repentance, and he will share God’s Word with others.
The last verses of the psalm broaden it from a
personal prayer for David to a prayer that includes all of God’s people,
including you and me. David prays that the Lord will bless His people, so that
all of us will worship Him in a way that is pleasing to Him.
This psalm is one of the richest of all the psalms,
a wonderful psalm for beginning this season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. It
displays both the extreme depths of sin and the perfect cleansing of
forgiveness found in Jesus Christ alone. It contains petitions and thoughts
that we will want to use frequently, both in our public worship services and in
our private devotions. May God grant to each of us the repentant spirit and
renewed heart that David displays in this psalm. Amen
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[i]
McCain, P. T.
(Ed.). (2005). Concordia: The Lutheran
Confessions (p. 270). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
[ii]
McCain, P. T.
(Ed.). (2005). Concordia: The
Lutheran Confessions (pp. 276–278). St. Louis, MO: Concordia
Publishing House.
Comments