O God, cleanse me from MY sin. Day 3

Please read Psalm 51

In verses 1 to 9 we see how the psalmist, King David, approaches God, portrays himself during the confession of his sins, and talks about true restoration.

The psalm begins with David coming to God and pleading for forgiveness- “ Have Mercy” David pleads. Now David is the King of Israel, God’s chosen people. He vanquished Israel’s enemies. Singlehandedly, he killed Goliath, lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:36). He did many great deeds – but he does not approach God on his own merits, and does he blame others for his sins. David discerns that he cannot argue, reason or bargain with God, and that he cannot justify his own sinful deeds. So he approaches our God of “steadfast love” and pleads for His Mercy.

Next David talks about his sin. David IS AWARE of his sins and he uses three phrases to talk about his sin. First he uses the phrase “my transgressions”(v.1), and then he talks about “my iniquity” and “my sin”(both v.2). And he calls his sinful deeds “evil”(v.4). By using the word ‘my’, David owns to the sins he committed. It is also interesting that while King David’s words are about his personal sin, he addresses it ‘to the choirmaster’ – i.e., he makes his confession public.

The Hebrew word for transgression is the rebellious and willful overstepping of the boundary set by God. Iniquity means perversion. Sin means missing the mark (like an archer missing the set target)- the mark set by God. Using the three words David acknowledges the gravity of his sin and that he has sinned against God.

So David is a broken, desolate man. But he knows the ‘good news’ because he realizes the source of forgiveness, good news, joy etc. He knows that it is his(our) God who ‘delights in truth in the inward being’ (God knows your heart),  is the God who ‘teaches wisdom’, ‘purges to clean’, ‘ washes (filthy rags) to whiten’, speaks words that bring ‘joy and gladness’, makes the ‘broken to rejoice’ and ‘hides and blots sins’. David is teaching us the state of restoration that only God can provide.

As you can see dear brother and sister in Christ, David realizes that God is the only way out of his sinful and miserable state. How about us? Do we truly understand and own our sins? I am reminded of the story of Little Johnny. Johnny was nervous. It was the first day of school – his first day – he was going to kindergarten. He was the only son of his doting and loving parents. So his mother took Johnny to school and meets little Johnny’s kindergarten teacher and told her “my Johnny is somewhat of a trouble maker and mischievous. So whenever he causes trouble spank the kid sitting next to Johnny, and that will scare my son and he will behave.” And just like Johnny’s mom we try to blame others and expect them to suffer for our sins -instead of owning them.

Gracious LORD: I appeal to your mercy that you would forgive my sin of (name your sin(s) here) which I commit. For Jesus sake forgive me. Amen.