David’s prayer

Renewed From Within.

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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. – Psalm 51:10-11 ESV

Psalm 51

Dependence upon God. It’s a good thing. It’s a necessary thing. Most of us don’t like being dependent, but God created us to have a healthy dependence on Him. He created us, but He also sustains us. “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10 ESV). Not only do we need God for life, but we need Him in order to experience abundance of life. Since the moment sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, mankind has suffered from a broken relationship with God. Our hearts were damaged as a result of the fall, resulting in an internal disease that manifests itself in our outward behavior. The prophet Jeremiah gives us the sobering diagnosis: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Years later, Jesus would confirm Jeremiah’s diagnosis. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23 ESV). Mankind suffers from a deadly heart disease. The external sins we commit, as listed by Jesus, are simply the symptoms of a much greater problem going on inside. And David was well aware that his real issue was worse than even his sin with Bathsheba. He desperately desired a healed heart. He knew he would never stop himself from sinning unless God did something drastic. What he needed was soul surgery, a radical realignment of his very nature, something only God could do. While David was fully capable of confessing his sins, only God could cleanse and renew him. Only God could take care of the source of the problem, David’s sin-saturated heart. While David could admit that he had done wrong, he had no capacity within himself to stop it from happening again. He needed a clean heart and a renewed spirit. His natural inclination was to drift away from God. His heart was prone to give in to his sin nature, feeding his passions and desires, even when they were contrary to the will of God. Paul described this dilemma well. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). It’s interesting to note that David begs God, “take not your Holy Spirit from me.” He knew that God’s indwelling presence was essential for him to be able to experience true heart change. Without the Spirit’s help, David would be left to give in to the inclinations of his flesh, which, according to Paul, would result in a less-than-ideal outcome. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21 ESV). David had just experienced the truth of Paul’s claim. Now he needed cleansing and renewal. He needed God to do what only He could do.

Admission of guilt does not eliminate responsibility or remove condemnation. It simply paves the way for God to perform the miracle of extending His grace, mercy, forgiveness and love. When we come to Him with a heart broken by our sin and shamed by our disobedience toward Him, He offers us cleansing and renewal. In the words of the apostle John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 ESV). We confess, God cleanses. We repent, God renews.

While our sin deserves God’s rejection and righteous retribution, He offers us restoration and renewal. David’s greatest fear was a loss of fellowship with God. He knew just how dependent he was upon God. He was nothing without God. That is why he prayed, “Cast me not away from your presence.” Alienation from God was a scary thing to David. Earlier in his life, long before he had become a powerful king, David had spent years living in exile, with a bounty on his head. He had known what it was like to feel alone and seemingly abandoned by God. In one of his earlier Psalms he had written, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest” (Psalm 22:1-2 ESV). He had cried out to God, “Be not far from me” and “do not be far off!” During those bleak times of his life, when he had been surrounded by external enemies and threats on his life, he had learned to depend upon and turn to God for help. And now that his life was threatened by an eternal enemy: his own heart, he turned to God again. He knew that unless God helped him, he was helpless and hopeless. But David knew the words of the Lord, spoken as the people of Israel stood on the edge of the Promised Land facing the enemies who lived there. “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV). God would not abandon him or leave him to fight his internal battles alone. Our battle with sin is not ours to fight. If we try to defeat sin alone, we will fail. But if we recognize our need for God’s help and dependence upon His Spirit’s strength, we can experience victory. We can know what it means to be cleansed and renewed, from the inside out.

Cleansed by God.

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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. – Psalm 51:7-9 ESV

Psalm 51

David came to God humbly confessing his sin. He took full responsibility for what he had done and acknowledged that his sin had been against God. But David was not done. He came to God because he desperately needed something from God. Yes, he desired God’s forgiveness, but he greatly needed and wanted God to cleanse him from his sin, guilt, shame and brokenness. David’s sin had taken its toll on him. He was burdened by what he had done. He knew he had displeased God and as long as his sin remained unconfessed and hidden, he was miserable. In another one of his psalms, David gives a description of just what his mindset would have been. “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4 NLT). The purpose for David’s confession was far more than a guilt-free conscience. He knew that confession alone would not remove his sin. He needed God’s cleansing. The apostle John gave us an important reminder on the power of confession in the life of a believer. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10 ESV). Refusal to believe that we are even capable of sin may make us feel better, but it doesn’t fool God. To deny the sin for which God convicts us is to call Him a liar. But if we will own up to our sin and humbly confess it to God, He will not only forgive us but cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn’t just remove the guilt, He takes away the cause of the guilt.

David asked God to purge him with hyssop. This was a reference to the practice of the priest sprinkling animal blood on the altar with a hyssop branch. The animal was killed as a substitute for the sinner and its blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice or payment for the sins of the individual. The writer of Hebrews, speaking of the Old Testament sacrificial system, said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV). While David would have surely taken advantage of the opportunity to offer sacrifice for his sins, he was asking God Himself to make him clean. He wanted God to do for him what no human being could do: remove the stain of his sin completely. He asked God to restore his joy and gladness. He begged God to blot out all his iniquities. David’s broken relationship with God, caused by his own sin, was as painful and debilitating as an actual broken bone. He needed the healing of the Great Physician. Sin brings sorrow, guilt and shame. It leaves us alienated from God. And while we are responsible to come to Him in confession, we are completely dependent on Him for forgiveness and cleansing.

David was appealing to the mercy and love of God. He knew God well. He understood God’s holiness, but he also depended on God’s unfailing love and mercy. In another one of his psalms, David revealed his personal view of God’s relationship with him. “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:10-14 ESV). That was what David was counting on. He knew that God understood his faults, failings and weaknesses. He understood and was counting on the fact that God was compassionate and kind. David was relying on God’s unfailing love. He knew that if God removed the guilt of his sin, it would be complete and permanent, as far as the east if from the west. The apostle John would have us remember that “Jesus came to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5 ESV) and “the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). Jesus died in order to pay the debt owed for our sins. He came to remove the penalty of death that hung over our heads due to our sin natures inherited from Adam, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). But John reminds us that “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 ESV). God has provided a means by which we can receive forgiveness and cleansing from ALL our sin – past, present and future. We will still sin, because we still have our sin natures. But the debt has been paid. The blood has been shed. All we must do is confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The result is the removal of guilt and shame, restoration of fellowship with God, healing from our pain and sorrow, and renewed joy and gladness. There is an old Scottish proverb that says, “confession in good for the soul.” David would agree. But it is not the act of confession that brings the benefit. It is the cleansing power of the blood of Christ that provides the gracious and complete forgiveness of God.

Sin Against God.

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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. – Psalm 51:3-4 ESV

Psalm 51

Over in 2 Corinthians 7:10, the apostle Paul wrote about two kinds of sorrow. One he called “godly sorrow.” It is the kind of sorrow that God wants us to experience, because it leads us away from sin and results in salvation. And while it’s still sorrow, in the long run, it comes with no regrets. On the other hand, there is “worldly sorrow.” That kind of sorrow is superficial, lacking true repentance and ultimately results in spiritual death. It may appear genuine and be accompanied by true remorse, but remorse is nothing more than deep and painful regret for wrongdoing. It does not necessarily produce repentance, or a change in heart. Worldly sorrow may even result in nothing more than regret, a feeling of disappointment or dissatisfaction over what you have done. But again, if it is not accompanied with repentance, the end result will be spiritual death. Remorse and regret can only produce guilt and shame. Guilt and shame, by themselves, are destructive, rather than constructive.

David seemed to understand this truth. He had great sorrow over what he had done. He realized that his sin with Bathsheba was serious and that he deserved God’s punishment for it. I am sure he felt sorrow, regret, remorse, as well as guilt and shame for what he had done. Word had gotten out. His reputation had been sullied. He had gotten what he had wanted: Bathsheba as his wife, but not without great cost. He was stuck trying to continue the cover up of his sin, including Bathsheba’s pregnancy with the child from their immoral relationship. David knew he was responsible for the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. And he knew that Joab, his military commander and the one who carried out the death sentence, knew as well. David’s little house of cards was beginning to tremble all around him. Every night he went to be he couldn’t help but think about the gravity of what he had done. But with the help of Nathan the prophet, David was brought to his senses and convicted of his sin and his need for repentance. He had to return to God. David woke up to the fact that his sin had been against God. Yes, he had most definitely sinned against Uriah by having sex with his wife, then by attempting to deceive him by trying to get him to sleep with Bathsheba in order to cover up who was the true father of the child. David had sinned against Bathsheba as well, using his power and influence as king to coerce her to be unfaithful to her husband and commit adultery. But at the end of the day, David had to acknowledge that his sin had been against God. Which is why he prayed, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” David took ownership for what he had done and acknowledge that his actions had been against God. He had broken God’s laws. He had disobeyed God’s commands. And he recognized that God had every right to do with him as He saw fit. God would be fully justified to punish David for all he had done. Sin against God always comes with consequences and David knew it. And he was ready to accept whatever God decided to do.

But David had begun his prayer with a cry for mercy. He knew that he was at God’s mercy. God could do with him whatever he wanted and would have been justified in whatever punishment he deemed necessary. And David knew there was nothing he could do to rectify his problem. The deed was done. The sin had been committed. He couldn’t bring Uriah back to life. He couldn’t reverse the affair he had had with Bathsheba. And there she was, walking around the palace, carrying his child, as a daily reminder of his sin. That is why David had asked God to “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:2 ESV). David was powerless to remedy his situation. But he knew that God could forgive him and cleanse him from the damaging influence of his own actions.

David needed to repent. He needed to turn back to God. His sin had created a barrier between he and God. Emotionally, he found himself separated from God. His guilt made it difficult to face God. His inability to fix what he had done allowed the enemy to step in and accuse him of his failure to remain faithful to God. All David would do was feel guilt for what he had done or attempt feel nothing, trying to rationalize his actions away and learn to minimize his sin. Fortunately, David repented. He turned away from his sin and back to the one who could help him do something about it. He turned to God. But to do so, he had to come in humility and with a heart ready to confess what he had done. No more running. No more ignoring. No more rationalizing and justifying. No more blame. It was time for godly sorrow, the kind that leads to repentance and restoration. God wants to restore. He wants to renew. But He requires that we come to Him with broken and contrite hearts. Later on in this same Psalm, David will express that very sentiment. “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Psalm 51:17 NLT). God desires to see our hearts truly repentant and ready to return to Him for help, hope and healing. We can’t fix what we have done, but He can.