![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/71\/2019\/03\/david-penitent-684x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Have mercy on me, O God,
\naccording to your merciful love;
\naccording to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
\nWash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
\nand cleanse me from my sin!<\/p>\nFor I know my transgressions,
\nand my sin is ever before me.
\nAgainst you, you only, have I sinned,
\nand done that which is evil in your sight,
\nso that you are justified in your sentence
\nand blameless in your judgment.
\nBehold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
\nand in sin did my mother conceive me.<\/p>\nBehold, you desire truth in the inward being;
\ntherefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
\nPurge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
\nwash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
\nMake me hear joy and gladness;
\nlet the bones which you have broken rejoice.
\nHide your face from my sins,
\nand blot out all my iniquities.<\/p>\nCreate in me a clean heart, O God,
\nand put a new and right spirit within me.
\nCast me not away from your presence,
\nand take not your holy Spirit from me.
\nRestore to me the joy of your salvation,
\nand uphold me with a willing spirit.<\/p>\nThen I will teach transgressors your ways,
\nand sinners will return to you.
\nDeliver me from bloodguilt, O God,
\nO God of my salvation,
\nand my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.<\/p>\nO Lord, open my lips,
\nand my mouth shall show forth your praise.
\nFor you take no delight in sacrifice;
\nwere I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
\nThe sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
\na broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.<\/p>\nDo good to Zion in your good pleasure;
\nrebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
\nthen will you delight in right sacrifices,
\nin burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
\nthen bulls will be offered on your altar. (Ps 51:1\u201319).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI\u2019ve always loved this psalm because David is penitent about real sin. He has not committed some scrupulous sin of thought or word.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t violated some ritual purity code about some culturally specific taboo against eating pork or not saying some shibboleth.\u00a0 He is not being publicly modest about something that is not a big deal, but which will win him street cred as a Great and Humble Man.<\/p>\n
Nope.\u00a0 He\u2019s guilty as hell of screwing another man\u2019s wife because he was king and felt like doing it. He is a man who then, also because he was a powerful bully who totally abused his power, took that betrayed man\u2013one of his most loyal troops and one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie\u2013and murdered him in cold blood by an even deeper act of betrayal so cold that it takes your breath away.\u00a0 He ordered one of his generals to put the cuckolded Uriah the Hittite on the front line and then pull all his fellow soldiers back, leaving him to die at the hands of the enemy.\u00a0 In short, David was not only an adulterer and murderer, he was a gutless coward who used his power to force other men into becoming accomplices to the murder and coverup he lacked the courage to commit himself.<\/p>\n
I can scarcely conceive of a lower crime than David\u2019s, nor could Israel.\u00a0 Yet it is the prayer begging for mercy for this despicable sin that becomes the greatest sign of hope for the sinner in the psalter.\u00a0 If God can forgive this, what can\u2019t he forgive?<\/p>\n
It is notable and telling about the moral clarity of the Jewish people that both the story of David\u2019s sin and this psalm are carefully preserved in Scripture in an unvarnished manner.\u00a0 There is no scribal Kellyanne Conway to cover this story in bullshit.\u00a0 We hear exactly what David did in all its disgusting ugliness and we see Israel then carefully preserve this psalm, not for David\u2019s sake, but for the sake of every Israelite (and in the providence of God, every sinner) who will live thereafter.<\/p>\n
Paul tells us of the Old Testament scriptures, \u201cNow these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.\u201d (1 Co 10:11). In other words, the story of David and the mercy he found is for us.\u00a0 There is no sin God is unwilling to forgive if we will only ask for his mercy.\u00a0 Today, make this psalm your own.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your merciful love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done that which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":107884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1075,546],"class_list":["post-107881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lenten-thoughts","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n
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