Psalm 51 :: Confession
March 27, 2007
For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.
5 For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6 But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
9 Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
and they will return to you.
14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
15 Unseal my lips, O Lord,
that my mouth may praise you.
16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
18 Look with favor on Zion and help her;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit—
with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.
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1.
Jeff Wenke | March 27, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Amazing to hear the inner workings of David as he writes this poem / prayer to God. His sins “haunt him night and day” and he knows he can’t find a religion act like sacrificing to make him feel right with God.
2.
Dave Reynolds | March 27, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I find it interesting that David’s response to his sin is to ask God to restore his joy over being saved. I have felt so many times my own shame and frustration for failing God over and over again, and I’ve experienced what it is like when my joy has fled from me. I wallow in my general suckiness. So David wants his joy back.
But then he says that when he gets it back, he will tell rebels about God’s ways. This is counter-intuitive to the thinking of some national Christian leaders (and their followers): that we cannot reach people for Christ unless we present this image of goodness and have-it-together-ness. But my experience has been that as I am honest about my failures and weaknesses, undiscipled people respond to that.
Earlier David says that God desires “honesty from the womb” (New Living Translation renders it “honesty from the heart”).
I wonder if we think we have to be “good” in front of others because we fear what others think of the hyprocrisy of televangelists. I think what other people want from us is not fake piety but honesty about our own sins. I wonder if we would find more people hungry for a God who can handle honest, flawed people if we were up front about ourselves and less judgmental of others.