The Psalm that we have been studying during this Lenten season has taken us deep into our hearts, confronted us with the reality of our sin, and given us incredibly beautiful words with which to pray for forgiveness and cleansing. Last week we concentrated on the verses where we pray, “cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow… create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
I led a little exercise, where I invited us to imagine holding our hearts in our hands before God, asking what we see when we look at our hearts, and then praying those verses over our hearts – “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…”. I had a few great conversations, really encouraging conversations, following that exercise, where some people shared that they really felt God show them some truths and touch them with cleansing and encouragement and forgiveness and healing. And I share that to encourage us all that these ancient words, beautiful words of poetry, really do contain truth for today, really are opportunities to experience the touch of God, they really are alive and powerful – if we choose to engage.
My point here is that it can be easy for us to sit and listen, and agree, and do nothing with any of this. But when we really engage, when we do what Scripture shows us, when we choose to live differently, it really does work! God keeps His promises, and our lives are ever so much richer and more beautiful.
That is a key point, because without it the rest of the Psalm, which we will look at today, is little more than some more nice words. But when enacted, they are words of life that bring hope and newness and joy and power.
But let’s back up and read the whole Psalm:
Psalm 51 (NIV): (read together)
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;[a]
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.(NRSV)
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Passing it On:
Since the section we are studying today begins with the word, “Then…”, we have to look back a few verses before moving on. The context is the request for God to “create in me a clean heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me”. When that happens, when God touches us and makes us new and pure and clean, and when God grants us that spirit that is willing and steadfast and eager to follow and delight in God, then we move to the next step:
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Verse 13 is the first result of God cleansing us and making us new – it overflows to those around us. David talks about sharing this with others – teaching them no doubt through his horrible experience of guilt and grief – what the ways of God really are, with the goal that those who are far from God will “turn back”.
Now, there are a couple important things for us to notice. First, the “teaching” is not from some holy man on a mountain, who has never gotten messy in life and who has everything in control and neat and tidy and organized. This is someone who has just royally blown it, but has confessed and repented and been made new again. This is someone who can say, “I’ve been down that road you are looking at, that looks all nice and wonderful, but I’ve travelled that road and let me tell you…”. I hope that is encouraging to you, God can use us even through the things that we’ve done that were wrong.
The second thing is to imagine what it is like when those “sinners” actually “turn back” to God. Can we linger there for a moment? What does it feel like when someone we know, someone we love, has been far from God, making a mess of life, feeling horrible and miserable, “turns back” to God? Do you know what that is like? Isn’t that amazing? It is incredible, it is powerful, it is restorative and opens the way for relationships to be mended and issues to be dealt with and forgiven and people to have their lives turned around and be brought back from death to life. The next verses then make sense – tongues shouting of God’s righteousness and lips opened and mouths declaring God’s praise. It is the experience Jesus relates in His stories in Luke 15, which begin like this: “15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Now let’s take this one more step. If we believe that, and can grasp that great joy of the “one sinner who repents” – if in fact we even go the not-so-great leap to suggest it is perhaps one of the greatest joys imaginable – then why do we not pursue those “lost sheep” more fervently? Why don’t we pray for them more desperately? Why is sharing the hope and forgiveness we have found so low on our priority list? I don’t mean any of this as a downer or a guilt trip or anything like that – I just wonder why we understand the importance and the joy that is possible but then seem to pray more for people we know and care about who are physically sick and less for people who need to “turn back” to God. The joy is there, God really can turn those hearts back to Himself, and there is a role for us to play in that process which includes and begins with our hearts at prayer.
The Explosion of Praise:
Verses 14-15 talk about another consequence of the clean heart/restored joy: it is an explosion of praise. “my tongue will sing… my mouth will declare your praise”. These words are, unfortunately, a little too tame. I dug in a bit, and these are not quiet contemplative songs, or reserved declarations of praise. These are exuberant outbursts – shouts – of genuine joy that a person who was so wrapped up in guilt and shame that their very mouths were shut is now free, is now forgiven, is now found. This is an Easter Sunday morning type of expression!
What God Really Wants: (vs 16-17):
For those of you who really like to think and to study, I encourage you to take a look at verse 16, which says God doesn’t want sacrifices and burnt offerings, and imagine how that might have been received in David’s day when the entire system was built around sacrifices and burnt offerings; and then read verse 19 and try to reconcile the two. Enjoy…
For the rest, let’s look at it a little more personally. Have you ever wondered what God really wants from you? Have you ever cried out, perhaps in a time of struggle when it is hard to stay true to God and it seems like everything is hard, ever cried out “what do you want from me God?”
I have. There have been times when I’ve felt like I have given it all, poured out my heart and best skills and best efforts, and it still doesn’t seem enough. Still doesn’t seem to do what needs to be done. Still doesn’t seem like God has delighted in my sacrifices. What does God really want? Our pain. Our brokenness. Hearts that have gotten to the end of all our resources – which is usually our self-reliance and control and desire to do it all ourselves – hearts that have gotten to the point where we realize and accept that we can’t do it all, we can’t fix it, we can’t change the depths of our hearts. Hearts that are broken and contrite, hearts that say “here I am, Lord, I’m a mess, I’m broken, I’m not clean and shiny like I think I am supposed to be, I’m completely lost without You. That’s what God wants – not in some cruel way where He would enjoy our brokenness, no! The opposite!! God wants our broken and contrite heart because He knows that is the point when we let go and let God make it good. Let God make it new. Let God come and do what only God can do. We’ve got to get out of the way in order for that to happen. We’ve got to give up trying to manage and control and secure the desired outcome.
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
To The Cross.
That basically wraps up the Psalm. Scholars think verses 18-19 were added long after David wrote the first part, possibly during the time of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the city, and possibly to bring it into their context, and so I’ll just leave them with you because we have an important place to go.
We are headed to the cross. Two Sundays from now we will celebrate the resurrection, having remembered the cross. And what better example of something that was broken that God delights in than Jesus on the cross.
I knew coming into this Lenten season that studying a Psalm had the hidden danger of us not really being focused on Jesus, but I’ve wanted to teach it to us so that as we come to Jesus, as we come to the cross, we have some words written on our hearts, deeply familiar to us, with which to respond to what we experience and remember.
I wanted us to have words that express our grief over our sin, which required Jesus hang on a cross and die.
I wanted us to have words that express our desperation for forgiveness and cleansing and newness, as the reality of what our sin required of Jesus sinks in and moves us.
I wanted us to have words that express our response once we accept forgiveness.
And I wanted us to have words for our broken, contrite hearts, that affirm those as an offering in which God deeply delights.
And I think we have them in Psalm 51.
Conclusion:
So let’s go the next steps.
Next week is the ironic celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry, with the Palm branches and the shouts of Hosanna and the welcoming of Jesus like a king, then passion week with Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Are you ready? What offering are you going to bring? What actions are you going to take to worship your King, Jesus? Remember, He wants your heart. Your whole heart, broken, contrite, repentant, pledged to serve and seek and teach others who are far from God, and then full of praise and delight as God does what only God can do: raises the dead, finds the lost, restores the broken, and opens our lips to sing His praise.
