Take a deep breath and hold it. Now exhale. What just happened? You took some air into your lungs. Your lungs removed the oxygen from the air for your body to use. You then exhaled what your body doesn’t need—carbon dioxide. What you took in sustains your life. What you breathed out is of no use to you. In fact if you kept it in your lungs too long it would actually be harmful.
Some have used the breathing process as an illustration of the ongoing exchange between believers and God. Every day we inhale his love, forgiveness, and mercy. On a daily basis we also exhale our confession of our sins, our sorrow over them, and our desire to change our lives. This “spiritual breathing” as it has been called is worked in us through God’s Word. His holiness, his Commandments, and his righteous justice, lead us to exhale our sinfulness, our disobedience, and our guilt. His gift of salvation, the perfect obedience of Jesus in our place, and the declaration that we are not guilty of any sin lead us to inhale those things into our soul. We are then empowered by them to surrender our lives to the LORD and live for him.
On this Baptism Sunday we are recalling the relationship God has formed with us in the “washing with water through the Word.” Through his Son Jesus we are now his dearly loved children. Our old sinful nature was drowned in the water that was connected to the words and promises of God when we were baptized. But baptism is not just an event that we are to recall from time to time with sentimental feelings. It is to be a daily reminder of what God has done for us. It also serves as a daily reminder of how we interact with God. Again and again we soil our robe of righteousness through our sinful thinking, talking, and acting. But again and again we go back to our Heavenly Father and ask him to forgive us, to cleanse us, and to change us.
In our sermon let’s focus on one small part of our baptismal relationship to God. Using the soul stirring words of King David we will be led to:
“BREATHE LIKE A BELIEVER”
I. Exhale your sorrow and repentance over your sins
II. Inhale God’s mercy and forgiveness through faith
The context or background of a section of Scripture is important for a correct understanding of what is said there. In the case of Psalm 51 King David gives us the background for what he wrote in a short introduction. These sentences are loaded with information. “For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.” You may be able to recall the sad story of David’s sin. In his lust for a woman who was not his wife he committed adultery. Then he had her husband murdered to cover up his sin. But as David found out a person can’t hide his or her sins from God. The prophet Nathan came and confronted King David with his sins. David repented. In deep sorrow he breathed out both his sins and his utter sinfulness. God invited him to take a deep breath of forgiveness. David was then moved by the Holy Spirit to write Psalm 51. This Psalm would be used at the worship services in the Tabernacle. Through it David was inviting everyone to breath like a believer. Believers constantly exhale their sorrow and repentance over their sins. They also continually breathe in God’s mercy and forgiveness through faith.
I.
First David declared what he needed from God. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” David understood that God had every right to punish him for his sins. Only mercy from God could change his situation. He needed the LORD to erase the record of his sins. And in words that seem to provide a prophetic pointing to holy baptism he asked God to wash away his iniquities and cleanse him from his sin. Clearly David knew what he needed from God and he asked for it.
But in order to enable him to receive a fresh breath of God’s love the Holy Spirit compelled David to exhale in sorrow and repentance. He wrote, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” David wasn’t exaggerating his situation for dramatic effect. In Psalm 32 he wrote about how his guilty conscience plagued him day and night. He knew that what he had done was sinful. There was no rest for David’s guilt ridden soul. In his sorrow and repentance David continued, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” We might say, “What about his sin against Bathsheba’s husband Uriah? How can he say that he only sinned against God?” David wasn’t playing down his sins against other people. But he was confessing the truth that all sin ultimately is against God and is an assault on his holiness. Then David expanded his confession to include his natural rottenness in God’s sight. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” What an exhaling of sorrow and repentance over sin! From the bottom of his heart and the depths of his soul David confessed his sins to God.
If we are going to breath like believers the Holy Spirit must lead us to see ourselves as David saw himself. But we might protest, “I haven’t committed adultery. I haven’t murdered anyone. How can you compare me to David?” Remember that in God’s sight a lustful look is adultery in the heart. And hating someone is equal to murder. So we are as sinful and guilty before God as David.
With that truth staring us in the face the Holy Spirit will lead us exhale our sins in sorrow and repentance. First we must know our sins and see them as God does. As David declared, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” This can’t be a “we’ve all been bad” or “we’ve all made some mistakes” kind of exhaling. No, it must be more specific and more personal than that. Do we see how we have violated God’s commandments and fallen far short of his holiness? Do we understand that we have wiped the mud of our sins on the white carpet of God’s righteousness? This knowledge of our transgressions can only come from hearing God’s commands and demands on a regular basis. Since God is holy any infraction of his will is a stench in his nose and something disgusting in his sight.
When we exhale our sorrow and repentance over sin it also needs to be directed to God as David did, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” A true uncovering of our soul takes place when we come clean before God in this way. No excuses. No finger pointing or blaming others. We simply say, “God, I have rebelled against you, disobeyed you, and chosen to do the things you hate. I have left undone the good that I should have done. You have every right to throw the book of your wrath at me.”
To completely exhale our sorrow and repentance over our sins it is helpful to go back to where it all started. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” In other words we tell God that sin isn’t something that rarely enters our lives. We admit to him that to the core of our being we are sinful. Sin permeates us like salt dissolved in water.
But is it really that bad? Yes! In Genesis 8:21 God said of us, “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” Psalm 58:3 says, “Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies.” Jesus said in John 3:6, “Flesh gives birth to flesh.” Sinful humans give birth to sinners. Sin isn’t just what we do; unfortunately it is also what we are.
So why is this exhaling of our sorrow and repentance over sin so important? What spiritual benefit comes to us through it? In the physical world a body can’t inhale unless it exhales. Also when you exhale it doesn’t take long for you to crave a breath of fresh air. The longer you delay the more desperate you become. So it is with our spiritual breathing. Our soul will find no need for inhaling God’s forgiveness unless we empty out the sin that has entered it. Exhaling your sorrow and repentance over your sins prepares you to receive the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It makes you crave God’s mercy. That is the next part of breathing like a believer that we will consider. After exhaling our sorrow and repentance over sin we inhale God’s mercy and forgiveness through faith.
But before we do that let’s connect our exhaling to the Sacrament of Baptism. Martin Luther stated it well in his Small Catechism, “What does baptizing with water mean? It means that our Old Adam with his evil deeds and desires should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and die, and that day by day a new man should arise, as from the dead, to live in the presence of God in righteousness and purity now and forever.” Yes we were made God’s child in baptism. We were clothed in the holiness of Jesus. But baptism did not rid us of our sinful nature. He or she still rises up to sin against God. So every day we must hold our old Adam or old Eve under God’s wrath. We can’t let our sinfulness breathe or see the light of day in our lives. But we are to let our new nature—the one given to us in baptism—rise up and take a deep breath of God’s mercy and forgiveness so we are empowered to live a new life.
II.
The next six verses of Psalm 51 explain how we breathe in God’s mercy and forgiveness. David went on to write, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” David knew that his only hope was for God to act on his behalf. “Cleanse.” “Wash.” “Hide.” “Create.” “Renew.” “Restore.” Those were actions David wanted God to take to make him a new person. He didn’t say, “I’ll try harder,” or “I’ll do better next time,” or “I hope I don’t fail you again, LORD.” No he called on God to change him.
But how was God going to change David? That God would do through his mercy and forgiveness revealed in his Word. We see that happen as David started breathing like a believer. He exhaled in sorrow and repentance over his sins. He inhaled God’s mercy and forgiveness.
If we stop our spiritual breathing with the exhaling of our sorrow and repentance over our sins our soul will die in despair. It needs the fresh air of forgiveness. And how does God give us that fresh air? It comes to us in the gospel—the good news that God has taken away the bad breath of our sinfulness. The carbon dioxide of our rebellion is sucked away and the oxygen tank of God’s grace is offered to us.
The Common Service that we frequently use has us sing the words of Psalm 51 after the sermon. The idea behind it is that we have heard the LAW and the GOSPEL and so now we ask God, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” And that God does as we inhale his mercy and forgiveness.
But how does the good news of forgiveness change us? It reminds us of who we really are. Colossians 3:8-10 describes this, “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” The “real” you—your “new self” is constantly renewed as you grow in your relationship to God. 1 Peter 2:1-3 speaks of this, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” We grow in our relationship to God and in our ability to serve him as we breathe in his mercy and forgiveness revealed to us in his Word.
The power of forgiveness in the believer’s life was expressed well by an anonymous author in a poem called THERE’S FORGIVENESS. “Don’t struggle alone, in fear and distress / As if there’s no hope, just your ugliness. Our Lord offers grace, not judgment deserving, / He longs for your love and your soon returning. THERE’S FORGIVENESS. It’s tough cutting through the darkness of sin / Striving for answers, His favor to win. He stands with His arms outstretched and extended / To hold and restore you, just mercy intended. THERE’S FORGIVENESS. Why search other places your answers to find / To fill the vast void and touch the divine. Lay down your excuses and learn to confess / Your sins and your shame to His holiness. THERE’S FORGIVENESS. His promise is certain, “I will forgive,” / Cleansing and freedom, it’s yours to live. From no other source full joy will you find. / He is your victory, your peace so sublime. THERE’S FORGIVENESS. There’s no one beyond the reach of His arm / To pick up and pardon, to rescue from harm. Return to the Master of your faith’s beginning. / Give Him your all, and you’ll find yourself winning. THERE’S FORGIVENESS. Yes, friends in Jesus, there is forgiveness. Breathe it in and let it be your life and strength.
Breathing is one of those things our bodies do naturally we don’t have to remind ourselves to breath. Unfortunately in the spiritual realm we do need reminders to breath. God’s Word must lead us to exhale our sorrow and repentance over our sins. His Commandments reveal how we have failed. Then God’s Word must also lead us to inhale God’s mercy and forgiveness. Breathe. Breathe like a believer. Amen.
