YEAR 1, WEEK 51, Day 7, Sunday, 22 December 2024

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Sunday, 22 December 2024:

Psalm 51:1-2 — Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

Psalm 51 reveals David’s intense remorse and repentance after sinning terrible against God. This specific incident is recorded 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, the moral low point in David’s life. David was guilty of adultery, murder and a cover-up, while remaining hardened against repentance until Samuel boldly confronted him as God’s messenger and instrument of conviction. With Samuel’s powerful rebuke, David finally breaks down before the Lord in complete shame and humility.

“Have mercy on me….” Reconciliation with God begins with complete, honest, humble confession, nothing held back, no excuses, fully exposing and acknowledging the truth and depth of the sinful character behind the sinful act.

“…according to your steadfast love….” Completely honest and humble confession, presenting yourself to the Lord shamefully exposed and fully vulnerable, depends on trust in the steadfast love of God who loves us despite our unloveliness.

“…according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” If we are honest in our confession, our sins can be overwhelming, until we compare them with the abundance of God’s grace and mercy. His grace is more than sufficient.

• Acts 3:19 — Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out….
• 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 1 John 1:7 — But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Psalm 51:3-4 — 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.

The truly repentant doesn’t just put their sins behind them, make light of them, justify them, or cover them up. Rather, they face their sins, confront their sins, take full responsibility for their sins, and deal with them. David recognized that his sin wasn’t just about breaking rules but rather breaking relationship with God Himself. Certainly David understood the pain his sin caused others, but before he hurt anyone else, He betrayed God. Only when we see our sin as God sees it can we be truly repentant.

“My sin is ever before me…, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement.” David didn’t wallow in his sin or become consumed and debilitated in his guilt and self-pity; nor did he presume upon God’s mercy and grace. Instead he remain fully aware of and honest about his sin and acknowledged that he fully deserved God’s judgment – no excuses or claims to mercy, only pleas for mercy based on God’s grace.

Psalm 51:5-6 — Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

David wasn’t simply blaming his parents, his upbringing, or his circumstances for his sin but rather acknowledging and confessing the depths of his sinfulness having been born a sinner. Like the rest of us, David wasn’t a good person who occasionally sinned; he was a sinner who occasionally did good. He also didn’t try to plead ignorance. He knew exactly what God desires and commands because God has provided it through His word and through the counsel of His Spirit. David understood that he sinned for only one reason: He wanted to sin, and it was this deep ungodly desire over which David lamented and which he humbly confessed; and it is this issue of the heart which about which God is convicting David, not merely the behavior. God isn’t merely seeking from us behavior modification – if God wanted to make us behave a certain way, He is more than powerful enough to force us into obedience. God is seeking in us hearts that want what He wants and obey out of the depths of our desires because we love as He loves, and love always does what is right and best because it is right and best. Confession and repentance begins with admitting we don’t want what we want but at least wanting to want what God wants and asking for God’s forgiveness and help in changing our desires.

• Isaiah 55:6-9 — “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:16 — “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
• Romans 12:2 — Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Philippians 2:5-11 — Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Psalm 51:7-9 — 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.

Hyssop was used to apply the blood of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:22). Hyssop was also used to sprinkle the priest’s purifying water (Numbers 19:18). David is asking for God to purify and cleanse David as David or no one else ever could. He is not just asking for a second chance, which would only be another opportunity to sin again without a changed heart; rather, he is asking for holiness, and David knows that despite his obvious depravity and dirtiness, God can make him “whiter than snow.” David puts no trust in his own ability to fix himself but places all his hope in God’s ability to transform him through His power. Willpower is no substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit. Willpower will fail every time because the power of our sinful will is the problem – we will eventually surrender to what we ultimately desire. God Himself has to change our desires, but we have to seek Him and follow Him for Him to do that work within us.

Psalm 51:10 — 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.

David recognizes that he cannot fix his own heart, only God can create a clean heart and renew a right spirit. David also knows that the way to become more like God is to be around God. Haven’t you noticed that the more you hang out with someone, the more you start to act like them? The same is true with God, we become like Him the more live with Him, listen to Him, gaze upon Him, follow Him, emulate Him, and proclaim Him, all while being empowered by His Spirit within us. David was ready to accept whatever punishment God had for Him, but the one thing David pleaded was not to be denied the presence of God and His Spirit, which was his life. When you greatest desire is Jesus, and when you seek first the Kingdom (His presence) and His righteousness, everything else falls into place.

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 — And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• Ephesians 5:1-2 — Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
• 1 John 2:6 — Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
• 1 Peter 2:21 — For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
• Romans 8:29 — For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Psalm 51:13 — Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

A person who truly has been saved has a natural passion for telling others how to be saved too. It is not a hard thing to get people to talk about what they care most about.

Also, you can’t teach what you don’t really know. To proclaim the Gospel you must experience and live the Gospel.

Psalm 51:17 — The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God seeks genuine, humble repentance and love. Unlike our human relationships, you can’t mask your true feelings with God. He knows the truth of you, your motives, desires, and emotions. Walk with the Spirit as He searches your heart. Trust God with your failures, but don’t use God’s grace as an excuse to fail – “God knows I am human and forgives me.” Take your sin as seriously as God does, but also desire purity as much as God desires it for you.

• Matthew 5:48 — You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
• Philippians 3:12-21 — Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 22 December 2024: Confess your sins wholeheartedly; received God’s forgiveness; trust in His grace; and go and sin no more while showing mercy and grace to other sinners and pointing them to Jesus.

• 1 John 1:9 — If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.