My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Psalm 51

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Super famous verses, some of the first verses out of the Old Testament that I memorized. Songs have been written based on David’s confession and request for restoration after his rebellion. Very famous passage!

Yet, as I reflect on the passage, I sense in the King a continuing admission of his helpless state. He begs God to do what only God can do. He begins this section in verse 7 where he refers to his need of cleansing. We have discussed the cleansing David requested in previous posts, (See Psalms for Psome – Ps 51.02) and he recalls the request again in front of the only One who can cleanse.

David then continues with a request for God, to allow, no – to provide the ability to experience joy and gladness, to hear with right ears and to find joy in the very discipline (broken bones) he experienced in his rebellion.

He pleads God to hide His face from his sins, and to blot out his iniquities. How much greater experience we have to know that His sacrifice for our sins allows us to experience forgiveness based on His mercy and love in dying for us. We no longer have to request the Father to “hide His face” from our sins, for He has dealt with our sins on the cross. We are most blessed, for we as believers have the gospel shining into our hearts, giving us light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

David then breaches the famous words!

Create in me a clean heart. No longer is he asking to wash his sins away! He “cuts to the core” and speaks of his heart condition, realizing he is in desperate need of a new heart, for the old heart will only drag him back into the rebellion he is desperately clawing away from. No – a new heart is what he needs, and he knows it. The depth of David’s understanding of self is astounding.

One other time in the Old Testament, the term “clean heart”:” occurs, and that is also in the Psalms, in chapter 73, verse 12. Asaph speaks of maintaining a clean heart, but some translations refer to it as a pure heart. Ezekiel is the prophets that speaks of a new heart, that of those who in the New Covenant will be granted, as they look to the Messiah.

A clean heart. A pure heart. A new heart. Out of a sinful existence this is a very real possibility for those who wish it. The freedom that comes from a clean heart, the boldness, the restfulness and openness a clean heart provides. Oh to have a clean heart continually!

He speaks to God concerning his fear of being cast away, of having the Spirit of God taken from him. This is a topic I would like to reserve for a separate post in the Conditional Security series I am venturing though. Watch for it.

He finally requests God for restoration. He has confessed, he has requested, now he looks to God for his restoration, and not only restoration, but that God would uphold him in this restoration. For you see, David claimed the very same thing Jude spoke of in his book where it is written..

Jude 1:24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

In the midst of trials and troubles, self inflicted pain and worries, as we look to Him for help, He may be found. As you may be going through confession and contrition over sin, realize that it is a sign of life. Do not refuse it, do not ignore it, for He looks to those who are brokenhearted, and delights to see truth in the inward man, in the heart!

God is good, all the time.

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