Scripture: Psalm 51: 1-12
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 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 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.
Today’s Meditation:Â
The Psalmist (David) in this passage desires to reconnect with God after falling into sin and asks God for mercy. He had engaged in an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and had arranged for the murder of her husband to try to hide it. Remembering and drawing from what is known about God, e.g., God’s steadfast love God’s abundant mercy, David knows that God is supremely interested in a person’s heart (inward being) and not in the outward behaviors of pseudo-spirituality. Hence, the psalmist says to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me [emphasis mine].
May this wish to have a new and right spirit be our approach as we enter the Lenten Season.
Prayer:
Loving God, may you daily restore in me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Amen.
Jesse G. Mabanglo