Cleanse My Heart

This last Sunday I got to preach a sermon in a real church for the first time. IT WAS SO COOL!! Way more fun than preaching in class.

The text that I preached from was Psalm 51:1-12. Here are my thoughts.

I love this psalm. It’s one of my most favorite passages in the whole bible. I love it because it’s so honest. The book of Psalms is often called the prayer book of the soul. The psalms give voice to the deepest feelings of our hearts. The full range of human emotion can be found in the psalms. Here, in the psalms, we find permission to enter into completely honest dialogue with God. The psalms show us that we can come to God and open our hearts fully. Nothing is off the table.

I love this psalm in particular because here we find a prayer of complete repentance. Take a look at the subtitle for this text. You will notice that each psalm has a brief description or note at its beginning. These are not editorial notes from the scholars who published this translation. These notes are in the ancient Hebrew texts. See the note for this text. This psalm is believed to have been written by King David after the prophet Nathan confronts him about the sins David committed regarding Bathsheba. While David is remembered as Israel’s greatest king, what he did, driven by his lust for her, also makes him one of Israel’s worst kings. He coveted a woman who was married to another person and arranged for the murder of a man who would have died for him and then tried to cover it all up.

But God cannot be fooled and sends Nathan to call David to account, and David, knowing that he is guilty, is brought to his knees. This psalm is not a list of poor choices, quickly listed off before a perfunctory request for God’s forgiveness. This is the anguished cry of a man who knows that he has strayed into water well over head and is caught in the riptide. This psalm is the lament of one who has taken an honest look within and is disgusted by what he has found.

How many of us have been in such a place? Who here has come into worship and as you sat and listened and sang memories from the past come bubbling up uninvited; things you thought were water under a bridge, mistakes you made or people you’ve hurt, cruel words that you wish you could take back? Or how many of us have ever been driving along and suddenly something triggers a memory of something that we are not proud of? I know that has certainly happened to me. It’s been said that when people look back on their lives, they often look back through rose-colored glasses. That may be true, but I know that often we look back and see a lot of things we wish we hadn’t done. Sometimes our lenses are colored by shame and we feel like we’ve failed. Sometimes when we look back, all we see is dirt and debris. Our memories sometimes feel like sweaty and grimy work-clothes and we long to be rid of them and take a good long bath.

That’s why I’m so glad we have this psalm; because we have a song that leads us faithfully to the only place where those burdens can be lifted, those wounds can be healed and our hearts can be washed clean of the muck and grime of our sin. You see, David knows something that is very important for us to remember. We see it at the very start. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to YOUR STEADFAST LOVE; according to your ABUNDANT MERCY blot out my transgressions.” David knows that above all, God is loving and rich in mercy. The steadfast love that David sings of here is the same love that we sing of when we sing, “On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” This is love that never goes away. God’s love for us is like an unmovable rock. St. Paul writes about this love in Romans 8, when he says that nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love. God’s love is faithful and endures no matter what.

David also knows that God is rich in mercy. God is able and more than willing to forgive. We know that while there’s nothing that we can do to save ourselves, God CAN save. God CAN make us right again.

But when we go on, we see that there’s more to it. David acknowledges in verses 6 through 8 that we need to be cleansed from the inside out. The wrong things we do are a symptom of a deeper malady. We are unclean on the inside. God desires truth and righteousness to live deep inside us, not just on the outside in our actions, but also in our hearts. But sin has worked its way deep into our hearts and there is darkness in the deep recesses of our beings.

David says, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be white like snow.” Hyssop was a medicinal plant used like we use Neosporin. David knows that in order to be fully healed of his brokenness, the infection inside him must be treated.

Our portion of the psalm finishes with one of the most famous passages in all of the Old Testament. I love the way the King James Version says it. “Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”  The cause of our wrongdoings is found in our hearts being distant from God. If we want to be clean again, we need a spirit that is akin to that of God. David asks God to give him a spirit that is steadfast and faithful. A Spirit that is just like God as we see in verses 1 and 2, a spirit that is defined by steadfast love. Just like David asks God to turn God’s face away from his sins, we must turn our hearts and spirits back toward God, the living center of our lives.

In order to be made right with God and each other, we need to be healed, made well. But what can possibly heal the embedded brokenness that haunts us and makes a mess of things?

The prophet Isaiah foretells of the one who will accomplish this in Isaiah 53:5. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Two Thursdays from now, Christians all over the world will gather and remember how our Lords made good on that promise when he took a cup and said “This cup is the new covenant, sealed in my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.”

Have you ever plucked up the courage to apologize to someone and been forgiven? You feel like you just grew a foot taller. The weight of the issue that stood between the two of you has been removed from your shoulders. You can’t help but feel clean inside.

As the season of lent draws to a close and we begin to make the journey toward Calvary and the cross, we find that there our healing is completed. We are reminded of the gravity of our sin, but we are also reminded that By of the blood of Jesus, poured out on our behalf, his life laid down for us on the cross, and in his resurrection life, God has made us clean forever. “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”  Brothers and Sisters, hear the good news: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.