Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
(Psalm 51:1-3).
THEME
CONFESSION
Thinking back over his life of lust, Augustine cried out to God, "I want to call back to mind . . . the carnal corruptions of my soul, not because I love them, but so that I may love you, my God. It is for the love of your love that I do it."
For King David, passionate plots overruled holy devotion, and a murderous coverup overshadowed his kindhearted commitment. He hid his sins from both God and Israel. The prophet Nathan diagnosed David's heart rot and confronted him with his sin. David had the authority to kill Nathan for his audacity. But rather than add another sin to the already heaping pile, he repented. In Psalm 51, David admitted his guilt to God and the whole nation.
True confession acknowledges who we are and what we have done. God obviously already knows, but such soul surgery heals our relationship with Him. In opening ourselves up, we allow God's purging power to clean out the corruption, cure our disease, and make it possible for us to love and talk to Him again.
God is not nearly so outraged at our sin as He is at the destruction sin does to our selves; for when we destroy ourselves, we can no longer reach out to Him.
On the cross Jesus died completely. Cut off from His Father in His hours on the cross, Christ sacrificed His own emotional bond to restore ours. Though our sin continues to break our bond with God, confession renews it and makes us emotionally strong.
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MAY 06
PSALM 51:7-13
Create in me a clean heart, O God (Psalm 51:10).
By His sovereign grace, God can bring good out of our failures, and even out of our sins. J. Stuart Holden tells of an old Scottish mansion close to where he had his summer home. The walls of one room were covered by sketches made by distinguished artists. The practice began after a pitcher of soda water, spilled accidentally on a freshly decorated wall, left an unsightly stain. At the time, a noted artist, Lord Landseer, was a guest in the house. One day when the family went to the moors, he stayed behind. With a few masterful strokes of a piece of charcoal, the ugly spot became the outline of a beautiful waterfall, bordered by trees and wildlife. The artist turned a disfigured wall into one of his best depictions of Highland life.
David's sins of adultery and murder were ugly, disfiguring stains, but instead of casting David aside, God turned the ugliness into a thing of beauty by inspiring David to write two psalms of repentance and forgiveness. These psalms, 32 and 51, have brought comfort and hope to repentant sinners for centuries.
God never condones sin, nor does He spare His chastening rod. But when we confess, He begins a new work in our hearts. He does more than the artist did with the stain on the wall. God removes the blot of sin entirely and cleanses us. Then He makes us stronger and more useful than we were before.
--P.R.V.
As long as we have the grace of God, failure is not final.
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MAY 07
PSALM 38
My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. I am troubled (Psalm 38:5-6).
Our dog had fleas. For a while they just about drove him crazy. When we realized what his problem was, we bathed him with flea shampoo, dusted him with flea powder, and fumigated his bedding with flea spray. Then, just when we thought we had them beat, they showed up again. What was happening? Was he getting them from his food? From his bedding? From us? No, he had recently come of age and was determined to run after new loves whenever we left the door open a crack. We yelled and threatened him, but he was deaf to our calls. Once I even swatted him with a copy of LEADERSHIP magazine, but it didn't do any good. He was bound to run whenever he could. And he brought back problems, for him and for us.
In a much more serious sense, David faced the discomfort of problems that resulted from his own willfulness. When he felt the hand of his Master pressing down on him, he knew why (Psalm 38:2). God was trying to rid him of the consequences of his own foolishness.
When a dog runs away and causes problems for himself, we can do little to stop him. He's just following his instincts. But when we run from God and bring trouble on ourselves, we can get help. Like David, we can recognize God's correcting hand and make a new start. Better yet, we can avoid chastening by coming to the Lord before He must correct us. To run from God is never the solution.
--M.R.D.II
A small step of obedience is a giant step to blessing.
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MAY 08
PSALM 51:7-13
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, . . .Then I will teach transgressors Your ways (Psalm 51:12-13).
It isn't easy to make a forty-foot, forty-five-ton, untrained whale do what you want it to do, even if it's for its own good. That's what well-wishing friends found out when a humpback whale, affectionately named Humphrey, made a wrong turn during his migration along the California coast. The wayward mammal became a national celebrity when he turned into San Francisco Bay, swam under the Golden Gate Bridge, and managed to navigate seventy miles upriver. For more than three weeks, Humphrey defied all efforts to get him back to salt water. Finally, marine biologists lured him with recorded sounds of feeding humpbacks. It worked. Humphrey responded to the "happy humpbacks" and followed the sounds back to the Pacific.
The lure of happy sounds works not only with lost whales but also with lost people. God makes the lives of His saints appealing to those who don't know Him. His Spirit brings conviction and creates a desire for what Christians have. In the case of repentant King David, once his joy was restored he could lead others to God (Ps 51:13). And in the New Testament, we read that a Christian wife can draw her unsaved husband to the Lord by the power of a "gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Pe 3:1-6).
The appealing qualities of love, joy, and peace belong to those who feed on the goodness of God. And they generate the "sounds" that lead the lost to the freedom found in God's ocean of infinite grace.
--M.R.D.II
The sweet sound of singing saints calls sinners to salvation.
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MAY 09
PSALM 32
I will guide You with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule (Psalm 32:8-9).
David felt like a new man. God had lifted the crushing weight of guilt that made his bones old (v. 3) and drained his vitality (v. 4). He had acknowledged his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah (v. 5). Blessed beyond words by forgiveness, David urged any believer who strays or falls into sin to pray instantly for cleansing (v. 6). He also cautioned us not to wait for God to use tribulation to make us aware of His displeasure (v. 6).
God will guide us with His eye, David said, and then added, "Do not be like the horse or like the mule . . . which must be harnessed with bit and bridle." This was David's way of saying that God has two ways of bringing us back to Himself: the eye and the bit.
Earthly parents use the same two methods. When a youngster disobeys, one look from Dad conveys disapproval. And a speedy and sincere turnabout by the child assures renewed fellowship. But if the child disregards the gentle rebuke of the eye, Father must intervene with a stern word or a firm hand.
God wants us to confess and renounce our sin the moment we feel conviction about a thought, a word, an attitude, or a deed. He does not want us to be like animals that have no understanding, that need to be controlled by bits and bridles. God loves us too much to let us continue in our waywardness, but He prefers to guide us with His eye.
--D.J.D.
The closer we walk with God, the clearer we see His guidance.
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MAY 10
PSALM 51
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me (Psalm 51:3).
Jason had misbehaved, so his mother sent him to his room. A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I've been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer." His mother, pleased with his attitude, encouraged his behavior. "That's wonderful. If you ask God to make you good, I know He will help you." "But I didn't ask Him to help me be good," Jason said. "I asked Him to help you put up with me."
Prayers like Jason's are not uncommon. We don't like to admit that we may be to blame for the problem, so we petition the Lord to change other people or our circumstances. In doing so, we focus on secondary problems and avoid the heart of the matter--our own heart. Praying about our circumstances is effective only when we first come clean with the Lord about our own sin. In David's prayer in Psalm 51, he first asked for mercy (v. 1). Then he acknowledged his sin (v. 3), asked for a clean heart (v. 10), and asked for a restoration of the joy of his salvation (v. 12). When David confessed the shameful deeds of adultery and murder (2 Sa 11), he made no excuses.
God wants nothing less than our total honesty when we talk with Him. We may have to struggle with ourselves--that kind of praying is not always comfortable--but it's the most profitable.
--D.J.D.
Until man has gotten into trouble with his heart, he is not likely to get out of trouble with God. --Tozer
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MAY 11
DANIEL 9:1-19
Let us draw near . . . having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22).
While visiting in an Egyptian home, Bradford Abernethy saw a servant give a pitcher of water and a rug to a boy who lived there. Three times, the lad washed his hands, feet, face, neck, ears, and arms. Then he kneeled on the rug, bowed his head to the floor, and began to pray.
The Scriptures teach that a right relationship to God comes from being "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus" (1 Co 6:11). The outward washing of the body referred to in the Old Testament was a symbolic act to remind God's people that when they entered the Lord's presence their hearts were to be free from unconfessed sin. David declared, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Ps 66:18). And in another psalm he wrote, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart . . . shall receive blessing from the Lord" (Ps 24:4-5). It is foolish for those living in sin to expect the Lord to hear and answer their prayers. It's the prayer of a "righteous man" that is effective (James 5:16).
The Word of God assures us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). A clean heart is necessary if we expect God to hear our prayers.
--R.W.D.
The words of our prayers are not as important as the condition of our hearts.
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MAY 12
LUKE 15:11-24
When I kept silence, my bones grew old. . . . I acknowledged . . . and You forgave (Psalm 32:3-5).
A twelve-year-old boy killed one of the family geese by throwing a stone and hitting it squarely on the head. Figuring his parents wouldn't notice that one of the twenty-four birds was missing, he buried it. But that evening his sister called him aside and said, "I saw what you did. If you don't offer to do the dishes tonight, I'll tell Mother." The next morning she gave him the same warning. All that day and the next the frightened boy felt bound to do the dishes. The following morning, however, he surprised his sister by telling her it was her turn. When she reminded him of what she would do, he replied, "I've already told Mother, and she has forgiven me. Now you do the dishes. I'm free again."
Luke tells us that the prodigal son, concerned about his meeting with his father, decided to begin the conversation by confessing his sin. Then he planned to offer himself as a slave. But he never had to make that proposal. He had hardly begun his confession when his father forgave him and restored him to his status as a son. For that young man, as for the little boy, confession opened the door to freedom.
David discovered the same liberation after his sin. In Psalm 32 he declared that when he kept silent, mental depression and bodily distress kept him bound. But as soon as he confessed what he had done, he was forgiven. His spiritual joy and physical vitality returned. Repentance brings release from bondage.
--H.V.L.
We can't put our sins behind us until we are ready to face them.
