A Clean Heart
As we draw nearer the end of the Lenten season, and before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, we have one more Sunday to talk about clean hearts. It is one of the greatest feelings in the world to know that you are clean in God’s sight. Having a clean heart is part of what Lent is all about. I believe that David’s prayer is the perfect prayer for Lent. Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me. “A Clean Heart,” let us pray…
Do you know which Psalm was David’s expression of guilt and repentance after his affair with Bathsheba? Psalm 51. It is a very emotionally stirring prayer to God. And it contains the superscription, “For the director of music. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone to Bathsheba.”
This psalm is classified as one of the 7 penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143). David was lamenting his sin. He was confessing it to God in a mournful song. And the choir and director of music sang about it. Today we can only imagine the heart-rending melody behind his penitent prayer,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” (sang this text to a minor key melody in the delivery of this sermon)
After 3,000 years, you can still hear David’s notes of pain. Yet there is a lot missing in these words. Today, we would hear excuses, justifications, debate and blame. But here is missing David’s justification of his actions. Missing is the defense of his behavior. Missing is all the blame against others for what he did. Missing is all the debate and arguments about whether he did anything wrong at all. Missing is the rejection of God’s law. And all that is left is a soul that is painfully aware of his sins, who, having offended God, is in desperate need of forgiveness and cleansing.
That is where we must be today – not changing the definition of what adultery is or what sin is. David did none of those things. And he was a ruling monarch who could have, without a majority of votes, decided that he was innocent. (Click on sermon title above to view the rest of the message)