Category: Psalm 51

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:11).

Priorities

After all that he has done, after all the grief he has caused, in the face of all the consequences of his most heinous crimes, David has one thing going for him.

He has finally gotten his priorities straightened out.

I mean, I think I’m on safe theological ground if I say that David’s priorities were a little out of whack going into this.  Adultery, conspiracy, murder—not exactly in line with God’s truth. David was no longer content for the Lord to be his shepherd.  He wanted to be Captain of his own fate, Master of his own soul.

And look where it got him.

But

By the grace of God, David got his head and his heart straight.  He realized his true danger—and it wasn’t the danger of embarrassment, or losing his kingdom, or even being executed for his crimes.

The true danger was losing God’s presence in his life.

David realized that there is nothing, no thing, as valuable as knowing and being known by his Lord.  It is the one thing he was most terrified of losing.

Hmm…

Beloved, do you realize that, post-resurrection, we have the opportunity for a closer relationship with God than even David knew?

Live in that relationship today.  Take a few moments to simply be with Him.  Enjoy his presence. Fellowship with the Lord of the Universe.  Such is your right, your privilege, and your joy.

Because you are his Beloved.

Happy Tuesday

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).

David gets it.

He doesn’t make any excuses before God, and he doesn’t make any promises he knows he can’t keep.  I mean, some of us—and by us, I mean me—would be tempted to tell God all about how we’re going to do better, try harder, be more.  We would try to convince God that, if he would just give us a second chance—or third, or eighty-seventh—we wouldn’t disappoint him.  David knows that’s bunk. He will never be clean unless God cleans him. He will never be reliable unless God builds that in him. He will never be of any use to God unless God does the work through him.

Yep, David gets it.

Do we?

Do I?

Happy Monday, Beloved.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity (Psalm 51:9).

“Wow, I hope nobody saw that.”

How many times have you thought those words?

Oh, come on—it’s more than that and you know it.

When you do something embarrassing, you simply don’t want people looking at you.  Whether it’s missing the easy shot, tripping over your own feet, or walking into the only tetherball pole in an entire acre of middle school asphalt—all of which I have done—you don’t want an audience.  You kinda want the ground to open up and swallow you, just so that no one can look at you.

When you do something truly wrong—when you intentionally sin—that feeling goes way past embarrassment.

It becomes shame.

And you would do anything, just anything, to turn back the clock, to undo what you did, or at least to dissolve into the ground, just so that no one can look at you.

David gets you.  He’s been there, only bigger.  He cried out to God to look away from him, to act as if he hadn’t seen David’s sin.  He begged his Lord to take the sin away, to make it as though it had never occurred.

And God did.

Consequences?  Oh, yes, there were consequences.

There always are.

But David’s relationship with God was restored,

and in the end

that’s all that matters.

God did that because David was his Beloved.

Oh, yeah—you and I are Beloved, too.

Take that into your weekend.

Happy Friday, Beloved.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.  (Psalm 51:8).

Sin hurts.

See, that’s why you come here—the deep theological truths.

When you belong to Christ, you can’t live in sin.  OK, I guess you can, but it takes a serious toll.  That new heart of yours is designed to live in faithfulness; sin puts it under serious structural stress.

David is in sin as he writes these words.  That sin is weighing him down. It’s crushing him.  It has taken the joy and gladness from his life. David is crying out to God, asking God to forgive him and lift him out of this depression.

Whaddaya say, Beloved?  Are you in danger of violating the warranty on that new heart of yours?  Are you living in a way that you weren’t designed to live, and is sin robbing you of the joy and gladness of your life?  If so, I know how you can get free of the pain and reclaim your right relationship with God.

But then…so do you.

Happy Thursday, Beloved

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7).

Lady Macbeth knew.

Most of us can recall little of our high school Shakespeare, but we remember the murdering queen who walked and talked in her sleep.  Night after night she got out of bed, still asleep, and tried to scrub the blood of her crimes from her hands. There was nothing visible on her skin, but she knew the blood—the sin—was there.

“Out, out, damn spot!” she cried, but she could not make herself clean.  When the doctor saw her somnambulistic scrubbing, he commented that she did not need a doctor—she needed the Divine. This man knew his stuff—most doctors in that time period would have prescribed leeches.

Bad news—no one can cleanse your heart except God himself.  Few would be willing, and none would be able.

Good news—God is more than willing, and he is more than able. Whiter than snow, Baby. Whiter than snow.

Put down the Boraxo, Beloved.  Lift your heart to Him.

Happy Wednesday

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place (Psalm 51:6).

Why can’t God leave well enough alone?  He has the surface—I look the part, act the part—anyone on the outside would think I’m a reasonably-well-functioning man of God.

Does he really need the core of my being?

It seems a little extreme, don’t you think?  I mean, a man deserves his privacy; this, “Openness with your feelings” thing only goes so far.

Nope

He wants it all.  He wants me

and you

and us

to reflect his wisdom and his love and his very nature all the way to the bone.  He wants us, in our very essence, to be like him. And he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.  Not if it takes all eternity.

Thank God, Beloved.

Happy Tuesday

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5).

Well, there’s a comforting thought.

As if this week wasn’t shaping up to be hard enough,  I‘ve gotta get hit with the concept that I’ve been sinful for as long as I’ve been me.

Still…there it is.

It’s not like sin is just a one-time, or even sometime, thing.  David can’t say, “Oops, I slipped.  Apart from this episode, I’ve pretty much been perfection.”  Even David—giant killing, Psalm writing, man-after-God’s-own-heart David—knows that sin seems to be woven into the very fabric of his nature.  He doesn’t stand a chance of standing on his own. It’s like fighting cancer with cough drops.

Poor David.

Poor me.

Poor us.

And yet God, because of who he is, loved us anyway.

And so God, because he loved us, didn’t want us to die in sin, as we were born in sin.

And then God, because he didn’t want us to die, died in our place.

And now God, because he died for us, raises us to life in him.

And this God, who had raised you to life, calls you Beloved.

I guess it’s not such a bad way to start your week, after all.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men (Psalm 71:4).

Nineteen years.

Nineteen years since “Nine-One-One” became “Nine-Eleven.”

Nineteen years since we awakened to fire and smoke and terror and grief.

Nineteen years since the hand of the wicked reached out to strike at our nation.

It was a horrific reminder that there is evil in this world.  Evil will always attack the innocent. Evil will always set itself against the people of God.

And yet, you didn’t really need the reminder, did you?  You’ve seen it in the streets. You’ve known the attack of evil—maybe not on so grand a scale, but you’ve known it.

And you will again.

It comes with the territory.  It’s part of the package of being His, of living for Christ in this world.

And so is deliverance.

As surely as the sun rose this morning.

As surely as the Son rose long ago.

God will not let evil win.  Not in this world. Not in your life.

So as you remember 911 today, as you see the proud flags and hear the lofty speeches and see the heartfelt posts, remember your own personal 911’s, and how God has brought you through them.

And trust that he will again.

Walk in remembrance today, Beloved.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and righteous when you judge (Psalm 51:4).

So, that driver you had the little road rage incident with, you know, the one who obviously saw that you were there but cut you off anyway, the one you chased for three miles so you could give him the evil eye and the fancy finger—the one who turned out to be an octogenarian grandma totally oblivious to your righteous wrath?

Yeah, that was Jesus.

The cop you lied to to get out of that ticket for multiple unsafe lane changes that you made in order to catch up to the aforementioned Granny-Who-Cannot-Drive?

Also, as it happens, Jesus.

The supermarket checker who got written up because her drawer didn’t balance because you kept the money she gave you because she can’t count and gave you seriously inaccurate change?

That would be the Lord of the Universe.

The scores of freakish folk you mocked on the “People of Walmart” page?

Your savior…each and every one.

I’m assuming that you’re not in David’s league here, that adultery and assassination are absent from your repertoire of iniquity.  It doesn’t really matter. Every sin—big or small in your perception—is ultimately committed against Jesus. He said as much in the parable of the sheep and the goats:

Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me….whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me (Matt 25).

Is it really such a stretch to say that whatever we do to the least of these we do to him?

David realized this—eventually.  It got his head straight so that he was ready for real repentance.

Fortunately, Beloved, you have no need for repentance today.  This is merely an academic exercise for you, as your conscience is clear.

Well, you know, except for…

Hmm…

Happy Thursday, Beloved

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me (Psalm 51:3).

There are only two people in all of Everything you can’t hide your sin from.

As it happens, they are the only two people who matter.

Hmm…that may be more than enough to chew on for the middle of the week.

So chew, Beloved.

Happy Wednesday