A Life Worthy

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:13-15).

What, we got a little quid pro quo going on here?  Is David trying to make a deal with God, sort of you-help-me-out-here-and-I’ll-do-you-a-solid-down-the-line?

Yeah, no, I don’t think so.

David knows better than to bargain with God.  He has already thrown himself on God’s mercy and acknowledged that he can do nothing without God’s strength.

But David is making a promise.  He promises that he will give God full credit for restoring David.  He will help others to learn from his mistakes. David will spread the word of God’s righteousness at the top of his lungs, and he will do everything in his power to bring God glory.

Have you ever done that, Beloved?  Have you ever been so carried away by God’s goodness that you vowed to declare his praises to the world?

Um…this is a bit of an awkward question…but…did you follow through?

Follow through, Beloved.

Happy Thursday.

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

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.

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 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.