Wednesday | Psalm 51
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Ash Wednesday is the start of the season of Lent and during this time we have four goals:
Meditate on our need for Jesus;
Examine the posture of our hearts to toward God in Christ;
Confession and repentance;
Deny ourselves comforts to grow closer to Christ.
As we begin the season of Lent, start by rending your heart to Jesus. Over and over, you’ll hear about the season of Lent being an opportunity and it is! You see, the finished work of Jesus on the cross for sinners where He reconciles us to the Father has been completed--there is nothing to add to it or take away from it. Additionally, the work of Jesus on the cross is something that you and I forget often. The season of Lent serves as a concentrated reminder of why Jesus entered into human history.
Because you and I are forgetful, we can sometimes diminish or justify our sin. But King David in Psalm 51 is in grief over his sin. He begins by acknowledging and agreeing that he has sinned and that he has sinned against God (Psalm 51:3-4). Does your sin grieve your heart? What do confession and repentance look like in your life today?
King David begins to close Psalm 51 by telling us that it’s not about the sacrifice that God is after, but a broken spirit and a humbled heart (Psalm 51:16-17). You don’t have to participate in the season of Lent or Ash Wednesday, it’s not a season of super spirituality. But it does serve as an occasion that should point us to the pages of scripture where God reveals Himself to us. It is there that our hearts are genuinely exposed, but not forsaken.
Christian, is your spirit broken and is your heart humbled before God? If it isn’t, take this opportunity to remove distractions and comforts for the sake of approaching the throne of grace in confidence and growing in godliness and obedience.