Thursday, March 6: What God Does
Psalm 51 is read right at the beginning of the season of Lent because it is such a fervent, anguished admission of sin. One can imagine that the psalmist does, indeed, have a broken spirit and heart. Perhaps your own heart and soul resonates, if not now but at some time in your life… as mine certainly has.
However, for a psalm of such deep, tormented contrition, there is remarkably little confession in it. We do not hear about any explicit sins. Early in the life of Psalm 51 it was associated with David’s rape of Bathsheba and murder of her husband (see the superscription before verse 1), and that is as likely an appropriate context as any, but the Psalm itself does not suggest it. It seems to transcend any particular context so it can be prayed in any context by anybody… and so it has.
What Psalm 51 lacks in terms of actual confession it more than makes up for in its vision of God. Note how little is said about what the psalmist has done but how much it says about what God does. In the first two verses alone God has mercy, is steadfast in love, has abundant mercy, blots out transgressions, washes and cleanses. This catalogue of the character and actions of God could be multiplied by going through verse by verse. Read the text again and note all that it says about the nature of God and what God has done, still does, and will do.
What sins and transgressions did the psalmist commit? We do not really know. But we do know the God to whom we pray our confessions, the One to whom we can pour out or hearts, the One who hears our pleas for forgiveness and heals our broken spirits, the One who, indeed, can “create in me a new heart” and “restore to me the joy of your [God’s] salvation.”
It could be that this is why Psalm 51 begins Lent, not so much because it is instructing us about how to confess (although it does do that) but because it is so evocative of the One to whom we confess. We begin Lent confronted not so much by the enormity of our sin but by the far surpassing magnitude of God’s mercy, steadfast love, healing and cleansing, creativity and enlivening spirit.
Before such a One we can, indeed, truthfully confess the darkness and hidden shadows in our lives, for we know the One who brings life and light, cleansing and healing… the One who creates us anew.
Prayer
O merciful One, hear our heartful sorrow and remorse over our sins. Your judgment is sure; it reveals the dark truths that we even hate to admit to ourselves. In the light of your judgment may we discover the light that allows us to move forward even in the darkness. May our broken and contrite hearts be recreated anew, clean, inspirited, and filled with the joy of Your salvation. Amen.
Doug Goodwin