Psalm 51 is David's documented repentance after being called out as an adulterer by the prophet, Nathan. He pulls no punches; he was guilty. He admits that His sin was against God (Psa 51:4) and that he was a sinner from conception (Psa 51:5), but that he wanted truth in his inward being (Psa 51:6). He counted on God to make Him clean since He couldn't (Psa 51:7). In the 10th verse he says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Now, that is a loaded prayer.
The prayer has two primary components and both carry their own parts. The first is a prayer for a clean heart. We can assume from that that David did not believe his heart was clean. He believed in what the theologians refer to as "Original Sin" -- that all humans are sinners. He understood that we are all in need of a clean heart. But he asked to have it created because we lack the capacity to do it ourselves. That was done by God alone.
The second part is often missed. He asked that God would renew a right spirit within him. We typically pray for forgiveness, repent of our sins, ask for cleansing, that sort of thing. But the need is actually two-fold. There is a need for a clean heart, but there is an additional need for a right spirit. There is a need to be cleaned, but that leaves us blank; we also need to be right. Interestingly, the word David used there was not "create" but "renew". That suggests there was, at some point, a "right spirit" and he needed that right spirit renewed.
The same is true for us. Paul said, "For our sake He (God) made Him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him (Christ) we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). We see the two components there. In the first, the sin is taken away. In the second, we become righteous. Both are needed. We have forgiveness; we have the righteousness of Christ. Still, we constantly need to come to the Advocate (1 John 2:1-2) who paid for our sins. We need to confess -- literally to "say with" God -- our sins. We need a clean heart. We need a renewed right spirit. We need it often. We need to share in David's wisdom and David's repentance and David's prayer.
5 comments:
I see a trend today who view sin as an offense to the other person. In this case David would have sinned against Bathsheba, but they ignore the aspect of sin against God. It’s an area where our self centered theology has warped out perception of reality.
I've always been fascinated that David stressed, "Against You and You only have I sinned" when he definitely "sinned against" Bathsheba and Uriah. In the loose version of "sin", I suppose it would be true, but apparently David was defining "sin" as only the violation of God's law.
Kind of like "good", where to us it's relative but to God it's not (Rom 3:12).
Yes, we sin against God, but in doing so we sometimes bring harm to others. Seeking forgiveness from both parties is necessary but the level and type of forgiveness is different.
Exactly.
This story has had great impact on me for the reasons stated in both your comments.
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