This morning, I read Psalm 51 and I spent rest of the day contemplating how it would change things if I put myself in the psalmist’s shoes.
It changes everything!
King David wrote Psalm 51 in response to being confronted with his sin with Bathsheba. For those who aren’t familiar with Old Testament history, David was a man God had hand-picked to be king of Israel because he was, as God put it, “a man after my own heart.” But David sinned BIG TIME with Bathsheba. King David – the man after God’s own heart – had plenty of wives and concubines of his own, but when he saw Bathsheba naked and bathing on a nearby rooftop, he decided he wanted her, too. So he took her. He had sex with her and she got pregnant, and then King David – a man after God’s own heart – had her husband killed to cover it up. He was found out and now we have Psalm 51.
I like to think I am a man after God’s own heart. Unlike King David, I’ve never committed adultery or murdered a man. But like him, there are one thousand reasons why I should not be considered “a man after God’s own heart.” Yet somehow, I think I still am. David still was. How can that be?
Psalm 51 is the words of a man seeking mercy from a merciful, loving, just God. Look what happens when you read this psalm as if you had written it yourself. I did not change a single word; I just internalized it.
Psalm 51 1 Have mercy on me (Mike), O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
What a prayer! I hadn’t prayed like that since the day I became a Christian over 50 years ago, but I did today. We Christians need to pray like this more. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the prayers we’re praying now, but we’re forgetting this one!
We remember that we are men and women after God’s own heart, but we forget to be contrite.
We remember to pray for guidance and help and wisdom, but we forget to pray for forgiveness and mercy!
We remember that we can come boldly to God, but we forget that the reason the book of Hebrews says we should come boldly at all is for mercy and grace.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
You may very well be a man or woman after God’s own heart. But that’s not the whole picture. Psalm 51 is the whole picture.
Don’t forget who you really are.
I did. I forgot.
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