#DailyDevotion Look To The LORD Through Jesus To Be Forgiven & Restored

Psalm 51:1-12 0 God, You are so kind — be merciful to me, Your grace is so great — wipe out my wrong; ²wash me thoroughly from my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin. ³I realize the wrong I’ve done, and my sin is always before me. ⁴I sinned against You, against You only, and did what is wrong in Your sight; so that you are just when you speak and pure when You judge. ⁵Yes, I was born guilty, and when my mother conceived me I was in sin. ⁶You desire truth in my heart; You want to teach me to be wise in my inner being. ⁷Cleanse me from sin with hyssop and I’ll be clean; wash me and I’ll be whiter than snow. ⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; then the limbs You crushed will be glad again. ⁹Hide Your face from my sins, and wipe out all my wrongs. ¹⁰Create a clean heart for me, O God and give me a steady new spirit. ¹¹Don’t banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Give me again the joy of Your salvation and a willing spirit to strengthen me.

So David wrote this Psalm after being outed by Nathan for what he had done with Bathsheba and to Bathsheba’s husband. You know, he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and when she got pregnant and couldn’t get Uriah to have sex with his wife so it would look like it was his kid, he got Uriah killed at the front line in battle. According to the Mosaic David should be killed on both accounts. When confronted with his sin by Nathan, David confessed his guilt and the LORD forgave him but not without temporal punishments.

David writes this song about his sin and about the LORD’s great mercy toward us. He gives us words we can confess when we sin. First David appeals to the LORD’s kindness, mercy and grace. It is part of God’s name in Ex. 34:6. You should read it. It is on the basis of these qualities of the LORD’s name David asks him to wipe out his wrong, wash him from guilt and cleanse him from sin. Indeed our LORD Jesus Christ has done this for us in baptism and should we sin after baptism we should remember this and return to our baptism in our hearts.

David confesses to the LORD his sin. He realizes the wrong he has done. It is grating on him. Also the sin was against Uriah, ultimately, as David confesses, it was truly only against the LORD whom he had sinned and done this evil in the LORD’s sight. This is because all sins are against the LORD. Sins against our neighbor are sins against the LORD because our neighbor is made in the image and likeness of the LORD. Your neighbor is the icon, the “idol” of the LORD. What you do to him you do to the LORD. David also confesses we are sinful from our conception. Often we call this original sin. It is the root sin that continually has rebelled against the LORD since the Garden.

David again appeals to the LORD to make him clean and wash him. We may experience this when we to go confession and the pastor absolves (washes us) us with Jesus’ word of forgiveness. But we need more than washing. We need the Holy Spirit. So like David we ask the LORD to renew our spirit (make us alive again) and give us his Holy Spirit so we would have willing spirits, a spirit that is willing fear, love and trust in the LORD. So Jesus has provided us pastors to absolve us from our sins and give us Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament to renew and strengthen us in our spirit so we may love God’s law and want to do what it says.

Heavenly Father, we confess we have sinned against you in word, thought and deed. Forgive us for Christ’s sake and renew us with your Holy Spirit so we may joyfully serve you all our days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.