#DailyDevotion We Need God To Give Us A Clean Heart & Right Spirit
ntroit (Ps. 51:7, 10–12; antiphon: Ps. 51:2) 2 wash me thoroughly from my guilt,and cleanse me from my sin… 7Cleanse me from sin with hyssop and I’ll be clean;wash me and I’ll be whiter than snow… 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.
The introit for this Sunday is from Psalm 51. The introduction to the psalm tells us it is what David prayed when his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband after she got pregnant to cover it up. Adultery was bad enough, but then arraigning her husbands death to cover up his own sin, well that’s just horrible. Either sin carried with it the death penalty under the Mosaic law. When confronted with his sin by the prophet Nathan he confessed his guilt and Nathan gave him absolution but not without a temporal punishment, the death of the child of his union with Bathsheba.
What we in our sins and sinfulness need to see here is the necessity to be made clean before God. Only God can bring about the forgiveness of sins. More than that, we need God to cleanse us so we don’t continue in sins, particularly willful sins. So David prays, “wash me thoroughly from my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin.” With what does God wash us with to cleanse us from our guilt and from our sin? He does it with the blood of Jesus. But how does he wash us with the blood of Jesus? In baptism we receive this washing as St. Paul says in Titus 3:5, “He saved us by the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth and a new life.” But even as the pastor pronounces absolution over us, Jesus’ blood washes and cleanses us. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, his blood there makes atonement for our sins.
We need clean hearts and new right spirit to turn from sin and to turn to God our Father. So David prays for that here. Jesus tells us in John 3, “3I tell you the truth…“if anyone isn’t born from above, he can’t see God’s kingdom…if anyone isn’t born of water and the Spirit, he can’t get into God’s kingdom.” Jesus has provided us a way to receive a new heart and spirit. In our baptism, the Father gives us birth from above. He gives us new heart that wills what He wills and desires what He desires. He gives us His Holy Spirit so we may live a new life. Mind you we don’t get baptized again and again, for there is only one baptism. But we return to the promises God made us in baptism and trust his true and perfect word.
David prays that the LORD not take his Holy Spirit from him. Indeed, when he willfully sinned against the LORD in these matters, the Holy Spirit departed from him for David defiled the temple which is his body. When we willfully sin and turn from God the Holy Spirit departs from us as well. So like David we need to confess our sins and admit our guilt. We go to the pastor for absolution who by the power of Jesus’ name releases us from out guilt and sin. Having been cleansed by this absolution, the Spirit makes his abode with us again. This Spirit gives us the joy of salvation and makes our spirits willing to trust God and walk in his ways. He then feeds us with his body and blood to strengthen us on our way with the tokes of his body and blood guaranteeing us our salvation.
Heavenly Father, when we sin, grant us repentance to confess our sins, right our wrongs and believe in Christ’s sacrifice for those sins. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.