“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.”
- Psalm 51:10-13 -

This psalm is credibly identified as King David’s response to the prophet Nathan’s direct exposure of his sin. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba and, even worse, when she became pregnant he schemed to make sure that her husband Uriah, a brave and honorable soldier, was killed in battle.

The psalm uses the language of deep repentance. Repentance involves facing the truth about ourselves and feeling the depth of the wrong we have done (v 3). The apostle Paul calls it ‘godly sorrow’ because it leads to changes of behavior. If we never feel sorrow over our sin, this itself is a form of hard-heartedness or self-delusion of which we need to repent. Sometimes, we are so shaken that it seems that our whole lives, from our mother’s womb (v 5), have been wretched and worthless. Sometimes the sense of guilt does not easily disappear but needs to be deeply purged before we gain release (v 7). We feel the stain of sin.

Release is possible. God is our Savior, who stands ready to hear our confession and to respond to it, not with further recrimination but with mercy, compassion, and cleansing (vs 1,2). Christians know this because God’s own Son has ‘made intercession for the transgressors’ and God’s own Spirit can truly make us clean (v 10).

Prayer: Lord, I know sin can enter my life and be allowed to settle down and stay. I pray for a sensitivity to sin and an eagerness to repent when under your conviction.