Can We Talk About This?

 

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.  Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.  Wash me clean from my guilt.  Purify me from my sin.  For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.  Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.  You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.  For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.  But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.  Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice.  Don’t keep looking at my sins.  Remove the stain of my guilt.  Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me.  Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.  Psalm 51:1-12

The twelve-year-old in the picture is yours truly, 60+ years ago.  It was a family vacation to New England.  The pillory in which I’m incarcerated was a 16^th century public device for shaming those caught in the act.  It was placed in the town square where every passerby would have an opportunity to view what happens to those who defied the laws.  My Dad was the one who suggested Russell should be the one in the photograph; his sense of prophetic irony is not lost…the eventual preacher on display for his sins!

So, what does this have to do with King David’s psalm?  Everything…and more!  Psalm 51 is David’s public confession.  The marginal notes in our Bible tell this story:  For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.[1] 

For the king to have sinned is expected; to publish it, memorialize it for all to see, and have it sung about, preached about in church, and remembered forever goes against human nature.  The picture of me at 12, pilloried, was a bit of family humor; Russell’s real sins would not be so funny.  To make King David’s point with clarity, there is no such thing as hidden sin.  David’s actions caused immense pain.  Hence the penitent nature of Psalm 51; sin requires reckoning.

I am not suggesting a return to the days of locking someone head and hands in a pillory on the town square.  There is nothing so ingenuine as a coerced plea for forgiveness when your hand has been caught in the cookie jar.  In such cases, there may be remorse – for getting caught – but very little contriteness of the heart, no real confession, only hopes to shorten or avoid the punishment. 

A case in point was President Clinton appearing before the Grand Jury to answer questions about his affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998.  Responding to the question about if he’d lied about whether there IS an improper relationship going on between he and Ms. Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton replied:  Define IS.[2]  This vividly illustrates human nature, a man, a powerful, public leader, caught, and standing with no defense, trying to create as much wiggle room as possible against the threat of facing the consequences.  This was Adam telling God, it was the woman you gave to me…she gave me the fruit; deflect the truth, distort the truth, do anything but face the truth!

By contrast, consider King David, not only facing, but owning the truth.  Here is an earthly king, accountable to no other human being, publicly humiliated, guilty of adultery, conspiracy, and murder…and accepting responsibility without reserve.

To be sure, former President Clinton is not alone.  Recalling Jesus’ words about the difference between finding Heaven or hell, we understand the choice to avoid conviction of our sins:

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.  But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.  Matthew 7:13-14

For You Today

The answer…always…to the God-question, can we talk about this, starts with a repentant heart.  Contriteness isn’t natural, but forgiveness demands it.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Brownworth Family photo    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

---

[1] Bible Gateway

[2] See article by Timothy Noah, Slate.com, 9/30/98

Repentance

[1]

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.  Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.  Wash me clean from my guilt.  Purify me from my sin.  For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.  Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.  You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.  For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.  But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.  Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Oh, give me back my joy again;
    you have broken me—now let me rejoice.
Don’t keep looking at my sins.  Remove the stain of my guilt.  Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me.  Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.  Psalm 51:1-12^(NLT)

If you want to know how big King David’s sin was with Bathsheba you simply read the Prophet Samuel’s journal.  A quick survey of the king’s attitude and actions include most of the seven deadly sins, and breaking all of the commandments; his transgressions leap off the chart like the Dow-Jones index gone mad on a Black-Market Monday.  Just to name a few:  sloth, lust, lying, adultery, murder, conspiracy, and, perhaps worse than all, he drew others into his plots to save his own political neck. If you looked up the word “sin” or “transgression” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure David’s picture is in on the page. During this time King David was not acting like a man after God’s own heart! 

Of course, Psalm 51 is the account of David’s confession – a prayer filled with extreme contrition and pathos.  It is such a contrast from the willful arrogance David had displayed in trying to cover his sinful tracks, it’s hard to imagine he is the same person.

Yet, if there’s any one thing that stands out to me this morning as I re-read this prayer, it is the confidence David exudes as he begs God to forgive and restore him.  David isn’t just asking for God to look the other way and let him slide; David is acknowledging how deliberately malicious he has been, and is asking God to restore him to innocence.  That is one incredible asking! 

But this goes beyond asking for forgiveness; David opens his heart for God to do holy surgery that will restore the lifeblood flow of joy between his life and God’s unfailing love.  This isn’t David’s self-confidence, it’s his confidence in God!

Many of you know my bride, Elizabeth, recently had a heart catheterization.  When the doctor saw the images of 70-80% blockages he knew exactly what to do; he inserted stents, little tubes to push back the blocking matter and open the pathway for life-giving blood to carry oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the body. 

This is a wonderful picture of repentance and confession we see in David’s prayer.  In confession the sinful king acknowledges he has destroyed the relationship of trust between God and himself.  In repentance, he asks for restoration of that relationship, knowing that will mean two things:

1.      Joy (like the flow of blood through the heart) will once-again enliven his days.

2.      Change (like the new low-cholesterol diet, and time on the treadmill) will begin to be uppermost in David’s heart and thoughts.  He will cooperate with this new stent of honesty that holds back his spiritual death.

Everything will turn upside down (or rather right-side up).  Where there was the disease of sin, there will now be the gladness of a forgiven life that serves.  Where there was lust (selfishness), there will now be genuine love (selflessness).  Where there was lying, truth now reigns.

This is the joy of salvation restored.

For You Today

Repentance isn’t very popular in our culture.  Mostly we’re into cover-up, denial and deflect the blame onto others.  It’s not much different than our parents in Eden.  Adam blamed Eve, Eve denied understanding and blamed the serpent.

Repentance is the only true road to recovery from a sin-destroyed break from God.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Lenten Walk - Part 21

[1]

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.  Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.  Wash me clean from my guilt.  Purify me from my sin.  For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.  Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.  You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.  For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.  But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.  Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice.  Don’t keep looking at my sins.  Remove the stain of my guilt.  Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me.  Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.   Psalm 51:1-12^(NLT)

Having spent the early and middle years of my life in a religious tribe for which Lent was something those other people did, I missed a lot of opportunity to develop a readiness to do good for my soul.  This thought arises out of one of our idioms which says it plainly, that confession is good for the soul.

Now this idea and the idiom it belongs to is not merely a cultural saying, born from human wisdom; the concept is all over the pages of Scripture. 

Our insides are not equipped to hold onto our sins like a killer keeping his secret:

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  

Psalm 32:3^(NLT)

Holding on to and hiding our sin holds us back from growing:

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.  Proverbs 28:13^(NLT)

Leaders of great movements like Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls confessed:

I confess that we have sinned against you.  Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!  Nehemiah 1:6^(NLT)

Relationships can be reclaimed:

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense.  If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.   Matthew 18:15^(NLT)

Our wholeness and physical health depend on confession:

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  

James 5:16^(NLT)

Being forgiven is the entry to an unburdened life with a clear heart:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  1 John 1:9^(NLT)

The question that haunts my understanding of human nature about confessing our sins is:  If confession is so good for us, why are we so reluctant to do it? 

And the answer to that question is no different now than it was for the first pair of humans who sinned and wouldn’t own up to it:

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.  I was afraid because I was naked.”  “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked.  “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”  The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”  “The serpent deceived me,” she replied.  “That’s why I ate it.” 

Genesis 3:8-13^(NLT)

Pride – when you stand naked before God with cookie crumbs all over the hands that have done what you’ve been told not to do…well, it’s time to pass the buck!

For You Today

Lent is a time for owning that buck, and releasing it back into the hand of your God.                                                  

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com