Wash Me Thoroughly
Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your
abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and
done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and
blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my
mother conceived me.
You
desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed
rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not
cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then
I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver
me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud
of your deliverance.
O
Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no
delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be
pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Do
good to
Psalm 51:1-19
Sacrifices
resemble the flowers a husband gives to his wife after a heated argument. The
wife doesn’t need the flowers. They are valuable to her only if they accurately
represent her husband’s feelings. If she thinks they are merely a ritual and do
not symbolize his regret, the flowers make the divide between them even worse.
God did not need the animals offered to Him in sacrifice. What mattered was the
attitude of those making the sacrifices. If the offerings were without
repentance, the ritual was a mockery. God made a larger sacrifice to you and
me, when he gave us His Son, Jesus to be our Savior. Repentance is sorrow for
the deed, not for getting caught.
Our Daily Bread –