Bible Study ...... ...... Nathan outlined a story of greed about a wealthy farmer who owned thousands of sheep, but to feed a visiting guest took a poor farmer’s pet sheep away for slaughter. Hearing of this horrible and heartless injustice, David cried out, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” With fearless authority Nathan pointed at the king and said, “You are the man!” Nathan then inventoried David’s crimes, leaving the king breathless until he could but whisper, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:1-13). He next learned that his sin had wide ranging consequences, beginning in his own home and radiating throughout the kingdom. The pompous king was now a broken man as he felt the crushing load of his sin. As a result of this experience David wrote Psalm 51, a psalm that reveals both deep remorse and hope for cleansing. God Knew David’s first plea is for mercy. He seeks God’s protection from His just wrath, but he appeals to God’s unfailing love: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” (vs. 1). David remembered God’s tender mercy for the sins of his past. Based on that record of compassionate love, David approached Him once again. When his sin was out in the open, he saw himself for what he had become. David knew that only God’s mercy could save him. Despite the horrible acts that caused so many innocent people to suffer, he owned that it was God who was more deeply offended than the most wronged among his people. Everyone else had only a partial understanding of the depth of his sin, but God knew not only what David had done but what he had fantasized and longed to do in defiance of his Lord. David had to accept his sin before he could receive God’s forgiveness. Too many people who have done wrong are unwilling to acknowledge the harm they have done to themselves, to others and to their relationship with God. But David knew that a shallow repentance was no repentance at all. This was no “slap another coat of paint on it” but a sanding down to the base material until all the old paint is removed. Even as he pleaded for forgiveness, David realized the scope of his situation. Verses 5-9 outline the problem. With a fully operating sinful nature David knew he was not only guilty of this sin but capable of far worse. When he sought to do better, determined he would live right, he could feel the gravity of sin pulling This was no “slap another coat of paint on it” him forcibly back down to defeat. David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (vs. 5). What was his hope? It wasn’t to be converted—David sincerely loved the Lord. If not to be saved, what did he need? He pleaded for a cleansing that would go beyond anything that he had ever experienced. “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (vs. 7). Hyssop was used in ceremony to sprinkle lamb’s blood on cleansed lepers. The cleansing he begged for was deep enough to even remove a leper’s scars. This purity that David needs leads him to pray, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (vs. 10). He does not ask God to reform him but to bring him into a new life experience. Holy cleansing is not to restore his heart to its former state, but to make it better than ever—not returning to the start but moving to a deeper level of righteousness. Now living in the power of the Holy Spirit, David finds he is more able to be the witness God intended. He says, “I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you . . . my mouth will declare your praise . . . ” (vs. 13,14). In the book of Acts, after the fullness of the Holy Spirit rested on the original disciples at Pentecost, the first evidence that life had changed was their bold witness on the streets of Jerusalem among the very people who only weeks earlier had murdered Christ (Acts 2-3). While not everyone is an eloquent speaker when purified and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can all say something to someone. The conclusion of the psalm reveals that David has come to a deeper knowledge of God. When the psalm opens, he is a rejected and dejected man. But at the end, he speaks of what God accepts. “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise . . . you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness . . . ” (vs. 17,19). The heart that is broken before the Lord is not only opened to allow all the infection out but to allow the healing and purifying Spirit in. For many of us who are like David, the failure of trying to live Christianity on our own terms brings us to the brokenness that God uses to create a clean heart. Where do you find yourself in this story? Are you at the beginning of the psalm crying for mercy, or at the end, rejoicing in victory? Major Allen Satterlee is Editor–in–Chief and National Literary Secretary. The War Cry | JUNE 2013 23