October 25th
Psalm #51

A fresh start begins with a clean heart

‘Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates.  It’s very embarrassing.’      (A.W. Brown)

Brown’s comments seem appropriate to the Biblical record.

  • Israel’s long history of mistakes. The story of the golden calf in Exodus 32-34 seems indicative of their history.
  • David’s story (his affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband) especially his later years are very embarrassing.
  • So is the behaviour of the first disciples: witness their behaviour as Jesus is arrested.
  • And the early church sometimes embarrasses with its pettiness and self-centredness (see 1 Corinthians).
  • And church history, including our own Anabaptist history merely reinforces the point.

That’s the bad news.  But the good news of Psalm 51 is this: yes, human nature is often deeply flawed, but God’s saving nature overcomes all of our flaws.  The good news is that God is willing to forgive sinners and is able to re-create people.

The key verses, for me, are vs.10-12:

10 Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
11 Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain me with a willing spirit.

By the grace of God, dull and fearful disciples become founders of the church ‘turning the world upside down’ (Acts 17.6).  By the grace of God, Saul the murderer becomes Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles.  By the grace of God, Conrad Grebel, a party-animal and average student becomes a powerful and courageous voice for change in the 16th century church.  By the amazing grace of God, John Wesley, dealer in slavery, becomes a man of God.  By the grace of God, a small group forms a church at the corner of 29th St and Ave O in Saskatoon and through nearly 60 years gives witness to the transforming power of the gospel.

‘The Hebrew word for create has only one subject in all of the Bible: God. God alone creates in this way, and the word refers primarily to the creation of the cosmos: “In the beginning when God created (br’) the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Therefore, to use this word to describe the re-creation of the human heart indicates that it must be God who does this and that it is a feat comparable to the creation of the world. The sinful heart must be cleansed. It must, in a sense, also die with sin, so that, in its place, a new heart can be created’  (Paul K. Cho).

Paul knew Psalm 51 well; he quotes it in Romans and it informs his theology deeply.  Paul knew that only God can do this transformative work.  But, once open to the Spirit, he insists we are to live out this newness.

         1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity              in you.         [MESSAGE]

 

PRAYER:

Lord God,

Maker of heaven and earth,


We come as living sacrifices,

to offer You our worship and thanksgiving,

our praise and our prayers.

 

Come among us, living Lord.

Through the power of Your Holy Spirit,

transform our hearts and minds

so that we may recognize Your presence,

hear Your voice,

know Your will,

and walk in Your way.

 

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Saviour.

Amen.                                                               [reWorship]