Psalm 51:1-19: Life Reflection

Introduction

(Read once to be introduced to the series. After that skip this to go right to the good stuff!) 

Welcome to my Devotions Series. This series features devotions based on the Scriptures of the Common Lectionary. The series is being prepared for eventual and hopeful print publication.

The series is also posted and regularly updated on my official blog: http://www.cedwardsellner.blogspot.com/

You can find a host of additional information, online resources and links to my other work there. This includes a cross-referenced Archive that lists the various Sundays, but then also lists all currently published Devotions by their sequence in Scripture as well as a Topical Index.

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Each Scripture is also hyperlinked to the online Bible at Bible Gateway in the NIV version I used in preparing the series.

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Lectionary Series Year A: Ash Wednesday
Psalm 51:1-19 (Read it on Bible Gateway)
Life Reflection
This is a pretty powerful Psalm and one of seven often referred to as Penitential Psalms. By its title, we see that it was composed as part of David's response to being confronted by the Prophet Nathan over the sin of his adultery with Bathsheba (II Samuel 11:1-12:25). It is filled with the kind of passions we often find in David as mentioned before (see Devotions: Psalm 27:1-14). While there are many Psalms that talk about the concept of repentance, or sorrow over sin, this is one that just cries out and carries in its words the obvious deep regret and remorse that was felt by its author. I would imagine it would be difficult for anyone to read this and not be deeply moved by its impassioned plea.

This Psalm's selection for Ash Wednesday's readings is very fitting to the purpose of the day. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, traditionally seen in Christianity as a time of reflection, repentance and discernment. It is a time when we as people of faith are supposed to take good hard looks at our lives and see what it is we find when we do. It is often also a time, in the modern understanding, that we 'give up' something for Lent. Many of us probably practice this tradition. I have always been amazed at the wide variety of choices people make for this sacrifice. I've heard of people giving up chocolate, TV, meat, others who fast for the entire period, taking no solid foods. Of course, most interesting has been some of the children I've worked with who were quite determined to give up things like brussel-sprouts, homework, or even better...school. Hmm, they may have been missing the point.

At any rate, Lent is a somber time, the Season of Reflection, the Season of Repentance in the Christian Church. Lent runs, officially forty days, not counting Sundays, and culminates with the even deeper and more somber themes of Holy Week. That number of forty should be sounding very familiar by now. In Hebrew culture and times, numbers had various meanings of significance. Forty symbolized a sense of completion or fulfillment. Thus we have the deluge in the time of Noah, where it rained for forty days, Moses staying on the Mountain of the Lord for forty days, Christ fasting in the desert for forty days...you get the picture.

As we enter this season of Lent, perhaps it can truly be an opportunity for each of us to take some serious assessment of our lives and where we truly stand on the things of greatest importance. I don't think the majority of us do that nearly enough. When I served as an Assistant Pastor at a larger Church in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the focal points of my ministry was working with the Singles group of the Church. One of the members of that group took such things fairly seriously; he mapped out goals, hopes, dreams and plans in his life. He had six month, year, three and five year plans. Every six months he took time out to revaluate things, to assess and see where he was. We met every six months while I was there so I could be a sounding board for him in this process. I found it enjoyable to work with someone who put such thought and effort into the practice of living. He's one of many folks who I lost touch with over the years and I sometimes wonder how his plans are going today.

Whether we're fifty and starting to think about retirement, forty and thinking about our health, thirty and thinking about profession, eighteen and thinking about what next, the point is hopefully we're thinking.

In there, I also hope we're thinking, reflecting, praying, and making plans in our Christian life and faith as well. In this Psalm David is realizing how far out of line his life had gotten, how far he had fallen and in doing so had betrayed God who had been steadfast and true with him. He has been confronted directly with his wrongdoing and there was nothing small about that. If you read the story you will find that because David coveted Bathsheba he set her husband up to die in battle and then took her for himself. This sin would haunt David for years and bring great heartache and suffering into his life and those he loved. Here, David cries out his sorrow, taking responsibility for his actions, acknowledging that what he has done has been an affront to God. Yet these are not words of someone who has no hope.

There are two powerful messages here in this passage.

The first is that when confronted with our sins, or better, maybe before someone has to confront us, we need to find the courage and the conviction to admit our wrongdoing, and to have a true and genuine sense of sorrow and regret. I think this is one of the things that we suffer from in our modern day: a general malaise about our own responsibility and culpability for our actions.

This was something that often concerned me when I worked with people in ministry. I sometimes got very angry when sitting with someone in court who was much more frustrated, annoyed or outright angry at the restrictions being imposed on them as opposed to feeling any remorse for what brought them there in the first place. In counseling, I often dealt with couples or individuals who had done a variety of things, great to small, that hurt someone else. Sometimes, at best, the response was a casual, blow-off apology that seemed to carry less weight then the breath that voiced it. At worst, were the times when the person guilty of the wrongdoing completely shifted blame onto the person who had been wronged.

An important theme of Lent, a critical message to us as Christians is that genuine forgiveness only comes with genuine repentance. Seeing as God knows what's in our hearts, God doesn't accept half-hearted apologies or buy simple justifications.

The other theme in this passage though is a hopeful one. In this Psalm David knows that with his genuine plea to be forgiven, to be washed clean, that in the eyes of God he will be forgiven. He will not be forsaken, he will not be abandoned, he will not be cast out.

The even more heartbreaking struggle in ministry is working with people who have done wrong and are so weighed under their actions that they can't imagine ever being forgiven. That kind of guilt and remorse can be crippling and destructive. It becomes a burden that those people carry every day.

God wants us to hear the message that no matter what we've done, no matter how bad it was, how intentional, or how many it hurt, we can find forgiveness with God. Just as David knows he will find in this passage. After all, there is a reason that Lent leads us from reflection of our own sins, to the sorrow and mourning of the Crucifixion, the price paid for those sins, then to the celebration of the Resurrection, the victory over those same sins.

For the complete listing of our Devotions, see our Devotions Archive