No Way Home
Psalm 51:1-17; I Corinthians 10:12-13
Psalm 51: A Psalm for Screwups
Psalm 51 is called a lament, a prayer asking God for pardon. Some faith communities regularly read this psalm, using it as a “confession of sin for believers”. If you want a more down-to-earth description, it’s been called “A Psalm for Screwups”.
This was written by David, king of Israel, who in a weak moment gave in to temptation. From his palace he watched a neighbor’s very beautiful wife, Bathsheba , take her evening bath outside. He lingered and looked, then he lied and schemed. David had an affair with her but when he found out she was carrying their child, he plotted a way for her husband to be killed in battle.
Several months later Nathan, the prophet of God, visited David and confronted him about his sins. He said there’d be painful consequences, but God, who is compassionate, forgives all who earnestly repent. David wrote this psalm after Nathan’s visit (for more details, read 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12).
Do you know that David was called “a man after God’s own heart”? His life was fully oriented toward God; he delighted in worshipping Him, obeyed the commandments, and was a strong and wise leader. But he shows us that even the best among God’s followers will be tempted and may be drawn into sin. When that happened in David’s life, he admitted he’d screwed up.
We have also fallen short and sinned before God. When we sin, and guilt is weighing on us, we can turn to Psalm 51. There are five distinct steps David took to return to the Lord and be fully restored. Let’s look at them so we can do the same.
First, David took responsibility for his sins, saying, “I know my transgressions; I’ve sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, Lord.” David came out of months of hiding and denial and acknowledged that he’d trespassed against God and others. Honest confession is the first step for all of us. We need to take responsibility for our sin and say, “That’s on me, I own what I did wrong.” That is the first step back toward God.
Then, don’t backpedal. Once our sin is named and out in the open, we may cringe on the inside and feel shame. It’s painful to reveal our failures; we know we’ve broken God’s heart. At that vulnerable moment when we feel the weight of our sin and guilt, we can be tempted to minimize our sin. We can say we were just going through a rough patch and slipped a bit, or we may point at others and blame them for leading us into temptation. There are so many ways to spin things or try to sweep them under a rug, but the more we deny things, the longer we remain stuck in place.
We need to admit our sin, then stand before God without excuses. Our only hope is God. When our sin separates us from God, we have no way to remove that barrier. We’re powerless and can’t save ourselves. One of the most interesting things I find in David’s confession is his use of three different Hebrew words to describe his sins. He said, “I have sinned (hatta’t)” - meaning he failed or missed the mark. When shooting an arrow at a target, if you miss the target entirely, that’s called a “sin”; each “sin” brings the archer closer to losing the match. David then used the word peta, meaning transgression. That word means he rebelled against God, intentionally defying Him. Can you sense the escalation here? The third word he used was ‘awan, meaning iniquity. That sort of sinning meant you were bent (twisted, crooked) on the inside; your sins were particularly evil.
David asked God to wash him and make him whiter than snow. That’s always felt poetic to me, a rather gentle way to have my sins lifted out of me, with just a bit of rubbing and agitation. A bit like a short cycle in a washing machine. But David used another much more intense image for forgiveness. He mentions hyssop, a branch-like herb used for healing - it was thought to help people with respiratory problems during the plague. It was also used for spiritual purification rituals: Jews used it to put lamb’s blood on their door frame on Passover, to deliver their sons from death in Egypt under the Pharoah.
David asked God to purge him with hyssop, meaning he wanted to be delivered from his sins, be made pure again. He asked God to purge him, to help him spew out what was vile within him. He wanted to projectile vomit his sins. That’s a very vivid description of how can sins can be expelled! David grieved his sins, wanting them gone because they were harming him. He called on God, whom He knew was faithful and just, to “forgive him and cleanse him from all unrighteousness”. (1 John 1:9)
When God forgives us, we walk in freedom. We again feel the presence of God and experience His power in our lives. I particularly like what David asked of God once he was forgiven. He asked for a brand new heart, saying, “create that in me." He wanted a fresh beginning, a pure one, untainted by the past. God can do that - our Creator doesn’t put patch up the putrid in our lives; our God loves us so much, He makes us brand new.
To be freshly forgiven is amazing. Our guilt is gone, our joy’s returned. We feel fully alive. David felt that same way - you can read Psalm 51 down to verse 12 and see that for yourself. God is good to us. But there’s more coming in the remainder of the psalm that we cannot miss. David didn’t keep what happened to him private, although that must have been tempting. Instead, he did three things that pleased God. He shared what happened to him with others though original songs. He was a gifted musician, very popular among God’s people, so he used that platform to spread the word about God’s love and forgiveness.
David also taught people, making time to be with those who were interested in learning what to do when they were tempted and sinned. Sharing one’s personal experiences with others can have a great impact; as people listen, they may admit to themselves that they’ve sinned and feel guilty, just like us. They may hear, clearly, for the first time in their life that God forgives our sins. That sets people free to hope again and look forward to the future. We who know these things need to be God’s grateful messengers, just as David was in his time.
There is a final nugget to take with us - it’s a clue for how we can obey God today and not fall into temptation in the future: David remained humble. He asked God to increase in him, and that his own ego decrease. He prayed that God would show him what mattered most in life, rather than looking around and deciding on his own. Wherever David went, he was a changed man. He had become lost but found his way home to God.
Psalm 51 is called a lament, a prayer asking God for pardon. Some faith communities regularly read this psalm, using it as a “confession of sin for believers”. If you want a more down-to-earth description, it’s been called “A Psalm for Screwups”.
This was written by David, king of Israel, who in a weak moment gave in to temptation. From his palace he watched a neighbor’s very beautiful wife, Bathsheba , take her evening bath outside. He lingered and looked, then he lied and schemed. David had an affair with her but when he found out she was carrying their child, he plotted a way for her husband to be killed in battle.
Several months later Nathan, the prophet of God, visited David and confronted him about his sins. He said there’d be painful consequences, but God, who is compassionate, forgives all who earnestly repent. David wrote this psalm after Nathan’s visit (for more details, read 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12).
Do you know that David was called “a man after God’s own heart”? His life was fully oriented toward God; he delighted in worshipping Him, obeyed the commandments, and was a strong and wise leader. But he shows us that even the best among God’s followers will be tempted and may be drawn into sin. When that happened in David’s life, he admitted he’d screwed up.
We have also fallen short and sinned before God. When we sin, and guilt is weighing on us, we can turn to Psalm 51. There are five distinct steps David took to return to the Lord and be fully restored. Let’s look at them so we can do the same.
First, David took responsibility for his sins, saying, “I know my transgressions; I’ve sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, Lord.” David came out of months of hiding and denial and acknowledged that he’d trespassed against God and others. Honest confession is the first step for all of us. We need to take responsibility for our sin and say, “That’s on me, I own what I did wrong.” That is the first step back toward God.
Then, don’t backpedal. Once our sin is named and out in the open, we may cringe on the inside and feel shame. It’s painful to reveal our failures; we know we’ve broken God’s heart. At that vulnerable moment when we feel the weight of our sin and guilt, we can be tempted to minimize our sin. We can say we were just going through a rough patch and slipped a bit, or we may point at others and blame them for leading us into temptation. There are so many ways to spin things or try to sweep them under a rug, but the more we deny things, the longer we remain stuck in place.
We need to admit our sin, then stand before God without excuses. Our only hope is God. When our sin separates us from God, we have no way to remove that barrier. We’re powerless and can’t save ourselves. One of the most interesting things I find in David’s confession is his use of three different Hebrew words to describe his sins. He said, “I have sinned (hatta’t)” - meaning he failed or missed the mark. When shooting an arrow at a target, if you miss the target entirely, that’s called a “sin”; each “sin” brings the archer closer to losing the match. David then used the word peta, meaning transgression. That word means he rebelled against God, intentionally defying Him. Can you sense the escalation here? The third word he used was ‘awan, meaning iniquity. That sort of sinning meant you were bent (twisted, crooked) on the inside; your sins were particularly evil.
David asked God to wash him and make him whiter than snow. That’s always felt poetic to me, a rather gentle way to have my sins lifted out of me, with just a bit of rubbing and agitation. A bit like a short cycle in a washing machine. But David used another much more intense image for forgiveness. He mentions hyssop, a branch-like herb used for healing - it was thought to help people with respiratory problems during the plague. It was also used for spiritual purification rituals: Jews used it to put lamb’s blood on their door frame on Passover, to deliver their sons from death in Egypt under the Pharoah.
David asked God to purge him with hyssop, meaning he wanted to be delivered from his sins, be made pure again. He asked God to purge him, to help him spew out what was vile within him. He wanted to projectile vomit his sins. That’s a very vivid description of how can sins can be expelled! David grieved his sins, wanting them gone because they were harming him. He called on God, whom He knew was faithful and just, to “forgive him and cleanse him from all unrighteousness”. (1 John 1:9)
When God forgives us, we walk in freedom. We again feel the presence of God and experience His power in our lives. I particularly like what David asked of God once he was forgiven. He asked for a brand new heart, saying, “create that in me." He wanted a fresh beginning, a pure one, untainted by the past. God can do that - our Creator doesn’t put patch up the putrid in our lives; our God loves us so much, He makes us brand new.
To be freshly forgiven is amazing. Our guilt is gone, our joy’s returned. We feel fully alive. David felt that same way - you can read Psalm 51 down to verse 12 and see that for yourself. God is good to us. But there’s more coming in the remainder of the psalm that we cannot miss. David didn’t keep what happened to him private, although that must have been tempting. Instead, he did three things that pleased God. He shared what happened to him with others though original songs. He was a gifted musician, very popular among God’s people, so he used that platform to spread the word about God’s love and forgiveness.
David also taught people, making time to be with those who were interested in learning what to do when they were tempted and sinned. Sharing one’s personal experiences with others can have a great impact; as people listen, they may admit to themselves that they’ve sinned and feel guilty, just like us. They may hear, clearly, for the first time in their life that God forgives our sins. That sets people free to hope again and look forward to the future. We who know these things need to be God’s grateful messengers, just as David was in his time.
There is a final nugget to take with us - it’s a clue for how we can obey God today and not fall into temptation in the future: David remained humble. He asked God to increase in him, and that his own ego decrease. He prayed that God would show him what mattered most in life, rather than looking around and deciding on his own. Wherever David went, he was a changed man. He had become lost but found his way home to God.