Lent and Psalm 51

My friend, the Reverend Frank Ferrell, texted me a saying we can appreciate: “A Bible that’s falling apart is usually held by someone whose life isn’t.” I believe that is so. I want to add: “…and perhaps by someone whose life was falling apart, but God changed it all.” When sin is repented, and God is trusted, all is changed. My friend Frank and I share in that holy blessing.

Psalm 51 is a major Lenten psalm. The trusting faith in God which it commends, as does Psalm 91, begins in sincere repentance and grows, through the work of God’s Spirit, into trust sufficient to enable us to change our ways. When we cleave to God and dwell in His shelter, abiding under His shadow—-that close to God—-we desire His Will in all things. Our personal desires, even our prayers for good health, and all else are made part of our servanthood of God, part of our stewardship of blessings and sufferings, dedicated to God. We aspire to glorify Him in all things.

Lent is about repentance and forgiveness, and those blessings confer spiritual renewal and restoration, which God makes happen, when the sinful heart is tired, ashamed, and torn with remorse and contrition, like David’s was, after his dishonorable adultery with Bathsheba and his crime of Uriah’s death. David’s repentance is a biblical model we can earnestly pray to follow. He does not call his sins “mistakes.” He calls them what they are: transgressions, iniquities, sins, evil, and stains, for which he needs God’s divine cleansing.

Now is Christianity’s season of Lent, a time before Easter of repentance and the seeking of forgiveness. Lent is not defined by a few weeks’ time of giving up chocolates or any other small renunciation of treats or goodies. Lenten repentance is about giving up permanently, with God’s help, our sin, and embracing obedience and consecration to God and His Sovereign Will. We know full well that we cannot do that in our own strength, but a first step of repentance is required. A choice has to be made.

Ash Wednesday, which many churches observed this past Wednesday, begins the Lenten time of repentance and obedience; and observant churches mark the foreheads of believing worshippers with a cross of ashes, signifying penitence for transgressions committed.

The seven psalms of penitence for sin, called the Penitential Psalms, are Psalms 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; and 143. Of those, Psalm 51 is perhaps best known and most often read on Ash Wednesday, and other, Lenten worship services. While it is about sin and repentance, it is even more so, about God’s merciful ” forgiveness of grievous sin” and His “amazing grace,” named by Paul as the “scandal” of God’s grace. As with the Hebrews liberated by Moses who, in their rebellion in the wilderness in the idolatrous worship of their golden calf, reported in Exodus 32-34, committed grievous sin, willful transgression against God, Psalm 51 names all of our sin, too, as “willful rebellion,” originating in the refusal to honor God and a decision to go our own way, instead. Who among us is innocent of the charge? While our sinful rebellions invariably harm others and inflict tragic consequences on both sinners and the innocent, our sins are, most of all, sins against God. That is the meaning of the words, “You, You only,” in verse 4 of Psalm 51. David responds to Nathan’s accusation with humility and true repentance.

It is my blessing to quote David’s words; I have prayed them, too: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.” Observe that, David appeals for forgiveness, not on the basis of his contrite heart, but on the basis of God’s “abundant mercy” and “steadfast love.” He implores, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” No excuses are offered. David is honest before his Lord.

David’s hope is in God’s loving mercy; he knows and trusts God’s power; and on that sure foundation, he knows that God’s forgiveness will bestow cleansing, restoration, and renewed joy! Salvation brings ” a clean heart…and a new and right spirit,” joyous life abundantly lived in the Presence and Will of God!

When, in the summer of 1989, I saw with my elder daughter, Michelangelo’s splendid sculpture of the young David, the youth standing moments before his battle against the giant, stones in his hand and sling over his shoulder, furrowed brow knitted with awareness of his weakness, but trusting in Almighty God’s victorious strength, David’s full life story was displayed to me in the sculptor’s genius. But, significantly, the gift of seeing that masterwork depended, for depth of lasting meaning, on Israel’s scriptural narrative of the great king’s repentance for his sin against the God Whom he loved, but had dishonored.

Lent extends the possibility of our offering to others the witness of a life restored to joy through repentance. God calls each one of us to contrition, confession, repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing. God calls us on a journey to restoration and trusting joy!

Lent is God’s gift of time for repentance, and renewal, on the sacred journey.

Thanks be to God.