Cleanse Me With ... Hyssop?
Psalm 51 A man's spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?
(Proverbs 18:14, NIV)David probably stands out as one of the greatest Old Testament figures. The Lord God chose David to be king over Israel because he had a heart for God (1 Samuel 13:14). David gave the Lord everything he had. He worshipped with zeal, fought enemies of the Lord with zeal, and loved God with all his heart. Who can forget the wonderful story of how he challenged Goliath and the entire Philistine army with only five stones and a slingshot?
In all the glory we hear about King David, we must also remember that he was no superman. He was an ordinary man with an extraordinary love for the Lord. Because he was a man, there were sometimes in his life when he strayed from God's path. Psalm 51 was written just after a time in his life when he was confronted by one of God's prophets, Nathan, over grievous sins he had committed. This Psalm stands out in the Bible as one of the greatest prayers of confession. From it we can learn how to approach God when we have sinned.
David was up on the roof of his palace one night when, off in the distance, he saw a beautiful woman bathing. Instead of looking away, David turned his eyes to that which a man should not see - a naked woman who was not his wife. David sent a servant to find out who she was. Her name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. Then David sent messengers to bring her to him. You see, David's initial lust had been fed by his step-by-step pursuit. When she came to the palace, David was overcome with her beauty and seduced her.
Friends, it is difficult these days to avoid being confronted with sinful sights. I remember one time when I was in my office downtown on the 21st floor. As I watched the morning sun come up, I looked around the city and toward a nearby hotel. As my gaze focused on one of the patios, I noticed a man standing there. He was naked as the day he was born! Some people have no shame at all. I was quite embarrassed and quickly turned back to my work (should have been doing that to begin with). It is not a sin to be confronted by a shameful sight; it is a temptation (though it would be quite sinful to put yourself in a situation where you knew you would see something filthy like an explicit movie or magazine). Your response to it determines your righteous or sinful behavior. David should have immediately turned away or, better yet, gone inside. Instead, he peered even closer. Our first and best response to this kind of temptation is to turn away from it. As Job said: "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl" (Job 31:1, NIV).
David got Bathsheba pregnant, tried to get Uriah to sleep with her to "cover up" the pregnancy, eventually had her husband killed, and then took Bathsheba as his wife. After all this, David convinced himself that he had gotten away with it. But the burden of these sins weighed heavy on David's soul to the point that he became physically ill. His dramatic confrontation by the prophet Nathan resulted in a broken King confessing to the Lord:
Is there a burden of sin you have been carrying around? As you can see in David's life, no sin is too great for the Lord to forgive. Humility plus confession lead to God's tender mercy. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight ... Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice ... Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors you ways and sinners will turn back to you. (Psalm 51:3-13, NIV)
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Web Site: WordTruth.ComCopyright 1999, Randy Lariscy.
