Psalm 51 1-12
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“i didn’t do it, God did”
(sanctified and preserved) wtsm
Psalm 51: 1-12
Introduction: No matter how much a man tries to reform himself, he can never achieve the newness of life that God wants him to have in Christ. Although a man can make changes in his life, even positive changes, he still remains the same person and often goes from one kind of problem to another. A Sports broadcaster once introduced a baseball player, Garry Maddox, with the following words: "He has turned his life around. He used to be depressed and miserable. Now he's miserable and depressed."
I. Only our Compassionate God can give us new life.
A. The Bible teaches that we can achieve newness of life only one way. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. King David understood this very well. He had an affair with a woman and had her husband killed so he could marry her. But David could not escape his sin. When the whole mess became public, he threw himself on the mercy of God. I Psalm 51 we have David’s personal prayer to God. But this prayer is our prayer also. In this psalm we confess that we are unable to be the kind of people God wants us to be. We also confess that only God can make us the kind of people He wants us to be.
B. David said, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I ." Some of these words have hit me the hardest: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." What about the man David killed? What about the people we sin against? Don't they count? Of course they do! We sin against God alone because we do sin against each other. When we gossip, or spit out angry words, or insult or hurt other people in any other way, we sin against God
C. Why do I say that? Try an experiment the next time you visit someone's home. First, start moving the furniture around in the living room. Second, when you finish eating, turn to someone in your family and say, "This tasted pretty bad. I could do better blindfolded." As you leave, take a walk through the flower bed in front of the house. Then see how long it is before you are invited back. My guess is that your hosts will be offended, though you never once said or did anything to them. That's because when we insult the handiwork of a person, we insult the person. Likewise, when we sin against each other, we are really sinning against the God who created each of us and who shed His blood for each of us. We are His handiwork.
II. Only God can forgive sin, create a clean heart and give us joy.
A. David shows us in his prayer how God takes away that sin. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." In the Old Testament they used hyssop to sprinkle both blood and water on the people to cleanse them from sin and impurity. Immediately this draws our attention to our own baptism's. In baptism our impurities were washed away and the blood of Jesus Christ was poured out for us to atone for our sin.
B. David continues, "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity." What doe David mean by saying these bones that you have crushed? Shepherds used to break the legs of wandering sheep. This meant that the shepherd would have to feed the sheep personally. Soon the sheep would learn to love and trust the shepherd. In sorrow God leads us closer to Jesus. In Jesus God has hid his face from our sins. He has turned His anger away from us and turned it toward His son, for our sake. In Jesus all our iniquity has been blotted out. We can rejoice because now we know that Jesus has forgiven us.
b. David prays, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." These are the words that teach us how God plans to change us. First, God must give us a new heart. The heart stands for the person's whole life. Jesus tells us that it is from the heart whence all evil springs. We need a heart transplant. God then gives us a new spirit. It is a spirit that believes and trusts God. It is a spirit that understands the depth of God’s love poured out for sinners. We also need a spirit that will lead us and enable us to with stand temptation. The normal human spirit is not strong enough. That new heart and steadfast spirit is given to us at our baptism, when we are joined to Jesus. We pray that God would stay with us. We especially pray that God would not take His Holy Spirit from us. If you wonder what would happen if God were to take his Spirit from us, all you have to do is remember what happens when He takes our spirit from us -- we die. His Spirit gives us eternal life. Without it we die eternally.
Conclusion: We cannot hope to be holy unless God stays close to us. God does this as His Word is preached and the sacraments Jesus gave us are used. Jesus prayed for His disciples, "Father, make them holy by the truth. Your word is truth." He also told His disciples that He was giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them. We don't need self-help books to be better. We need the Holy Spirit opening up our hearts and minds to what God says. Daily he restores us creating a clean heart within us and giving us His Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer Holy Spirit, Gift divine, give us greater faith than ever before as we hear about the good things Jesus has done for us so that we will be able to stand up against temptation. Forgive us for thinking that we can live holy lives without any help from You. Give us a greater love for the Bible You have given us and the sacraments that act out the same message of grace. Amen.