Psalm Meditation 686
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 11, 2013

Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)

There is something wonderful about being clean and then putting on clean clothes or climbing into a bed with clean sheets. It is good to get into a vehicle when it is new or even to get in after it has been cleaned out and swept. Clean things are so excellent, it is amazing that anyone would fight so hard to keep from getting to that place. At some point in our lives most of us have fought someone’s urging that we get clean in some way; either our own bodies or some part of our surroundings.

If it is so wonderful to be clean, how do we let ourselves and our surroundings get in such a state? We convince ourselves that it is easier to let things slide than to clean up little at a time. Eventually, we either get used to things as they are or we step in to do the hard work of cleaning. We may even have to ask for help with the task The psalmist asks God for a thorough cleansing from sin and iniquity. A piece of paper here, a book there, a pile of mail in another corner and suddenly a desk is covered in ‘stuff’ that was important enough to save but not quite important enough to get done immediately. An unkind word here, a judgment there, a pile of looking down our noses at folks without knowing the whole story and suddenly we are covered in sin and iniquity. It all piles up and it becomes important to deal with all of these things before they overpower us.

God is more than willing to help us restore right relationships with God and others (you are on your own to get your desk clean.) The psalmist reminds us that God is not nearly as interested in appearance and rituals, important as they are, as God is interested in our hearts. During a regular cleaning routine, or an I-can’t-take-this-anymore clean, take a moment also to see to identifying and clear out some of the sin and iniquity that is piling up inside. It may make the outside cleaning go a little more smoothly. It will certainly make for a lighter spirit in the presence of God and others.

August 5, 2013