Psalm Meditation 979
Third Sunday in Lent
March 24, 2019

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)

Most of us can easily list the sins of those around us; family, friends, enemies. Sin is pretty easy to spot from an objective distance. Given the opportunity to get close enough to get to know someone we don’t like makes listing that person’s sins very easy. Our psalmist here has done something different.

This psalmist has found it necessary to enumerate and confess personal sins. There is no deflecting or denying. The psalmist has come to the point at which many sins have weighed so heavily there is no rising without becoming free of this load of sin. The psalmist goes to God to lighten the burden of sin.

These days all forms of media are full of reports of people falling from grace and fame. Some are famous, while others are known only to their victims. It is still easier to name the sins of those around us than it is to name our own in a way that leads to repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. Many of us find it easier to believe the worst about those with whom we disagree, than we do in the repentance and restoration of one with whom we have no problem. The psalmist reminds us that it is most important to look to ourselves and our own sin, so that we can confess, repent, and be restored to right relationship with God and others.

March 18, 2019
LCM