Psalm Meditation 987
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 19, 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)

A friend from seminary days told me that he and his floor mates were a regular source of trouble for their residence assistant. Things seemed to happen on campus in a way that implicated this particular floor. To add to the trouble, they would alternate confession and denial as a whole. For one event, they would discreetly go to the RA one at a time and deny that they had anything to do with it. The next time they would confess one at a time, ‘I did it, all by myself, no one helped me, I bear total responsibility.’ When everyone denies responsibility, it makes solving the issue more difficult. When everyone claims sole responsibility, it becomes just as complicated. It is hard to know who is a fault and who is innocent.

The psalmist is willing to confess transgressions and sins against God and hopes to receive forgiveness for all of these sins. He psalmist is not only willing to confess personal sins there is a companion willingness to confess to being most recent in a line of sinful people. The psalmist wants to be cleansed, purified, and made whole in body and spirit. In return for this healing and restoration the psalmist pledges a willingness to teach others to live in the way that leads to the same healing and wholeness the psalmist hopes to receive. If all of this good stuff happens, all will be right with the world, including a renewed delight in sacrifice offered to God.

Like the dorm residents, some of us will confess to anything and everything, because we know that we are guilty of something that requires confession, repentance, and probably punishment of some kind. Others will find a way within themselves to justify their actions as appropriate and defensible, even in the presence of God. Most of us are an interesting mix of guilt and denial, claiming some guilt beyond our responsibility and ignoring or justifying other transgressions as having done the right thing even though everyone else made it go wrong. The important part, beyond our overdeveloped senses of guilt and innocence, is pointing ourselves and others to God as best we can.

May 14, 2019
LCM lcrsmanifold@att.net
http://psalmmeditations.blogspot.com/