Carrubbers' Blog

You should to see this and more posts.

W2W Blog: Wsidom in the Secret Heart

W2W Blog: Wisdom in the secret heart

(adapted from Helen Azzopadri’s W2W talk on Psalm 51)

Over this past year we have been looking together at the different ways we pray and tonight we finish off with confessional prayer. Confession meaning acknowledging the wrong actions, words or thoughts (or our sin) before God and not only recognising them but saying sorry for them and asking for forgiveness. And we are in for a treat because Psalm 51 not only gives us a great framework for our own confessional prayers but also reveals to us why it is so important.

David was in a mess here. (see 2 Sam 11 and 12 for the background story) Lying, deceiving, an adulterer and a murderer. But what we will read here in Psalm 51 is David’s response to his wrongdoing and perhaps it will help us to learn how we can respond to our own.

‘Have mercy on me’ –  (vs 1-2)

 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.

 What we see in this first section is David appealing to God for forgiveness. And this forgiveness for his sins will come only through God’s ‘abundant mercy’ and nothing else and I think David knows this full well. There a few different words for sin here in these opening verses; transgressions, iniquity, sin and evil down in verse 4 and interestingly they actually all have slightly different meanings.

  • Sin – is to completely act against God’s law and rebel against Him
  • Transgression – is like to ‘cross the line’
  • Evil – a wicked or immoral act
  • Iniquity – is to twist or act unjustly

So we can see that sin takes many guises. Sometimes we twist the truth about a situation to make us look better or to avoid blame. Or we out-rightly decide we want to ignore God’s laws for example being the place of sex in marriage. I am sure that we are guilty of at least one if not all of these at one stage in our lives and that is why we, and David here in the Psalm, are so in need of God’s mercy.

‘I confess’ – (vs 3-6)

3For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

4Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight;

so you are right in your verdict

and justified when you judge.

5Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

you taught me wisdom in that secret heart.

This is the part where David recognises his wrongdoing. Based on what we know from 2 Samuel 11&12 it doesn’t seem as if David fully grasped the extent of his sin until the prophet Nathan pointed it out to him. Now we don’t know what was going on in David’s head prior to that but I think its certainly true of me that sometimes it takes someone close to me to graciously point out where I am going wrong and guide me towards an attitude or action that is pleasing to God. Sometimes it is hard to see all the sin within us but we can learn here that when we are aware of it we need to take it straight to the Lord and confess it. Now David knows that the sin is his own and that God would be fully justified to bring judgement upon him. Because it is only against God that he has sinned (vs4). This isn’t to suggest that others haven’t been hurt through the consequences of David’s wrongful actions; Bathsheba left a widower and Uriah dead. But David acknowledges that God is the ultimate judge for sin and therefore He is the one we must confess to.

‘Renew me and restore me’ – (vs 7-12)

7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity.

10Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

This is the moment in the Psalm where the mood changes. We move away from talking about sin and judgement and see many references of being made new and made clean. David has made his request and has confessed his sin before God with faith in what God will do next. And I think it’s in these verses where we really see Jesus in this Psalm. David knows it is only God who can make him ‘whiter than snow’. Now Art is one of the things at school I was worst at. I was the pupil who when the teacher walked past they would say ‘That’s interesting Helen…what is it supposed to be?’ But one thing I do remember is about primary colours. Yellow, Blue and Red and how you can mix these colours to make lots of other ones. So lets imagine the sin within us is represented as black paint, and the blood shed by Jesus on the cross is red. If we were to actually mix those colours we would end up with some sort of dark red or brown. But what this passage is in fact saying is that your sin, covered by Jesus’ blood actually makes a really pure white, a white that is whiter than snow. Bright, new and clean. In verse 9 David asks God to ‘blot out his iniquities’ which literally means to have them removed from the record book. And we know that this is what Jesus has done for us on the cross, he has wiped that slate clean and because of that sacrifice we can have that clean heart. So we are renewed but also restored. Our relationship with God is restored and so is our joy in the salvation that God has graciously given.

‘Then I will worship…’ – (vs 13-19)

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

so that sinners will turn back to you.

14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

you who are God my Savior,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15Open my lips, Lord,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17My sacrifice, O God, is17 Or The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart

you, God, will not despise.

18May it please you to prosper Zion,

to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,

in burnt offerings offered whole;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

This final section shows David’s response to God’s restorative work in him. He is a new person with a new testimony to share with others. Not only is he thankful for God forgiving him but also he sees it will make him encourage others to turn away from sin and back to God.

Verse 14 says something important here which I want to highlight briefly. In the midst of David’s thankful response he asks to be ‘delivered from bloodguiltiness’. He recognised that as time went by he may go back to feeling guilty over the blood that was shed because of his wrongdoing and he wants God to continue to deliver or rescue him from that. How often do we deny ourselves the opportunity to move forward and enjoy the full restoration process that God gives because of our guilt? We should almost ask how dare we not forgive ourselves when God has? How can we hold back forgiveness of ourselves when God so freely gives it? I know sometimes it can seem easier to accept God’s forgiveness but not our own, which seems crazy when you say it out loud. Our sin can leave us feeling unqualified and worthless. Perhaps that’s because this what Satan wants, he doesn’t want us to feel released form that burden. But it can also be because we haven’t allowed God to do that full restoration process in us. We should not allow sin to condemn us because it makes us hopeless and keeps us from change. Romans 8:1+2 says, ‘Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of Spirit of life set [us] free from the law of sin and death” So yes we should allow ourselves to be convicted by sin, but not condemned. Because conviction should lead to repentance, enable inner change and bring us closer to God. Condemnation drives us away from God and that’s why I think David asks to be delivered from his guilt, so that he can experience the freedom from guilt and the joy and peace there is in being brought near to God once more.

Being this new person with this new testimony David can now be a true worshipper of God because he does not have that sin holding him back or burdening him. And all of this testifies to God’s mercy in forgiving David his sins and his restorative power in making David this new man, the man we know to be a man after God’s own heart.

So why is it so important?

So now we have looked at the passage and been on that journey with David lets reflect for a moment on why prayers of confession are so important.

Firstly because it restores our broken relationship with God. Now it is interesting to note at the stop of the Psalm that this Psalm was written to the choirmaster. So in fact its been written as a song to be sung by the people of Israel. So this wasn’t exclusively David’s response to his own sin but actually was intended to be for all people to use to cry out to God for forgiveness, which includes us today. I think David had recognised something crucial here – for every single one of us it is sin that creates a barrier between us and God. And the only way for us all to restore that right relationship with God is for us to truly, and I mean truly, recognise the extent of our wrongdoing and come to His feet and repent.

Have you ever had a big falling out with a friend or family member over something? I know I have, and how much it can tear you apart and make you feel very distant from each other. But how when you can come to a place of reconciliation, say sorry and begin to restore that relationship again how freeing and relieving it feels?! Well sadly sin is just like a big argument in our relationship with God, it wrecks it and makes us feel far apart from him. Barbara Hughes says

Unconfessed sin makes us avoid prayer because God seems distant but confession restores our relationship with Him and brings us back into his favour”.

Now we can see from this Psalm how well David knew and understood God’s character and his ‘abundant mercy’, he believed God was able to forgive all the terrible things he had done. Now what is even more amazing for us as Christians on this side of the cross is that we can have complete and unwavering confidence in God’s mercy and forgiveness because we know that Jesus took the punishment for all our sins, transgressions, iniquity and evil there on the cross. And there is nothing that he won’t forgive. We see in verse 16 that David knew that animal sacrifices would not be enough to cover his sin. But we know that Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be made ‘whiter than snow’ and we can again have joy in His presence and enjoy that restored relationship with Him once more.

‘Wisdom in the secret heart’

Another reason this type of prayer is so significant is because it paves the way for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and begin to start that inner change in us. And this consequence of confessional prayer has almost been a revelation for me as I have studied this passage. In verse 5 David points out that we are all born under the curse of sin and enslaved by it and that no one is an exception to that. So this sin is not superficial, if we want to turn from our sinful ways and live the way God wants us to its not an outward change that needs to take place. The inner change that takes place within us is deep, because the sin runs deep. When Samuel anointed David back in 1 Samuel he said, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7) It is important to remember that when the Bible talks about heart, its not about love and emotions as it is seen is society. But the Bible says the heart is the wellspring of all our actions, the place we store God’s wisdom and make all our choices. So if we want God to teach us this ‘wisdom in the secret heart’ then we need to allow the spirit to do its transforming work within us. The way to allow that process to take place is to spend time in God’s presence, asking for forgiveness to be less like us and to be more like Him. The more we see how good God is and how broken we are the more we will want Him to teach us that ‘truth in the inward being’, that ‘wisdom in the secret heart’ so that our spiritual lives can grow and flourish and have that new testimony that David talks about.

Conclusion

Of course we will still fail, time and again, these confessional prayers don’t make us instantly perfect. Yes, we do mess up and do things that go against what God has said to us in His word. But God has provided us an incredible way, through his Son Jesus, to come to Him and repent from these things so that we can be restored that right relationship with Him and we can allow the spirit to do its transforming work in our hearts.

I think this quote sums up what we have looked at quite nicely

“The goal of confession is not self-abasement (meaning degrading yourself or putting yourself down) but a renewal of the joy and gladness that the faithful have in God’s presence”. 

For reflection why not listen to this song written with the words of Psalm 51:

Shane and Shane “Psalm 51” Wisdom in the Secret Heart on Spotify or itunes.

 Questions to think about:

  • ‘Have mercy on me’ (v1-2) How does God’s character contrast with the nature of sin?
  • ‘I confess’ (v3-6) Is it always easy to recognise our own sinful behaviour? Why/why not?
  • ‘Renew me and Restore me’ (v7-12) Look at Ephesians 1:7-8. David asks God for a ‘clean heart’ and to be made ‘whiter than snow’. How does what Paul says reiterate the significance of Jesus’ work on the cross that makes us new?
  • ‘Then I will worship’ (v13-19) When might it be good to share with others about the times we have known God’s forgiveness for our sins?
  • How can our own guilt of sin hold us back from that restored relationship with God?
  • Practically how does confessional prayer fit in with our daily prayers so that that inner change can take place in our hearts?

rss: Subscribe to the rss feed.
Twitter: Follow us on Twitter.