Psalm 51
September 14
David A. Davis
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Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love. In the abundance of your love, your love that is constant, your love that never fails, have mercy on us. Your mercy is as abundant as your love. Mercy. Compassion. Understanding. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on all of us, O God. Not pity. Not a feeling sorry for. But an unconditional love that never turns away. An ever-present compassion that brings tears to your eyes, O God. A divine-like patience that will never give up…on us. Your anger lasts but a moment but your favor, your kindness, your embrace lasts a lifetime and more, O God.
Lord, Lord, Lord have mercy. Tradition identifies the author of Psalm 51 as King David. David pretty much begging you for forgiveness, God, after Nathan confronted him about his sinful behavior with Bathsheba. A deeply personal plea. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”. Yes, Holy One, I have my sins to bring before you. We all have our sins to lay bare before you. The cleansing baptismal waters of your forgiveness wash over us every day. Every day. It is a deeply personal plea, prayer for all of us. That in and through Jesus Christ your forgiveness and redemption might cleanse us from all sin. Every moment of every day. “You desire truth in the inward being, therefore teach me (teach us) wisdom” deep within. Give us our truth and your wisdom that draws us near to your heart and helps to live a bit more faithfully, enables to do a bit better, inspires what the old gospel song described as “a closer walk with thee.”
But to be honest, Lord God, you can’t really read Psalm 51 this week and just keep it personal. The plea I mean. The cry for your mercy. You who know the inner most parts of every heart. You see the same world we do. A world, a nation, a people, so, so far from what your prophets proclaimed and what Jesus taught and what you intend for your creation. If one were to offer a litany of specifics in the midst of the psalmists prayer to you, God of compassion and mercy, it would be hard to know where to start and it would never end. The petitions. The laments. The plea. You can’t read Psalm 51 this week and hear it as prayer for one heart at a time. It’s not just a prayer for in here. It’s a prayer for out there. It’s a prayer for everywhere. Lord, Lord, Lord have mercy. It’s more than an expression that rolls from the lips of one the saints whose seen more than her share of life and heaves a sigh and shakes her head. No God, it is a deep, authentic cry of a heavy heart when other words just don’t come. A prayer that can help sleep to come at night when worries of the day never cease to mount. Have mercy on us, O God. Have mercy on all of us. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new and right spirit within me.” Create in us, all of us, clean hearts, O God put a new and right spirit with us, all of us. Not clean as sinless or perfectly pure or even spotless. That won’t happen until the other side of glory, until we come into your presence, until we rest eternally in your very heart God. No, this is more like clean as in heal. Like when Jesus healed the ten lepers. They were made clean. A clean heart healed from its woundedness. A clean heart mended from its brokenness. A clean heart lift from its despair. A clean heart freed from all that separates us from you, Merciful God. That’s our plea. That’s our prayer. That’s your promise. Because you, Creator God, you who created the heavens and the earth, you who created each one of us, are creating…still. For the love of God, for the love of you, don’t stop creating now. As the psalmist said, “I lift mine eyes to the hills- from whence will my help come. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” Our help is the work of your ongoing, still creating Spirit on the loose in each one of us and in the world. Our help. Our hope, O Spirit of the Living God.
Clean hearts and new and right spirits. Put new and right spirits within us, all of us. New, like the promise Isaiah proclaimed: I am the Lord, your God, your Holy One…I am about to do a new thing: now it springs forth.” God of every blessing, allow new spirits to spring forth. A new spirit within fed by your peace, not as the world gives, but the peace Jesus gives unto us. A new spirit that flows with joy the world can never crush. A spirit kept by your light, the light of the world. A spirit that shall never be crushed by the present and future darkness. Overwhelmed. Yes. Distraught. Maybe. But in your wisdom and by your grace and with your love that will not let us go, put that new spirit within us.
New and right spirits. Right spirit. I don’t know God, but these days it seems like a right spirit is less about not being a wrong spirit and more about being aligned with your Spirit. Right, not as in right or wrong. But right more like the root of righteousness. Like when Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Put right spirits within us God. Spirits that long for the world Mary sang about in the Magnificat. The world Jesus described when he stood in the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah. Put right spirits within us that yearn for justice to roll down and the poor to be lifted up. Right spirits that help us see the world like Jesus sees the world and work for the world Jesus paints with his words. Put new and right spirits within us, O God of all righteousness. Clean hearts and new spirits.
“Do not cast [us] away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from [us]’. It’s like we don’t even need to ask. We know that. But along with the resurrection hope that Christ is Risen, the assurance of your presence with us always, O Emmanuel, that’s what carries us. That’s what sustains us. That Christ is with us always until the end of the age. That your Holy Spirit is at work advocating, guiding, sanctifying us. That even in the most difficult seasons of our lives, the most discouraging times when it comes to longing for peace, the most frightening days of mass shootings and political violence in the land, you are with us. The world and everything in it still belong to you. That you still hold each of us, all of us, in the palm of your hand. Not going lie Lord, our hands are raised with all sorts question you about all we see around us. Our prayer fists are clinched in frustration and anger about the hatred, the bigotry, the absolute neglect of the common good, but you still are God in heaven and the God who comes all the way down in Jesus Christ who anointed our brokenness with his human flesh and bones. He stretched out his arms to embrace to save this blasted world. It is your presence that carries us these days. As the psalmist says “If I ascend to heaven you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast. Don’t cast us away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from us. For your Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Every moment of every day.
Blessed Savior, still our refuge, I officiated at a wedding yesterday. I was reminded how life-giving, redeeming, restoring the taste of a bit of joy can be. A glimpse of joy and love is such a gift. A gift to not be taken for granted. So yes, give us a fresh dose of the joy of your salvation. Help us not to forget to find joy in the little things and in the big things. Knowing that the world cannot take away the joy we have in Jesus Christ. Like your peace, it is a joy not as the world gives. Give us joy, Holy God. It seems almost like a subversive prayer request or even a selfish one. But joy as resistance is one of the ways you sustain us God. A bit of joy to face to tomorrow. A little foretaste of glory divine to inspire us for another day. A glimpse of joy so we can tackle some of the hard stuff.
Sustain us with willing spirits. Willing spirits that find a way, even the simplist of ways to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. Willing spirits that are open to a nudge from you to say yes to an ask, or to discover a new way to love a neighbor, or to offer some extra gratitude to someone behind a register or serving a table or taking a temperature. Sustain us with willing spirits, Loving God, that remind us that we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ not just when we are in here but when we are out there. And we are called to see the very face of Christ in those around us. Give us the eyes and hearts that come with willing spirits.
Lastly, with our plea, with our prayer, comes our praise. The wisdom of scripture reveals, and lives of the saints that have gone before us testify, and the witness of the great cloud affirms you can’t have one without the other. Prayer and praise.
So, Lord, “open [our] lips, and our mouths will declare your praise.” For our chief end in this life and the life to come is to worship you and enjoy forever.
Lord, Lord, Lord have mercy.
Create in us clean hearts and right minds.