Repentance

Psalm 51: 6-10

“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.”

Psalm 51 is a record of King David’s repentance of his sins after being made acutely aware of them by the prophet Nathan.   

In the verses above, David asks God to cleanse him of his sins.  He asks that he be made spiritually clean; that God wash away his sins as if they had never happened; that he experience the same joy and gladness in God that he did prior to his sins.

Most importantly, David prayed not only for a clean slate but for a clean heart and a new spirit that would enable him to move forward with God.

We often seek forgiveness in prayer, but we must also pray for a new beginning, a new resolve…

and the strength, given of God, to move forward.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)