When you need to ask for MORE THAN MERCY S30e92 Ps51

Happy Thanksgiving.  I'll hope I can give you something to be thankful for in these 7 minutes. 

David starts with murder. Not only does he ask for MERCY, he asks for MORE THAN mercy. Sure, he wants forgiveness and for the almost-impossible process that sin becomes UN-SEEN forever. But wait, he wants MORE: 

David wants the BIG ASK: PROXIMITY to God; PRESENCE of the HS; and the PLEASURE of a restored relationship.

Ps.51 starts with murder and ends with MORE THAN mercy. He asks for God Himself. Listen.

https://youtu.be/aKlJUlGE9_E

Transcript

When you need to ask for MORE THAN MERCY S30e92 Ps51

Watch as God UN-SEEs sin

We are watching David do the hardest thing. Moving from: what I do is OK.  OF COURSE my ways have been correct…to: I could be wrong about this.  In fact I amwrong. He will do repenting first: I’m wrong.  He will do the hard, embarrassing work of restoration. 

All along, he is suffering the embarrassment that, for all time, he will be an example of a great knucklehead in the house of God, a great knucklehead in the history of God’s people. He will be pulling down his spiritual pants for all to see the most important life skill: forgiveness.  

Also watching the even harder process of watching God UN-SEE sin.

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 broken rejoice.

9    Hide your face from my sins, 

and blot out all my iniquities.

10    Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and renew a right spirit within me. 

11    Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12    Restore to me the joy of your salvation, 

and uphold me with a willing spirit. .

.Only you can fix this. Wash me whiter than snow. This podcast comes to you from ohio where we have plenty of snow. Snow can be sooo white sometimes, that even in the night, in the dark, it is light because of the snow. This is the whiteness that David seeks to be. He wants MERCY.

He also wants joy and gladness and broken bones that can rejoice. Listen to his process of forgiveness. In my mind, there is repentance: I’m sorry. This is my fault. I have sinned.   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 only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight, 

.He is also seeking restoration of a positive, joyful, ongoing, functioning relationship.  It is asking a lot.  Not only is he looking back, saying we have to fix the PAST, he is also asking God for an abundant future. He is engaging FULLY in this life skill of forgiveness.  I said yesterday: Ps51 starts with murder and ends with mercy. I’m going to change that as I have thought about Ps51 some more: Ps51 starts with murder and ends with MORE THAN mercy. He wants bones that work at being bones.  He wants a soul that can go back to being joyful in relationship.            11          Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12    Restore to me the joy of your salvation, 

and uphold me with a willing spirit. .

He is asking for: PROXIMITY to God; PRESENCE of the HS; a restored POSITION of a joyful, saved place; the PLEASURE of a willing relationship.

But first there is some work to do9  Hide your face from my sins, 

and blot out all my iniquities.

10    Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and renew a right spirit within me. 

One of the questions I come back to regarding every human attempting in human ways to have a relationship with God is: WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT YOUR SIN? 

         David: You have to help here. Hide your face from my sins. How can sin that is ever before an all-knowing God? How can God forgive. In the gospels, miracles and healings by Jesus were one thing. They were tolerated by the religious officials. But claiming this very power: the power to forgive sins, to make them disappear theologically, to make them as far as the east is from the west, This is exactly why they wanted to kill Jesus.  This is something that only God can do. David knows that. David is banking on that exact truth: 

I trust you are Divine. Please do this Divine thing: make these sins go away.

         This is precisely what we see Jesus do on the cross. How will an all seeing God, figure out a way to un-see sin forever and satisfy all judicial claims against the sinner? A: “The Cross.” penalty paid by 100% righteous, sinless, generous Jesus.  Only He could have figured this out.

         So, Ps51 pre-figures the cross by making sin go away forever by a process that is above our paygrade. It is impossible without Divine intervention: I see this. I cover this. I don’t treat you as. You deserve. I have mercy. You don’t get what you deserve.

Ps 51 doesn’t stop at repentance, it goes to relational restoration

10Create in me a clean heart o God, and renew a right spirit within me11       Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12    Restore to me the joy of your salvation, 

and uphold me with a willing spirit. .

David has a real spiritual boldness here that is founded on very good theology.  I am asking for forgiveness, sure.  For many believers, this would be enough. 

David does not stop at repentance and dealing with the sin situation.

David asks for MORE THAN MERCY. I want you. I want your presence, your HS, I want the JOY of relationship, PROXIMITY to God; PRESENCE of the HS; a restored POSITION of a joyful, saved place; the PLEASURE of a willing relationship.

Here is what strikes me today:  David asks for mercy. Starts with murder and he gets to mercy. Then he goes further: He asks for MORE THAN MERCY. He asks that God UN-SEES sin, which is bold enough, but then He asks for God Himself.