1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against 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. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. 18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Let me admit from the start that I struggle using anything other than the NRSV when it comes to scripture. But since this isn’t really supposed to be a critical study or anything, but simply my reflections on different passages, I might just do some version-hopping. We’ll see how that goes. I’m going to do my best to not look through a critical lens when doing these writings…we’ll see how that goes.
Anyway, this Psalm is introduced as having been written by David after Nathan confronted him regarding his relationship with Bathsheba. I think the opening line says it all: Have mercy on me, oh God! How many times has that been my first response to sin…it’s like the voice that says “maybe you shouldn’t do that” finally gains its foothold in my mind after the fact.
All of this is immediately followed by David’s pleas for God to “blot out” his sin or to “turn away” from looking at his sin. And I think David expects that God would do such a thing simply because of God’s “unfailing love” and “great compassion”. Clearly David knew his sin, but what interests me most is that he says he sinned only to God. What about Bathsheba? Did David not sin against her as well? In fact, she’s not even mentioned in this passage! Maybe she was complicit the relationship and I try to blame David too much. I don’t know.
David’s request to not be cast from God’s presence is also frightening. I can’t imagine being cast from God’s presence. I’ve felt that “divine absence” before, but even then felt like the problem was more on my end then on God’s. Did David feel like he had literally been cast from God’s presence? Or was he feeling that same separation I feel when I screw things up. It definitely would have been easier for David to put that guilt on God’s shoulders, almost blaming God for his feelings. But would God really have cast David out? I have to think that David was the one walking away.
Far and away my favorite part of this Psalm has to be the part about sacrifice. I will never be the type of person to deny the importance of ritual. The rituals of the church are of utmost importance to me as I believe they are to God…if done in the right frame of mind. I think that’s what David was getting at here. God wants a broken spirit and a contrite heart which you can have in ritual. What is it that God takes pleasure in? The sacrifices of the righteous. I want to strive for righteousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment