Psalms 51:1-19: a reflection

1Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. 3For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. 4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. 5Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin. 6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. 9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. 13Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you. 14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise. 16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. 17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart. 18Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

In his great prayer of repentance after his sin, David asks God not only to forgive but to do something deeper: to make his heart new. Create in me a clean heart, O God, he prays; renew a right spirit within me. He does not ask merely to be let off, or to have his outward behavior corrected; he asks God to create in him a clean heart, to renew his spirit from within, doing the inner work that David cannot do for himself. To create is God's work; David asks for a heart made new, a work of fresh creation within him. He knows that mere resolve will not cleanse his heart; only God can create in him a clean one. The deepest need of the repentant heart is not just pardon but renewal, a clean heart that only God can create. David asks God to do within him what he cannot do himself.

Notice what David asks for: not only pardon, but a clean heart that God alone can create. He does not merely ask to be forgiven and left to try harder; he asks God to create in him a clean heart, to renew a right spirit within him. The word is create, God's own work; David knows that the cleansing his heart needs is beyond his own power to accomplish. He cannot make his own heart clean by resolve or effort; only God can do that inner work of renewal. This is a deep insight into repentance: our need is not only for our sins to be pardoned but for our hearts to be renewed, made clean, and that renewal is God's work, not ours. We can no more create a clean heart in ourselves than we could create ourselves. To ask God to create in us a clean heart is to confess that the inner renewal we need can come only from him. The clean heart is God's creation, not our achievement.

That is worth taking to heart, for the clean heart we need is God's creation, and we can ask him to make ours new. We can think that after being forgiven, we must simply try harder to be good, to clean up our own hearts by resolve; but David asked God to create in him a clean heart, knowing that the inner renewal he needed was God's work, not his own. Our hearts are made clean not by our effort but by God's creating work within us. Do not think you must cleanse your own heart by resolve; ask God to create in you a clean heart, as David did, for that renewal is his work. Ask God to create in you a clean heart and renew a right spirit within you, since the inner renewal you need is his work and not your own achievement, as David prayed after his sin, create in me a clean heart, O God; for our hearts are made clean not by trying harder or by our own resolve but by God's creating work within us, and the deepest need of the repentant heart is not only pardon but a heart made new, which only God can create, so that we rightly ask him to do within us what we cannot do ourselves.

Lord, in his great prayer of repentance after his sin, David asks you not only to forgive but to do something deeper: to make his heart new. Create in me a clean heart, O God, he prays; renew a right spirit within me. He does not ask merely to be let off, or to have his outward behavior corrected; he asks you to create in him a clean heart, to renew his spirit from within, doing the inner work that David cannot do for himself. To create is your work; David asks for a heart made new. He knows that mere resolve will not cleanse his heart; only you can create in him a clean one. Show me what David asks for: not only pardon, but a clean heart that you alone can create. He does not merely ask to be forgiven and left to try harder; he asks you to create in him a clean heart. The word is create, your own work; David knows that the cleansing his heart needs is beyond his own power. He cannot make his own heart clean by resolve or effort; only you can do that inner work of renewal. This is a deep insight into repentance: our need is not only for our sins to be pardoned but for our hearts to be renewed, and that renewal is your work, not ours. Take that to my heart, for the clean heart I need is your creation, and I can ask you to make mine new. I can think that after being forgiven, I must simply try harder to be good, to clean up my own heart by resolve; but David asked you to create in him a clean heart, knowing the inner renewal he needed was your work. Keep me from thinking I must cleanse my own heart by resolve; help me ask you to create in me a clean heart, Lord, as David did, for that renewal is your work, not my achievement.