Verses 1-9, “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.”
We are all born into sin, and struggle with our desires to do things that we ought not to do to. But with God, we can overcome this. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all past sin, but also frees us from the bondage of sin, that we do not have to continue in it. I John 1:5-10, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Verses 10-19, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.”
Many people think that serving God is all about the things we sacrifice, when it has much more to do with our willingness to obey God...no matter what. When we have been delivered from the wrath that we deserve, our response should be to not only praise Him, but to give up our lives to Him. Knowing that our salvation was bought at a price, we should glorify God, not only with our words, but also with our actions. Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Unfortunately, the liberty we have in Christ is confused for freedom to sin, rather than freedom from sin. Churches are teaching believers to overlook sin in each other and in themselves, focusing solely on the loving nature of God. Galatians 5:13, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” They willfully forget the righteous judgement of God. And as a loving Father, He will chasten us in order that we be trained into righteousness. The unrestrained person is actually an enemy of God, because they reject His word and follow their flesh instead. Romans 8:5-8, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.Psalms 51:1-4, 15
ReplyDeleteThe Pslam is of David's repentance. He had sinned and was in denial. It was only until Nathan rebuked him. It was only until then when he finally came to repentance.
If we are in sin and someone rebukes, we need to accept the rebuke and fall on our knees and ask for forgiveness. Many times when people get rebuked they become hard and don't take the rebuke. They stay in sin and do not repent. Many times it is our pride not wanting to admit we are in the wrong and have to be rebuked by another man. We do not see our sin that we have committed. When we find ourselves in sin we need to repent and be humble. Asking the Lord to forgive us of the evil we have committed.
As Christians, we should be truly broken over our sin because it is direct disobedience to what God has called us to do. In order for someone to first get saved, they must admit that they habe sin in their life, and humble themselves. Those who can't even admit they have sin in their life have no need of a savior! Romans 3:23-24- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
ReplyDeleteAs we grow in the faith, we should see just how sinful we really are and just how perfect God is! We all have a sinful flesh nature, and as we mature in the Lord we should be desiring more of Him. We should desire to obey Him and want that which is holy! Matthew 5:6- "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled."
We should be praying daily for the filling of the Holy spirit, and asking Him to guide us! He can renew us when we seem weak..He can give us strength when we want to give up. We should always be looking towards Him and relying on Him! We should also be a light to others, and oray for opportunities to speak the truth! Our actions, attitudes, etc are all a witness. If we are in a bad mood and depressed, not praising the Lord, we are not a good witness at all! People should be able to look at our lives and see joy even in the midst of hard times, and that points to the Lord!