Throwback Post #5 – Psalm 51 (Video)
Psalm 51 has been turned into a song many times over. Part of the reason is because of the structure of the Psalm itself. It has a great chorus which goes like this, “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”
This chorus is an expression of David’s honest desire to honor God and live in his presence. It is a deeply personal and open expression of love for God that I hope we desire to make every day. That God would take our sin-entangled hearts and re-create them clean and new. That He would take our spirits, burdened by that same sin, and renew them to their right standing. But like any truly great song, the verses before and after the chorus are where you find the chorus fleshed out in more detail.
Verse 1 says, “have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgression.” Our ability to plead with God for a clean heart and a right spirit is only possible due to God’s great mercy. We, post-Easter Christians, should know this mercy well. Because of God’s great mercy He sent Christ. And because He sent Christ we have salvation, and because we have salvation we are able to live in relationship with God every day and say, along with David, ‘create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me O God.’
Later in Psalm 51, after the chorus, David goes on to say, ‘then I will teach transgressors yours ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” David vows, because of the great mercy God has shown him, to teach sinners the ways of God, to proclaim the righteousness of God and ultimately, to praise him. David understands that God’s mercy is not meant to be shown only to him, but to all mankind. It is a cure for the disease every human has and it is meant to be shared. Spreading the Good News is a direct result of having a clean heart and a right spirit.
May we, as individual people, see the great mercies God has bestowed upon each of us and share that mercy and love with the people we come into contact with every day. And may we, as a community of believers, spread the great news of Jesus to the greater community in which we live.
We are blessed to be known and loved by God. May we treat each and every day as a chance to know him more fully, with clean hearts, and as a chance to introduce those around us to Him.
Like this:
What’s Your Central Park?
In exactly 23 days my wife and I will be moving into our first home. And one of the many benefits of moving into this home will be the ability to lay in my hammock any hour of the day, any day of the year. You see my hammock is my oasis, my escape from the world and at the apartment complex we currently live in there is no place to hang my hammock. I don’t have my escape.
This idea, of escape, or retreat from the busyness of life isn’t just a physical retreat, it can and should be a spiritual one as well.
Recently I was re-listening to a breakout session by Jon Acuff from SYMC and in that session he asked us why Central Park was still around. After all, it is a huge park in the middle of Manhattan taking up some of the most expensive real estate in the country. So why is it still there?
Acuff’s answer was simple, ‘because New York needs it. New York would eat itself alive with out it.’ It’s their oasis from the chaos of life. It’s a sea of green in the midst of their concrete jungle.
Hearing this again was a great reminder to me. Though I have been robbed of my physical retreat, my hammock, have I been robbing myself of time with God by not taking spiritual retreats? Do I have a Central Park built into my life? A place I can go in the midst of everyday life to be with God? And if I don’t, am I willing to knock down some buildings to create that space?
What is your ‘Central Park’? Or what ‘buildings’ might you have to knock down in order to create that space?
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The Purpose of Beauty
We all like things that are beautiful. Whether its a person, a sunset, a work of art, etc. But have you ever stopped to wonder why we like beautiful stuff?
It may seem like a dumb question, with an answer as simple as ‘because it’s beautiful’, but I think there’s more to it than that.
It is my opinion that beauty reminds us of God, whether consciously or unconsciously. Beauty is a spiritually charged matter. We live in a universe that was completely and wholly created by God for the purpose of communicating his glory, majesty, and yes, beauty. So when we see that beautiful sunset over the ocean, the coral reefs under the sea, the snow covered tips of the rockies, we are reminded of the beauty of our creator.
Our ability to create beautiful paintings, buildings, cars, etc is a direct reminder of the creativity of our creator.
So the next time you see or experience something beautiful, take a moment to remember what beauty is meant to reflect, namely, God. Thank him for choosing to create beautiful things and for the most beautiful act of all time, the death, burial, and resurrection of his son Jesus.
Leave a comment: What beautiful things remind you of God?
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You Make Beautiful Things Out of Us
The song I’m reminded of the most from this weekend is this:
God continually makes beautiful things out of the dust and us. He is so good, we are blessed beyond what we deserve and what we can even recognize.
Leave a comment: What has God made beautiful in your life?
