January 22, 2001
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February 19 Lesson
It bears repeating: Confession is good for soul
___Psalm 51:1-17
___1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
___3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
___7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
___10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
___13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 14Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
___By Matt Cook
___In his book on prayer, Richard Foster writes, "Sometimes our prayer can be reduced to a single word: 'mercy.'"
___Psalm 51 is not a single word, but it continually returns to that refrain--the need for God's mercy. It is one of the most beautiful and also one of the most necessary prayers in Scripture.
___Confession implies confidence in the power of God (vv. 1-2)
___At first glance, this Psalm seems to begin with despair. With a cry for "mercy" and an acknowledgement of "transgressions," the mind conjures up images of a lowly criminal brought to justice before a stern and mighty king. But just as prominent in the beginning of this psalm is the recognition of the unfailing love and great compassion of God. There is complete confidence in the power of God to "cleanse."
___The world sees confession in legal terms. Watch a television program about lawyers or read a legal thriller, and you'll see the analogy--a criminal forced into confession by intimidating police detectives or a crafty prosecuting attorney who tricks someone on the witness stand. The Psalms, however, see confession as an act of release; the birth of hope; a stop on the road to new life. Psalm 51 is the essence of this view of confession.
___Confession acknowledges the comprehensiveness of sin (vv. 3, 5, 11)
___The confidence in the power of God to cleanse any sin does not undermine the need for total recognition of the extent of sinfulness within confession. Psalm 51 is a good example of that. "My sin is always before me" is a statement of the pain of sin that is unforgiven but recognized. This pain is not the result of a single act of sin but of a life of sinfulness that literally began at birth.
___In confession, we must recognize that sin is not like bouncing a check, requiring only a deposit of regret large enough to cover the deficit. Instead, confession is a mindset, a way of relating to God that acknowledges our ongoing dependence on God's grace in the midst of a fallen world. That ongoing dependence means we, as sinners, constantly must seek the face of God. With the psalmist, we ask God to stay in his presence through the workings of the Holy Spirit.
___Any sin is against God alone (v. 4)
___Commentators have struggled with this idea. What happens when a sin involves another person? Aren't there consequences in sin for those other than God? There is a distinction being made here between the effects of sin and the way sin, itself, is defined. God is the standard by which sin is judged.
___In other words, sin is any departure from the will of God and the way in which God wants to carry out that will. When we, as human beings, determine to do things our own way, it is God who suffers the most as God alone suffers on behalf of both the sinner and those wronged by the sin.
___Sin requires a complete cleansing (vv. 6-7, 9)
___If sin is more than just a debt to be paid, then God's forgiveness of sin involves more than just any single act of sin itself. Psalm 51 recognizes that the "inmost places" are where sin originates. Sin isn't just an action, but part of our being. That means there's quite a mess to be cleaned up. The good news is that God is good at cleansing things. He uses strong stuff (hyssop--think Ajax, Windex and Clorox all rolled into one) and gets results.
___The process of cleansing will not always be easy or short-lived. God doesn't promise that. In a consumer culture, we are not accustomed to waiting long periods of time to reach desired outcomes. We can get our dry cleaning in a day, our photographs developed in an hour, our food cooked in a matter of minutes and our information as fast as our modems can function. While forgiveness is as fast as God's love for us is complete, cleansing the consequences of sin is a process that can take awhile.
___A wise pastor I know was counseling a married couple in his church. The couple had been struggling for some time with problems that had developed in their marriage. They walked out of their first counseling session with smiles on their faces but walked into their second session with frowns.
___"We tried what you said, pastor, but it didn't seem to help. We're still struggling and we're still angry with each other."
___My friend told them: "These patterns you've developed, these ways of treating each other haven't developed over night, and they're not going to be dealt with over night. You have to forgive each other every day until grace begins to change you."___
___Forgiveness brings renewal and joy (vv. 8, 10, 12)
___Do you remember the day you became a Christian? For almost every believer, it is an experience that can be summed up in one word--joy. Whether as a child coming to Christ through the gentle nudging of a parent, Sunday School teacher or friend, or as an adult through some kind of radical turnabout, the day that someone finds out that God has given them the gift of salvation is an incredible day. All too often believers recall that feeling only as a thing of the past.
___Psalm 51, however, anticipates the renewal of that joy through the act of confession. Through confession, one receives gladness, a pure heart, a steadfast and willing spirit, and, most importantly, the return of the joy of salvation.
___What would the church be like if it consisted of people who were filled with the joy of salvation? Look around your sanctuary next Sunday morning. How many people smile? How many people seem enthusiastic about the time they spend in the presence of God? It's a common problem in most churches.
___But what if you got an advertisement from your church that said George W. Bush was going to be at your church this Sunday? Would that be exciting? What if you heard that Billy Graham was going to be preaching the sermon at your church next week? Would the crowd be any larger? What if someone told you that Bill Gates was going to visit your church next Sunday and afterward he was going to be handing out free stock options to the first hundred people that arrived that morning? How many tents would be pitched outside?
___Well George W. Bush may do a good job as president, but it's unlikely he's going to figure out how to heal the blind and make the lame to walk. Billy Graham is an amazing man of God, but he's not going to rise from the grave three days after he passes. Bill Gates probably has a lot to offer anyone, but there's no doubt that God has far more. Psalm 51 reminds us that there is nothing better that anyone can offer us than the joy of our salvation, which is the awareness of fellowship with God.
___Confession strips away those distractions that keep us from remembering the wonderful joy of such fellowshipwith God.___
___Forgiveness brings change that the world can see (vv. 13-15)
___Ernest Mays, professor of Old Testament at Union Seminary in Virginia, says, "Many prayers for help say, 'Change my situation so I may praise you.'" Psalm 51 says "change me; I am the problem." When we ask God to change us, not our situation, then true change can occur, and that change always is evident to those around us.
___An African-American pastor I know once told me, "God always pours more grace in your cup than it can hold, so you know its going to spill out on somebody else." The renewal that God gives us when we confess our sins can't be contained within us. It "spills out" into the world through the witness of lives lived in fellowship with God.___
___There is no substitute for confession (vv. 16-17)
___Religion always develops rituals. In the Old Testament, there were elaborate rituals of sacrifice. In the Middle Ages, the church developed highly complex liturgies. Even in the Baptist life with our autonomy and independence, rituals develop. Does your church have worship at 11 on Sunday morning? Many do.
___And there's nothing wrong with rituals. Rituals can keep us from worrying about process all the time. When was the last time you visited a church whose worship rituals were radically different than yours? It's harder to concentrate on worshipping when you don't know when to stand up or sit down or when you're going to be praying and when you're going to be singing, isn't it? How effective would it be for your church to decide every week when it was going to meet for worship? It could get a little crazy, couldn't it? Rituals can be very helpful.
___But rituals are not a substitute for confession. Going to church every Sunday does not guarantee we will hear God speak to us, as long as our lives are cluttered and restrained by sin. Some take it one step further. Such people don't just come to church, they're actively involved, as Sunday School teachers or deacons. They serve on committees and help carry out the business of the church. The church couldn't function without people who are willing to sacrifice their time and energy.
___But just like ritual, sacrifice is not a substitute for confession. What God wants most of all from us is "a contrite heart." In acknowledging our brokenness and need for God, our rituals and sacrifices can become sacraments filling our lives with the presence of God.
For thought and discussion
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