September 9, 2002

LifeWay Family Bible Series for Sept. 22

Repentance and forgiveness are a matched set
___ Psalm 51:1­17
___By Rick Willis
___First Baptist Church, Roscoe
___Not everyone will see a burning bush like Moses saw. Not everyone can have a Damascus Road vision like Paul had. But all who own up to their sin like David did can discover that God forgives.
___To characterize the Heavenly Father as a God of grace and glory points to twin truths about God. In his glory, God will forever be above and beyond the whole wide world. God's glory may tug at our breath when we see pictures from the Hubble telescope, but no creature will ever penetrate the limits of the Creator's glory. God is the Holy One--absolutely different from us (Isaiah 55:8­9).
___Yet at the same time, in his grace God intimately involves himself in relationships with us. God reveals himself in the Bible and in our own stories as the loving God--longsuffering, merciful, personal (1 Corinthians 6:19).
___Because God is holy and we are not, we have to be transformed. Because God is love, he delights in transforming us. God gives us an unforgettable account of his transforming love in Psalm 51 and its background.
___The full weight of sin
___Psalm 51 reflects David's quickened and exposed conscience after Nathan confronted him with his adultery and cover up (2 Samuel 11:1­12:14). David's love for God gave him the recognition that his sin was deadly serious. The psalm begins to fulfill its own promise (51:13­14) by teaching us the gravity of disobeying God.
___God sets boundaries around our lives for our own good and the good of society. His boundaries are clearly described in the Bible, particularly in the Ten Commandments. Like David, we vainly step outside the boundaries. One "transgression" (51:1, 3, 13) often leads to another, and we find ourselves trying to hide our guilt without regard for others (2 Samuel 11:15).
___The word translated "iniquity" (51:2, 9) suggests being bent or twisted. God holds to a perfectly straight standard. A builder who reaches for a straight beam and finds a crooked one throws it away. David recognized his iniquity could disqualify him from service to God (51:11).
___The well-known meaning of the word "sin" is missing the mark. A sin was literally an off-target shot. When the psalmist wrote, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight" (51: 4), he confessed he had missed God's purpose without denying he had wronged Bathsheba, her husband and many others. No other accountability begins to compare with accountability to God.
___The deepest insight of the psalm goes beyond the three words used for sin. It presents David as conscious that he sinned against God in this particular case because his whole life was marked by sin. He was born and even conceived in the condition that bent him toward missing the mark (51:5). Union with fallen humanity, not sexual union, is the source of sin (Genesis 1:27­28).
___The full relief of forgiveness
___Left on our own, we would likely continue in denial of our sin. We can be thankful the God who forgives uses our conscience (51:3, 6) and sometimes the loving courage of someone close (2 Samuel 12:7) to confront us with our sin.
___After fully owning up to his transgression, the psalmist wrote a prayer for forgiveness. The prayer presents a profound understanding of divine mercy. We can't overlook the fact that the clearer the perception of sin's malignancy, the deeper the appreciation for God's forgiveness.
___The prayer of Psalm 51 trusts God to thoroughly remove the guilt of sin. It draws from Israel's ceremonial cleansing of lepers or persons who touched a dead body. This is the cleansing in verse 7 associated with the hyssop plant (Leviticus 14:1­4; Numbers 19:6, 18; see Exodus 12:22). David's plea also calls on God to "blot out" all his iniquity (51:9). That's what we do today with an eraser.
___Imagine a terminal disease miraculously healed, a death row sentence fully pardoned, a grievous scandal completely forgotten. Such is the restoration and renewal of the promise that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)!
___A psalm with a sequel
___Not everyone answers to the kind of purpose God had for Moses or the Apostle Paul. So not everyone glimpses the same glory they saw, at least not yet. But everyone who answers the call of God's Good News in Jesus Christ experiences God's marvelous presence through the forgiveness of sin.
___Psalm 51 anticipated Jesus. The contrite King David saw behind ritual sacrifices to the real heart of the matter (51:16­17). What the blood of animals in the temple ultimately could not do, God did once and for all through Jesus. Now every broken and contrite heart who turns to him in faith fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:34. Therefore, "let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22).
___
___Questions for discussion
___ Based on Psalm 51, how would you distinguish between forgiving sin and excusing sin?
___ Relate Psalm 51 to Psalm 32.

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