Conscience, Part 4
23rd June 2012
King David knew what it was to be troubled in his conscience. He had very deep feelings of guilt after Nathan the prophet spoke to him about the sin of adultery he had committed with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. We can read about Nathan's courage and David's guilt in 2 Samuel 12.
Shortly after, David wrote Psalm 51. It begins with these words:
Psalm 51v1-6
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against 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.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
David was a remarkable man. Not many people would write a song about how guilty they felt, but he did. In this song, David shows that:
- He knows he needs God's mercy to blot out his transgressions (verse 1).
- He knows he can't wash himself clean - he needs God to wash him clean (verse 2).
- He's aware of his own sin and can't escape from the consciousness of it (verse 3).
- Ultimately, all our sin is against God himself (verse 4) and we need God's forgiveness for all our sins.
- He sees that he has always been sinful (verse 5).
- God requires us to be honest before Him, and honest with ourselves (verse 6). It can be the hardest thing of all to admit our sinfulness to ourselves.
David then writes:
Verse 7
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
David knew that God can make us whiter than snow - that when He forgives us, our guilt no longer clings to us. He continues:
Verses 8-12
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
David had commited a terrible crime but he knew that, when God forgave him, he could know joy and gladness again. He knew that God could create a pure heart in him and renew a steadfast [AV: right] spirit in him - giving him back the godly attitude that he had lost. He knew that God would welcome him back into an intimate prayer relationship and give him back that wonderful sense of being full of the Holy Spirit. And he knew that, because he genuinely repented of his sin, God would restore to [him] the joy of [his] salvation.
If, like me, you can remember what it was like when you first put your faith in God, first knew that you were forgiven, first knew that God loved you and accepted you, when you first tasted His Holy Spirit, then NO MATTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE you can confess your sins to God and pray to Him with confidence that He will allow you to rediscover what that felt like. If you will accept His forgiveness, you can rediscover the joy of your salvation.