Pastor’s Corner: “The Ultimate Stain Remover”
Psalm 51:1 (NLT) – 1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
It all started with a sleepless night, a condition that many of us can relate to. But it explodes into a story of lust, adultery, pregnancy, deception, and murder. If the story of David and Bathsheba were a television drama, you wouldn’t watch it, or a paperback, you wouldn’t choose to buy it. Yet, the terrible details of this ugly story splash across the pages of the Holy Bible. Why would God preserve such a dark story?
1 Corinthians 10 tells us that these things were written for our example and our instruction so that we would not fall into the same errors. The details of this story are not to entertain us, but to help us recognize things we need to understand about ourselves, God, life in a fallen world, the nature of sin, and the power of God’s transforming grace. The characters of the Bible, even the ones that we would tend to think of as heroes, were broken and flawed people. They, like us, were all sinners and, like us, all needed to be rescued by God’s grace.
You’ll never get David’s story or the helpfulness of Psalm 51 if you stand apart from the story and say to yourself, “I am so glad that I am not like David!” To say that completely misses the point. This story is in the Bible precisely because David’s story is your story. No, I don’t mean that you are an adulterer and a murderer. What I mean is that, like David, you are a sinner. There are times when you let yourself be ruled by your self-focused desires rather than by God’s clear commands. There are times when you love something in the creation more than you love the Creator. There are times when you willingly step over God’s boundaries in pursuit of what you want.
Amazingly and wonderfully the dominant theme of Psalm 51 is not sin. Thankfully the dominant theme is Grace. There would be no Psalm 51 if a God of boundless love hadn’t sent Nathan to David as an instrument of rescuing mercy and restoring grace. This story is about how God meets us in our moments of deepest failure and transforms us by his grace. It is about how broken sinners can be brutally honest with God and yet stand before him without fear. All of the themes of sin, grace, and redemption are compacted into this powerful little psalm. Psalm 51:12 (NKJV) – 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Look at yourself in the mirror of Psalm 51. We’ve all blown it at some point. We’ve all made that huge mistake. How do we respond? How do we move on? Sometimes like David we try to minimize or ignore the devastation our sin has caused, but it cannot be escaped. Other times we become paralyzed by regret, but Jesus Christ promises new beginnings. Psalm 51:7-8 (NLT) – 7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice.
Snow may look very white, but did you know that each snowflake has a dirty secret? When snowflakes form it actually forms around a very tiny piece of dust. The ice crystals grow on this piece of dust and it becomes a beautiful snowflake. But even though the snowflake it beautiful and white on the outside it is dirty inside. Many people are like that. They look nice and clean and happy on the outside, but inside they are sad and full of sin.
Jesus wants to cleanse us of that sin. He wants to save us and forgive us. He does not just want to clean us and make us look nice and white like a snowflake though. He wants to clean us on the inside. He wants to take that dirty heart and make it clean. Jesus wants to make us not AS white as snow, but He wants to make us even WHITER than snow! Are you willing to let Jesus cleanse and heal you? He is knocking on the door of your heart, will you let Him in?
In His beautiful and amazing Grace,
Pastor Hamilton