Devotional 3-27-09

Psalm 51:1-12, 2 Samuel 12

This psalm, an earnest plea from David, was, according to the text, written when Nathan came to him because his conscience was apparently malfunctioning or buried too far beneath his ego. Recall that David had selfishly taken Bathsheba while her husband, Uriah, was away at war and then arranged for him to be killed so that David could have Bathsheba for himself. Is it possible that, even though he had committed adultery and murder, he didn't realize how much these acts had displeased God? Or was he too ashamed to acknowledge what he had done and to ask for forgiveness? While God had undoubtedly tried to communicate his displeasure to David, the latter had failed to detect it, perhaps because of his self-centeredness or maybe because of shame. God felt compelled to send Nathan to open David's eyes and ears. Nathan initially confronts David without being accusatory; rather, he politely uses a parable to get his point across. David, however, again doesn't get or acknowledge the message. Nathan then has to be blunt and spell it out for him, recounting all the wonderful things God had done for him and conveying God's hurt and disappointment that David had "despised the word of the Lord." Finally, David owns up to the rotten things he has done and pleads with God to be merciful and to forgive him.

Though David's actions may have rated lower on the morality scale than the sins you or I generally commit, don't get too comfortable! There are times when we do find ourselves caught up in David's position of being blinded to, or in denial of, our wrongdoings. In these times, do we ignore or shut out God's attempts to realign our actions and our relationship with him via our conscience? Sometimes we leave God no choice but to find other, more direct ways to get our attention. Thank God for the Nathans of the world who will step out of their comfort zones to confront us with the truth.

Psalm 51 is a wonderful prayer of confession and acknowledgment of how we need God's help to get back to and stay on the right course, and is a good aid for us in this Lenten season when we are trying to focus on those things that put distance between us and God. The imagery created by the repeated references to washing and cleansing in these verses reminds us that God is in the soul washing business. His life-giving water reaches every part of us, even those we keep completely hidden from others, and provides healing, wholeness, peace and joy in the realization that the faucet of God's love and grace wasn't opened by anything we did and, because of the blood of Jesus which was poured out for us, will not be closed by anything we do.

O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free,
a heart that always feels thy blood so freely shed for me.
A humble, lowly, contrite heart, believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can part from Christ who dwells within.
(Verses 1 and 3 of Charles Wesley's hymn "O For a Heart to Praise My God," inspired by Psalm 51 and found at page 417 in The United Methodist Hymnal.)
Amen.

Mary Taylor

Mission Response and Prayer focus
March 27: In honor of the food panty ministry, give a nickel for every "TV dinner" in your freezer.