Together in Christ: 'Make Me Clean' — Psalm 51:9-10

David admitted his heinous, abusive, murderous sins against Bathsheba and Uriah. ^[1] Living in denial, Israel's King David had ignored the weight of his sin and was merrily living his powerful life without regret. When Nathan confronted him, however, David was heartbroken and deeply convicted of the evil he had done to Bathsheba and her husband. ^[2] While David was concerned about many things about his sins and their consequences, his heart for God pulled him back to his deepest longings to walk with God. He not only yearned for forgiveness, but he also longed to have the stain of his sin removed and his rebelliously vile heart cleaned and made loyal and consistent with the character of God.

David's prayer should also be our prayer, but only AFTER we have acknowledged the rebelliousness and evil of our own sins. ^[3] Only then can we fully turn away from that sin and live toward God in earnest repentance. Just like David, we can also ask for our hearts to be made clean, the stain of our guilt removed, and a clean heart and loyal spirit renewed within us.

The Father commanded us to love God and our neighbor. ^[3] When we sin against our neighbor, our love for God is short-circuited, distorted, and polluted. God demands that we return to loving the people we see daily to return to a right relationship with Him, Whom we have not seen! ^[4]

When we confess our sin and turn away from it, we too can cry these words to God:

Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

We can also be assured that God will forgive us, and Jesus will bring us to the Father as "holy and blameless as [we] stand before him without a single fault." ^[5] Grief for our sin as we turn away from that sin and turn back to the ways of God brings forgiveness, cleansing, and renewing from the grace of God. We are returned to life again! ^[6]