In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

Who among us does not know the need to go to Psalm 51 and make it ours? David prayed this psalm after committing adultery with Bathsheba, but his words and heart of repentance are universally relevant to all who feel the weight of their sin.

Note the pervasive metaphor used throughout the psalm: David feels dirty. He needs God to make him clean. “Wash me” (vv. 2, 7), he begs. “Cleanse me” (v. 3). “Purge me” (v. 7). “Blot out all my iniquities” (v. 9). But this is a dirtiness that cannot be washed off in a shower. It is inside us.

Do you feel dirty? The good news of the gospel is that you can be rinsed clean. David pleads for God to have mercy on him (v. 1). Is this an empty, hopeless plea? By no means. Look at the next words: “according to your steadfast love” (v. 1). David asks God to be who he is. He is asking God to act in a way consistent with himself. David knows he is a God of “abundant mercy” (v. 1), so he asks for mercy accordingly.

Is this who you know God to be? Is this who you know yourself to be? Do you know yourself to be dirty? A sinner? All that God asks of you is to bring the sacrifice of a “broken and contrite heart” (v. 17). He gave his own Son as the final sacrifice so that your brokenness could be the only prerequisite to receiving God’s abundant mercy. Amid your dirtiness, you are free to breathe again. He is the God of abundant mercy. He proved it in Jesus. This is who he is. In Christ, you are rinsed clean—invincibly, permanently, irreversibly.