JOURNAL ~ PsalmsSýnishorn

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD - Day 1

The Psalms are probably the rawest, realest expressions of humanity. Psalms, and the Songs of Solomon. (Why don't we table that discussion for now?) Through the Psalms, we understand that living in faith isn't about putting up a mask that says everything is rainbows and butterflies. Instead, this faith is all about inviting God into the rawest, realest parts of us: the good, the bad, the ugly.

And this is ugly.

Psalm 51 gives us an insight to David at one of his lowest points. It wasn't depression that held him, it was guilt and the reality that he had failed. If you have the time this week, read 2 Samuel 11-12, the story of David and Bathsheba (plus the consequences).

Here, at the beginning of the Psalm, David crumbles into a heap in front his great and loving God; he begs for mercy. He doesn't start by trying to explain himself. He doesn't list all the good things he has done for God. He doesn't blame Bathsheba for taking a bath in public. His posture: prostration. (According to the dictionary, it means the act of lying down on the floor face down, completely overcome.) 

Then he begs for mercy.

Mercy, to put it simply, means not getting the punishment we deserve even when the evidence is piled up against us and the verdict is 'guilty.'

“Sorry, not sorry.” This is a phrase people often use. Even though it appears to make no sense,  it is true of most of our apologies to God. We’re sorry, but we're not really that sorry. We have lulled ourselves to contentment with the thought that our apologies don't have to involve too much effort because God is all loving.

What is our posture in the times when we failed God? How do we apologize to an all-loving and just God?