Cast Upon His Character

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”—Psalm 51:1 (NIV)

What do you do when you mess up? I mean, really mess up? The way we answer this question reveals a great deal about the condition of our hearts.

Take, for example, Adam. Yes, that Adam, the forefather of the human race, who fell along with his wife in the Garden of Eden when tempted by Satan to do the one thing God had forbidden. In doing so, he ushered in the power of sin and death into the created order, and we’ve been bound by the effects ever since. I think we can agree this qualifies as a major mess up!

What did Adam do in response? He ran and hid from the God he used to fellowship freely with. Why? Because sin, having taken hold in his heart, compelled him to flee. His heart had become corrupted, fallen, insecure, and his response reveals this.

Now contrast Adam’s response with how David responded to his most egregious sin, which was his act of adultery with another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and his attempt to cover it up by murdering her husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 11). I think we can agree this also qualifies as a major mess up!

But watch David’s response as recorded for us here in Psalm 51, which he composed shortly after his sin was eventually exposed: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.”

David didn’t run away and hide from God, as Adam did. Instead, he did what each of us ought to do whenever we sin to any extent—he ran to the Lord and cast himself, sinful guilt and all, upon His character.

In doing so, David demonstrates a heart that has come to trust in who God is—holy, righteous, perfectly sinless, and pure, but also merciful, loving, and compassionate! For David, the story doesn’t end with his sin. As bad as it was, his heart came to understand and trust in something so much greater—the character of the very One he had sinned against.

David also understood that it was only the greatness of his God’s character that could “blot out” his transgressions. He doesn’t vow to make himself into a better person or promise that he’ll never doing anything wrong ever again. David knows his own heart better than that. Rather, he knows he can’t change himself and desperately needs the power of Almighty God to cleanse and wash his heart clean, which He patiently and persistently does over the course of David’s life!

Remember how we started by asking ourselves how we respond when we’re in a similar state as Adam or David? When we know we’ve done something really wrong, something that hurts those around us and hurts the heart of the One who died to free us from the effects of sin. Do we fearfully run from that Heart or towards it in trust?

Nobody can answer this question for us. But there’s no question that the right response is to do as David did. When we fall and step out of God’s will for our lives, the best next step is to come to Him, confess our sin, and trust Him to cleanse us as we could never cleanse ourselves. He can, and He will, when we cast ourselves on His character.

Pause: What are our two possible responses to sin, and how are they exemplified?

Practice: Consider how God might be challenging you to grow in David’s example when it comes to your own life.

Pray: Lord God, forgive us for having the instinct of Adam to run from You when we’re guilty of sinning against You. Create a new heart in us to respond as David did. Help us to run to You in confession and trust that You will cleanse us of the sin that hurts others and separates us from You. Amen.