Daily Double: Psalm SeriesНамуна

WHY PSALM 51?

Psalm 51 was written after King David became aware of the full impact of his sinful acts with Bathsheba and her husband. It is a powerful example of repentance prayers, where we confess our sin and ask God for His help and forgiveness.

The psalm shows David pleading for mercy from God. There is strong language throughout which shows the emotional toll the guilt has taken on his life.

We all have moments in our life where we have done many wrongs and need forgiveness. Psalm 51 gives us an example of how to confess our sins to God.

VITAL VERSE

Verse 1 - Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.

Verse 10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

Verse 17 - The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

These 3 verses help us to understand what true repentance is and how to repent in the way God desires.

SUB SKILL: PREPARING YOUR HEART

The Bible describes our hearts as farmers’ fields. They need to be prepared to be able to grow good things. When we prepare ourselves to understand a passage in the Bible, we can get ready to hear the message in the right way.

We can soften our hearts or harden our hearts – so let’s choose to be open, ready to be taught, ready to be corrected, and open to asking God to convict us and reveal truth to us by His spirit.

SOLO GO: PRAY FOR GOD'S SPIRIT TO PREPARE YOUR HEART

Sometimes it’s the work we do BEFORE we put our skills to work that matters most. We always approach God’s word with a lot of thoughts and a lot of things to do during the day. Take some time in prayer and acknowledge those things.

Ask God to help you fight off distractions. Let God know that you are open to being challenged and ready to hear the truth.

And guess what? When you do those things, your heart is prepared, and you read the Word without the worries of life distracting you.

CONFESSION & REPENTANCE PRAYERS

Jesus calls everyone to repentance – so these kinds of prayers are really important in our daily relationship with God.

Repentance means to “turn away” from our sin. When we repent, we acknowledge that we’ve done wrong and we thank God for His goodness (just like David in Psalm 51). We then tell God what we’re going to do differently with his help.

Repentance prayers are hard. They don’t feel natural. But they are super important, and Psalm 51 is one to read and remind ourselves of frequently whenever we need to repent.