Introduction
The Congregation Council at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., where I am serving as interim pastor, opens its monthly meetings with devotions. These are the thoughts for the September 2010 meeting. The Psalm is the one appointed for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The council read it antiphonally in choirs.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Reading
Psalm 51:1–10
1Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
5Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Devotion
This weekend’s psalm might sound a little out-of-place. We are used to hearing it as part of our Ash Wednesday service and again on one Sunday in Lent. These are times when we expect to focus on confessing our sins and making time for penitence.
But here we are in the middle of the long season after Pentecost, and up pops this first part of Psalm 51. What does that tell us? What truths does it remind us to remember?
First of all, when we listen carefully to the psalmist’s words, his frank honesty is a little disarming. He admits his sins both to the Lord and to himself. He confesses that he has done evil in God’s eyes. He recognizes not only that he was born guilty, but also that he was conceived a sinner.
But then he is just as upfront with God about his pleas for mercy. He asks for mercy, the blotting out of transgressions, for God to teach him wisdom, to purge him, to wash him, and to create a clean heart in him.
Somehow, by God’s grace, the psalmist combines honesty about his own sin with deep trust in the love and mercy of God. We are blessed, in turn, to make this confession our own, not only during Lent, but throughout the year.
Discussion
+ If we, as a congregation, would be as honest with God as the psalmist is, what would we tell him are the sins that we have committed against him?
+ Have you ever felt truly forgiven, washed and cleansed? What kind of confession had you made just before that?
+ What could we do as leaders to help make life in our parish a time when people can speak honestly with God and experience the joy of clean hearts and new and right spirits?
Prayer
Lord God and Father, we trust that you will hear us when we make an honest confession to you of our sins. Grant us the faith to trust you to hear what we have done, to receive our sorrow for our wrongdoing, to purge and to cleanse us, and to bless us with clean hearts and right spirits. With this grace, move us to follow your Son, Jesus Christ, and share with you in the glory of your Holy Spirit. Amen.