Psalm 51; Weekday Lenten Service Two; March 23, 2011;
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. ” (Psalm 51, ESV)
God’s Own Child I Gladly Say It LSB 594 v. 2 2 Sin, disturb my soul no longer:
I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger:
Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me
Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood,
Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood?
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You know how if feels. You toss and turn and worry. It’s a restless night. “Why did I say that? Why did I do that? I didn’t mean it. I could see how it hurt. I didn’t need what I got. I just couldn’t help it. I wish I could have that hour over again. I hope no one finds out that that was a lie. If I wouldn’t have been so insistent on my own way. How am I going to keep from loosing my friend when she finds out? If I could just clear my mind, I could get some sleep.” You know what a conscience is. You’ve had it plague you long into the night or wake you up from a dead sleep only to taunt you. Even years later you are tortured as the simplest thing brings up the memory. Worst of all your guilt, are the things you can’t change because the people you have hurt are dead. And so the plague of guilt steals your sleep, occupies your mind when there are other things that should be concerning you.
Guilt is repulsive. You’d do anything to avoid guilt and a guilty conscience. You talk yourself out of it. You avoid the people you’ve hurt. You’d rather end your friendship than face up to your issues. Amazingly, guilt drives you away from God’s house. I wonder how many of those folks that used to sit in our pews are not here anymore because of guilt. There are even stronger reactions. Denial of sin and guilt lead to outright denial of God. A god who considers that a sin is no god I want to worship.
And this gets to the real heart of the issue. What David knew, and confesses so clearly in this psalm is what all people instinctively know. All sin is really against God, and we are accountable to him. It is guilt that drives people to deny God. But as the scriptures say
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. ” (Psalm 14:1, ESV)
David says it. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” It’s pretty amazing considering some of his sins. Uriah, the husband of his lover, lay dead on the battle field to cover up his little tryst. He made his most trusted general a part of it by giving orders for Uriah to be left alone on the battle field in danger. David had the affair because he was neglecting his soldiers. They were on campaign he was home pacing on his roof and peeping at Bathsheba while she bathed. And yet, David says his sin, all of it, is really against God and only. He uses the word bloodguiltiness. It’s repulsive, dirty, filthy, guilty, sin. It is against God because it separates us from him. It blocks him out of our lives. It destroys our relationship. Sin turns God from friend to angry enemy.
It no wonder when you struggle with your sin and guilt, when it disturbs your soul you want to find relief. Where do you turn? David shows us.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
He turns to the injured party and asks for forgiveness. He turns to the only one who can forgive. He turns to the only one who promises to forgive. God forgives completely. But you shouldn’t think he just forgives out of some forgetfulness. Sin and guilt are repulsive to us but even more so to a perfect, holy, and just God. There is no way to forgive sin and guilt without the shedding of blood. Anything else would not be justice. It’s clear that this is true. We shout in disgust when the guilty go free on a technicality. But when our own case is before the judge we look for the same possibility. The fear of punishment is what gives guilt its force, its ability to taunt and trouble us. If God is the perfectly just judge, how do you know that when you turn to him, as David did, that you are not running straight to punishment? How do you know you are not running directly to the angry judge?
That’s what the hymn says so nicely.
Sin, disturb my soul no longer:
I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger:
Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me
Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood,
Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood? (LSB 594:2)
It isn’t just spouting wishful thinking, either. It’s paraphrased these words from Saint Peter:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. ” (1 Peter 3:18–22, ESV)
What it says is the flood of Holy Baptism washes your sin onto Jesus. He suffers and dies, the righteous (that’s him) for the unrighteous (that’s you!). Baptism, this “life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit”, now saves you. It saves you from God’s anger and punishment over your sin. Your sin washed onto Jesus is carried by him onto the cross where he is punished in your place. Your sin paid for in full by the perfect sacrifice for sin. This is how Baptism saves you. It’s not the water, it’s the word, it’s the work of God in and with the water. It’s the promise of sins forgiven because of Jesus. It is the release of your punishment because Jesus was punished for you. All this given to you through God’s promise, his name, washed over you with water, that dear forgiving flood, sprinkling me with Jesus blood.
There is nothing in the world more sure for you than God’s promise to you in Holy Baptism. Your wet head proves it. You were washed. You were cleansed. Your sin was washed away in that forgiving flood. Jesus life, death and his resurrection are yours. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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