PSALM 51:1-2 – “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!”

THEME OF THE DAY: THE AWAKENING MERCY OF GOD.  Psalm 51 is the great Psalm of repentance. David is the author. He pours out his heart over the sin he committed with Basheba against God.  Spend time pouring over the content of this Psalm.  It goes deep into the heart of a repentant sinner.  It takes us into the experience of the child of God that He awakens to understand their depth and heinous nature outside of Christ. And this spiritual awakening is from the mercy of God for without such “teaching mercy”, we would remain spiritually blinded to our need of Christ  – “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Jesus, in the familiar dialogue with Nicodemus, tells us this blindness is so deep and pervasive, we must be born again to be delivered from it – “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”” (John 3:3).

This awakening mercy of God is a cause for praise and thanksgiving. Why?  We will never be able to embrace the good news of the Lord Jesus without knowing the bad news, the very bad news, of what we are outside of Christ. To know we are sinners, to know Christ came to save sinners, and then to be given saving grace and repentance are motivations to praise God and give Him thanks.

In today’s scripture, David identifies the depth of our depravity before God.  He doesn’t say, “We are sinners.”  He describes us as those who have committed transgressions, people of iniquity, and filthy due to sin.  These words bring to bear the totality of our separation from God.  Transgressions are crossing a forbidden boundary.  It is seeing God’s no trespassing sign and willingly crossing the line. An example is willful disobedience to His law.

Next David uses the word iniquity.  We go from willful trespassing of God’s boundaries or law to acting out of our nature. Iniquity addresses what we are in our hearts that produces what we do.

The final word David uses is sin.  This is a familiar word and means to miss the mark, to fall short of a standard – God’s standard.  It is different than transgressions which is willful violation.  It is also different than iniquity for transgressions. Sin is activity that always comes from our nature.

Psalm 51 gives us the proper picture of the human being separated from God.  It is a great mercy that God would show us how depraved we are.  As we do, we are humbled.  And it is the humbled transgressor, sinner, and individual knowing their nature by birth that God opens his or hear heart to the Gospel.  Amen and amen.

PRAYER:  Father, thank You for Your great mercy that awakens me to my need for Jesus and Your salvation.

REFLECTION:  It the greatest of mercies for God to reveal to us separation from Him to draw us to Christ.