February 6, 2008

Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51

 

MEDITATION ON PSALM 51

A Psalm of Confession

 

As I mentioned in “Grace Notes” in the February Pulse, German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while imprisoned by the Nazis for his role in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, often turned to the Psalms for comfort and strength.  Early in his imprisonment  he wrote to his parents, “I read the Psalms every day, as I have done for years; I know them and love them more than any other book” (May 15, 1943).

 

The Psalms are often referred to as the “hymnbook of the Bible.” Prior to his imprisonment Bonhoeffer wrote a brief book identifying the Psalms as The Prayerbook of the Bible.[1]  In praying the Psalms we are following the example of Jesus.  The Psalms are a “great school of prayer,” explains Bonhoeffer.  They teach us: one, to pray on the basis of God’s word and the promises expressed in that word; two, to give voice to the full range of human emotions and experiences; and three, to pray as a community.

 

The Psalms have been classified in a variety of ways. During Lenten Evening Prayer services we will focus on a distinctive type of Psalm prayer each Wednesday.  It is fitting on Ash Wednesday to begin with “A Psalm of Confession.”  Psalm 51 is the classic Psalm of Confession or Penitential Psalm.  It contains a profound acknowledgement of personal wrongdoing.  An underlying assumption is that unconfessed sin takes a heavy toll on the whole person—mind, body, and soul—and on the person’s relationship to God and to other human beings.

 

A prayer of confession is most often triggered by a particular occasion for sin.  The heading for Psalm 51 tells us that King David’s adultery with Bathsheba was the occasion for Psalm 51.

 

We do not want to excuse our own sin.  That would be especially inappropriate on Ash Wednesday.  But whenever someone begins thinking that they have committed the unforgiveable sin, I point out that it is unlikely they have done anything as vile as what King David did.

 

It was, of course, sinful to commit adultery with Bathsheba.  This act of adultery was compounded by David sending her husband Uriah, one of David’s most trusted generals, to the front lines, where David knew he would be killed.  When David had found out Bathsheba was pregnant, he had brought Uriah home and tried to get him to lay with his wife so that Uriah would think the child was his.  Uriah, an honorable soldier, refused to lie with her while his fellow warriors were yet on the battle field.  In desperation David takes the extreme measure      of having Uriah killed.

 

David may have thought he could fool the people, but the Lord is not fooled.  He sends the prophet Nathan to David.  Nathan tells David this parable:

 

There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had very many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.  He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.  Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.

 

David became exceedingly angry        when he heard what this rich man had done.  He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this   deserves to die.”  I imagine that Nathan paused for dramatic effect and then said to David, “You are the man!”  David had no defense.  He could only say: “I have sinned against the Lord.”  Nathan had led him to recognize how deeply he had sinned before God.  He could only throw himself at God’s feet and beg for mercy.

 

Psalm 51 is David’s plea for mercy.  He knows he does not deserve God’s mercy, saying, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against 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.  Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”  Nothing in David himself, therefore, makes a case for forgiveness.  No sacrifice could possibly atone for what he has done.

 

David’s only hope is God’s abundant mercy and steadfast love.  That is who God is—a merciful and loving God.  Confessing his guilt compels David to put his entire trust in God’s forgiving love.  Only the Spirit of God can create in him a clean heart and give him a will strong enough to do what God intends.

 

It truly is amazing that God forgave David.  It is hard to conceive of a more vile sin.  David is not only forgiven; he is also allowed to marry Bathsheba and to remain as the king of Israel.  Eventually David and Bathsheba will bear a son named Solomon, who will become the next king of Israel.

 

God’s ways are sometimes hard to understand.  It may appear that he is simply letting David off the hook.  But the Lord gives him a contrite heart.  The Lord knows David will never take his relationship with God and with God’s people for granted, again.  The destructive consequences of David’s sin are not hidden.  What he has done becomes common knowledge among the people of God.  David himself must live with the pain of knowing he is responsible for the death of Uriah and for the death of the child he conceived with Bathsheba.

 

This story of David and Bathsheba is a powerful testimony to the strength of God’s love and mercy.  God chooses to love David   rather than despise him, to forgive him rather than condemn him, to give him a second chance as king rather than depose him.

 

Nothing of this could take place without genuine contrition.  As we read in verse 17, the only sacrifice “acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God,        you will not despise.”

 

Apparently no sin is so bad that it cannot be forgiven.  Apparently no heart is beyond redemption.

 

On this Ash Wednesday we have confessed our own sin before God.  In all likelihood, we have done nothing as vile as what David did.  Yet we too can confess with David: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”  Like David, our only hope is to put our entire trust in God’s abundant mercy and steadfast love.  We have nothing but our broken and contrite hearts to commend ourselves to God.  It is fitting for us to join with David in pleading for mercy: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.   Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”

AMEN.