God's Cleansing Blood

Read Psalms 51-57

Ps 51:10-12

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a loyal spirit within me.

11 Do not banish me from your presence,

and don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you.

WHAT happens when you’ve realized you have disappointed or have done a great wrong to someone you love or admire? You realize the wrong, and then you have deep regret. For days you may wonder what you can do or say to right the wrong. Your heart feels dirty, and you don’t know how to clean it. Something is wrong.

You may even respond to this wrong with depression. Possibly you will lash out at anger to anyone who even slightly disturbs you because you are in distress. And you don’t know what to do.

In this psalm, David is responding to the great sin of adultery and murder he did with Bathsheba and against her husband Uriah. God had come to him through the prophet Nathan. God accused and he judged David. And David’s heart was filled with dirt.

The dirt of sin took away his joy. You know what that’s like, don’t you? You were wrong, and now the sin grinds your heart to a halt as dirt poured into a car engine.

What do you do? You do what David did. He called on the Lord to cleanse him. Yes, he called on the One who judged him because God is righteous. He will forgive us our sin when we admit, “I’m wrong.”

God’s cleansing is yours – for free. It’s the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Jesus came to show God’s pure heart to the world. Jesus came to bleed his pure blood for you.

Call on God to create in you a clean heart with the blood of Christ. When you do, you will live in the hope and the joy of this cleansing forever and ever. Amen.