Repentance
By: Bonny Cable of Temple Terrace, FL
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” Psalm 51:1.
Unpopular opinion: I sometimes struggle to celebrate the greatness in King David. I know there is power in his underdog story against Goliath or his slow and steady rise to the throne despite the reckonings with Saul. Perhaps I am bothered by his flawed character which parades in front of us through pages of scripture; yet, he is still lauded as one whose heart we should long to mirror. Perhaps I am more like David than I care to admit. What David does show us is a flawed, God-fearing man who is filled with emotion that can take him on the right and wrong paths. What God shows us through David is what matters even more. Through the trials and errors of David’s life, we are given a deeper look into who God is, how He reacts to those who follow His will, and how He responds when we don’t.
Repentance. Psalm 51 is David’s post-Nathan confrontation psalm of penitence. He pleads, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”
When does God introduce repentance? Repentance doesn’t make a grand appearance in the ancient words until the Israelites are in the wilderness, and God begins to establish how this relationship will work. He orders the process for sin offerings. This shows He intends for His people to acknowledge their sins and participate in a process to make it right with Him (Leviticus 4). Then, in 1 Samuel 15, we see Saul’s attempt at repentance - which God rejects, followed by David’s improved version of repentance that is acceptable to God. David’s version serves to model the relationship between God and His people when they come to repent.
Why is repentance part of this relationship? Repentance comes with an acknowledgement of what we have done that is against the law of the Lord. It expresses a desire to walk in alignment with the law of the Lord moving forward. When a heart is willing to repent, it displays an acceptance of the covenant with God and His people and a humility to admit that the covenant has been broken. God has standards for the way He expects His children to live and love while on earth. He makes those standards clear to us in His word. He knows that we will not be able to perfectly keep them, but He wants our hearts to long to keep them and strive for walking in the light.
A penitent heart that tells of the wrong committed is a heart like David’s - one that realizes, whether you say it or not, God knows the wrong. However, God doesn’t just want you to say it because that is ample punishment. He wants you to know that you can come to Him with your brokenness, and He will be there to blot out your transgression.
Sometimes when my boys come in from playing outside, they have dirt all over their legs and feet. I beg them to hurry up and wash it off, questioning, “Doesn’t it bother you to feel that dirty? Don’t you want to get it off so you can feel clean again?” This is the same for sin. Sometimes, it just becomes a layer upon us that we get used to feeling, and it can stop bothering us because it becomes part of our daily activity. We wear it on our skin like it’s a part of who we are. Later, in Psalm 51, David implores God to “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,… restore to me the joy of my salvation.” David’s relationship with God is on display through this psalm as he models for us how God can bring restoration through repentance. God can wash us clean. God can and will replenish the joy of our salvation.
Sometimes, there is a time of godly sorrow that comes from mourning the sins that have ensnared us. David recounts that for us in Psalm 32 where his bones wasted, and he groaned because God’s hand was heavy upon him. That is a purposeful weight that is meant to be there until you can find it in your heart to seek repentance from the Lord. God surrounded David with shouts of deliverance (Psalm 32:7). That’s the same God we repent to today. He will do the same for us today as He did for David. That’s why He wanted David to tell us about this!
What does repentance say about God? If we don’t feel like we have a way to release the burden of sin, it will weigh us down. God designed this relationship with us in mind. God has made a way to relieve us of the burden of sin. As David shares with us, God’s love is steadfast and His mercy is abundant. Lamentations 3:22 reiterates, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” This is who God is. Steadfast. He doesn’t change on us. We can count on His love and mercy to be there and to be accessible to us. How great is our GOD! What a comfort to hear this! Like David, when I fall, God will love me, wash me clean, and blot out my transgression with His abundant mercy! My joy can be restored because God can do that for me. He doesn’t want you or me to live in the dark depths of our sin. He wants the repentance to come so that He can show how much He cares for you and me because He IS the prodigal’s father of Luke 15.
What about when we see those in need of repentance or who have repented? It can be a painful part of life to watch someone falling prey to the trappings of the enemy. It’s hard to see the aftermath of a sinful path that can leave a wake of destruction on hearts and lives. We may struggle with knowing how to respond. There is meant to be tension between us and sin; it’s part of our spiritual nature struggling to live in a worldly dimension. Thankfully, we are given help for that, too. Galatians 6:1 instructs us, “...if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.” Sometimes God sends a “Nathan” to call us out on our wrong. We may be called to be that to others, but Galatians tells us to do so in a spirit of gentleness. If we aren’t being called to intervene, then heed the second part of that verse in Galatians and watch out for your own shortcomings. This year, I have been asking God to show me the logs in my own eye as mentioned in Matthew 7: 3-5. I am well aware of some of them, but by asking for them to be revealed, I hope this helps me spend less time worrying about the struggles of others in an unholy way and not giving a foothold to the devil through secret sin in my own life. We don’t want every act of repentance to come only as a result of being caught. By being proactive about our own shortcomings, we can be renewed and made clean just as David was.
Sometimes the magnitude of the David-Bathsheba-Uriah saga (2 Sam. 11-12) seems unrelatable to us. We expect that we will never face a situation with such monstrous consequences. That may be true. However, the bigger picture is that this story and this Psalm reveal more about God to us than they do about David. While it may seem that David is the main character in this story, remember, his story is one of many - placed in God’s biography where the main character is a God whose steadfast love and abundant mercy can create in David, me, and you a clean heart. Thanks be to God for that immeasurable gift!