The Choirmaster

Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot our 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 each me wisdom in the secret heart. Purse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow...Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me....Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit...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.

Are you hiding from God? Do you feel you have drifted so far that He cannot hear you or strayed so far that He cannot reach you or been so bad that He will not want you?

Like children caught in disobedience we fear the lecture, the punishment, the look of disappointment. I find that when God and I are at odds I just don't want to hear from Him. I will neglect Him, neglect prayer and the Scriptures. I do not want to be confronted with my sin.

This psalm was written by David after being confronted by the prophet Nathan regarding David's affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah. And although, for a while, David hoped that somehow this had escaped God's attention, when he is confronted with his own sin he does exactly what we all should. He owns up.

Have mercy on me. Blot out my transgressions. I have sinned against You. Wash me in Your forgiveness and I will be clean. Create in me a pure heart. Restore my joy and I will praise you.

Erma Bombeck writes a funny story about the difference in raising boys and girls and to paraphrase it is this...If you yell upstairs to the kids and ask what they are doing the girls will say sweetly, Nothing mama, when in truth they are pouring a hundred dollars worth of make up and perfume down the drain. The boys will say, We are baptizing the cats in the commode!!

There is nothing that goes unnoticed by your heavenly Father and that thought scares me a little. The Scriptures say that everything is laid bare before Him to whom we must give an account. It also says that He loves mercy and is willing to forgive all things. You are not beyond His sight. You are not beyond His love. You have not gone too far. You are not alone. He lives to make intercession for your sin. He is waiting for you. Own up and be free. In Him.