We are hitting “pause” on our study of Jesus as the great and final High Priest, today, and going back in time to King David. This psalm, we are told, was written by David when he could hide his sin no longer. Have you ever tried to hide a sin? Something you reaaaallly did not want anyone to know about? Well. David committed adultery and then arranged for the death of the wronged husband. That’s pretty much as bad as it gets. And he dragged the weight of that atrocious series of events for quite awhile before he was confronted by the prophet Nathan and made to stop hiding.
I wanted us to look at this, because we see in David the despair that guilt and sin can bring, and yet we also see the solution. Interestingly, even before Jesus came to earth as a baby, David already had grasped that God wanted more than rote sacrifices and the endless slaughter of animals to die in our place. The sheer number of animals that had to die makes me shudder! I am so glad Jesus came and made a better way. Here’s what David had to say about sacrifices:
“You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” (Psalm 51:16-17)
God looks, not for a performance of contrition, but for a genuinely broken heart over sin. And David knew His God so well. He was confident that when someone comes to God with that broken and repentant heart, God turns toward them and not away from them. Isn’t that amazing? And God’s Son took on flesh and turned toward us, taking our sin on Himself, so we could be free from the weight of sin and remorse and regret. We. Are. So. Blessed.
My verse: Psalm 51:7, “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
My response: Lord, I am so thankful You can do this! Wash me clean, make me pure, make me righteous when I am not. Thank You for Your great and rich salvation.
