Devotional Day 44

Scripture

Psalm 51:1-9

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Devotional

As we’ve been talking about this week, ‘grace’ is a very expansive word in the bible. It is God’s mercy and forgiveness given to us when we don’t deserve it, it’s even God’s power to administer spiritual gifts and blessings (more on that later this week) and it’s also God’s help and strength when we are in need. David is a wonderful example to us of someone that understood the fullness of God’s grace, and as we read psalm 51 we can get a beautiful picture of how we also can receive the fullness of God’s grace.

As you now know David wrote Psalm 51 as his public repentance after he committed adultery with Bathsheba…and had her husband killed. David begins psalm 51 with a plea for God’s mercy. Receiving God’s mercy is a huge part of understanding his grace towards us, in that God as both the judge and the offended party is in the position of power. He is just in his judgement against us, and would be righteous in his choice to condemn us for our sin. And yet a plea for mercy is a plea to receive grace, unmerited kindness and favour from God. As one who knows God, David appealed to God’s character, that He was compassionate and unfailing in His love. He boldly asked God to blot out his transgressions, wash away his iniquity and cleanse him from his sin. This is a plea for God’s grace.

We also can come to God when we fall into sin and ask God to show us his mercy. And how much more confidence can we have on the other side of the cross! That upon the cross Jesus bore our iniquities, paid for our sins and washed us clean by His blood. As Paul said countless times in his letters to the churches ‘by grace you have been saved’. This cleansing from God is a powerful administration of His grace to us. It reminds me of the story of the prodigal son, where after the prodigal returns, covered in the mud, muck and mire of his sin - it is his own Father who embraces him and gives him clean clothes to wear. Similarly it is our heavenly Father who washes us clean from our sin. It was he that we had sinned against and it is he we come to for cleansing. And instead of reprimanding us and telling us to go and clean off our filth before we would even dare to come into his presence, He embraces us, stoops down and washes us with the precious blood of His own son. This is grace.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I come to you today in need of your grace, have mercy on me God. I thank you for the cross and come to it today for my cleansing. Thank you for what you’ve done for me Jesus. I repent of my sin today and pray that you would wash my mind from the guilt of my sin, in Jesus’ name. Amen.