Psalm 51
David’s confession
Main Point: Jesus can restore our joy when we confess our sins and submit our will to Him.
(WARNING: Even more than usually my outline is messy, I will be mixing and exploring these ideas somewhat interchangeably this morning, so hold on for a bumpy logic ride, I’m just getting this stuff out of me this morning and not really cleanly outlining things. Life is messy, deal with it.)
First there is the weightiest of all subjects: SIN. (Failure) (No self control = No Spirit of God control)
Jesus had to suffer for every sin. The cost of sin was great for the Father, Spirit and the Son. We cannot imagine the pain, suffering, shame, and brokenness that sin placed upon Jesus and the effect it had on the relationship in the Holy Trinity. We cannot fathom the eternal reminder that the nail-scarred hands are on the sinless, spotless lamb. Forgiveness is no small matter. No greater cost can ever be reckoned to any debt in all history.
And then there is the matter of the WILL. (Struggle) (Self Control = Spirit of God control)
The WILL. Free will. Learning to submit a will. Obedience of the will. None of this is sin.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
7 During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him 10 and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 5:7-10
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Luke 22:42
I am not Jesus. I am not sinless. No human has ever been sinless except for Jesus. So every human must confess sin.
BUT every human including Jesus must learn to submit their free will to God.
These are the two great struggles, and because as David recognised, we are born with sin (into sin, with the guilt and penalty of the sin of the human race) confession is a skill that we need to begin to master right from the beginning.
Both the skill and heart of confession of sin and the submitting of the will are for us “sons and daughters of Adam” integrally intertwined, and so from a young age we must learn to confess and repent (repent is another word for submitting a will that has taken the path God advised against).
You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
Genesis 4:7
Cain, the son of Adam, failed this test. And so did David.
And so have you. Lie, cheat, steal, hate, kill (even in your heart), selfishness, pride, ungratefulness, rape, lust, greed, and the list goes on. You know you are a sinner. You are trapped by your inability to exercise self control over the simplest of tests and if you are honest your heart scares the heck out of you. You are a monster. At least I am sure 100% I am. I need help. Everyday. All the time.
What does David teach us about God in this Psalm? He is a God who can forgive sins. In fact only God can forgive sins. This was one of the key issues with Jesus’ claims. The religious leaders knew as anyone with any sense would, only God can forgive sin. So for Jesus to absolve someone of their sins is clearly seen as a claim of deity.
5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
6 But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
8 Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 9 Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
Mark 2:5-11
I feel emotional even just copying these words to this page. Jesus forgives sins. My sins. Your sins. The sins of those who have hurt me most. The sins where I have hurt others terribly. And to add to that wonderful recognition is the fact that Jesus heals and restores the brokenness of people destroyed by sin. David expects that from God.
Not just sober admission and begrudging, distrusting, disappointed tolerance! NO NO NO there is more.
Psalm 51v.7 “I will be clean” and “I will be whiter than snow”
v.10 “Create in me a clean heart”
There is the expectation of JOY.
Psalm 51v.8 “give me back my joy again” and “now let me rejoice.”
v.12 “Restore to me the joy of your salvation,”
v.14 “I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.”
For years the emotion of being forgiven has expressed itself in many different ways. One way is uncontrollable joyful, grateful crying while singing in church. Sometimes I’m a bit embarrassed and sometimes I feel a bit for the people near me who might not understand. But WOW the joy of knowing your sins are forgiven. What a great joy.
Conclusion:
You, like David, are a sinner (come on, duh, do I really need to say that?)
You need to learn the skill of confession.
You need to learn that the skill of submitting the will is not immediately due to sin but the plan of God for you to learn (learn period). Everyone needs to learn. Even Jesus. It is not a sin to be dumb (uninformed, unskilled, finite, limited, learning). So embrace learning to submit your will. It will be hard. VERY VERY hard. It was for Jesus and He didn’t sin. But for the rest of us who do sin, there is forgiveness and that is very sweet. There is the expectation of joy. We don’t have to live under the heaviness of sin. We can move on to joy again. So confess, submit and have joy. These are God’s gifts to you. Thank you Jesus.
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| Handwritten Psalms 51 |
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