8/23
((from Megan))

David’s heart of confession and repentance continues.
I love the model of humility, the picture of this man after God’s own heart that we are marinating in this week. A sincere apology, even among humans, is a balm to relationships, simple in theory yet rare in practice. How do we do in true confession with God?

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.”

I have a hard time with the original sin concept in holding newborns, but it’s not a hard sell once they hit the willful toddler stage. I have yet to meet a parent who trains their children in the art of temper-tantrum-throwing, or explains the art of how to limp noodle their bodies and flail their arms in an emotional Chernobyl.
Lying, selfishness, hitting, doing the opposite of obedience? We come pre-conditioned. Just add water and a few years of growth. David isn’t blaming his mother, he’s just stating the fact. He is a born sinner and so am I.
But there is hope!

“Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.”

He desires truth in our hidden and innermost being. The place where sin once poisoned my soul now can be filled with light and life. The unspoken desires where self is king and Jesus is not, He actually desires His greatness and the beauty of His truth to dwell in us instead of deceit and a calloused heart.

Sin has a way of lying to us, doesn’t it? The Gospel Coalition tweeted recently, “Satan whispers, ‘Don’t worry about that sin. It’s no big deal.’ Then when you fall, he shouts, ‘You’ve blown it!’”

The truth and wisdom is that sin destroys to the deepest destruction, it’s far worse than we even know it to be. BUT GOD. It is a half-truth that leads us to sin, and a half-truth that would condemn us if we don’t call to mind that Jesus saves. He desires this truth in our innermost being, the hidden parts. Salvation is not just for our tongues to declare, but for our hearts to believe; deep down to the tap root of our being.

“Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

He asks for purifying and for cleaning, wedged right there between confession and rejoicing. Hyssop, the branches that swept lamb’s blood over the door post of God’s people in Egypt so the plague of death passed them over. Hyssop that was used as a cleansing agent in Old Testament law. Jesus Himself is our cleansing agent. God offers in Isaiah:

“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’
Says the Lord,
‘Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;’
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.”

And where do you land after you’ve sincerely confessed and repented? Is it rejoicing and gladness? Or are you more comfortable in trying to pay penitence by cowering before God? That if you live under the dark cloud of guilt long enough eventually it will clear and you’ll feel okay before God?
Sister, if you have received Jesus as your own, that sin is all the way gone. Don’t you dare let the enemy tempt you to die again for it in your heart. Stand in the light of your clean washed soul, you are forgiven.

Shane and Shane penned these lyrics in “Embracing Accusation”:

“If the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine. I hear him saying cursed are the ones who can’t abide. He’s right. Alleluia he’s right! Oh the devil’s singing over me an age old song – that I am cursed and gone astray. Singing the first verse so conveniently over me, he’s forgotten the refrain… Jesus saves!”

Sisters, I pray your song today, like David, when you have turned away from your sin to face the Living God, is that your broken bones rejoice, “Jesus saves!”