Lent Devotional Day 19
I don’t know if you have ever studied Psalm 51 before. It is David’s repentance Psalm after he has an affair with Bathsheba, kills her husband, and covers it up. But the prophet Nathan confronts him and he stands before God broken and ashamed. And so David pens this poem, this psalm that is full of hyperlinks (references to other Bible verses), 1 large Chiasm (a Hebrew literary tool), and even the gospel message of salvation through faith.
Here is how I study the Psalms. It may look like a mess, but here’s the idea. So much of Hebrew poetry is repetition. It could be thoughts, words, and even rhymes. But since my Hebrew isn’t too great, we’ll skip that one.
What I want to draw your attention to is the middle part of the Chiasm. In Hebrew poetry, a chiasm is descending and ascending thoughts and ideas pointing to the truth it’s trying to communicate in the middle.
David starts with blot out my transgressions in verse 1 and 9, wash and cleanse in verses 2 and 7, acknowledge evil and failure in verses 3-4a and 5-6 and then the middle is in verse 4b. It says, “So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your sight.”
Sometimes we become so me-focused on our sin that what God seeks to do is to show his glory through the faithfulness of his people. Let me say that in a different way. When the people of God, namely you and me, follow God with holiness, God’s glory, fame, and renown is greater. But when we fail to do what God says, we tell others that he is not a God worthy to be followed.
Today, when you think about sin and iniquity, think about how it reflects on God when you sin. And then follow the words of King David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”