Yada, Yada, Yada

Psalm 51:1-4

      For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

      1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;

      According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.

      2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity

      And cleanse me from my sin.

      3 For I know my transgressions,

      And my sin is ever before me.

      4 Against You, You only, I have sinned

      And done what is evil in Your sight,

      So that You are justified when You speak

      And blameless when You judge.

Examine / Explain

The beginning of this Psalm is David owning, admitting, and confessing the sins he had committed. David understands that only through God’s compassion can he not cut off. However, David is intimately aware of his sins against God. They are always in front of him. And God, in his omnipotence, is the one who is justified in the judgment of David.

How do I apply this to my life?

Know = yada. Intimate knowledge of something or someone. How aware are we of our transgressions against God? Are we truly broken over our sins? Do we acknowledge the things we have done? Do we own our mistakes and set them before a great and compassionate God in repentance? How often do we go back to God with the same sins over and over again? Does that mean we are not truly broken by sin? Is it because our flesh is so weak that we are unable to call on the name of the Lord in our time of need and trust that He can rescue us? What does that say about our belief system? Are we doomed to a separation from God in our time here? Are we good and faithful servants if there are things we feel like we are unable to overcome? Or is it that the sanctification of a man is a lifelong process that takes striving for a perfect community with our spouse and support group to finally find true freedom the day we meet Jesus face to face? Can we have freedom now? Absolutely! Will we sin again? Absolutely! We are humans who are in desperate need of a savior and yet we try to save ourselves all the time. We turn to things that will not save us. We want to fill a void that is in us with something. Drugs, sex, work, others, relationships, and really anything that we place as a god in our lives. We worship it and try to sacrifice to it. In trying to appease that god we are sinning against the One True God. In those moments we fail like David and make poor decisions. And our sin is forever before us in our thoughts.

What is my response?

Father, I am intimately aware of my sins. I know I fall short. In Your eyes sin is sin, so I have transgressions against You. Yes, there are different consequences for sin but we are sinning against You. Thank you for always taking me back when I do fall short. Thank you for being a justified judge and that You sent Your Son to cover my sin. I pray that I seek and obey more than I want to come to You with a sacrifice because of my failures. That’s what we do. We want to bargain with You for our sins and we offer up some type of sacrifice of “I’ll never do this again, if.” But that deal was already made. Jesus died for me and everything I’ve done and will do. I just need to live that out in obedience. I must strive to reflect Him in a lost world. I pray that I do that and not that I live a sinless life but I live a life where I sin less. Amen.