Forgiveness and Restoration

Forgiveness And Restoration

Psalm 51

Theme: Prayers of personal confession and repentance allow God to restore us and equip us for service.

Introduction

In 1989, using the findings of the Dowd report, Bart Giamatti, the commissioner of baseball, imposed a life time ban from the game on Pete Rose.  The report concluded that Rose, arguably one of the greatest players of all time, had bet on baseball games.  Gambling by those taking part in the games is dealt with quickly and harshly because it compromises the integrity of the sport.

Although Rose formally accepted the findings of the report, he argued that he had bet on football and horse racing, but never on baseball.  Finally, in January of 2004, after some 14 years of denials, Rose changed his story.  Hoping to have the punishment lifted so he might be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Rose publicly admitted he had bet on baseball.

Most surprising about his admission was his decided lack of contrition.  In his own words from his book My Prison Without Bars:

I'm sure that I'm supposed to act all sorry or sad or guilty now that I've accepted that I've done something wrong. But you see, I'm just not built that way. So let's leave it like this: I'm sorry it happened, and I'm sorry for all the people, fans and family that it hurt. Let's move on.

To truly find forgiveness and restoration, a person must first believe that they need it.  But, our therapeutic culture too often provides us with easy ways to push the responsibility for our actions onto others.  Our family, our friends, our environment can all be used as convenient scapegoats for our own errors, mistakes and sins.

Rose’s non-apologetic apology is emblematic of a societal tendency to minimize or blame others for our own failings.  It is an alarming trend, because a failure to see the need for personal forgiveness is a symptom of the spiritually dead.

Faced with the great sin of his life, David’s prayer preserved in Psalm 51 reveals that despite his personal failure he is a spiritually alive individual.  Nathan has forced David to face his abuse of power to obtain Bathsheba.  David had not only committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, but also sent his general to certain death at the front line.  By eliminating her husband, the path was clear for the king to marry Bathsheba.  Juxtaposed with the shallow words of Rose, King David’s response to being confronted with his own sinfulness is direct and honest.  Contained within his heart-felt communication with God lies the secret to true forgiveness and restoration.

The Biblical Witness

Psalm 51:1-6

Amazing Grace

¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy 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 alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

David begins his prayer by asking for mercy.  It is a plea without equivocation.  It is not a posture we are familiar with in modern society.  Every part of us wants to protect ourselves and show our strength.  To need mercy is to admit weakness.

In our culture, we have mastered the apology that simultaneously blames the person from whom we seek forgiveness.  “I’m sorry if anyone was offended.”  If you just wouldn’t have been so sensitive, I would have nothing to be sorry about.  In a sly way, this sort of apology avoids taking responsibility.

Or, we hide behind the circumstances.  “I’m sorry, but” is followed by a rationalization that minimizes our guilt.  It is a way of saying that if you had been in my situation, you would have done the same thing.  Forgiveness is not necessary because I was forced into the hurtful action.

David’s plea is naked and raw.  He accepts his responsibility for his sin and asks God to provide him with grace.  Blotting out is the language of commerce and refers to the forgiveness of a debt.  The imagery of washing has always symbolized the power of spiritual cleansing and is a part of the meaning of baptism.  David does not believe that there is anything he can do to undo or make right his sinful action.  He throws himself at God’s feet and asks forgiveness.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator commits what he believes to be the perfect crime.  The only problem is that as he sits above the hidden body, his sense of guilt generates the sound of a beating heart that raises in volume until he confesses.  It is this inability to drown out the shame of his action that causes David’s sin to be always before him.  David’s relationship with God will not allow him to easily pass over his own sinfulness.

Verse 4 has a jarring effect.  “Against you alone have I sinned.”  But what about Bathsheba and more significantly Uriah?  Hasn’t David sinned against them?  Hasn’t the King’s actions destroyed their lives?  The psalm suggests that there is a difference between sin and a crime.  When a person goes before a judge, they are convicted of a crime, not a sin.  Crimes are committed against people.  Sin may involve other people, but it is always a transgression against God’s purposes.  David does need to seek forgiveness from people for his hurtful actions, but only God can forgive his sin.

When David writes that he was born guilty, it might be taken as a fatalistic Calvinism.  It also can be understood, perhaps more helpfully, as an admission that he was born with the potential to sin.  He was born a sinner not in the sense that he was born with black hair or blue eyes, but in the way that we say that a person was a born writer or athlete.

God’s desire for us is that our inward lives and outward actions are integrated into a single way of life.  David’s sin was secret to most of the world.  God, however, does not seek the façade of righteousness in his followers but a heart that is an open secret to the world.

Psalm 51:7-12

Transforming Power

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

David continues his prayer with more images of cleansing.  He desires to be clean and whiter than snow.  He asks that God will cleanse him with hyssop.  Hyssop plays a prominent role in the Passover preparation described in Exodus 12.  Moses instructs the Israelites to use blood coated hyssop to mark their doors so that when the Lord arrives to strike down the Egyptian first-born their own children would be spared.  According to Hebrews, when Moses sprinkles the blood on the people to formally seal their relationship with God, hyssop is used. These uses of the plant confirm that David is asking God to shield him from God’s judgment and to give him a fresh start.

The joy and gladness that David hopes to experience again is not something he can generate on his own.  His prayer reveals that he is not seeking to rectify his life by his own effort.  He believes that only God can rectify his life.  When he refers to his bones that God has crushed, it is not a way to blame God, but a recognition that ignoring God’s standards has profound consequences.  These consequences are obvious to those who seek to maintain a dynamic spiritual relationship, less obvious but equally dire for those who ignore the divine.

Because David cares about his relationship to God, he is aware that his sin has created separation.  He also is aware that it is God who must reach across that barrier to renew his heart.

I will always remember when I spoke out of turn and hurt a friend.  I wrote a heart felt apology note, and we had a long talk.  What struck me in that moment of seeking forgiveness was how out of control I was.  No matter what I said or did, or how badly I desired it, forgiveness was only available if offered to me.  I knew that if my friend could see into the depths of my heart to my remorse they would have to respond, but I could not create forgiveness for myself.

David seems to stand on that precipice.  He knows that forgiveness and restoration are not his to make or take.  They are in God’s hand and his only hope is to open the brokenness of his heart and trust in God’s transforming power.

Psalm 51:13-17

Delivered to Declare

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶ For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

¹⁷ The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

While David is unable to manufacture his forgiveness, he rightly discerns that when forgiveness is offered he must respond.  There is some news that is too good to keep.  His relief and joy at God’s graciousness constrains him to share.

At this point in the Psalm, a significant shift occurs.  While the earlier parts of the prayer are primarily individually centered, David’s prayer begins to broaden in scope to the needs of the world.  Too often our own prayers never move beyond our own narrow concerns.  David recognizes that God’s forgiveness is not a private and personal matter, but a reason to be vocal about God’s grace to others who need to find it for themselves.

David will teach, sing, and speak of what he has received.  In every way that he can think of, he will tell others that God’s forgiveness is available for the asking.  The content of his message of hopefulness is that the rituals of repentance (burnt offerings) without contrition of the heart are merely an empty show.  Having experienced the renewing of his heart through God’s forgiveness, he recognizes that God’s interest is in transforming our relationship with God rather than appeasing God through sacrifices.

Psalm 51:18-19

Restored To Worship

¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,

¹⁹ then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The final verses of David’s prayer of repentance have caused a debate about whether they were a part of the original psalm.  They seem to point to a later time after the exile.  Jerusalem’s walls would not have needed to be rebuilt during the time of David’s kingship.  However, the language could be taken as a symbolic description of God renewing his protection of the holy city following the contrition of its king.

In a lesson for our own praying, through the progression of this prayer, David disappears.  The first verses are filled with the first person.  The focus then becomes on what David will do once he has been restored.  But the last two verses contain no first person reference.  David’s personal prayer ends not with his own need but with a request for the good of the people.

While verse 16 declares that God does not delight in sacrifice, verse 19 suggests that once the heart is right that God will delight in sacrifice.  This reminds us that forgiveness and restoration are not the end of the process.  They are the beginning of a transformed life that is lived in the service of God and others.

Application

Following the recent death of Pope John Paul II, there was a surprising news story that circulated.  In 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca attempted to kill John Paul.  The Pope forgave the Turkish gunman for the attack.  He not only forgave him but visited him in prison and established a relationship with his attacker and his attacker’s family.  When asked for comment after the Pope’s death, Agca’s brother said, “I know that he (Mehmet) is in mourning . . . Would not you be sad if you had lost your brother.” (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1376901/posts)

The forgiveness of the Pope changed an attacker seeking his death into one who mourned him as if he were a member of his family.  To us, this sort of forgiveness seems beyond our ability.  But John Paul could offer true forgiveness and restoration because he had received true forgiveness and restoration from God.

Psalm 51 provides a powerful model that corrects our narcissistic tendency to excuse our own sinfulness.  David’s prayer provides an example of taking responsibility for our relationship with God.

One purpose of prayer is to restore our relationship with God when it has become broken by our own sin.  Those who seek to live in close contact with God can not help but be aware of their failure as covenant partners.

What can we learn from David’s prayer about forgiveness?

1. Until we acknowledge our need for forgiveness, it is always out of reach.  David does not pray until he recognizes his sin.  We need to be vigilant in our lives so that we don’t gloss over our sin and not see our own need for forgiveness.

2. We must realize that our sin has serious consequences for ourselves.  We tend to think that our sin only affects others.  David’s prayer reveals that our sin has serious and continuing consequences in our own lives as we live separated from God.

3. Being forgiven is not the end.  Too often, we assume that once we are forgiven that the process is through.  David knew that receiving forgiveness demands announcing it and offering it to others.  Living out of forgiveness means living a life of grateful service.

Written by Bob Fox, Pastor, Faith Baptist Church, Georgetown, Kentucky.