Forgiveness for
Ourselves and Others
When I was a boy, I learned to
keep score at the ballgame. The numbers 1 – 9 represented baseball positions to
me, as they do to multitudes of baseball fans. Number 6 is shortstop, number 8
centerfielder, number 2 catcher. A 6-4-3 DP means that the shortstop fielded
the ball, threw it to the second baseman, who then threw it to the first
baseman. Of course there was more happening during the play, but this
represents the basics.
In Psalms numbers come to
represent themes, areas of emphasis, textures. Some groups of psalms tend to
give us a perspective on God’s working in history. Another group is associated
with praise and worship. While another group leads us on a journey from exile
to restoration, from living as aliens to recovering our inheritance in Christ.
Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51,102, 130,
and 143 form a group termed “the penitential psalms,” they express sorrow for
sin and a yearning and searching for forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
Many of us have cried with David,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast [or upright] spirit
within me” (Psa. 51:10). Many have cried to God, “Retore to me the joy of Your
salvation” (51:12).
Can we identity with the plea, “Return,
O LORD, rescue my soul, save me because of Your lovingkindness” (6:4)?
How about, “There is no health in
my bones, because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my hear; as a
heavy burden they weigh too much for me” (38:4)?
Well, you get the idea. There are
times when our thoughts and actions and words just make us sick; sick with
guilt, with remorse, sick with disgust at ourselves, sick at the realization of
what we've done toward God and others. Sin is not eating too much chocolate, it
is transgressing the holiness of God, violating our relationship with God,
polluting relationships with others. Sin is disobeying the Word of God.
But there is hope and there is
promise in these psalms.
“If You, LORD, should mark
iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that
You may be feared" (130:3 - 4).
There is a desire to obey: “Teach
me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level
ground. For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness
bring my soul out of trouble” (143:10 – 11).
As you read and ponder these
seven psalms, you’ll realize that they represent the complexity,
contradictions, and aspirations of human beings. They do not portray a
simplistic approach to God and sin and repentance and forgiveness and
reconciliation. They do illustrate struggle; struggle within, struggle
without, struggle through doubt and fear, struggle through sin, struggle to
find restored relationship with God.
If we learn to work through these
seven penitential psalms, not only will we have seven havens to return to when
we are once again in need of reconciliation, but we will have seven beacons of
hope and truth to guide others to and through. We will have more than the cheap
grace (to borrow a term from Bonhoeffer) so prevalent in American Christianity
to offer others, we will have the raw reality of life with God…and without
God…of life in His will and outside His will. It is far better to live in Him,
than without Him.
Spiritual
Formation into the Image of Christ
Francis
Schaffer said that one reason he read the Bible everyday was to cleanse his
mind. The thought life of the world, its images and messages, its philosophies
and values, have a polluting effect on our hearts and minds and souls; we need
continuing renewal in Christ and His Word. Paul exhorts his readers, “Let us
cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
Peter
writes, “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your
behavior, because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I AM holy” (1 Peter
1:15 – 16).
The
book of Psalms confronts us with who we are, with the inner workings of
ourselves. It does not ask us to engage in self-analysis but rather calls us to
allow the light of Scripture to shine within us and to respond to the
encouragement and conviction of the Holy Spirit.
“Who
can discern his errors?” (Ps. 19:12).
Knowing
that the answer is, “No one,” we pray:
“Acquit
me of hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let
them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of
great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Ps. 19:12 – 14).
The
Psalms are clear, we can’t do this on our own. To be formed into the image of
Christ is beyond our ability, but if we will submit to the working of God’s
Word and the Holy Spirit we can say with confidence, “The LORD will accomplish [perfect,
complete] that which concerns me” (Ps. 138:8).
This
assurance leads us to trust our Father as He works deep within us to cleanse us
and form us into His holy image, that of Jesus Christ.
“Seach
me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if
there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way”
(139:23–24).
The
story goes that when Michaelangelo chose the block of marble from which he
would create his magnificent David, he chose a block which had been rejected by
others due to its obvious flaws. Beyond the flaws the sculptor saw David, and
he saw that by chipping away at the flaws, at everything that was not the image
of David, that David would come forth.
The
context of Psalm 139:23-24, just quoted above, is God’s intimate knowledge of
us; and knowing that God knows us deeply, that He knows our every thought, that
He has always known us, that He sees our flaws, that even if we make our bed in
Sheol that He is there; gives us the assurance to ask God to search us, to know
us, to free us from hurtful ways, and to lead us in the Everlasting Way, which,
of course, is Jesus Christ.
to be continued....
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