The Psalm of Repentance - Psalm 50/51 (Orthodox Lenten Class)

0:00 [Music] tonight is our second Linton class one of the things that I had gleaned from our time when we went up to the monastery was learning how to do a spiritual accounting what that means is that at the night in the evening before the Manas go to bed they go through their day right one of the things I do for my own prayers is I go through the day and I give thanks but I also go through and give an accounting of the day of what I done what I if I've sinned or anything like that because

0:46 it's very important for us to be able to understand the things that we have done and to recognize those sin because a lot of times we don't even recognize some of the things that we're doing one of the most Familiar of the Psalms that we sing and we use during our services and it should be one that we read every day is Psalm 51 so Anthony would you mind reading it for us today not at all have mercy upon me oh God according to your loving kindness according to the multitude of your Tender Mercies blot out my transgression RS Wash Me

1:31 thoroughly from my inequity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceive me behold you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden Parts you will make me to know wisdom Purge me with his up and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken May Rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities create in

2:18 me a clean heart oh God and renew a steadfast Spirit within me do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous Spirit then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you deliver me from the guilt of Bloodshed oh God the god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aoud of your righteousness oh Lord open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise for you did not desire sacrifice or else I would give it you do not Delight in burnt offerings the sacrifices of God

3:04 are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart these oh God you will not despise do good in your good pleasure to Zion build the walls of Jerusalem then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and her whole burnt offering then they shall offer Bulls on your altar so one of the things that I have often equated as I've read in the Old Testament is the prophets that went to many of the Kings and different people often they for me I equate them to spiritual fathers in 2 Samuel

3:52 12 Nathan the prophet it was Samuel was the one who had anointed Saul and then also anointed David when the kingdom was taken away from Saul and then when Sam Samuel died Nathan took over so uh Nathan comes to David and says then the Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said to him there were two men in one city one rich and the other poor the rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing except one little U lamb which he had brought and nourished bought and nourished and it grew up together with him and with his children and ate of his own food and

4:39 drank from his own cup and lay in together with him and with his children uh I'm sorry and lay in his bosom and it was like a daughter to him and a traveler came to the rich man and refused to take up from his own flock and from his own herd and to to prepare one for the wering man who had come to him but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him so David's anger was greatly aroused against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives the man who has done this shall surely die and he shall restore four-fold the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity then Nathan said to David you are that man thus says the Lord God of Israel I

5:27 anointed you King over Israel and delivered you from the hand of Saul I give you your Master's house and your Master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel in Judah and if that had been too little I would have given you much more why do you why have you despised the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight you have killed ideah The Hite with the sword and you have taken the wife to be his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Aman now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken and have taken the wife of URI the hi to be your wife thus says the Lord behold I will raise up adversity against you from your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your

6:14 wives and shall in the sight of this of the son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel before the son so David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David the Lord is also has has also has put away your sin you shall not die however by the Deeds you have given great occasion to the enemies to the Lord to blaspheme the child also who is born to you shall surely die and Nathan departed from his house now I'm going to actually go back and read the chapter before okay because you must understand that David when he what what I'm about to read in Chapter 11

7:00 David just didn't do one thing okay and what we're going to do is I'm going to read through there and we're going to try to figure out and make a spiritual accounting of what David did and what led him to say I have sinned against the Lord this is the reason that he writes Psalm 50 or 51 because the beginning right before that it says to the chief musician a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went into him after he had after he had gone into baath Sheba so he had been having this infidelity with bash Sheba for at least a year okay and you must understand that at that time you often read in the scriptures where it talks about how people had was writing down and all the actions of the

7:47 Kings and keeping track and Order and record of all the things that were going so what was David thinking right he's the king all right so it happened in the year in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the people of Aman and besieged rabah but David remained at Jerusalem this is a very important part then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the King's house and from the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold so David sent and inquired about the woman and someone said is this not baath she the daughter of ilam the wife of Uriah The Hite and David sent

8:34 Messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her for she was cleansed from your impur from her impurity and she returned to her house and the woman conceived so she sent and told David and said I am a child then David sent to joab saying Send Me Uriah The Hite and joab sent Uriah to David when euriah had come to him David asked how joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war prospered and David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet soah departed from the King's house and a gift of food from the King followed him but yah slept at the king's door at the door of the King's house with all the Servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house so when they told David saying

9:22 euriah did not go down to his house David said to Uriah did you come did you not come from a Journey why did you not go down to your house and Uriah said to David the Ark of and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents and my Lord joab the Servants of my Lord are encamped in the Open Fields shall I go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives I will KN I will not do this thing then David said to Uriah wait here today also and tomorrow I will let you depart soah remained in Jerusalem that day and to the next now when David called him he ate and drank before him and made him drunk and at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the Servants of his

10:08 Lord with the Servants of his Lord and he did not go down to his house in the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to joab and sent it by the hand of UAH and he wrote in the letter saying set Uriah in the Forefront of the hottest battle and Retreat from him that he may be struck down and die so it was when joab besieged the city that that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew where there there were Valiant men then the men of the city came out and fought with joab and some of the people and the Servants of David Fell and Uriah the hii died also then joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war and charged the messenger saying when you have finished telling the matters to the of the word of the king if it happens

10:54 that the king's wrath arises and he says to you why did you approach so near to the City when you fought did you not know that when would shoot from the wall who struck ailec the son of jerub was it not a woman who was cast a piece of millstone from the wall and so he died in so he died in thez why did you go near the wall then you shall say your Ser Uriah The Hite is dead also so the messenger went and came to told David and that joab had sent him and the messenger said to David surely the men the the men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field and we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate and the archers shot from the wall to as your servants and some of

11:39 the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Dead The Hite is dead also then David sent to the messenger thus you shall say to joab do not let this thing displease you for the sword devours one as well as the other strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it so encourage him that's when Nathan comes to him right after this so go oh I'm sorry and when the wife of Uriah heard that you Uriah her husband was dead she mourned for her husband and when her mourning was over David sent her and brought her to the house and she became his wife and bore him a son but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord so going through a spiritual accounting all of us together what

12:26 Commandments did King David break what sins did he commit CET my neighbor's wife coveted his neighbor's wife that's one what else adultery what else those are the big ones murder murder murder murder conspiracy to commit murder right he had somebody else do it but yet he did it what else lying ly he lied what else Austin could he offended God by all the things that he did yes and the lust was the part right he said that he was standing on top of the roof and he looked down and saw another man's woman right uh he saw

13:12 another man's wife he probably didn't do it the first time he probably went out there and convinced himself what else do we see well he should have been out there with his troops why did he stay back there's another thing he let his men go on to battle without him for years he had been fighting with the troop troups and for this particular summer he says I'm just going to let the men go out there right La so lazy he became complacent and lazy what else anything else anybody can think of he might might have been skipping his prayers because if he'd been praying several times a day like he's supposed to he probably wouldn't have let things get out of hand yeah we can probably read into that as well what else Pony he puts his wants before God he put his

13:57 wants before God why is that one important made himself but why is that so important with King David because he was the leader of the country the leader of the country and he was also a prophet and MH so he became a Voyer and lusted after the woman right she was brought to him and after she told him that she was married he still slept with her he committed adultery after she he found out that she was pregnant he brought her husband out of war and tried to convince him to go home and sleep with his wife to cover up the fact that she was pregnant so now he's trying to cover it up right because what will happen what what what else is involved what other

14:42 sin is involved within him well he could well she definitely would have been stoned and maybe him as well right but he's the king yes but what else right Pride right he was Pride right because if anybody found out he he David wanted everybody to love him right uh after he found out that she was pregnant he brought her husband out of war and tried to convince him to go down and sleep with his wife that's what go down and wash your feet means right to co cover up the fact that she was pregnant so now he's trying to convin what other things that he's doing right he's convincing other people to sin right he's convincing his servants he's convincing bath Sheba he's convinced joab right

15:29 he's involving he was scheming he was scheming and he was involving many people with the sin right also yes he got then he got Uriah drunk and once again tries to get convince him to go down to sleep with his wife what did Uriah do he's just stay at this doorstep he stayed at the doorstep what kind of heart do you think UAH had had a good heart right something better than David at this moment right he said he says all my in out in the field I'm not going to go down to my wife imagine sleeping in right what else do you think was happening in David's heart jealousy huh jealousy jealousy what else I mean for him to see this guy a

16:14 soldier right he is Uriah is one of the 37 mighty men that D there's listed in D in the list and in the book of Kings okay he had to harden his heart against this as well right probably liked it he probably liked the man because of his honor right yeah and he gave right he also wrote a letter he gave it to Uriah himself right he wrote the letter saying I want you to I want you to make sure that the man that is holding this letter is going to die right I mean he gave the death sentence to the guy himself right order he ordered your ey to be placed in the hottest part of the battle and have rest of the men retreat to ensure that he would die in battle like and we talked

17:02 about it he lied numerous times he committed adultery numerous times right it was over and over and over again okay how about the third commandment what do you remember what is the third commandment should not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain did he dishonor God he Dishonored God so he broke the third commandment right he Dishonored God's name okay he Dishonored the Throne right the throne and again we can equate these things to the priest standing in front of the altar the bishop standing at the throne if we dishonor the throne we're dishonoring God because of our place okay he had Dishonored his men and caused others to sin as well and what

17:49 else did he try to do he tried to hide these things from who God God he tried to hide these things from God right and talk about spiritual Amnesia right how much did David and if you've never read these books right if you've never read 1 and 2 Samuel you should because David went through a lot when he was working his way toward becoming King Saul tried to kill him numerous times he was in the field he was on the Run Okay so he tried to make excuses for his sins and he told joab not to worry about this man's death because one sword devours the other as as he does the other what is that what is he saying here he's just another man

18:35 he's just being flipping about some guy's life right because he wants he wanted his desire and it didn't matter what else now the part that it talks about here where joab talks to them joab is his cousin okay and later on joab if you read in the book with Solomon joab actually betrays Solomon but there's a this is the reason if you put it together this is the reason why because David Hurt Him okay but he talks about just as a side note from the Book of Judges who struck ABC the son of gerubach sheth this is a reference to judges nine where ailec was killed by coming too close to the walls of the city under siege the idea is that joab knew it was a bad military move to get so close to the wall but he did it

19:20 anyway on the command of David So joab knew what he was doing was going to get him killed not only did David order him to do it but David also had this guy sin and he allowed himself to sin as well okay is there any that was about all that I found does any did anyone else gather anything all right so again as a spiritual accounting we went through just this little stipp it of the the Old Testament as a spiritual accounting and then when his spiritual father came to him and said I have sinned against the Lord that's when he penned this famous

20:07 hymn this famous uh this famous Psalm right which is a song right all the Psalms are songs all right so the fir so it the first verse remember starts out the psalm is titled of the chief musician a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went into him after he had gone into baseba verse and the continuance of verse one says have mercy upon me oh God according to whose loving kindness your your loving kindness right he's going to God and he's saying have mercy on me according to your loving kindness that word loving kindness in the Hebrew means goodness kindness and faithfulness so he's going up to God and saying you're good you're kind and you're faithful okay and according to

20:53 the multitud of your Tender Mercies again who is he talking to God your Tender Mercies by extension the child in the womb right a compassion this word um according to your Tender Mercies means the child in the womb so he's saying to see saying to God I am like a child in the womb right I am coming to you and according to your loving kindness according to your tendle mercies I need you to and that word blot out blot Out means to wipe out and obliterate from existence my transgressions now there's three words that we're going to see through here I'll explain it in just a minute sins transgressions and iniquities okay all

21:40 three of the words are used in here so the title of the psalm gives the tragic context of for David's plea he had sinned in murder and adultery and covering his sin and the hardness and in hardness against repentance it took the Bold confrontation of Nathan the prophet to shake him for this yet once shaken David came in great honesty and Brokenness before God if the if uh have mercy on me oh God that part is is the prayer of a man who knows that he sinned and has stopped all self-justification why is that important when we come to God how often do we come to God in our sins and try to justify what we've done right breaking

22:28 our marriages committing adultery wounding people fighting with people and what happens you often do those things and you have self-justification and David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord a good and direct confession without excuse of God's loving his loyal very very with eloor that condemned him and he wanted the account of them to be erased the block May refer to David's conscience or to God's accounting of perhaps both verse two wash me now this word wash me right d of course what was what was profession before he became king he was a Shepherd so this wash me

23:14 is going back to what he's talking about perform the work of a fuller okay the Fuller is is involving the cleaning and whitening of cloth particularly wool the fullest process washing beating and sometimes bleaching the fabric to remove oils dirt and other impurities so he's going to God right he's saying wash me just like I did at the time when I washed the Sheep's I need Purify Me okay he says Wash Me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse and that word cleanse is to purify to be to be made morally clean from my sin okay so through David's Spirit father na Nathan

24:01 the prophet allow to see how dirty and stained he was he had lived in that condition for some time again perhaps for over a year without without an acute knowledge of iniquity a condition for iniquity and sin now the sense of stain drove him to be to beg to be cleansed so again when you're reading this Psalm there's three words again sin what is the what is the Greek term what what does sin mean missing missing the mark right you sin is missing Mark iniquity does anybody know what iniquity means it's a flaw in our character something is not to

24:46 do are inity has the idea of twistedness and perversion and depravity how about transgression crossing crossing the boundary cross good transgression has the idea of crossing boundaries so again David uses all three of these words okay so verse three I acknowledge my transgressions I acknowledge that I've crossed the boundary and my sin is always that word always in Hebrew is forever and continually before me for I acknowledge my transgression my sin is always before me my sin is always before me in in many months between the time David committed

25:32 these sins and this confession he had not escaped the sense of sin it all it was always before him he did his best to ignore it and but as a genuine child of God he could not Escape it he would he was an incon unconfessed sin but miserable in it as the child of God should be right so the use of the use of the word my made him write with this with a very personal conviction it was his sins and no one else's so he's confessing I did this no one else's responsible for the things that I did I'm not blaming joab I'm not blaming basba I'm not blaming anything I am the one who sin verse four against you you

26:18 only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless that word blameless in Hebrew means pure and clean when you judge govern vindicate and punish okay in an objective sense this was not true right truthfully this sentence in an objective sense was not true David had sinned against bashah and their families his family his kingdom and in a sense even against his own body which we read in 1 Corinthians 6:18 yet all of that faded into the background as he considered the greatness of of his sin against who God he he rightly felt as if against you you only have I sinned so he's taking responsibility for all of

27:05 it he's not putting again he's not putting any of the blame on anybody else David realized that when that God was there and God was looking was looking when he did this evil he was not absent from the bedroom of adultery to the place where he command where the command to kill Uriah was given David's confession of sin was not only to relieve himself of the great burden of his sin and guilt more so it was to bring glory to who to God he wanted to bring glory to God he wanted to put himself back into moral standing to glorify God not to glorify himself okay remember what God said about David he's a man after my own heart okay confessing his sin David

27:52 hoped to confirm God's justice and holy character proving that his commands were good and just even when David broke those commands Okay verse six I'm sorry verse 5 behold right now ex he's exclaiming behold I was brought forth that brought forth means shapen to riseth to wait it anxiously in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me okay David wasn't born out of a sinful relationship that isn't the idea however there are some Jewish sources that said if you read in the book when it talks about the the the mother and the lineage of David there's it's a different woman than it was with

28:39 the father with the rest of the brothers okay so there are some people again it's not in the scriptures it's kind of implied in the scriptures but again it's not there that there might have been some sort of infidelity but there's not for sure there's not a for sure okay so neither in his idea to to EXC exuse his sin by saying look how bad it started out what else could be expected the purpose was to show the depth of his sin and it went beyond specific sinful actions all the way to a stubborn sin nature one was bornn with sin so remember at this time the Jewish people when they sinned the sin according to them would be carried to the four third and fourth generation

29:24 right and they had an idea that there was sin that went all the way back to Adam okay so David recognized his sinfulness and understood that the part of the Fallen human race were all we are all sinners the verse does not imply any personal wrongdoing by his parents but rather refers to the inherent original sin and Corruption pass through the natural Generations verse six behold again he's exclaiming behold you desire who is you God you desire that word desire means to Delight in to take pleasure in to desire to be pleased with you desire truth that truth means shess faithfulness firmness and re reliability

30:11 behold you desire truth and the inward Parts the inner recesses the inner depth part of David and in the hidden to stop up right the place within the hidden parts that you will make me to know wisdom and that word wisdom is shrewdness and Prudence all right through the sin nature was deep within David God wanted to work deeply in him God wanted a transformation in David all the way to the inward parts to the hidden part that would that would know wisdom David did not cry out for superficial reform but something much much deeper Purge me with hup that word purge means to purify oneself completely you're asking God this is what we're

30:57 supp supposed to be doing every time you ask God every time you read this there should be the understanding right do you purge yourself completely of sin uh Purge me with hup and I shall be clean that word clean is morally and ceremonially clean wash me and make me whiter than snow David looked to to for God to do a work of spiritual and moral cleansing and to do it in connection with the atoning sacrifice of a substitute hup purch me with hup hup was used to apply the blood of the Passover Lamb we see in Exodus 1222 uh hpus also used to sprinkle the priest purifying water okay so he's

31:42 saying Purge me with hisp right the same sacrificial action at the temple all right David knew that God's cleansing was effective his sin was a deep stain but Purity could all could be restored we sense that David spoke with a voice of faith it can be difficult for the convicted sinner to believe in such a complete cleansing it takes Faith to believe God despite the doubt and difficulty this imagery speaks to the complete trans transformative forgiveness that God offers it's not just about removing the stain of sin it's about restoring The Sinner to the state of Purity that even greater than before this expression of faith in God's ability to Clans and renew reflects a

32:29 deep trust in his mercy and Grace which can make us truly clean and whole in his sight what do we do to accomplish this confession confession right but is confession enough you have to repent because right there has to be a deep repentance there has to be a acknowledgment that only God can remove our sin that's why we come over and over and over again with the same sins over and over and over again because we truly are not ready to release those things to God but once we do it we will be able to do it because again the expression of the faith in God's ability to cleanse and renew us reflects in a deep trust in

33:17 the mercy and Grace that we should have for God to be made right in whose sight in God's sight when we come to God we're not worried about what people are going to say about us we're worried about putting ourselves in right standing before God verse eight make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken May Rejoice David felt Brokenness fitting for The Sinner under the conviction of the Holy Spirit it was so severe that he felt as if his bones were broken I don't know about you but I felt like that many times there has been depth of my sin where I have felt broken I have felt wounded and the Deep of my depthness of

34:03 my sin I felt like there was no Redemption for me it was so severe okay confident that this was the work of the Holy Spirit David could pray that it would lead to the joy and gladness that out of his Brokenness David would Rejoice again for the Orthodox Christian what do we get when we are broken we find repair when we are broken we find Redemption when we are broken we continue moving forward we have to continue understanding that we must move forward over and over and over again verse n hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities hide your uh repeatedly David asked for forgiveness and restoration he's repeating himself again now right in

34:48 this repetition we see that this was not a light thing for David it was not easily expressed or easily received by faith there was a sense in which he had to contend both with God and himself to bring him to the place he should be okay verse 10 create all right that word create I have talked about this before but that word create bar in Hebrew is always associated with God as the subject something new that means create means something new a new condition and new circumstances so so he's saying create in me a clean heart you oh Lord you're the only one that can create in me the heart that I need you're the only

35:35 one oh Lord that can make me brand new you are the only one oh Lord that can put me in right standing with you created me a new heart a clean heart that word clean heart again that heart that we that we've heard many times the seed of appetites the emotions the passions the seed of Courage oh God and renew he's repeating renew repair or renew oneself a steadfast to be firm to be stable to be established to be secure a steadfast Spirit within me right again the innermost part okay he's asking God created me a clean heart created me something brand new created me a re and renew oh God a steadfast Spirit Within

36:21 Me Not only is he asking to be purified not only is he asking to be healed not only is he asking to be made right he's asking to be strong enough to not fall back into the old pattern okay so David felt that it wasn't enough if God simply cleansed up cleansed up his heart that he had the plea to create indicated a new and needed a new heart from God a clean heart that's why if you truly want to learn how to love your spouse learn your children and learn the people of the church you need to come to God and ask him to create in you a new heart so that way you can continue seeing people the way that you need to see them through a a lens of Brokenness

37:07 and realize how broken they are as well but not without not with judging okay and David's anticipated in in this David anticipated one of the great promises to all who believe under the New Covenant I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I will take the Heart of Stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of Flesh we see this in Ezekiel 36 and a and renew a steadfast Spirit within me all along with a new heart and clean Spirit David needed a steadfast Spirit to continue in the way of godliness this expressed a humble Reliance upon God we need to rely on God because he's the only one that can help

37:53 us to be strong enough to do it what we do is we re on ourselves we put ourselves on the throne of our own heart and we end up sinning and we don't do the right things but if we go to God and say you know what through my weakness you are made strong right St Paul through my weakness you are made strong but through my weakness you make me strong you are the strength you are the one that I need Lord all right verse 11 do not cast me away this cast me away means to throw or to hurl right to throw very far from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me this was further way David expressed his ongoing Reliance upon God for him the whole point of cleansing and restoration was to renew

38:40 his relationship with God David didn't want a God who cleansed him yet remained distant so he wanted the cleansing and he wanted God to be close to him he wanted God to be near him okay verse 12 restore to me the joy of you your salvation whose salvation God God's salvation Deliverance rescue safety welfare that word salvation and uphold me with your generous that word generous free willing and Noble the generous willing free spirit in this in as many months of unconfessed sin now what happens when we go with sin unconfessed what happens to our heart conviction conviction but how about if

39:26 we continue bearing it you get numb you just kind of ignore it you get numb you get ignored and what else happens what what happens to your relationship with people deteriorating what's up deteriorating it starts to deteriorate right David now you got to understand he's King right and if what and if some if they find out what happened what's going to happen to David right there's going to be shame shame to God to the kingdom everything right so David felt the misery of spiritual defeat he wanted once again the joy appropriate to Salvation to Those whom the Lord rescues

40:13 okay the uh uphold me with your generous Spirit expresses David's confidence in God for the future he did not dream of upholding himself such self-confidence is what typically leads us leads even good men to sin verse 13 then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners should be converted turn back to you perhaps through his example of and of sin example of sinfulness and repentance people would learn and return to God because of David's example so now he's saying okay I hope everybody learns from my mistake I hope everybody understands what I did right he can't hide it no more Nathan came to him okay uh verse 14 deliver this is snatch away rescue save

41:00 that word deliver snatch away right quickly deliver me from the guilt of Bloodshed oh God the god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aoud of your righteousness David was deeply aware of his sin of murder against Uriah though he makes no specific reference to his adultery in the psalm he felt he felt that he must make specific mention of this great sin such a request presented to God of my salvation would surely be answered David knew that with the his guilt dealt before David knew that with his guilt dealt before God he would again be able to sing aloud that my mouth shall show forth your praise we believe that the months of unconfessed sin were silent from the spirit of True Praise So Not

41:47 only was David wounded like we said he probably as Natalie I think Natalie said he probably didn't have his prayer life right I mean we I think we've experienced that as well well I know I've had plenty of my spiritual children come to me and say I did this father oh yeah well how's your prayer Life along that path I didn't pray at all I don't understand right it doesn't make sense to me that when you sin you take away your prayer life right you're supposed to have courage to come back to prayer and ask God when you read the psalm to have mercy on you oh verse 15 oh Lord open my lips and my mouth to show forth your praise to praise God because of his qualities or deeds or attributes why do we praise God

42:36 to praise God because of his qualities or deed or attributes this is what David's saying we're praising God because of his qualities right when and and that's why it's so important when somebody comes up to you and says hey you did a good job uh you did a good job today cleaning the floor glory to God he's the one that gave me the strength to do that glory to God he's the one who allowed me to do this glory to God okay verse 16 you do not desire that word desire to take pleasure in Delight you do not desire sacrifice or else I give it you do not Delight in burnt offering David expressed the principle brought forth in the previous Psalm 50 or 49 he understood understood that through animal sacrifices had its

43:21 place what God really desired was the heart of a man where else do we read this when Jesus is talking to who the Pharisees right God Jesus confronts the Pharisees I require Mercy not sacrifice right verse 17 the sacrifices of God are what a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart these oh God you will not despise David had a great love for the house of the Lord and had sponsored great sacrifices unto God yet he understood that one could sacrifice an animal or many animals to God without a broken and contrite heart can we do the same thing when we come to Eucharist if you're not prepared that's

44:09 why you're supposed to be prepared that's why you're supposed to come to confession because you're not coming with a contrite heart you're doing what St Paul said you're drinking condemnation unto yourself perhaps David had offered many sacrifices at the God's at God's Altar and the money and his of unconfessed sin he recognized The Emptiness of all that and the value of his present broken spirit and broken and contrite heart Verse 18 do good in your good pleasure to Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem David realized that he that in his sin he did not only fail as a man a husband and a father he also failed as what else King King over God's people he humbly asked God to restore his favor to

44:54 the kingdom now why is it Str strange that David forgot this raging hormones yeah I mean that's the present thing but what did he go through before leading up to becoming King he was persecuted by Saul he was yeah but what he s what he saw Saul Tha right he saw King Saul Rise Up from The Tribe of Benjamin small them in his house right when he was still small in his eyes he was became king and when Saul started coning and started doing all the things he started doing what s sinning he was doing whatever he wanted he started sacrificing without approval he started going and doing things and when they told him to not

45:40 collect all the things from all the people to kill every man woman and child he started saving people he started saving he started saving animals he started collecting different things and Saul right even went at one point to a witch a medium after Samuel had died and Samuel told him you're going to your kingdom is being taken away from you you're having it Stripped Away from you and Saul went crazy right Saul went absolutely Bonkers David witnessed all this David saw right David Saul tried to kill David many a couple times and he didn't and he didn't right and David tried to kill David had opportune time to kill Saul many times right right and

46:27 he didn't do it because why because Saul was anointed Saul was anointed okay David's heart was a good heart right David was anointed that is also as a side note why we are not supposed to talk evil about the priest while we're not supposed to talk evil about the Bishops while we're not supposed to talk evil about the hierarchy because God put them there and if we speak evil against them then we know better than God they may be doing wrong things but that's why we pray that's a little side note all right and then finally verse 19 then you shall be pleased right what

47:13 leading all up then transition word then right the sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken contr art these oh God you will not despise do good in your good pleasure desion build the walls of Jerusalem then you shall be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offerings and whole burnt offering and then they shall offer Bull on your Bulls on your altar under the old Covenant David knew that God was not yet done with animal sacrifices they would still offer Bulls on the altar with a heart with the heart issues addressed those sacrifices could be full of meaning and benefit but God knew his heart and when David repented that's when he was able to come back to God the the psalm concludes with a prayer for the

47:58 restoration of Zion symbolizing the rebuilding of our spiritual lives once our hearts are right with God then our outward actions and offering become pleasing to him it is a reminder that true repentance leads to a renewal not just of the individual but the community as well what did what what did I just say community with the community as well when somebody sins in our community especially when it catches everybody's eye again last year a couple years ago when somebody fumbled and make some made some big mistakes and it affected the whole Community I had people coming to me and tell me to boot those people off to the out of the church I told them no

48:45 because everybody has the opportunity to come right the re right sacrifices mentioned here are those that come from the heart that is truly repentant and aligned with God's will okay so that is the psalm that David wrote after he got caught right why didn't why didn't David think anything was wrong all along and I call it spiritual Amnesia we think that we're not doing anything wrong right but that's what Nathan did to come to him Nathan when he came to him his spiritual father came to him and confronted David the first thing David said was what I have sinned against the Lord and the

49:32 interesting thing is Nathan used to Parable that's right it made it more clear to him than it would have Nathan just right and what what was the punishment that David said for the man that stole the lamb he should be killed he should be killed David did his own punishment right but again what was the promise what did God promise Abraham St his descendant would be as numerous as the stars and that his throne would remain forever was it a li that Sol Solomon was the last king of Israel who ultimately takes the throne Jesus Jesus the promise was for Christ

50:18 right all the people that failed all the people that drop the ball all along all point to what Christ has been doing to make things right right Christ is the one that comes to us every day you should be reading this every day by the way every single night before you go to bed this should be read after you do a spiritual accounting of your day not the week every day every day if you do a spiritual accounting when you come to confession you're going to be like I did this I did this I did this I did this and what are you going to do have mercy on me oh God according to your steast love according to your abundant Mercy blot out my transgressions you're asking God to cleanse you you're asking God to put you into a right place and if you come in here and remember that every

51:05 single person that you see in this church is a sinful hypocrite then you will be more apt to have mercy on people but when you start raising your PE when you raising yourself above other people and you think that you are justified in all of your actions and do all the things that you think is right you're going to stumble you're going to fall and ultimately you've seen it people leave the church because they think that they are justified in what they're saying and what they're doing but we're all in this together we're all supposed to be coming to God with a contrite heart we're all supposed to be coming to God asking him to purge us and to purify us and to blot out our transgressions okay this is very important during Lent

51:51 because this is a time that you're supposed to be using to go to God and ask him to truly change you to truly make a difference to truly create in us the people that glorify God and what his attributes are okay any questions just the word p what about it like you said that we ask God for clean this is this is what we supposed to puring purge everything well it's like a really strong laxative they just CL it totally out well that's what right but obliterate

52:36 obliterate A- that's where a pharmacist mind goes to about maintenance it's like going to confessions is basically spiritual maintenance yeah right and that's why I always call I say okay the maintenance sins are what you do every week right but we're supposed to be doing what we're supposed to be working towards removing those sins from our life right because those sins separate us from God and when we're separated from God we're separated from our spouses our children and everybody else right that's why it's so important for us to work towards getting our relationship right with God because once you get a relationship right with God your marriage will fall into place your children will fall into place and it doesn't mean that it's not going to be hard right it's a uphill

53:23 battle every step of the way but that means that we're going going in the right direction when it's hard anybody else one of the things that all he always ask God always positive things you know first me make me um create restore deliver me but he always as not uh what is not to take a holy spirit from him right yeah what's the Holy Spirit give us what is the what is the word for the Holy Spirit the comforter the comforter com please don't take my comfort away the head right and this is David's talking about this before he

54:08 even knew there was a holy spirit right obviously the Holy Spirit moved him to write this right through his repentance and through his Contrition of heart the Holy Spirit helped him to write this right and David is already understanding that yeah and anybody else all right may the Lord God bless protect you and keep you safe be blessed tonight and have a wonderful blessed week and God willing we'll see you on Friday night [Music]