Page 48 - Living light - The Psalms

Monday July 22 - The place to start
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to
your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1-2
This psalm is most definitely a prayer, rather than a song as many other psalms are. I feel as if I’m eavesdropping on something so personal and intense that is really just between David and God. But it is our prayer too. And one I’ve prayed so many times!
Prayer is a wonderful gift as we express our joy and delight in knowing God and being known by him, as we bring our requests and needs to him or simply worship him. But this is a prayer of repentance. David throws himself on the mercy of God. There are no excuses or any defence of the sin he committed. He cries out to God for mercy; mercy that flows from God’s unfailing love. David knew he had nowhere to hide... and nowhere else to go. His actions had broken two of God’s principal commandments – concerning adultery and murder (Deuteronomy 5:17-18) – and he knew he deserved God’s judgment. He was truly a broken man in need of forgiveness and cleansing.
As we read these verses and perhaps identify with them again, this is the best and only place to start – right here with this plea of David’s for God’s mercy. I make it mine today.
Dear Father, this is the cry of my heart too. Thank you for your mercy and love. Amen.
Tuesday July 23 - Expressing the truth
Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight...
Psalm 51:4
When we are utterly closed-in with God in prayer (and pleading!) the best prayers we pray are often the ugliest, rawest... and the most honest! They are the scary prayers kept only between God and us. But God is never caught off guard by the honest state of our hearts or surprised by the broken realities of our lives.
David ‘knows his transgression’ and was plagued by the thought and memory of what had happened between him, Bathsheba and Uriah. The implications of his sin were immense: Uriah was killed, and the baby Bathsheba gave birth to died, yet David’s sin was against God and all that he knew God to be. The ‘shepherd king’ was now the penitent king; now in such need of God’s goodness and mercy – and forgiveness.
David speaks of ‘truth in the inner parts’ (v 6, NKJV). Only God knows that part of us. But God doesn’t pry. He waits and listens out for that raw, honest, ugly, ‘scary prayer’. There was no-one else to hear David’s plea. He was safe to say all that he needed to by confessing his sin and wrongdoing.
God waits for us too. If this is your time to come to God then please do... just as you are.
Father God, only you know us as we really are. Hear our prayer... no matter how raw or scary. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
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PRAYER FOR TODAY