Ash Wednesday      Psalm 51:Heading, 1-2      Pastor Ryan Wolfe

Realizing Our Need for Repentance

When you read the account of David and Bathsheba, don’t you just shake your head and ask, “How could King David do that?” It’s certainly a well-known story, and in those two chapters of Scripture you can argue that David broke every single commandment. It started with him shirking his kingly duties and staying home while his army fought alone. From his palace he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing. He called her to the palace and slept with her, and she got pregnant. But that wasn’t bad enough. To cover up his sin, he brought Uriah home from battle so that Uriah would sleep with his wife. When Uriah wouldn’t, eventually David ordered his military commander to put Uriah into the front line of battle and then withdraw so that he would be killed. He shamed his name. His God’s name.

David had fallen—and fallen hard! Worst of all, he was impenitent. He thought he had gotten away with everything until God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him in the account you heard earlier. It wasn’t until Nathan dropped the pastoral bomb: “You are the man” that David’s sinful heart of pride broke.

But then, in sincere sorrow, David freely confessed his sin against the Lord. In grief, he fasted and spent a week lying on the ground. He accepted the consequences of his sin. The son who resulted from David’s sin with Bathsheba would not live with David, but would be taken home to heaven. Even when the child died, David recognized God’s goodness and worshiped him. In all of this we find our theme for Lent this year. Repentance is powerful! By the work of the Spirit, our gracious God forgives sin and moves us to a life of grace.

The sinful nature in us hasn’t changed in the 3,000 years since David lived. As we walk to the cross of Calvary and the empty tomb of Easter with great David’s greater son Jesus, we will meditate on Psalm 51, written by repentant David and used so often in our worship today. This psalm points us to various aspects of repentance, the first of which we consider today: David’s words lead us to realize our need for repentance in the first place.

I don’t preach often from the Psalms, though maybe I should try to do that more. The book of Psalms is the Old Testament hymnal. The psalms were sung in the public worship life of God’s people, like our hymns are sung today. Often the psalmist would write a heading containing some information about the psalm, such as the author’s name, or a musical instruction, or the occasion for which it was written. These headings are part of the inspired Word of God – they are given in the Hebrew. In fact, in the Hebrew Bible, the verse numbering is usually off for us, because the heading is verse number 1 in the Hebrew. Those headings are God’s Word too, and they sometimes give us important insight to the rest of the Psalm.

The heading for Psalm 51 is one of those. It says, “For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.” When Nathan came before his king, he found a man who was sorry for his sin, but not sorry. David had worked feverishly to cover up his sins with lies and schemes. He wasn’t confessing his sin to God or anyone else. He wasn’t looking for forgiveness because he thought he had gotten away with it.

When people find themselves in a bad spot of their own sinful making they often think, I got myself into this, and I have to get myself out. Perhaps David was arrogant because he was king. Perhaps he feared the loss of his reputation or the people’s respect. Maybe he was concerned about Bathsheba’s reputation or Uriah’s good name. Maybe he was thinking about the disrespect Bathsheba’s unborn child would experience. Whatever his motivation, his sin had backed him into a corner. His refusal to repent led to more and more sin, including murder.

It’s an easy thing to say, but a hard lesson to learn: Sin cannot be solved with more sin. We know that lying only makes things worse; we’re taught that from early on. But as we grow and age, we still try, don’t we? We lie to avoid the consequences of our sin, even if that lie is only to ourselves. We attempt to justify sin: “I had no choice given the circumstances.” “What I’ve done isn’t as bad as what so-and-so did!” “Everyone else does it, so it must not be a big deal.” And more subtle—but just as dangerous to our faith—is the attempt to ease a guilty conscience by redefining sins as mere mistakes, lapses of judgment, or moments of weakness. The result of those lies is a spiritual complacency in which we deny the depth of God’s condemnation of anything that goes against his holy will. Sin is sin.

We may fool ourselves or the people around us, but we cannot fool God. He knows all sin and confronts it. Through Nathan, the Lord made it clear that David couldn’t justify or sugarcoat his sin. David’s impenitence had put him on the road to hell. What the Lord did with David, he does with us. Through his law, he lays bare our sinful hearts. There is no way we can be justified on our own. We are guilty. Nothing earthly can change that. No status, no wealth, no power, no prestige can undo what our sins have earned: everlasting punishment in hell.

God’s law points this out to us in no uncertain terms. It shows us how badly we need our Savior. It brings us to our knees just as Nathan’s words did to David. God’s law shows us we can’t cover up our sins. And we realize our need for repentance.

But the working of that law has a purpose. When the Spirit has forced us to realize we can’t hide our sins…when we realize our need for repentance…then we’re ready for the Spirit to do his best work. After Nathan confronted David, the Holy Spirit led David to repentance, and that wasn’t just turning from sin. It also meant turning to God for grace and mercy. In this psalm, David pleads with God for forgiveness. He doesn’t base his request for mercy on a promise to do better the next time. Instead, he relies entirely on God’s grace. He writes, “Have mercy on me O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”

The Spirit had led David to realize his need, but David was also led to know God’s supply for that need. Our God is gracious and merciful, and David knew it. David knew the promise of a Savior to Adam and Abraham. He knew that God was faithful and good. David didn’t look for hope in a promise to change, but in God’s promise that He does not change. That is repentance – a turning from our sinful way and a turning toward God’s unchanging grace.

This prayer of David in the heart of his repentance shows us where our focus will be this Lenten season. Where it is all the time really. A prayer that God would have mercy on us, not because of who we are but because of who He is. “Have mercy on us, according to your love,” we pray. “Blot out my sins, according to your great compassion.” We recognize we have a future in heaven not because we came to God but because he comes to us.

In Lent, yes, we consider the sacrifice and suffering Jesus endured for us. But behind it all, what we’re really doing is celebrating the undeserved love of God, the grace of God, that led to it. Like David, we have turned aside from God’s path. And like David, we have come back to him because we remember his mercy and love. And once again God’s grace abounds. He renews and strengthens us so that like David, we worship our Savior.

We come to this place week after week and we confess our sins before God and each other. Not to feel shame but to feel love. Because our confession is always followed by God’s absolution. His promise. His mercy. And the pastor says, as if God himself were saying it, “As a called servant of Christ and by his authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”

Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Savior, pray once again that God would continually renew your mind to realize our need for repentance. Our sins may not be the same as David’s great sins. My sins may not be the same as yours. But every sin, even one, cuts us short of our hope for heaven. But when God opens our eyes to the truth about us, he also opens them to the truth about him. You see, the more fully we know the depth of our sin, the great is our realization of the awesomeness of his grace and mercy. Fellow sinners, we are dust and to dust we will return. But God is love, and in love he has sent a Savior, called us to be his own, and promised us a home beyond the dust. God bless us with repentance and faith. Amen.