A Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
In my Bible, under Psalm 51, there is a subtitle: “Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
If you think about his life—if anyone would know about the need for cleansing and forgiveness, David would. He was a lowly shepherd, and God raised him up to be the most beloved king Israel ever had. At the height of his popularity and success, he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had her husband Uriah killed. David tried to cover it up—to hide it. But he learned pretty quickly—as we all do—that our sins have a way of catching up to us.
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin… Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a right spirit within me.”
It is a beautiful prayer, and people of faith have been praying it for thousands of years.
It’s interesting that a lot of the Psalms are prayers for people who are in trouble and asking for help—and many of them say, “Change my situation, God, so that I may praise you.” I’m in trouble. Or, “God, change the people around me, change what they are doing.” But this Psalm doesn’t say, “Change my situation,” or, “Change other people.” No. David prays, “Change me… Change me.”
When God says that David is a man after his own heart, I have to believe this is part of it. He trusts God enough to admit when he’s wrong—he doesn’t blame other people, he doesn’t blame his situation. No. He prays, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you have I sinned.”
There is something freeing about being able to come clean, to open our hearts and our lives before God. It’s often the first step toward healing in relationships. And it is the first step toward spiritual growth.
Let us pray. Gracious God, we are not perfect. We’ve made mistakes. We don’t have it all together. And so we need you. We need you to help us let go and start over differently. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your forgiveness. We thank you for your love; through Jesus Christ. Amen.