From Wading to Washed - Psalm 51

I’ve listened to a few graduations speeches again this year, and one leader’s theme was regret. He impressed upon students embarking on a new journey to live a life without regret. He eloquently shared that a synonym of regret was repentance.

That hit my filter. Regret and repentance are not the same. Regret is to look back and wish that things had been different, that you would have made another choice, seized a different opportunity. Regret marks your memory with a sad kind of wonder—“if only I’d…”

As we explored in our last step together, repentance is not wishing things had been different, it’s a change in our god that results in a change in our behavior.

I come back to this again and again (because daily I need it and) because wading in the truth about sin, confession, forgiveness, and repentance is where I began to understand what it means to be washed clean, and it’s where God invited me to leave my past behind and walk with Him beyond it. 

Like Naaman in the Old Testament, covered in rot from the inside out, it seemed fairly simple—like dipping in a river. Confession, forgiveness, repentance. Simple, with profound effects. And as his story goes, I also wasn’t told to stay “in the river” forever examining and wallowing in what was washed off. I came out clean, new, and got to live a new life!

In this final step of exploring confession and repentance with David, I turn again to Psalm 51. It captures the authenticity of his turn away from the god of “himself and his desires” and towards God. It is David’s scripture prayer of confession and repentance.

This psalm is where I come again and again when I’ve sinned. This psalm did and continues to do a washing, healing work in me when I have fallen flat choosing myself and my desires over God and His ways for me. 

Grab a Bible and read Psalm 51. Let it be your prayer too. 

This psalm shows his radical heart shift towards God. In repenting, or changing his god, he believed and declared the following truths: 

God is the only One Who can cleanse us. (v. 1-2, 7, 9)
David had come to the end of himself. He couldn't be God, he couldn’t cover anything or fix anything. He was powerless to save himself. God was the only One Who could offer mercy, Who could blot out transgressions, Who could wash him and make him permanently clean. 

God is the only One Who is holy and right. (v. 3-4, 8)
There was no more avoiding sin with more sin or justifying his actions in his mind or blaming others. As he confessed he put God in the right place: holy and righteous upon His throne, right in what He said, right in how He judged, right to bring feelings of being crushed and laid low.

God is the only One Who can do something new here. (v. 6, 8, 10, 12, 15)
In these verses, everything David asked or desired had to come from God. The newness he needed, the restoring and transforming down into the depths of who he was could only come from God. 

God is the God Who is here. (v. 11, 16-17)
David had ignored God, set himself on the throne of his life, and quenched the Spirit. But with repentance came a single desire to be with God. David ended his prayer confident that as he offered God his broken, humbled heart, God would fully restore him and be near him. 

Through confession and repentance, David showed a change in his god, and a change in his life followed. David would have a life beyond the sin. Life beyond his confession. Life beyond the consequences. Life beyond his past. He would have a full life of following God. 

Which verses or phrases in Psalm 51 most deeply resonate with you? Personalize them and share them as your own prayer to the Lord. (To explore a bit more on this Psalm, I’ve shared about feeling forgiven along our journey in David’s story as well.) 

Draw near to Him believing He doesn’t change; He is David’s God and your God. Praise Him that what He did for David, He can do for you. Believe Him for it! 

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny