Forgive Us Our Debts

The Prayer of Prayers PART VI
Rev Abe Cho (Keller mp3)
02 November 2014

Psalm 51: 1-19
1Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may justified in your words
and blameless in your judgement.
5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out by iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken a contrite heart, O God you will not despise.
18Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

How do we come out singing after looking at our darkeness?

BLINDNESS
--v.5 Original sin--This was the context in which we exist.
--King David's schemes towards Bathsheeba.
--David's crime of murder was in character.
--Capacity for cruelty from self absorption and self centeredness can lead to murder
--We are as blind as the upright King David
--God still pursues us in our blind spots.
--2 Samuel - If all this was too little, I would have given you more.
--Let us not be in denial of our capacity for sin.

AWAKENING
--Nathan was willing to tell him the truth.
--David owns the sin in v.1-3
--No blame shifting, but a full responsibility of our sins.
--Blame shifting minimizes or relativises the sin
--Repentance begins when blame shifting ends
--DEEP HEART RENUNCIATION
--My sin against God was so foundational, that others wouldn't have happened.
--Sin happens when we put something in place of God
--Being sorry for the consequences or guilt of sin, not the sin itself.
--All our worldly desires come from forgetting God
--Owns the magnitude of the sin in v.4 as he knows all sins are against God
--Do we trust that God want's good things for us?  If we did, we would obey God.
--Deliver us from myself.

TRANSFORMATION
--v7 + v12 (Restore in me the joy of your salvation)
--Sensing our unworthiness but still the confidence that we belong.
--God is still our only hope.
--Turn back to the God we rejected.
--David asks that God would look away from his sins, but not from him. (v.9+v.11)
--v.10 Create in me a clean heart
--Results of forgiveness leads to a generous and joyful life.