OUR FATHER CREATES IN US A PURE HEART

Psalm 51 verses 12 - 14 records some of the words that king David wrote after Nathan the prophet confronted him with the matter of his affair with Bathsheba and the coverup attempt after that. The passage reads this way;

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,  and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

King David was a man after God's own heart defined as such by the Lord himself in Acts chapter 13 verse 22;

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

So David, being a man after God's own heart, when brought face to face with his sins, shed his defences and humbled himself before God and acknowledged his transgressions and  asked for mercy for his actions. 

He pleaded with the Lord to cleanse him from his sins  and blot out his iniquity so that the Lord would remember them no more. 

He asked the Lord to create in him a pure heart and renew in him a steadfast spirit that would not easily fall into the traps of sin.

David then asked God to fill him with the joy of the Lord's salvation.

He promised the Lord that if the Lord did these things for him, he would teach transgressors the ways of the Lord so that sinners would return to God.

For the guilt of bloodshed regarding the death of Bathsheba's husband Uriah, David asked the Lord to deliver him as a saviour and the result would be that David would be able to sing of God's righteousness.

If we were to be people after God's own heart and we were caught in a sin, we would acknowledge our transgression, ask for mercy, ask to be cleansed, ask to be made steadfast and then we would press forward in pursuit of the things of the kingdom of God and rejoice in the righteousness of God.

Bless our God who can restore us from the despair of sin and renew in us a pure heart that  can rejoice in our salvation.

Amen.