Psalm 51:1-2, 8-10
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
March 5-2025 – Ash Wednesday
Today, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent. Lent is that spiritual season of 40 days occurring over the seven weeks leading to Easter, excluding the Sundays in those weeks. Lent constitutes the period of preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.
Just as Jesus initiated His season of earthly ministry with a call to hear the truth of the gospel and to repent and believe, Ash Wednesday initiates the season of Lent with a call to face the truth about ourselves and to repent and believe.
To repent is to turn away from what displeases God and turn to what pleases Him. By that turnaround – by that reorientation of our thinking, feeling and acting – we clean out our souls to receive in free flow God’s renewal of us to make us more faithful and thus happier people.
David wrote seven psalms of repentance. Psalm 51 is the middle one and the greatest one. David wrote it after he finally got honest with himself and owned up to a reality he’d long suppressed: that he – said to be a man after God’s own heart – had committed adultery with a married woman and conspired in the murder of her husband. It broke David’s pride, and his heart, when he at last acknowledged that he had broken several of God’s Ten Commandments.
Appalled at himself and his betrayal of the God he loved, David repents with all his soul. Yet, even as he confesses his egregious sinfulness, he professes his faith in the possibility of pardon and renewal. He believes that, though he has no right to God’s care and concern, God just might, out of His “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy”, forgive him and restore him.
Despite his keen awareness of his unworthiness to ask anything of God, David here begs God to “blot out my transgressions” as a good judge might expunge the record of a reformed criminal, and begs God to “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity” as a determined launderer might scrub out the stains in a garment.
Because David repents and believes at one and the same time, he dares to hope to be better off in the end than before he behaved so deplorably!
David asks God to “create in me a clean heart” and “put a new and right spirit within me”. He’s hoping that God will transform him at his core and replace the darkness there with an increased dedication to pursue righteousness and holiness.
David also asks God not to “cast me away from your presence” or “take your Holy Spirit from me”. He’s hoping that God will bridge the chasm of their alienation and reestablish, if not deepen, the closeness between the two of them, and that the Spirit will dwell with him forever to propel him onward and upward into genuine godliness.
David further asks God to “restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.” David is hoping that God will develop both his elation in his Redeemer and his determination to obey Him always.
As David repents and believes, he dreams of emerging out of his most shameful and cringe-worthy moment renewed for greater faithfulness and happiness in God.
I pray that, this Lent, all of us would repent and believe like David, and like him experience renewal in God’s grace. I pray that, as we for Lent give up some niceties to build up our capacity for self-discipline, we too will rise up with David-like daring hope and reach up for God’s help to become better people with brighter hearts.
Let me, to that end, suggest three simple practices to engage in over these coming forty days:
First, spend a little more time with God at the start of each day. After drinking some coffee or doing whatever you need to do to join the human race again, read at least a snippet of scripture and give a moment or two to prayerfully reflect on the challenges and opportunities of the day ahead. You’ll then establish a right orientation for the whole day, set a good trajectory for it and give a positive feel to it. I bet, as a result, you’ll more deeply know and relish God’s favor, at least most days.
Second, throughout each day look for chances to serve somebody. You don’t have to do anything dramatic or impressive. Just give someone a warm smile or a listening ear, run an errand for someone overwhelmed by their workload, or donate some money or volunteer time to bless the world and its people. I bet, as a result, you’ll more deeply sense God’s kindness and love for you, at least most days.
Third, at the end of each day, review its happenings to recall, at a minimum, a trio of things for which to give thanks. Express to God your gratitude for someone who was good to you, for the pleasure you had by being good to someone else, or for the gift of making progress on some good project. I bet, as a result, you’ll more deeply discover how hard it is to be grumpy when you’re grateful and how just being appreciative lifts your spirits, at least most days.
As we keep repenting of the sins we will – alas! – keep committing, but keep believing in the grace God will keep giving – praise Him! – we will be renewed in the joy of God’s salvation and readied to rejoice, 46 days from now, in the great celebration of Jesus’ glorious resurrection!
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