St. Mark's Episcopal; Church
Ash Wednesday
February 21, 2007
“Create in me a clean heart O God.”
During the season of Lent this year, we are going to be considering the Psalms. We read from them every Sunday, but I have generally seen them more like our hymns—an addition to the service, but not necessarily one of the more important elements. Yet the Psalms—the hymnal of the Old Testament—contain so many of our most famous sayings, and we often turn to them in times of trouble, joy or sorrow.
Today I want to consider Psalm 51—which is appointed to be read every Ash Wednesday. Do you know the story behind this Psalm? In most Bibles this Psalm is attributed to David, the most famous of all the Hebrew Kings. Although it may have been written about him by a later author, we can clearly see the story emerge behind the words. Do you remember the story about David and the beautiful Bathsheba?
It is a story that is very much like our modern soap operas or romantic movies. It seems that one day David was on the porch of his palace, high above the city of Jerusalem. David had established Jerusalem as his capital and it was a new, modern bustling metropolis. It may have been evening, and below him on the rooftops many folks were taking advantage of the cool evening breeze, enjoying their supper or getting ready for bed. David spots a beautiful woman washing off the sweat of the day. He falls in love. In the coming days he sends his servants secretly to find out who she is. She is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, the Hittite, a general in David’s army. That she is another man’s wife does not deter David, who is determined to have her. She is brought to the palace and they begin an affair. After some time, Bathsheba is pregnant, and here the dilemma heats up. David, determined to cover his sin, sends word to Uriah to come home for a furlough, hoping that during that time he will have relations with his wife and thus cover the origin of the pregnancy. Uriah, however, is an honorable man. If his soldiers in the field cannot come home to their wives, neither can he, and although he obeys the king and returns to Jerusalem, he does not spend the night with his wife. David then determines that Uriah must be eliminated. He sends orders that the next time the army goes to battle they are to send Uriah into the thick of the fight, then abandon him to be killed by the enemy. David’s plot works this time, and Uriah is killed. David takes Bathsheba into his palace as another wife. But her child, born months later, dies. It seems that this whole episode might have continued hidden, were it not for Nathan, a prophet of Israel, who shows up at David’s court. Nathan tells a parable about a rich man who wanted to give a feast and so took the only lamb of a poor man who was a servant. David, indignant about this injustice in his kingdom vows revenge upon the rich man, only to be unmasked as Nathan stands, points his finger at David and proclaims “You are the man!”
Into this story, strangely contemporary, coalesce so many of the common sins that we know only too well: lying, greed, lust, envy, stealing, pride. Psalm 51 is the outpouring of a human heart that finds itself lost in a wasteland, far from home. Although David has sinned against many, he knows that ultimately all sin is against God, breaking the “Imago Dei,” the image of God in which all humans were fashioned. In contrast to many Psalms that cry out to God to take vengeance upon enemies, this is an intensely personal cry. No exterior blame is laid as the author takes full responsibility. There is a realization that not a day has gone by that a sin has not been committed.
However, the Psalmist does not wallow in self-pity. Through this Psalm breathes a hope and a trust that God is the one who can restore, deliver, renew and sustain. Many times these aspects of healing are not within our power, and I believe it is dangerous for any earthly authority to claim them. We know that there are many self-help systems, books and people in our world who claim that by following their recipe, we can attain peace of mind and fullness of life. But the recipe usually comes with a great cost—often financial, but more profoundly spiritual, as we invest time and attention in ourselves. I have a book on wellness, and in the front it says that if health is the goal, then don’t read the book. Wellness, health and peace come when we have discovered our own limitations and acknowledged our dependence on God alone for life.
As we look forward to these forty days of Lent, I invite you to read this Psalm as a part of your discipline. Read it until it becomes a part of you. Read it until it is memorized. Know that real human beings wrote these words and that both the sin and promise are for each of us. Sacrifice your broken heart for God, and, as the Psalmist wrote, God will not despise. And, strangely enough, you will not despise yourself either, for the joy of God’s salvation will be yours!