Teach Me Wisdom in My Secret Heart

Meditations for Ragamuffins

September 12, 2023

Teach Me Wisdom in My Secret Heart

You desire truth in the inward being;

    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Psalm 51:6 NRSV

I think King David’s prose in Psalm 51, one of the Seven Penitential Psalms, is some of the most beautiful and profound in the entire Bible. Verses such as seven and ten have captivated souls for generations: “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow; and, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” I appreciate Psalm 51 for its honesty and self-reflection. It is a model of an authentic prayer that seeks God’s mercy, forgiveness, and healing. Psalm 51 is so very poignant because of the depth of King David’s sin, and the harm he caused through his adultery with Bathsheba. (See 2 Samuel 11-12) If God’s mercy and forgiveness are sufficient to cleanse, renew and restore David, can there be anything in my life that is beyond God’s capacity to forgive?

However, as a child of God, I must not just relish in David’s prose; I want to make his prose become the cry of my heart. I am motivated toward this goal for two reasons. First, to deny my failures creates a false image of me, one that will not attract others to the Kingdom of God. Secondly, my sins are every bit as repugnant to the holiness of God as were David’s. I stand in need of forgiveness, cleansing, renewal, and restoration every bit as much as David.

My Takeaway: “Go and sin no more” Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:11). Sadly, although she may have desired Jesus’ words to be her goal, the reality of life is that she did sin again. So did David. So do I. Forgiveness, cleansing, renewal, and restoration are not a one-off experience with God. Forgiveness, cleansing, renewal, and restoration are the natural rhythm of daily life for those seeking the life in Christ as their way of life.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.