42. Have Mercy On Me (Psalm 51:1-19).

by Andy Kaser

I am not much of a guitar player. In fact I haven’t even held one for two years. But one of the first songs I remember playing (where I could actually tell it was a song) was called ‘Create In Me a Clean Heart’ by Steve Green. It became a prayer song of mine. It is composed out of Psalm 51… a pure cry for the mercy of God. How often I forget in the natural and fleshly trajectory of my life that it is God who supplies mercy. I can’t do more to earn it. I can’t try harder or will it to come. It is a pure gift of God that comes by His living, moving, and breathing within my soul.

It’s important to define mercy. Mercy is when we don’t get what we deserve. We deserve wrath, but God withholds it from us. Hear David’s cry to God for mercy. Hear his utter dependence on the mercy of God to pour kindness into his depravity. Certainly David was wrestling with his human condition. Clearly he was seeing his lack of cleanness in the midst of God’s holiness. In his brokenness he cries to the One who offers unconditional mercy.

So what do we do when we are blinded by the holiness of God? Let us join together in meditating on David’s prayer to God, and making it our own.
  1 Have mercy on me, O God,
        according to your unfailing love;
        according to your great compassion
        blot out my transgressions.
  2 Wash away all my iniquity
        and cleanse me from my sin.
  3 For I know my transgressions,
        and my sin is always before me.
  7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
        wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
  8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
        let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
  9 Hide your face from my sins
        and blot out all my iniquity.
  10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
        and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
  11 Do not cast me from your presence
        or take your Holy Spirit from me.
  12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
        and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
  13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
        and sinners will turn back to you.
  14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
        the God who saves me,
        and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
  15 O Lord, open my lips,
        and my mouth will declare your praise.
  16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
        you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
  17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit;
        a broken and contrite heart,
        O God, you will not despise.

Father hear my cry. Have mercy on me Oh God. Amen.