Read this: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+51&version=NIV
This is the ultimate confession. No excuses just I was wrong God against you alone have I sinned. It’s the kind of thing you want to hear when your kid screws up. Which is exactly the relationship our God has with us. The psalmist asks God to change Him and make Him clean. It’s a dropping of the guard and proof of submission that rarely happens. Many have problems with the word submit- especially to God. It can only come from a place of trust.
But it goes even further pointing out that original sin- even from birth is a thing. Yes we can confess to one another similar things in a similar way, but some things only God can fix.
This passage has always stood out and the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve learned about it-
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Hyssop was used here as some form of soap but the branches of hyssop were used to apply the blood on the doorframe during the passover to bring about God’s passing over the firstborn son. God’s firstborn son Jesus was given a drink from a hyssop branch on the day he died so that our sin might be passed over. Freedom and the gift of the promised land remains. And our Jesus cleans us whiter than snow through the power of baptism.
Open my lips and I will declare your praise. I don’t know about you but I’m having an off week. They happen some times. I feel like my lips are closed and I don’t want to praise. Partially because I have big decisions before me and also because I made some mistakes in regards to the budget and fundraising at my church in the past. Nothing huge, just made some funds restricted that I shouldn’t have because I said the wrong thing at our trivia night. It eats me up. And it’s hot. All of that adds to the self-loathing. It’s closed my mouth from praise. So I ask God help me to be forgiven of this. Help me to be clean. Give me the answers to these questions and make me better in the future.
Take time to do the same so that you too can be free to praise God!
Marking It Up 