Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

​O God, as we approach Holy Week, open to us the gates of righteousness, that we may enter into the holy space of your mercy and love.  We bring only ourselves, and the desire to truly know what it means to live a thankful life.  We follow One who was rejected by the world, but has become the way to life with you, life for others.  As we follow him in these final days, prepare our hearts to receive the wonder of your love so full that it bursts the tombs of hate and fear.  Amen.

Psalm 51:1-12

King David was a big time sinner.  Taken by Bathsheba’s beauty, he wanted her for himself, so he had her husband Uriah sent to the front lines of battle where he would likely be killed.  He was, and David took Bathsheba as his own.  To Nathan, the house prophet, it was pretty clear what happened here.  He told David a story that sent David into a righteous rage at the character in the story who took advantage of a vulnerable person.  Nathan confronted David with his own sin:  “You are the man!”  He had David dead to rights.  There were no more excuses or rationalizations for what he had done.  It’s thought that this Psalm may be connected to that event.  If not, it certainly applies.

Now David had to deal with himself.  For starters, there was nothing he could do but pray and ask for mercy:  Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love.  It comes with an admission that God has every right not to do so:  I know my transgressions, and my sin is every before me . . . thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.   From there David’s prayer poured forth.  He needed an entire makeover – a clean heart, and a new and right spirit.  All of this was required if he was to be restored to the joy of thy salvation.

​Repentance is a lot more than feeling sorry for getting caught at something.  It’s about a cleansing within, and a change of direction without.  Bringing ourselves to the seat of mercy requires honesty on our part, and we can count on the steadfast love of God to meet us there.  Then the work of restoration begins, but with the burden of guilt and shame lifted, it is joyful work. 

​Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
 
The Psalmist declares that there is a constancy and faithfulness in God’s relationship to us.  He calls it God’s “steadfast love.”  It is a love that heals and saves us from destruction.  It is always there for us.  Though God’s love toward us is steadfast, it strikes me that my attention is not so constant.  Do we notice the “wonderful works” of God for what they are?  What about the people God has given us to love?  What about those whose work provides for our daily needs and pleasures?  What about the air we breathe, the water we drink, the ground we walk on?
 
How many of our troubles stem from our lack of attention to the love in which we are held, our failure to recognize the God who always recognizes us?  If we focused less on our “troubles” and more on the One who saves and delivers us from trouble, we’d find ourselves more thankful and more joyful, more eager to “tell of his deeds with songs of joy.”   

Psalm 19 is one of the best known and beloved of the Psalms.  It is preserved in one of the musical world’s great choral anthems, Haydn’s “The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God.”  The Psalm has a twist on how we ordinarily think of creation inspiring in us our belief in God.  It is not that the writer of the Psalm sees something in nature, but that all of creation is preaching to us:  the heavens are telling God’s praise and are doing so everywhere in all creation, and in every kind of language there is on earth.  The writer of the Psalm wants to be connected to the loving power behind and within the height and breadth of all that is, and at the depths of the most secret of human thoughts.  He is connected to a deeper source of truth and righteousness than he could possibly live out by his own moral and ethical strength.  He is connected to the Lord, who is Rock and Redeemer of all, and maker of the law which keeps the entire universe running.  So the law is to be desired more than “much fine gold.”

May this awesome God touch your heart this day.  May you find your way in concert with heaven’s song.  May your path be lightened and your spirits lifted by the word of freedom and joy that lay beneath and soars above every other word.