Chapter Five, Part Three
Psalm 51:6-8 NKJV
James 1:5 NKJV
2 Samuel 11:2-17 and 2 Samuel 12:1-14 NKJV
Hebrews 8:12 NKJV
The Art of Forgiveness
Forgiving Series
Moving forward after we’ve been forgiven can be difficult for some of us. It’s been my experience that there are people who tend to carry guilt and shame with them. Some of that can come from how we are raised.
For example, if a child has done something they aren’t supposed to do and they are disciplined, sometimes they don’t seem to be receiving what their parent said. If the parent thinks they don’t care or aren’t listening, the parent can get frustrated and reiterate the point. A pattern similar to that can have lasting results that show up in adulthood.
That doesn’t mean our parents messed up. It means life is complex. Parenting is complex, and no one is perfect. Some of us carry guilt and shame to the max while others need to be reminded when they do something that goes against what God would have us do.
The truth is for many reasons, we sometimes struggle with receiving our forgiveness.
The good news, actually the best news is that God does not ever want us to ever carry feelings of guilt and shame with us.
In Psalm 51:6-8 we read:
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.”
Once we take our true self to God and seek God’s forgiveness, we receive absolute absolution from God. It’s so absolute that we carry it IN us.
Spending time with God and accepting His forgiveness begins the process of our receiving God’s wisdom related to what happened.
James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
We HAVE the promise from God that when we ask for wisdom, God WILL give it.
A blanket promise like wisdom mentioned in Psalm 51 and James 1:5 means the request will receive a positive result.
Also, in Psalm 51:7 the psalmist asks God to purge or cleanse him/her with hyssop. Hyssop was a cleansing agent in the Old Testament. David was specifically asking God to cleanse him of everything he had done.
David was so sure that God would cleanse him that he saw himself as being “whiter than snow”. David goes on to say he WILL be filled with joy and gladness even IN the bones God had broken because of his sin.
That Psalm marked an important moment in David’s life. It was so important that we need to look at the circumstances relating to why David wrote Psalm 51.
They were dire.
In 2 Samuel 11:2-5 we learn, “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
We read in 2 Samuel 11:6-13 that David sought to cover his sin by calling Bathsheba’s husband Uriah home from the battle so he would lay with her and he would think the child was his. BUT even though Uriah left the battlefield he would not go to his wife (for honorable reasons).
So, King David (who had many wives) escalated his efforts to conceal his sin. In 2 Samuel 11:14-17, King David gave orders, “In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.”
David sinned and to cover up his sin he ordered Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband to be placed in battle so he would die.
And David took Bathsheba as his wife.
And God forgave David.
David did reap what he had sown. In 2 Samuel 12:1-13 God sent Nathan to confront King David of his sin. In 2 Samuel 12:13 Nathan told David he was forgiven but as a result of his sin in 2 Samuel 12:14, the child would die.
Psalm 51:6-8 was David’s account of his forgiveness and cleansing from God.
David grieved terribly for the son he lost (2 Samuel 12:15-18) and God forgave David and cleansed him completely.
Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
And God remembered it no more.
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Let God Cleanse You
Spend time with God and ask God to cleanse you. Ask God to make you whiter than snow.
And be grateful.
In God, Deborah
acrazyjourney.com
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