Lament over Sin
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Emotion
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Background
Background
is a psalm written in response to sin. It is the beginning of the means to dealing with sin. It is not written to process the sin itself.
If we read this psalm as a way to process sin we lose its purpose in dealing with sin. We read the stages of grief onto the psalm.
5 Stages of Grief:
, , and 51 present a healthy theology of sin and self that takes sin seriously while at the same time acknowledging that God is greater than our sin.
Denial,
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Anger,
Depression,
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Bargaining,
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Acceptance.
The Psalmist has already accepted the truth of his sin, and the situation that he is in. The psalm is attributed to David after Bathsheba and as Nathan has revealed the Law to David and David is convicted in his heart.
So the question is: What should I do about my sin?
Request
Request
Where does the process start?
In AA’s 12 step program, working the steps starts with admission to need. My life is unmanageable and I need help. The decisions I make, the relationships I have, everything in my life needs renewal. Do we start with the people, the outlook, do we work on ourselves? The first 7 steps are all focused on the key component - I need renewal, healing forgiveness with God first, because He will be the crucial player in the rest of my life. In the same way our own inventory of our sin raises our focus from the depths of despair to the one truth, before all else and before all others - I have sinned against God. & first and foremost I need him back.
The writer’s request overwhelms the psalm. Nineteen of the forty-four lines appeal for God’s grace in one form or another (vv. 1a, 1d, 2, 6b–12, 14a, and 15a), and, in his appeal, the psalmist provides a near complete Hebrew thesaurus for the idea of forgiveness, including common and unusual images for forgiveness: have mercy (v. 1a), blot out (vv. 1d, 9b), wash me (vv. 2a, 7b), cleanse me (v. 2b), teach me (v. 6b), purge me (v. 7a), let me hear joy (v. 8), hide your face (v. 9a), create in me a clean heart (v. 10a), put in me a new and right spirit (v. 10b), don’t cast me away (v. 11a), don’t take away your holy spirit (v. 11b), restore the joy of your salvation (v. 12a) sustain in me a willing spirit (v. 12b), deliver me (v. 14a), and open my lips to declare praise (v. 15a). The psalmist asks for nothing more than God’s mercy—and he asks for mercy in every imaginable way to express his deep longing for God’s grace.
Request, Motivation,
Request, Motivation,
Despite the poet’s desperation for forgiveness, the psalm possesses a tone of quiet confidence. The poet knows that God is willing to forgive because such is God’s nature toward those with “a broken and contrite heart” (v. 17b). So although no dramatic shift from appeal to praise takes place in (as in ), the psalmist is no less sure of God’s response or his own intention to praise the Lord.
Confidence
Confidence
The restoration of God’s mercy will make the psalmist pure, righteous, whole
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Psalm 51:7
The restoration of God’s mercy and forgiveness will reconnect the Psalmist to others
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
The restoration of God’s mercy and forgiveness will establish life in the will of God. That connects the heart and acton.
Psalm
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.