Repentance Isn't PR - Psalm 51

Today is super Sunday, and as a football fan, it’s one of the days each year that stands out. Ironically, one of the Super Bowls that I most remember was one that I didn’t even get to watch. It was 2004, and I was working at Winn Dixie in Jacksonville at the time, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s a slow night because everyone fortunate enough to not be running a register at WD is watching the Super Bowl. So, we’re all kind of leaned up against the registers and talking when these guys come in loud and laughing and talking about the half-time show. And, you’ll remember that was the time when the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” became a thing because of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s mishap.

In the aftermath, everyone was looking for someone to blame. Some wondered if it had even been intentional. And, so everyone’s PR teams went into high gear with Janet Jackson trying to seek forgiveness to save her career, and Justin Timberlake just kind of went silent. But, when he received a Grammy that year, he took the opportunity to apologize. And, that’s when he said it: “I’m sorry if you were offended.” That’s the worst, isn’t it? Nothing feels more sleezy than a non apology, than some celebrity mindlessly reading a statement that someone else obviously wrote and they obviously don’t mean. And, nothing hurts worse than when someone we love deeply wounds us and then follows it up with an obviously insincere apology.

God’s Word

This morning, I want us to ask: what’s the difference between true and false repentance? What’s the difference between a non apology that you have to say and a truly meaningful confession? You’ll remember that we’re with David at the lowest point in his life. He’s raped a woman, and she became pregnant. He tried to coverup with a series of lies that ultimately led to murder. He was confronted by God himself through his prophet, and now he’s lost his son as a result.

Psalm 51 is powerful because it gives us insight into what David feeling, thinking, and praying during this time. You can imagine that these words were likely forged in the tears that he prayed at his dying son’s bedside. And, they help us to see the nature of true repentance (headline) so that we can ensure we aren’t making non apologies to God and to those we wound.

True repentance doesn’t “manipulate.”

David owns his sin.

Psalm 51:1-3 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

My degree is in public relations, and the major thrust of public relations is maintaining control of your image. That’s why PR so often gets called spin. Why do corporations do charity work? They want their image to be philanthropic, not greedy. Why do companies have friendly faces with believable voices release bad news statements? They want to be people that you sympathize with, not a faceless corporation you blame. And, why did David seek to cover up his sin? Why do you seek to cover up yours? You want to control your image. You want to manipulate the circumstances so that others think more highly of you than they ought. We all have a tendency to become the PR reps of our own lives. And, if we’re not careful, repentance can just become a PR stunt. We’re sorry that we got caught, but now we need to save face, we need to scramble into crisis management to minimize the damage to our image. So, we say the right things and look the right way and cry the right tears to show adequate remorse so that our image is preserved.

But, of course, this isn’t repentance. Repentance isn’t PR. Repentance isn’t damage control. Repentance is personal ownership of your sin and the destruction that it’s caused. That’s what we see here in David. Notice that five times in the first three sentences he uses the phrase “MY sin...” In fact, David uses all three words for sin found in the OT to confess his sin: “transgressions, iniquity, and sin”. It’s as if he’s saying, I’ve sinned in every way a person can sin. There’s no blame-shifting. There’s no playing of the victim card. There’s no face-saving. That is, there’s no PR. It’s just the ownership of what he did. Are you owning your sin or shifting blame? You will not find freedom from your sin until you take ownership of your sin.

David sees his sin as it really is.

Psalm 51:3-4 “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.”

You’ll remember in his message to Joab after Uriah’s death that David had sought to minimize his sin. He said, “People die in battle. What difference does it make if it is Uriah or someone else?” But now, we see the exact opposite in David. We see the fruit of repentance. He’s no longer oblivious to his sin. “(His) sin is before (him).” He’s see it in HD. In other words, he can’t unsee it. He can’t stop seeing it. It’s haunting him. He feels how big it is. And, that’s what culminates in verse 4 when he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” Does he mean he hasn’t sinned against Bathsheba or Uriah or his dead son? No, David is not diminishing his sin; he’s heightening his sin. He’s not allowing himself to minimize his sin. This isn’t a mishap or a booboo. This isn’t a mistake or a bad day. This is evil done to God, and it deserves hell. God’s judgement against him is blameless. That is, David is refusing to make his sin look smaller so that he looks better. Are you trying to spin your sin so that it doesn’t look and sound so bad? “I may have a problem with my temper, but I get up early and work hard. Who wouldn’t?” “I may be drinking a little too much, but I’m not hurting anyone.” You cannot deal with a sin as seriously as you must until you see your sin as severely as it is.

David understands who he really is.

Psalm 51:5-6 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

David’s comes to the ultimate realization, and it’s a devastating one. When he moved past the spin and past the image PR, he realizes that he did what he did because he is who he is. He did what he did because of what’s in his heart. How could he shift the blame? This is who he’s been since his birth. That’s the point of verse 5. He was born a sinner. The NIV captures the sense well: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” David wasn’t a good guy who had a bad day. David is a sinner by nature who showed just how capable of evil he really is. Satan’s PR teams have been working over time to prove to you how good you are, and it’s so that you won’t realize your need from God. If I’m just a good person who had a bad day, then I just need to wake up and be good tomorrow. But, that doesn’t work if the problem is my very nature, my very identity, my very heart. And, that’s why Paul says in Romans 3: “No one is is righteous, no not one.” Don’t buy the hype. You need more than a better plan for tomorrow. You need more than a new book to read. You need the intervention of God who “teach (you) wisdom in your secret heart.”

Is your repentance true? Is it for manipulation or transformation? Is it so that you can save face, or is it because you’re on your face? Is it PR, or is it the ownership of what you’ve done, how bad it is, and who you really are?

True repentance “hopes” in “only” God.

Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”

In David, we’re able to see the two reflexes of an encounter with sin. The unrepentant try to cover-up. Their reflex is to save face so that they might live another day. Their concern is with their image, not with their holiness. But, for the repentant, their reflex is full-throated, unabashed, no-holds-barred confession of their sin to God and to their brothers/sisters (Nathan). So, a mark of true repentance is a heart that confesses and refuses to conceal the sin. But, why does David here confess his sins to God? David is confident in the character of God. Because of God’s “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy.” It’s who He is. That is, David banked all of his hope on God and not the false hopes that would tempt him:

He trusted God’s rehabilitation, not self-medication.

Psalm 51:8 “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.”

David doesn’t sugarcoat the pain that he’s experienced at the hand of God’s discipline. It had been crushing to watch his son die and know he’s responsible. And so, his response to the pain he’s experienced faces the same question that we face: will we try to deal with it ourselves, or will we trust in God to heal us? You see, the problem with self-medication is that it may make you feel better faster, but it can only deal with the symptoms. You can mask the pain of a broken leg, but you can’t put it back together again. Only God can do that. Imagine a broken bone in David’s day. There’s no x-rays or surgeries or pins to put in. Your fate was in God’s hands. You might heal perfectly and live a normal life, or you might be mangled and have to beg for food. That’s what David is doing here: he’s placing his fate in God’s hands. That’s what repentance does. True repentance relinquishes the thought that you can make it better. Netflix, wine, pornography, overworking are all just masks; they’re not healers. Have you placed your fate in God’s hands?

He trusted God’s restoration, not making amends.

Psalm 51:9 “Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

One of the ways you can know that David’s response is supernatural and not natural is that he doesn’t seek to make amends first. His first reaction is not, “How can I undo this? How can I make this right?” He realizes that he can’t. His first reaction is to ask God to remove his shame (“hide your face”) and remove his guilt (“blot out all my iniquities”). There’s nothing that David could have done to ease his guilt and shame, is there? He could’ve bought Bathsheba a palace and a Lexus and a white horse, but the guilt and shame would’ve still been there. God has to deal with that. Nothing you’re doing is going to make up for what you’ve done. It’s not going to soothe your soul. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to help someone you’ve hurt. It means that you shouldn’t expect it to heal your soul. Repentance trusts God’s restoration alone.

He trusted God’s regeneration, not self-improvement.

Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

David’s prayer was from the beginning for the mercy of God. And, we should see everything else he says as his understanding of what God’s mercy would mean. It helps us to understand what God’s mercy looks like. God’s mercy is not some heavenly reality that has no earthly impact. God’s mercy changes everything. God’s mercy rehabs the broken and restores the fallen and even here regenerates the wicked. Think of how David words verse 10. “CREATE in me a clean heart...” It’s the same word from Genesis 1, and it’s a word that only has God as subject throughout the entire OT. He’s literally saying, “God, use the very same power through which you created the entire universe to create in me a new heart.” This isn’t a renovation of something old; this is the regeneration of something new. That helps us to understand mercy. Mercy is when the power of God which ought to destroy you is used by God to deliver you instead. And, that mercy, that power is offered to us through repentance.

Bray’s story: I had a student who had been sexually active and his girlfriend became pregnant. During that time, he came to faith in Jesus and repented of his sins. His lifestyle changed, and it was quite an adjustment for him. He gave me permission to ask him about it and to hold him accountable. One day, a year or so after his conversion, I asked him about it, and he said something that’s always stuck with me. He said, “I don’t think or feel like I used to. A lot has changed over the last year, and God is restoring my purity.” I’ve never thought of it like that, but that’s exactly what He does.

Perhaps, you’ve never confessed your sins because you’ve never trusted anyone enough. Can I ask you think morning: will you trust Jesus? Will you confess your sins to him? If you confess your sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins.

True repentance “returns home”.

David’s prayer is the opposite of telling God to butt out. It’s a desperate plea for the interference of God. One of the markers of true repentance is that you don’t want God to leave you alone, you don’t want him to let you be content and comfortable in your sin. In fact, what we’re seeing in David is not a desire to enjoy his sin, but rather a desire to once again enjoy his friendship with God. He’s longing again for fellowship and intimacy with God. David is the prodigal son longing here to go back home with his Father. This is powerfully illustrated in a couple of pictures.

A Leper Made Clean

Psalm 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Leviticus 14:7-9 “And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent seven days. And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.”

The first picture that I want you to see is in verse 7. Why does he say to purge/clean/wash him with hyssop? He’s taking our minds to Leviticus 14 and how the community was to treat a leper. A leper was excluded from the community of faith. They were not able to participate in worship. They could not be touched, and if they were touched than the person who was touched was then unclean as well. They had to yell as they came into to a gathering of people, “Unclean! Unclean!” But, God had made a provision for them to rejoin the fellowship of his people if they were healed. A bird would be killed, and it’s blood would cover the spongy end of the hyssop plant, and then it would be slung over the person. And, by being covered by the blood they were then made ritually clean. This is how David sees his situation. He wants to be restored to fellowship with God. His sin has made him unclean, but he believes that God can make him clean again. David is pleading, “Cover me by the blood that I might be clean again!” He’s asking God for the atonement of his sins. He can’t atone himself; God has to provide. And, that’s what you need. You need atonement for your sins, but you can’t atone for them. But, the blood of Jesus has been shed so that you might be covered and declared clean. Jesus’ blood washes you whiter than snow — removing the penalty of sin, the residue of sin, even the memory of sin — so that you can enjoy the fellowship of God.

A Sinner Comes Home

Psalm 51:11-12 “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

But, there’s another picture that David paints for us which shows his desire to be reunited with God. You know as David writes this that Saul’s fate is burned brightly into his mind. He saw Saul’s false repentance, and he witnessed what happens when God removes his Spirit and favor from a man. And so, what he wants more than anything is the nearness of God. I want you to think about what David is saying here in light of what he says in so many other psalms. Psalm after Psalm after Psalm, David writes about God as his stronghold, his refuge, his rock, and his hiding place. Think of Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This has been David’s experience. God used to keep David from trembling, but not it’s before God that David trembles. What happened?

For David to sin, he had to leave his refuge. It’s impossible to rest in God while you live in sin. You have to leave behind his fellowship and peace to live in sin. You can’t walk into the world without walking away from the Lord. And now, David has felt the vulnerability of his predicament. He longs for when he was upheld by the Lord. He longs for the refuge of the Lord.

I love to camp, most of y’all know that about me. And, I’ve spent the night out in the woods in some pretty terrible storms over the years. You know, you don’t realize how safe you feel at home until you realize how vulnerable you are beneath a tarp. If you’ve ever had lightning striking and trees falling around you while you’re hiding under a tarp, you know what’s it’s like to miss being at home. You see, that’s what David had done. He’d left the fortress of God for a tarp in the world, and now, he realized how vulnerable he was. David wanted to go home. That’s what repentance looks like. It’s leaving the world to return home to God. You can’t run into the world without abandoning God, and you can’t run to God without abandoning the world. What do you want? Do you want the fortress or a tarp? You can’t have both. Which way are you running right now?

True repentance “changes lives.”

Psalm 51:13-19 “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. 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.”

And, that’s why this Psalm lands the way that it does. It wants to be certain that you recognize that one of the surest marks of true repentance is the changing of lives. The last seven verses of Psalm 51 represents a lot of changed lives. David’s life is changed. His praise has gone silent, but now he sings again. He no longer is offering mere sacrifices and going through the motions. Now, he offers his sacrifices from a broken and contrite heart. David is a humbled man, and he’s intent on bringing glory to God. His life has changed, and life change is necessary for it to be called repentance.

But, it’s not just David’s life that had changed. God has used David to change the lives of others. David’s encounter with mercy had made him a man of mercy. He could help other sinners find mercy, too. Remember that David is the judge of Israel, and he’d earlier been ready to throw the book at the offenders. Now, he says, “I will TEACH the transgressors your ways.” He was going to help other people experience the change that he’d found. If you receive mercy, it’s your responsibility to share mercy.

But, it goes even further yet. It changes life for all of Israel. Notice verses 18-19. As the king goes, so goes the nation. And David points out that the restoration of the king leads to the revival of the nation. And, that’s where I want to land this morning. As the father goes, so goes the family. As the parents go, so go the kids. As the elders and deacons go, so goes the church. Your repentance could change a lot of lives. Your repentance could change the lives of your children and your wife. Your repentance could change your church forever. Come to the Lord and ask for mercy.

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