Listen

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love! Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion! Wash me completely clean of my guilt; purify me from my sin! Because I know my wrongdoings, my sin is always right in front of me.

Psalm 51:1-3

Think

This week marks the beginning of Lent, a season remembering the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness enduring temptation by Satan. It is a season of sacrifice and reflection, beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending Easter Sunday.

This psalm is a reminder of God’s love in the face of our own temptation and sinfulness. We are imperfect people. We make mistakes. We fall short of living a life like Jesus did. And the psalmist leans into it by asking God to clean the guilt away. The psalmist is basically saying, “God, we both know I got stuff to deal with. I cannot not see it, and it leaves me feeling guilty. I need you.”

We need God’s forgiveness, more than God needs us to ask for it. A cycle of guilt and shame leads to dark places. God’s forgiveness brings us back from those edges of despair, reminding us that God created humanity, calling us “very good.” Let’s be honest with God and ourselves about our imperfection and let God show us “very good” again.

Brian Foreman

Pray

God, I seek your mercy and compassion, claiming the promise just as the psalmist did, that you will wash clean my guilt and purify me from my sin.

I need you to make me whole and remind me that you created me, calling me “very good.”

Amen.

Go

O God, who does not condemn us to death as a sinner
but who wants for us to be whole,
sense our repentance, forgive our sins,
and bring us back to the fullness of life with you. Amen.