What do you do when you fail? We know that we complain too much, we shop too frequently, we are easily upset or even angered, we work too much and ignore our health and relationships, we all have an addiction to something. What do you do when you realize you can never live up to your own standards, let alone those of others?
As those who put perfection as our goal and standard, the daily inevitable failures remind us painfully that imperfection is actually our common lot. So what do you do when you fail to be perfect? Do you deny and rationalize? Do you engage in a personal makeover by trying harder, changing jobs, changing relationships, relocating, …?
King David knows how it feels. David’s failure includes not only the adultery with Bathsheba but sending her husband Uriah to the front lines of battle to ensure his death (2 Samuel 11 &12). After being confronted by the prophet Nathan, he wrote Psalm 51, the most well-known psalm of confession:
Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love;
according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight;
so You are right in Your verdict
and justified when You judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet You desired faithfulness even in the womb; You taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will turn back to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,
You who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, You, God, will not despise.
Why does King David, the most powerful statesman in Israel’s history and the one above everyone else in the kingdom, have to confess? Because he realized that, though people dare not to convict him his crime, God can convict his sins (v1b-4). The worst of all (maybe the best reason of all), he has an inherited and lethal malady (v5). He can do nothing to change the imperfection of sinning.
King David offers us two important lifelong virtues: honesty about our fallen condition and the spirit of contrition. Contrition is not self-hatred or wallowing in our failures, but seeing our failures as God’s invitation to come home to the Father’s embrace.
How can we have the courage to be honest with our condition and to have a spirit of contrition? Be like David, cry out to God, because David has taught us that:
(1) God will have mercy on us(v1)
(2) God will forgive us (v 2-9)
(3) God will restore us (v10-12)
(4) God will delight in us (v16-17)
So instead of chasing the unattainable god of perfection, come as His beloved children to the throne of grace of our Heavenly Father. We can be fearless because the blood of Jesus has paid all, as the author of Hebrews reminds us:
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4)
Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank You for reminding me that I do not need to be pretentious, be afraid of the exposure of my dark secrets, and wallow in the insecurity of my imperfection, because the only life-giving path is to come to Your throne of grace with a humble spirit and broken heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
David was blessed abundantly despite his many sins. Saul was rejected for his sins. Why? Saul didn't admit any wrongdoing when God confronted him with his sins. He made a lot of excuses and even blamed others. David responded differently to God by acknowledging his sins and asking God for forgiveness. May we say like David "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, You, God, will not despise."
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