A True Confession

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

 The Psalmist is not asking for transformation. He is asking for a new heart and spirit. He is asking for a thorough cleansing (wash me thoroughly, cleanse me, purge me, wash me; v.2, 7). The “heart” is a reference to the inner man, the true self (1 Peter 3:4), or as we might say it “the heart of the matter.” For from the heart flow the issues of life both good and evil (Matt. 12:34-35; 15:18-19; Luke 6:45; Mark 7:20-23). So David is being honest with himself and not trying to blame another, but recognizing that his evil desires of irresponsibility, pride, lust, and murder came from his own heart. He processed these sins as thoughts (fantasies) in his inner self. No one was to blame but David.

In facing himself, he recognized that he had actually sinned against God (v.4), for to do these wrongs he had rebelled against God and he had done them in the sight of God. We forget that Holy God is watching. He confessed so as to acknowledge that God is right in His judgment. Confession is always required because one cannot repent without acknowledging his sin.

But David sees confession as deeper than just acknowledging sins. He begins to see how evil his own heart has become. He doesn’t want just forgiveness, he wants a thorough cleansing. By what ever means necessary, David wants God to cleanse his heart (his true inner self), even if it takes “hyssop” (v.7). In reality he despises what his heart (inner self) has become. He is asking God to fully cleanse him so he has a “clean heart.” Notice that David is not asking for God to just clean him up again. He wants the kind of heart that only God can create.

However, David still looks deeper within himself and recognizes that He got into this mess because his attitude was wrong. He gave himself permission to look upon what he should not, to lust for himself what he should not, and gave himself permission to “take her” even though she was married to another man. Then to cover up his sin, he had her husband killed. In his pride, he chose to stay home when the kings went out to war, and he was walking on the roof of the castle gloating over his kingdom when he saw Bathsheba taking a bath on her roof down the street. He got into this mess because his “heart is not right in the sight of God.” (Acts 8:21). James states that when one is in this kind of disobedience, one “deceiveth his own heart” and that the “man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26).

David recognized that he would be in this kind of mess again if God did not change his attitude and “renew a right spirit within me.” Perhaps we too should pray, “Lord change my attitude. Renew a right spirit within me, before I sin because my heart is not right with God.”

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)