Recognising Rebellion, Receiving Renewal

Rrrrrrr...that's the letter of the day!

Psalm 51 is David's response to the story we read in 2 Samuel 12, where his son is killed by an illness sent by God.

It can easy to question why God kills David & Bathsheeba's son, (who has himself done no wrong in the context of the story), instead of killing or punishing David.
However, the important lesson here is that sin has consequences. David's sin in having Uzziah (Bathsheeba's first husband) killed has brought this upon his family, just as our own sin can sometimes lead to the damaging of our relationships with family and friends. Putting yourself first, and becoming greedy, envious, lustful etc., can lead to others distance themselves emotionally, or to fights and arguments. When we do the same to God, we can shut out his grace and forgiveness, allowing bad things to creep in to our lives.

David teaches us what true confession and repentance look like in this psalm, and how acknowledging our sin can lead to forgiveness, and new life: reading on through 2 Samuel, you will find David has another son, Solomon.

What I learn from this psalm is that anything is possible with God - but as they say up here, 'shy bairns get nowt'. David asks God for all these blessings and renewals - he earnestly pursues him - and God comes through. The challenge in our darker and harder times is to look to God as a figure who can have an active and positive role in our circumstance, not as a blame figure - a bit like how we should see a football manager.

Finally, we can look at this through our Jesus spectacles, and see that Jesus gets down and dirty with our sin, making it much easier for us to reach out to God - Isaiah 59 uses some similar language regarding sin and gives the prophecy of someone coming to 'buy us back'...but that's another story!

This week, why not try inviting God into the difficult circumstances in your life, and see what he can do?