Dear Faith Family,
Did you know that the early church used the days leading to Easter Sunday (what we now call Lent) as a time for reconciliation between one another? Our faith lineage used these days we are in right now, not only to turn and believe the good news of God with us and for us but also as an ideal time to restore relationships broken by everyday and extraordinary offenses. In fact, this vision for a whole with God and with others held the center of the pre-Easter practices. That may be why Psalm 51 is at the center of our Psalms of Lent.
Psalm 51 is a prayer of the offender. It is a prayer of one who, intentionally or not, knowingly or not, out of immaturity, ignorance, or evil, is the origin of another's disorientation. Truth be told, we have all been (perhaps even today, are) this person. And so we need this psalm to help us see our offense in light of God's heart for wholeness and, at the same time, recognize God's pursuit of our heart.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
(Psalm 51:6)
Only then will our efforts at restoration actually be acceptable and fruitful.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Psalm 51:17)
Yet, as we discussed on Sunday, Psalm 51 is not just a prayer of the offender; it is also a prayer for the offender.
While it is undeniable that we have been (are) offenders, it is also undeniably true that we have been (are) painfully disoriented by the offensive actions and attitudes of others. We have, every one of us, suffered at the hands of those to whom our life has some relation--whether we be to them an intimate connection, a cog in the machine, or something in between. Yet it is those who maliciously or mindlessly seem opposed to our life, whose actions and attitudes seem to fight against our good, that Jesus implores us to do the seemingly impossible:
I say to you, Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you...
(Matthew 5:44)
Psalm 51 is our prayer for those who offend us. The truth is, as the psalm trains us to see, only a heart that God is after, that is caught, cleansed, and refashioned by him, can participate in making whole what has been broken. And isn't that what we are after? The offender's acknowledgment of wrong and participation in making things right. Isn't that what we feel we need from those who make life difficult for us? Well then, we should join in God's pursuit of those who are the source of our disorientation. Praying in step with Psalm 51 that they, like us when we are the offenders, would be overwhelmed by their offense and by God's pursuit of their heart...
Be gracious to me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions...you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
(Psalm 51:1, 6)
...and by God in you, the offended.
Against you, you [in those I've wronged],
have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
(Psalm 51:4a)
So who are you this week? Are you an offender who needs to see your offense in light of God's heart for you and for those you've disoriented? Or are you one who is disoriented by another's offense, who needs to join God's pursuit of wholeness through His pursuit of the offender's heart? Wherever you are, join me in praying Psalm 51 as we give in to being caught by the goodness and mercy that chase after us.
Love you, faith family! God bless.