Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

Have you reached the end? That point in your life when you made one mistake too many, and it was a costly one? David has come to the place in his life where he can’t look forward until he stops looking back. Meaning, he needs forgiveness. So he pleads to God for restoration. It is the right prayer at the right time because it’s never the wrong time to pray to God to restore what we have utterly and completely broken. At times, our sins can be so severe that they send a spiritual shockwave through our soul. We almost can’t believe we did what we did, said what we said, or thought what we thought. 

David finds himself in a predicament where he needed to face God in all of his shame and disgrace. What would God do to him? Would he be punished? What would be the consequences? We wonder the same thing when we’ve sinned so greatly that it’s beyond all hope and imagination that God could possibly ever draw near to us again. But David didn’t let a potentially flawed perspective on the nature of God overcome his need to pray and plead for God’s loving and gracious nature to intercede. The real agony for David was thinking he might be removed from God’s presence. So he comes before the Lord in Psalm 51 and acknowledges the agony he has thrust himself into. Five important words come pouring from David’s lips: create, renew, cast, restore, and uphold. 

Only God has both the divinity and the desire to create a clean heart in David. In the same way that God created the world by the power of His divine word, He would need to declare David’s heart clean. If only God was willing. And He was. Is. Only God possesses the righteousness to renew a right spirit in David. Only God has the love and compassion to not cast away David from His presence. Only a God who embodies joy in and of Himself could restore the joy of salvation to David’s dull and aching heart. Only God possesses the kind of spirit to uphold David after sins have been committed as egregious as his were. Nobody has ever reached a beginning like this after an end such as this. What does David have here that we lack? Nothing but a heart that had been burst open to heart-wrenching repentance. 

Do you feel cast away from God’s presence? It’s easy to feel that way when your sins have created vast barriers between you and God. David shows us there’s a way back before the ball drops on the new year. 

“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).

Reflect

Is there a grievous sin that you feel has cast you away from God’s presence this year? Go to Him and confess, remembering His faithfulness and justness to forgive and enter the new year cleansed in Christ.