Generous in love - God, give grace! Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record.Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down.
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and large, Including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!
When we sin, we are trying to do something for ourselves and by ourselves. We are separating ourselves from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Too often we use the the Holy Spirit--Christ's Spirit--not as our active connection to the Trinity, but as a personal life coach, an adviser we consult when we have an issue. This psalm speaks of how undone we are apart from God. Notice the writer doesn't ask God to accept his penance. Instead, the writer asks God to cleanse him; the psalmist is acknowledging that no amount of effort on his part can repair the sinner and reconstruct the relationship.It is through God's grace that Christ died for us, and through God's grace that he rose again. And it is by God's grace that we have a life-giving connection to our creator through the Holy Spirit. Let us humbly submit ourselves in each moment to the only person who can ably direct us, teach us, and care for us.
