For those who want a change from the Gospel

Passion Sunday/Lent 5 – Psalm 51:1-13

Psalm 51 is one of the most famous, and one of the most powerful, in the Psalter. It is one of a group of seven penitential Psalms, which form a subdivision of the Lament Psalms, in which the lament is not about some affliction threatening from the outside, but rather about an internal sense of sin. It is not surprising that the Psalm became attached to the archetypal sin and guilt of David coveting, stealing and committing adultery with Bathsheba, and subsequently murdering her husband, which is quite a few commandments in one go. However it is unlikely to have been Davidic: some of the ideas and thoughts feel more at home in the 7^th or 6^th centuries than the 10^th. The rejection of sacrifice (v.16), the idea of a new beginning (v.10) and the reference to the ‘Holy Spirit’ (v.11) are later ideas than David’s period. So it may be that the Psalm was written by a man afflicted with sickness, which he perceived as a divine punishment, or more corporately as a lament of Israel whilst in exile.

But whatever its provenance, the Psalm provides an excellent anatomy of true penitence, and as such it challenges many of our current practices, both in the Church and the world. On the rare occasions when we hear public figures apologising for the latest bit of sleaze or corruption, it is always ‘If I have caused offence …’ or something like that. We all, I’m sure, remember shouting back at the TV when politicians ‘apologised’ for partying during lockdown ‘No, you’re just sorry you got caught!’ We have managed to turn insincere penitence into an art form, which at the end of the day convinces no-one, and can only really bring imagined forgiveness. And so often in our church services the confession prayer is something we get out of the way by rote so that we can get on with the real business of worship. This Psalm gives us a completely different picture of penitence.

Our 13 verses fall neatly into two parts: an admission of guilt in v.1-6, and a prayer for forgiveness in v.7-13. The Psalmist begins with a complete recognition of the problem. There is an admission of guilt (v.3) – this is exactly what I have done wrong. Hands up, no excuses, no buck-passing: I’ve sinned. There is a realisation of the victim (v.4) – other humans might have been harmed by my sin, but the real issue is that God has been offended. But then, at a deeper level, there is a recognition of my sinful state, quite apart from any particular sins I have committed (v.5). I’m not a sinner because I have sinned: I have sinned because I’m a sinner. That’s a fundamental truth which we find it difficult to admit.

Then the Psalm moves on to ask God for his forgiveness. This again consists of different pleas, five, in fact. He prays for cleansing (v.7), recognising that sin pollutes us and leaves us stained, as though there literally is blood on our hands. He asks that God will not just forgive, but also forget his sin (v.9), so that there will be no shadow between them into the future. He prays for a renewal of their relationship (v.10), so that his justification before God will be just as if he’d never sinned. He seeks restoration (v.12), so that his status before God can go back to how it was before his sin, and finally he prays for reinstatement (v.13) and an ongoing ministry for God into the future. That is a pretty full and comprehensive prayer of penitence, and is very different from the kinds of ‘penitence’ to which we have become used in our culture. This is a deeply counter-cultural text, but without the kind of genuine repentance which it articulates for us, there can be little or no real forgiveness or restoration.

As we leave Lent behind to focus on the cross, and then the resurrection of Jesus, perhaps this Psalm can remind us of just why Jesus needed to die, just what it cost him, and how complete his forgiveness is for those who really get their sin.