"THE LORD'S MERCY"
Ash Wednesday
March 1, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 51:1 (ESV)
Among the 150 psalms included in the Old Testament book that bears that name there are several that have become known as penitential psalms, or psalms of repentance, because they are psalms that were written to implore the Lord's mercy and to ask His forgiveness for sin. As you read through these penitential psalms, you can easily sense the writer's feeling of guilt as well as his fear of the Lord's judgment. A lot of our churches typically make use of most or all of these psalms in the course of their midweek services during the season of Lent which, of course, is a time of repentance. Of these penitential psalms, the best-known by far is our psalm for this evening, Psalm 51. This was written by King David after the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to him in order to make him aware of his great sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging for the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. In this psalm we can readily see evidence of David's remorse and contrition.
Because it is so well known and because the spirit of repentance is so evident throughout it, Psalm 51 can serve as a good model for all repentance, just as the Lord's Prayer serves as the model for all prayer. As we pray this psalm we can feel with David the guilt of sin--guilt that deserves nothing but God's condemnation and punishment. We can also, with David, come to the realization that sin is not merely a matter of wronging other people, but that all sin is in fact an offense, first and foremost, against God Himself. We can fall down at the Lord's feet with David and plead with Him for mercy and forgiveness. As we identify with the penitent King David at the beginning of this holy season of repentance, let's particularly seek to discover what we are asking of the Lord and on what basis we are asking for it.
The first thing that the sinner needs to ask from the Lord is mercy. The psalmist begins here in a simple and straightforward manner: "Have mercy on me, O Lord," he pleads. This cry comes out of the realization on the part of the sinner that he or she rests entirely in the Lord's hand. In this crazy, mixed-up world in which we live, where everyone is so preoccupied with the "rights" of the offender that the question of whether or not he or she is guilty doesn't even enter the picture, we need to remind ourselves that God is not subject to the same kind of nonsense that paralyzes our secular courts. We are His creation. He is totally in charge of us. He may do with us as He chooses. In fact, He may do with us as He chooses whether we are guilty of anything or not. The fact that we are guilty of sin should make us all the more aware of our need to ask the Lord for mercy.
David also asks for something else here. He entreats the Lord: "Blot out my transgressions." The sinner asks God to demonstrate His mercy by granting the forgiveness of sins. This in fact is going far beyond mercy; here we are asking for grace. There is a difference between the two, even though we tend to use these terms interchangeably. While mercy is indiscriminate kindness shown toward all people regardless of their guilt or innocence, grace is the undeserved favor of God imparted especially to those who have offended Him by their sin. Here we are asking God for much more than just general kindness; we are asking Him to deal with us sinners as though we were not sinners at all. We're asking Him to remove our sin from us so that we might be acceptable in His sight and therefore might receive His favor.
On what basis can David (or we, for that matter) expect God to have mercy on us or forgive our sins? It is on the basis of God's love that we make this request. We dare not ask Him for mercy and forgiveness because we're basically good people because we're not good people at all. If we were, we wouldn't have to be asking for these things. We dare not ask Him for mercy and forgiveness because we try really hard because, if the truth be told, we don't really try that hard at all. And we dare not ask Him for mercy and forgiveness because we're really sorry because sorrow over our sin in itself isn't enough. Just ask Judas Iscariot. No, we ask God for mercy and forgiveness solely because of His love--the love that moved Him to become human in the Person of His Son to live the perfect life of righteousness that we owe to our perfect Creator and to the suffer the punishment that we deserve because of our sin. That's it. There is no other reason why God should even think about having mercy on us or forgiving us. It's only because of His redeeming love for sinners like us, revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ--the One who became like us in all respects except sin. He did all of this so that God's mercy toward us sinners might be shown and so that our transgressions might be blotted out.
We ask for this mercy and forgiveness on the basis of God's compassion. My dictionary defines compassion as "the feeling for another's sorrow or hardship that leads to help." In Christ God has had compassion on us. He has identified with us in every way. He has walked in our shoes, so to speak. He has lived life in this world as we must live it, with all of its trials and temptations, all of its hardships and tragedies, all of its disappointments and broken dreams. He has permanently united Himself with our human nature in order to help us. He not only knows what we are going through day in and day out; He has lived it. And He is still right there by our side, going through it all with us. In doing this He has undone what we have done, making it possible for us to experience for ourselves the mercy and forgiveness of our loving God toward His beloved children.
No matter what our egocentric world may think, we have a great blessing in being penitents before God. He doesn't require us to "do penance" as some erroneously teach, demanding that we must do something in order to make satisfaction for our sin or to show that we are really sorry. He has already done all of that Himself, offering to Himself the perfect sacrifice of atonement for sin in the suffering and death of our Savior on the cross at Calvary. All that we have to bring to Him is our sin and all of the sorrow that it has caused. We bring it to Him with repentance but also with faith in the Christ who lived and died for us. With the hymnist we say:
"Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling"
(Lutheran Service Book #761, stanza 3).
Christ is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and especially our sin. With confidence in Him may we take to heart the psalmists words: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.
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