Prelude
Call to Worship Romans 11:32
Hymn JBC # 61 Morning has broken like the first morning
The Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Offering
Scripture Psalm 51:2~9
Prayer
Sermon “Have mercy on me, O God”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301 Amazing Grace!how sweet the sound!
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
The Bible tells us that “people were created by God, to obey God, and to live in a rich relationship with God.”
1 Corinthians 1:9 in the New Testament states:
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is God Himself. Therefore, we are expected to live in fellowship with Jesus Christ, that is in fellowship with God.
However, humans sinned and destroyed their relationship with God. The sin committed by the first man, Adam, and his wife Eve, as described in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, created a huge gap between God and humans from the very beginning.
God told Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
But Eve (Adam’s wife), tempted by the serpent, was the first to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then Adam also ate the fruit.
Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a sign of man’s desire to gain godly powers and abilities.
And, we all bear the same sin that Adam and Eve committed. In Christianity, this is called the “original sin.”
With the original sin, humans rebelled against God, developed wrong desires and thoughts to become like God, and turned away from God to live self-centered lives.
Man’s sin has created a great distance between God and man, and since sin has separated us from God, the sin must be removed if we wish to be close to God again.
But how can we become aware of our sins, and how can the sins be removed?
Today’s Bible passage, Psalm 51, is a psalm (poem) in which David becomes aware of the sin he has committed, repents, and desperately seeks God’s forgiveness.
Let us read verse 1~2 (the heading before verse 1 in the English translation).
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
This psalm was written and confessed by David. It refers to an incident from the Old Testament, 2 Samuel Chapters 11 – 12, “When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.”
Let us look back at that event in 2 Samuel 11 – 12.
David had become king of Israel, and it could be said, that he was at the height of his power at that time.
At that time, Israel was at war with other nations, and King David remained in the capital Jerusalem.
One day at dusk, David saw a woman bathing from the roof of the palace. She was a very beautiful woman.
Seeing her, David sent for someone to bring the woman to him and he had relations with her. The woman was Bathsheba, the wife of a soldier named Uriah the Hittite.
Sometime after the incident, a messenger sent word to David from the woman, saying, "I am pregnant." (2 Samuel 11:5)
How did David react to that? David called Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to him back from the battlefield.
When Uriah came to him, David inquired about the situation on the battlefield and then told him to go home and rest (to spend time with his wife Bathsheba).
In other words, David was trying to cover up the fact that he had impregnated Bathsheba.
However, Uriah refused to return home, no matter how much David urged him, saying, “I cannot go home and be with my wife while the other my fellow soldiers are at war.”
So David gave an order to his commander-in-chief, Joab, who was on the battlefield, “Put Uriah out in the front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw all the men, and let Uriah be killed in battle.”
And Uriah did die. When the mourning period for Uriah was over, David took Bathsheba to be his wife, and she bore him a son.
Just like that, the Bible describes what David did in a straightforward manner. How did David feel about what he had done? As far as the Bible tells us, David was completely unaware of his sin at first.
I think it is entirely possible that David, who was in a position of absolute power as king, even thought, “As a king, I can get away with doing something like this. It’s not even a big deal.”
But David was made aware of the sin he had committed when the prophet Nathan (who was likely in a position similar to an advisor to David) came to him.
Nathan began to tell a story as follows (2 Samuel 12):
There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he treasured and cared for as if it were his own daughter.
The rich man, on the other hand, had many sheep and cattle. But in order to entertain the traveler who came to visit him, he did not take from his own sheep and cattle. Instead, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and shared it with his guest.
When David heard this, he was furious and told Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!” (2 Samuel 12:5)
Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!” For the first time, David realized the sin he had committed. For more details, please read 2 Samuel 11-12.
The story of David reveals how obtuse (insensitive) we as humans are about our own sin.
At the same time, the story shows how we are sensitive and quick to judge the sins of others.
Psalm 51 is a poem of repentance and confession of sin sung (prayed) by David against the backdrop of these events.
Davide confessed “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” (verse 1)
Throughout this Psalm 51, David acknowledges that he has rebelled against God and sinned against Him. He desperately asks God to “cleanse away my sin and blot out my iniquity.”
David has long been remembered by Jews and Christians as a great king of Israel in terms of his faith as well. But, the Bible clearly records that David committed this great sin.
By clearly recording the fact that King David, who was said to be great, committed such an unforgivable sin, the Bible teaches us that “everyone is a sinner before God and every person must have their sins forgiven by God.”
Can we see ourselves as David, who sinned? When we hear about the sin that David committed, can we say to ourselves, “This is my own story”?
My honest thoughts are, “I haven’t done anything that bad (horrible).”
What David did violated at least four of the Ten Commandments. (The most central and important commandments from God given to Moses in the Old Testament.)
These are the four among the Ten Commandments: “you shall not murder,” “you shall not commit adultery,” “you shall not steal,” and “you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
I find myself comparing myself to David and thinking, “I may not be pure or righteous, but I haven’t done anything as bad as he did.”
However, when I read the Bible and the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, my lack of awareness of sin and obtuseness (insensitiveness) is destroyed altogether.
Jesus said:
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27～28)
When we hear these words, we might think, “This is too strict. If we are faced with such standards, there is no way that anyone could overcome them.”
That is true (no one could ever meet that standard), but that is God’s standard of good and evil.
Before the words of Jesus (God), we must acknowledge that we are sinners with sins that we cannot remove by ourselves.
However, only when we become aware of our sins in this way can we repent before God and ask for forgiveness.
Facing our own sins are hard thing but when we do that, we can pray to God, as David did, “Have mercy on us and forgive us our sins, which we have committed against men, and above all, against you.”
Because God has the authority to forgive our sins.
David desires and prays like this in today’s psalm 51:7
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
The “hyssop” calls back to the Passover event when the Israelites escaped from Egypt and the firstborn of every household died, but the disaster passed over the Israelites.
During that time, the hyssop dipped in the blood of a lamb was smeared on the gates of the houses of the people of Israel. “The destruction passed by the houses with gates smeared with the blood.” It is the story of God’s salvation described in Exodus 12.
And David’s prayer, “cleanse me with hyssop” was eventually fulfilled completely when the Savior Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross.
Through Christ’s death on the cross, our sins have been cleansed and forgiven.
Our sins, which we alone could never possibly atone for, have been washed away by the blood of Christ (the perfect blood of the Passover lamb), making us clean and able to live again in a relationship with God.
And those whose relationship with God has been restored in this way and who are able to live close to God will also be able to value their relationships with others and live while cherishing and respecting others.
Since each of us is a precious and irreplaceable being created by God (through God’s love), those who come to know of God’s love and realize that their sins have been forgiven by God will be able to regain the rich relationship between God and other people.
Let us also embrace the feelings of David in today’s passage, Psalm 51, who prayed desperately after becoming aware of his own sin.
And let us live each day of the life we have been given with gratitude for the fact that through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, our sins have been cleansed and washed away and that God’s work of love has made us as white as snow.
