“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.”
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 51:1-10; 139:23-24
“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
David knew the turmoil of trying to hide sin. It made miserable, it gnawed, it ate away at his inner man. To have power as king he needed cleanness in his soul. He learned the hard way that to fail to govern temptation and selfish desire was to cripple governance of his wider kingdom, but he knew where to go for remedy. His God would expose and extricate his sin. God would deal in mercy with his back and under and hidden side to make him righteous through and through and restore a whole heart. (Psalm 32:3-5; 139:1-3,23-24)
The backside is where power can get disconnected and go out, and also where we get reconnected and tap in. The back side is where we get rid of our trash and kill off the pests and fix faulty fuses. The backside is where we do hard accounting and honest dealings with the unseen God so that we can present a front side emptied of self and full of the Spirit. The Lord’s searching eye and His word’s strict inspection prepare us to be rightly equipped for the service He’s made us to do. (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12)
What connection with Him and His word has been frayed by the pull of strange affections, or loosened by flippant attitudes, or grown cold through lazy habits and spiritual discipline? What distractions from full engagement have we tolerated too long? How willing are we to invite His pure, all-seeing eyes into our hidden spaces? What confession or renouncement will we make to begin the clean-up His Spirit prompts and by grace completes? (John 16:8-10)
“Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit,
Bathe my trembling heart and brow;
Fill me with Thy hallowed presence,
Come, O come and fill me now.
I am weakness, full of weakness,
At Thy sacred feet I bow;
Blest, divine, eternal Spirit,
Fill with power, and fill me now.” ~Elwood Stokes (1879)
Lord, please cleanse me through and through, and fill me anew, so You are seen, desired, and honored.
As the rain and snow 