Text – Psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.

Lenten Meditation

Many scholars believe that David wrote this Psalm after his tryst with Bathsheba. If this is true, there was much to plead before God: exerting his authority as King over Bathsheba, practically raping her; attempting to cover up the pregnancy that occurred because of the tryst, and eventually killing her husband, a loyal and full-of-integrity soldier to prevent a scandal. “Have mercy on me.”

In spite of the shame and embarrassment of what he had done, David retained his honesty and integrity before God. Still, Paul the apostle to christians in Antioch in Syria that David was “a man after God’s heart….” Acts 13:22. This is at the center of today’s Lenten Meditation – keeping integrity and being honest about one’s own failings.

The season of Lent is a good time to reassess one’s life, and when needed, to call on God for forgiveness.

Prayer

Eternal and loving God, you are the only pure and holy one, able to hear and judge when we cry out to you. You alone are the one who is perfectly fit to be our guide and model. So in this Lenten season, we acknowlege our failings and ask for you to forgive them and lift them from our shoulders. The burden is too great and we crumble under their weight. We thank you for dwelling among us as Jesus and knowing well what it means to be human. In Jesus’ name we pray this. Amen.