We ask God to make the Scripture fresh, encouraging, and convicting to us as we sit under its ministry.
Gracious God and Father, we have entered your presence professing your eternal attributes: your wisdom, your immortality, your divinity, your life-giving goodness, your providence, your unfailing love. Now we come before you also confessing our lack—not only our lack of divine qualities, but our moral brokenness and our waywardness. Help us, as we reflect on your word, to believe what is true–about you, and about ourselves. Help us, by your Spirit, to bring our lives into conformity with your good and gracious purposes. Help us to understand your Word with our minds and to submit to it in the depths of our hearts. We ask it for the sake of your True and Living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
We reflect on the Psalm of the Day and use it to examine our hearts and minds, leading us to confession of our sin.
Psalm 51 is a confession psalm through and through. The title tells us that this was David’s prayer of confession when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sin of adultery and its cover-up by murder.
You and I–as we discovered last week–are complicit in murder, through our violent hearts and hands. You and I are also complicit in adultery, as we will learn from our Good Father and his Good Son today; we have not been the faithful people we have promised to be.
But you and I, like David, are able to stand before God and plead his faithfulness and lovingkindness, rather than our own. This faithfulness and lovingkindness has been shown to us especially in the coming, the life, the faithfulness, the self-giving sacrifice, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Let us claim God’s character and confess our own.
We confess our sins together and ask God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.
God, Be Merciful to Me (stanzas 1-5)
Text: Psalm 51 (Richard Redhead)
Tune: Christopher Minor (1997)
Ellie Stager, vocals, piano; Andy Stager, guitar
God, be merciful to me,
on thy grace I rest my plea;
plenteous in compassion thou,
blot out my transgressions now;
wash me, make me pure within,
cleanse, O cleanse me from my sin.
My transgressions I confess,
grief and guilt my soul oppress;
I have sinned against thy grace
and provoked thee to thy face;
I confess thy judgment just,
speechless, I thy mercy trust.
I am evil, born in sin;
thou desirest truth within.
Thou alone my Savior art,
teach thy wisdom to my heart;
make me pure, thy grace bestow,
wash me whiter than the snow.
Broken, humbled to the dust
by thy wrath and judgment just,
let my contrite heart rejoice
and in gladness hear thy voice;
from my sins O hide thy face,
blot them out in boundless grace.
Gracious God, my heart renew,
make my spirit right and true;
cast me not away from thee,
let thy Spirit dwell in me;
thy salvation’s joy impart,
steadfast make my willing heart.
Dear Friends in Christ, God our Father has delivered us from the guilt of bloodshed, through the blood shed by his dear Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. God our Good Father has not withheld his Spirit from us, but has poured the Spirit upon us in rich abundance, and with the Spirit gives us the joy of our salvation. Go in the freedom of your full and free pardon, in Jesus’ name! Amen!
God, Be Merciful to Me (stanzas 6-8)
Sinners then shall learn from me
and return, O God, to thee;
Savior, all my guilt remove,
and my tongue shall sing thy love;
touch my silent lips, O Lord,
and my mouth shall praise accord.
Not the formal sacrifice
hath acceptance in thine eyes;
broken hearts are in thy sight
more than sacrificial rite;
contrite spirit, pleading cries,
thou, O God, wilt not despise.
Prosper Zion in thy grace
and her broken walls replace;
then our righteous sacrifice
shall delight thy holy eyes;
free-will off’rings, gladly made,
on thine altar shall be laid.
During our current series, our New Testament lessons are selected to complement the study of the Ten Commandments.
Matthew 5:27-32
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. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.