Psalm 51: Create in me a pure heart

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

When David wrote this Psalm he had gotten a reality check. The prophet Nathan confronted him with his adultery with Batsheba (See 2 Samuel 11 and 12).

David had a good look into his own heart and saw the condition it was in. And it was not a pretty sight. He was offered a clear view on the damage, devastation so you wish that had been brought about there by sin
and realized that, no matter how much of a royalty he was, there was
nothing he could do to change: he could not repair it, he could not
adjust it, he could not reform it.

³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

⁶ Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

With a soul in agony and pain David does the one thing that is left for him: he turned to God and asked Him to do what only God can do: create in David a pure heart. Recently Michael posted the question:

If you were to run into the real you, while out and about, would you recognize yourself?

I guess David would would have answered yes but I definitely do not like what I see. I guess the same applies to many of us myself included. If I could look into my own heart I would recognize this same
condition. When it comes to living a sin free life I can but acknowledge
that I seem to be great at screwing up, it’s like a second nature. But
man, it seems like wherever you turn the temptations are waiting for
you, so you may fall or at the least stumble. Have you, like me
wondered, why it is that we acknowledge his ways and commands yet at the
same time we breach them so often? We can try and fix the problem
ourselves but speaking from my own experience, it did not work for me.
The effects of sin are so disastrous that we simply have no remedy, or
perhaps I should say, I do not have one. Sin has this nasty quality that
it enslaves us and that is what Jesus saw when he said:

³⁴Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

David recognized the depth of his need and turned to God. In essence he was praying to God:

God, I can’t fix this myself, I do not have the power to change myself, my heart is corrupted and sinful. Please do for me what I cannot do myself; create in me a pure heart, O, God.

The final and universal answer to David’s cry an the ones like that, including my own, was provided by the sacrifice of Jesus.In Paul’s letter to the Romans we read (Romans 6)

⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Through this miracle a new heart, a new creation is made available to
each and everyone of us. Did you read verse 11 of Psalm 51?

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