MEDITATIONS FROM PSALMS

 

April 26, 2006

Reading: Psalm 51:1-13

 

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” Ps 51:2.

 

Take note, soul of mine, the tremendous difference between when you wash yourself and when God washes you. All you can do is wash your exterior and there are many products on the market today to assist you with this process, but when God does it He washes your heart, the very interior of your being. You wash away the dirt but God washes away your sin. You wash away the stench from man’s nostrils, God washes away the stench from His. Your efforts make a temporary difference and has to be repeated time after time, but God does it once and it has an eternal effect. The only way man’s damning sin can be removed is by the spiritual act of the mercy and grace of God.

God set in the old covenant that leprosy was a type of uncleanness. The laws of leprosy required that the one considered to have the disease go to the priest. If he had leprosy, the priest would pronounce him unclean, likewise, if he did not have it he would be pronounced clean. If a leper had been healed of the dreaded disease, the priest would have to pronounce him clean and all the privileges of the unclean would be restored to him.

Not all suffered from leprosy but “all have sinned” and are therefore spiritual lepers in the eyes of God and are pronounced sinners. The only way man can be pronounced clean by God is if God does the cleansing. Just as the leper approached Jesus and implored him,

 

“’If You are willing, You can make me clean,’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed” Mark 1:40-42,

 

so He will respond to the sincere person today. The compassion of Jesus has not changed and every genuine request will be answered with the words, “I will, be clean.”

By law, the leper, wherever he went, had to cry out, “unclean, unclean.” When, and if, this illness was cleansed, and only then, this requirement was lifted. Only when God has washed us from our disease called sin, can we approach Him and be accepted by Him. There is no other way to be spiritually cleansed and be made ready to approach Him and spend eternity in heaven with Him.

 

O, my Redeemer Priest, who alone can cleanse man from his sin, accept the plea of any who sincerely come to you with the request for cleansing on their lips. Because of Your unchanging compassion, He who pleads to be washed from their sin will surely hear the words, “I will, be thou clean.”