Psalms of Comfort 15: Looking For Real Change
Psalm 51
10 Create in me a new, clean heart, O God,
filled with clean thoughts and right desires.
Ever blame life’s problems on the issues and circumstances of the day? What about trying to resolve them?
No matter if its business or more personally related, consider the prayer of David, “Create in me a new heart, O God.” Real change is an inside job. You might alter things in a day or two with money and systems, but when we have a problem, do you notice that in our minds it is always someone else’s fault? And if we think it’s someone elses fault usually that problem will remain unresolved.
Do you know that in that scenario 9 out of 10 people would not even be aware that there is a problem? So we get friction. David the psalmist teaches us so much in this psalm about an attitude of the heart that can resolve problems of the heart. The Prophet Nathan confronted David about his adultery with Bathsheba and the consequences of that. Like the lifting of the fog David realised that the problem was in his own heart and he begged God to change it. He knew that his own selfish thoughts and actions in fulfilling his desires had come between him and God. He also recognized that his real fulfilment lay in his relationship with God.
Here is a question: was it still selfishness to beg God to restore his presence so that David could feel better? Or was it still his own benefit that the psalmist was seeking? That’s maybe going in to deep water we don’t need to go into. We could ask: is the adulterous man or woman selfish in seeking to restore the original marital relationship because they know that’s where their peace and happiness lies? So David asked God to create in him a pure heart, he wanted cleansing. He knew the problem was inside him. And he knew he needed to work with God on that.
I have a coffee machine and after a few weeks it builds up scale on the inside and a little warning light comes on. The first time it happened I had to look in the book and it told me I have to put a cleaning fluid in it, go through a process of cleansing and then flushing and rinsing with clean water to get it clean on the inside. In our hearts, we need to recognize their unclean condition, maybe we see that ourselves or maybe it needs to be pointed out to us by a friend or loved one. We need to come to God on bended knee, acknowledge our errors and turn ourselves over to the cleansing work of his Spirit and his word.
If I were to clean my coffee machine before the alarm came on it would never stop working. If we continually soak ourselves in Gods word and allow it constantly to cleanse our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit and our obedience we will be far better off. The heart of the matter is and will always be, a matter of the heart.
If you have something today that you need cleansing of, something that is blocking your relationship with God, then I think you know what to do.
May you experience God working in your heart today.
