Wednesday, Feb. 26

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Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.

Psalm 51:1

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

Psalm 51:2

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  

Psalm 51:7

At the end of verse one, David asks God to “blot out” his transgressions.  The Hebrew word that is translated “blot out” is the word Mahah, and it means to wipe clean, to remove all trace.  I can’t help thinking of all the crime scene shows on TV.  The criminal tries to wipe away all evidence (fingerprints, blood, etc.) of the crime, but inevitably, there is always some trace left for the police to find.  David is asking God to remove all trace of his sin, to wipe his record completely clean.  Of course we would all like to have all record of the wrongs we have done completely wiped clean!  

But then in the 2nd, and again in the 7th verse, David asks God to wash him.  David is saying that it is not enough just to have his record expunged, he wants to washed clean personally.  When we sin, it is not just our wrong actions or words that need to be forgiven...we need to be cleansed.  

The Hebrew word used here for wash is the word kabas, and it almost always refers to washing clothes.  For example, in Exodus, when God wanted to have Moses prepare the people to come into His presence he told Moses to have them consecrate themselves by washing their clothes. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes” (Exodus 19:10).  
Washing clothes in the ancient world was not an easy task.  In Moses’ day, most women washed their clothes by stomping them under their feet against rocks under water.  Then they would wring them out and beat them against flat rocks in the sun.  They would do this repeatedly until the dirt and the stains were all removed.  Do you get the image David is using here?  He is not talking about taking a gentle sponge bath, he is talking about being scrubbed, stamped, pounded and washed thoroughly!  

David mentions that he wants God to cleanse him with hyssop.  Hyssop was a bushy plant and it was frequently used in OT cleansing rituals.  In Leviticus, God commanded His people to use hyssop in the ceremonial cleansing of people and houses. When the Israelites marked their doorposts with lamb’s blood in order for the angel of death to pass over them, God instructed them to use a bunch of hyssop as a “paintbrush”.  Hyssop also appears at Jesus’ crucifixion, when the Roman soldiers offered Jesus a drink of wine vinegar on a sponge at the end of a stalk of hyssop.  Essentially, the reference to hyssop tells us that David is not just asking God to make him physically clean, but spiritually clean as well.

I think the desire to be truly “clean” is deep in the heart of every one of us.  We may not like to admit it, we may not even be very aware of it most of the time, but deep down, we know that we are not clean inside.  We all have parts of our lives that we feel are too dirty or unclean to be brought into God’s presence.

The truth is that we cannot come into God’s presence unless we have been washed clean.  We are too deeply stained with sin to come before our God, we must be cleansed first.  The trouble is that we are not capable of washing ourselves.  This is why David asks God to wash Him, and this is why we look to the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from our sin.  

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  - 1 John 1:7

Jeff frazier