Beginning with Ash Wednesday, the church observes the season of Lent, a solemn 40 day period of repentance, prayer, and reflection in which we journey with Christ to the cross and prepare for the joyous celebration of Resurrection Sunday.
During Lent, we are especially mindful of our individual and communal sin and brokenness and our need for repentance and reconciliation with God and one other. As we say in the liturgy: we have not loved God with our whole heart and have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Our prayers of confession ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness as we work on a closer relationship with God and one another. Some observe Lent through self-sacrifice and “giving-up” something for the Lenten season. Others observe Lent by “adding-on” a spiritual discipline or extra acts of benevolence to deepen their Christian faith.
This season of Lent, I invite you to meditate on Psalm 51 as your guide to spiritual renewal. It will be familiar to many of you, since part of it contains the familiar words of the offertory hymn many of us grew up using in the Sunday liturgy: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Perhaps you may even remember it from childhood and are able to sing it by heart.
Psalm 51 calls us to go beyond self-sacrifice or self-improvement and move toward inward transformation and the deepening of our faith. It reminds us that true repentance involves recognizing our sin and seeking God’s mercy and compassion since we cannot cleanse ourselves. The psalm asks God to create a clean heart and a new, transformed life that goes beyond outward sacrifice and restores to us the joy of salvation.
In this penitential psalm attributed to King David, the psalmist laments to God, not about someone else’s sin, but about his own, as he expresses his repentance and plea for cleansing. It is also significant that the psalmist confesses that his sin is not only against those he wronged, but are ultimately against God.
In our culture, we tend to minimize our sins, labeling them as short-comings, errors, or mistakes instead of recognizing the damage they can cause. But while sin can damage our relationship with God and one another, Psalm 51 points out that sin never gets the final word with God and highlights how God creates a new heart in us. This reflects our Lutheran understanding that repentance and spiritual renewal do not originate with us, but are gifts of God. In fact, God’s work to cleanse, renew, and transform us is a reflection of just how much God loves us.
Psalm 51 is able to serve as a penitential prayer because it highlights the importance of a contrite, humble, and repentant heart over ritual sacrifice. It is able to serve as an offertory hymn through the act of bringing ourselves as an offering to God as we prepare our hearts for the Lord’s Supper.
It’s interesting to note the connection between the transformation that happens inside of us and the resulting response that happens outside of us. As a result of repentance and forgiveness, we are able to authentically give praise to God, proclaim the message of God’s love and forgiveness to others, and become the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus through our deeds.
It would be easy to journey through these 40 days of Lent without contemplating the spiritual depth of Psalm 51. However, during this Lent, I invite you to prayerfully meditate on Psalm 51 as a devotional aid for sincere repentance and spiritual renewal. Read it, study it, pray it, sing it, ponder its words, and receive the message the psalmist has for you: God’s never ending love, mercy, and compassion is for you and our world.
May this Lent season be for you a time of deepening faith and relationship with God and one another. May you be mindful that forgiveness and reconciliation are the gracious gifts of our loving God made possible by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, may you live into the mission to which Christ has called you, being assured that God delights in your heartfelt and grateful response to Christ’s call.
+Bishop Wilma S. Kucharek
