Ash Wednesday Sermon

 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.

Psalm 51:12-15

This is the Psalm appointed for Ash Wednesday. If you look it up in your Bible, you’ll see that like many of the Psalms, this one has a heading. This longer than usual heading, gives the context that led up to David praying this prayer. The heading goes: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

 

David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and didn’t regret it a bit, not right away. He tried to cover it up. Tried to make it seem ok. He arranged to have her husband killed. He sinned and increased the sin, adding guilt against the 5^th commandment,  on top of the guilt against the 6^th commandment. How the mighty have fallen! In Psalm 51, we hear fallen David ask the Lord to raise him up.

Throughout our Wednesdays in Lent we will be considering how the Lord redeemed some figures of the Old Testament, starting here with David. He took the fallen, and raised them up. He found those who were lost and redeemed them. He had compassion on the broken, and rebuilt them, resurrected them.

And while we’re hearing about them, we will be confessing that we too have need of mercy, forgiveness, and God’s re-creative Grace. We need him to redeem us from death and sinfulness and make us alive in Christ our risen Savior.

By means of the preaching of Nathan the prophet, David was led by the Holy Spirit to repent of his sins and plead for help and forgiveness. He says, “have mercy on me, O God.”

“Cleanse me from my iniquity.”

“Create in me a clean heart.”

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation."

As an unforgiven sinner, he has no joy.  Oh, he might have been having fun. But that’s not the same, not comparable to the joy of salvation.

As an unforgiven sinner, David was broken, dirty, Not good for heaven, but really, not much good for earth, either. No good for God, no good for humanity either.

 See, an unforgiven sinner gets all turned in on himself. Doesn’t look beyond himself to God or to neighbor.

David wants the Lord to turn that all around and Redeem him so that will be good for something.

    Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.

The Redeemed David does teach transgressors in this Psalm.

·        He teaches you to recognize and admit your sinfulness – sinful by nature, sinful by actions, words and thoughts, by what you’ve done and what you’ve left undone.  There’s no way we can cover that up. It’s foolish to pretend it’s “OK”.

·        He teaches sinners how to return to the Lord. By taking and cherishing the things the Lord gives us to save us, that is the Word and the Sacraments. He honors the Words of God. He reminds Christians to remember they are baptized, as they repentantly pray Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

·        He teaches us what this forgiveness we’re asking for looks like, and what all goes along with it. Joy, holiness, righteousness, and truth.

·        He then shows us what we should expect the rest of our life. Redeemed and risen, we can be useful for the Lord. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”

Be sorry for sin. Stop attempting to cover it up. Seek your Lord’s forgiveness and salvation. Then expect to do better. Declare His praise in your words and actions of love.

 

Amen.