Deliverance & Sacrifice

Scripture:

Psalms 51:14-17 (NASB)

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
O Lord, ^[m]open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Devotional:

Deliver me, each of us needs deliverance.  Do you know what you need to be delivered from?  David is imploring to be forgiven of his sin and then to be cleansed.  The good news is that everyone can be delivered from their guilt and sin.  Are you rejoicing?  Do you sing praise?  If not then you should be over joyed and letting it show.  Why, because through Christ you have been redeemed.  Through Jesus you are delivered.

Jesus sacrificed himself so that you can have salvation.  God also desires us to sacrifice ourselves for Him, but with a willing heart.  Do you serve Him?  Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for someone who needs God?  Sacrifice does not necessarily giving up one’s life.  It is giving yourself to serving God, through serving others.  Those who go on mission trips are sacrificing themselves in order to serve God.  Someone who gives so that another can become a missionary is sacrificing of themselves.  Some sacrifices are big, even unto death.  Some are small, may just be giving some extra funds for a missionary.  Sacrificing yourself often times will fall somewhere in between.  When you serve God you are sacrificing yourself for Him.  God loves a cheerful giver not a grumbling heart…

Renew A Right Spirit

Scripture:
Psalm 51:10-13 (NASB)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.

Devotional:

Create, to make something.  In me, within myself.  A clean heart, to purify or remove the unwanted or dirt.  How many times have I asked God for forgiveness?  How many times have longed to renew my relationship with God because I have fallen away?  Are these familiar questions?  I know there are times when I struggle with sin.  There are times when I feel myself wandering away from God.

In these verses David is asking God to not only forgive him of his sin but to cleanse him.  David felt the weight of his sin upon his shoulders.  Nathan the prophet confronted David of his sin, sleeping with Bathsheba.  David turned to God seeking forgiveness.  He sought to renew his relationship with Him.  

Do not cast me away.  To be put aside removed from ones presence.  Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  To withhold or separate from.  Do you feel as if God is casting you aside and about to remove himself or the Holy Spirit from you?  The truth couldn’t be farther away than this.  Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”  There are many verses where God promises that He will never leave or forsake us.  All we have to do is repent of our sins.  We need to seek Him and place Him first in our lives.

God will restore the joy of His salvation and renew a right spirit within us.  Christ is the way, truth, and light.  He is the bread and water of life.  Through Jesus we are restored.  Through Jesus we can have a spirit of God.  We will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Redeemed

Scripture:
Psalm 51:5-9 (NASB)

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.

 

Devotional:

We hear people say “I was born that way” or “This is genetic and passed down” all the time.  Even alcoholism is stated to be inherent.  If the parents are alcoholics then the child has a greater chance to being one as well.  Something that is definitely inherited is sin.  Deuteronomy 5:9 (NASB):

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Once sin entered into mankind through Adam and Eve all have inherited sin.  For through them sin entered this world.  It is also through one man that we are cleansed, made whole again.  

In verse seven David pleads to God to be cleansed.  He asks God to wash away his sin.  Jesus is the hyssop that washes our sins.  Through Him we are forgiven.  We are sinful by nature, we inherited sin from as far back as Adam and Eve.  We are brought into a fallen and sinful world.  Before we are even conceived we stand condemned.  But through Christ we are redeemed.  

All Fall Short

Scripture:

Psalm 51:1-4 (NASB)

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving kindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.

Devotional:

Be gracious to me.  What does it mean to be gracious?  I had to think about it and even look it up.  A Google search revealed several answers to my question.  One answer is to be kind, courteous, and pleasant.  The second answer I found is showing divine grace. 

Everyone has sinned.  Each of us stands guilty of something.  God is justified in pronouncing us guilty.  Romans 3:23 (NASB) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” no one is blameless.  In the second verse David is pleading with God to cleanse him.  An illustration I once used with a group of teenagers involved a dry erase board, a permanent marker, and a dry erase marker.  You could feel the intake of air when I wrote the word sin on the dry erase board with the permanent marker.  I asked what could remove the word “Sin?”  The answer was nothing.  I even wiped it with a paper towel showing it cannot be removed.  This represented the sin in our lives.  Nothing we can do will remove the sin.  So how can we clean the board, the sin in our life?  The short answer is that we can’t.  I took a red dry erase marker and drew a cross over the word sin.  It is only through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we are made clean.  2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” It is only through Jesus that we can be made clean.  I wiped the cross off the board removing the word sin.

God is justified in His judgment on us.  We are guilty and nothing we can do will make any difference or change it.  Christ stands in our place of judgment.  He took on our sin and paid the price of judgment.  He paid the price of our sins.  We are made righteous through Christ.