Create in me a clean heart

Scriptures: Psalm 51 and 2^nd Samuel 11 & 12

Structure:

Introduction
Keith Green
King David
Psalm 51
Conclusion

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me;

Cast me not away from Your presence, O Lord

Take not Your Holy Spirit from me;

Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Introduction:

Some of you may have seen the movie Rocketman recently

It’s a bio pic about the life of Elton John
Elton John is of course an incredibly talented musician, but he didn’t write all those hits songs on his own – many of his songs are a collaboration with Bernie Taupin
Bernie was the lyricist – he wrote the words and gave them to Elton who then put them to music.

Last week we began a new sermon series called ‘Anthems’

In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the history of our faith.
The purpose is not to find fault with the words but to help us interpret the songs in the best possible light.

Today’s song is called, Create in me a clean heart

This song is a collaboration between king David, Keith Green and the Holy Spirit
The lyrics were written by David roughly 3,000 years ago, I’m not sure who wrote the tune we sing it to but it was covered by Keith Green about 40 years ago.
Before we get to king David though, let’s consider Keith Green’s life

Keith Green:

For Keith Green it was all about glorifying God. This is what Keith says…

The only music minister to whom the Lord will say, ‘Well done, thy good and faithful servant’, is the one whose life proves what their lyrics are saying, and to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only worthy One has to be the minister’s most important goal.

Keith Green was born in 1953 is New York, into a show biz family

Like king David, Keith was Jewish, although unlike David, Keith’s family didn’t practice the Jewish faith
Keith was genuinely gifted, a child star. At the age of 11 he landed a five-year contract with industry giant Decca Records
Time magazine hailed him as a ‘prepubescent dreamboat” who “croons in a voice trembling with conviction…”
Keith was poised to become the next teen heart throb until Donny Osmond beat him to it. Worldly success didn’t happen for Keith.

In the 1960’s, at the age of 15, Keith ran away from home in search of girls, drugs and the promise of universal love preached by the hippie movement

This was a time when the west was discovering the east and so Keith looked to eastern religions to try and find spiritual truth
As he devoured the writings of the religious ‘masters’ one thing struck him as odd: their teachings kept referring to Jesus Christ, but Jesus was at the bottom of Keith’s list.
Eventually, one day in 1973 after much trial and error, when he had exhausted every other option Keith bought a cross, put it on and alone, through tears prayed in desperation, “Jesus, if you’re there, show yourself to me.” And Jesus did. The love of Jesus broke through.

In the gospel Jesus says, those who have been forgiven much, love much.

Keith Green had been forgiven much and so his love for Jesus was very strong. Keith had a tremendous energy and passion to see others come to faith in Jesus and it showed in the songs he wrote
Between 1977 and 1982 Keith released five gospel albums
But he wasn’t just a performer – Keith was the real deal.
He and his wife Melody opened their home in radical hospitality to people in need and they gave away most of the money they earned
They also wrote an evangelical magazine called Last Days
Some people saw Keith Green as a prophet, because his songs called the church to repentance, but he was never comfortable with that label.

Sadly, in July 1982, just a few months before his 29^th birthday, Keith died in a plane crash. It was around this time I became a Christian and was baptized.

King David:

Create in me a clean heart is a simple song based on verses 10-12 of Psalm 51

It is essentially a prayer for conversion from the inside out – a heartfelt request for real and lasting change to one’s self

The sub-title to psalm 51 reads: A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.

To put you in the picture, David has, by this stage, been king for a number of years and has enjoyed quite a bit of success
While his army is away fighting David stays home in his palace
One evening he looks out over his balcony and sees a beautiful woman bathing. Like the Bruce Springsteen song, David is on fire.
Maybe it is the loneliness of leadership?
Maybe it’s the corrupting influence of power?
Or maybe David has simply grown complacent in his prosperity?
Whatever the reason, David must have this woman and invites her to his room. Her name is Bathsheba.
One thing leads to another and Bathsheba gets pregnant.

This is not a good look for David. David wants to cover his tracks, to hide what he has done

Bathsheba is married to Uriah the Hittite. Uriah is a good guy. He is actually away fighting in David’s army
David calls Uriah back from the front line, tries to get him drunk and then sends him home in the hope he will sleep with Bathsheba
That way no one will know what David has done – everyone will think the baby is Uriah’s.
Well not quite everyone. God knows. But David puts God out of his mind. David behaves as though God does not exist. Practical atheism.

Unfortunately for David, Uriah is a real boy scout and instead of going home to get reacquainted with his wife, Uriah sleeps on the doorstep of David’s palace.

He can’t stand the thought of taking any comfort for himself while his brothers in arms are sleeping rough in fox holes.
This means David has to resort to Plan B. He sends Uriah back to the front and a messenger follows.
The message is for Joab, the commander of David’s army. David wants Joab to put Uriah where the fighting is heaviest and then fall back so Uriah gets killed by the enemy.
Joab is a soldier. He follows orders and it is done. Uriah dies in battle and, after the time of mourning, Bathsheba becomes David’s wife.

David thinks he is in the clear. Yes, he’s having trouble sleeping and like Lady MacBeth he just can’t seem to get rid of that damn spot, but at least his reputation is intact. Then Nathan, the prophet, turns up

Nathan is wise in his approach. He doesn’t confront the issue head on. That would only make David angry and defensive.
Instead Nathan goes for the sucker punch. He tells David a parable [1]

“There were two men who lived in the same town; one was rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had many cattle and sheep, ³while the poor man had only one lamb, which he had bought. He took care of it, and it grew up in his home with his children. He would feed it some of his own food, let it drink from his cup, and hold it in his lap. The lamb was like a daughter to him. ⁴One day a visitor arrived at the rich man’s home. The rich man didn’t want to kill one of his own animals to fix a meal for him; instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared a meal for his guest.”

⁵David became very angry at the rich man and said, “I swear by the living Lord that the man who did this ought to die! ⁶For having done such a cruel thing, he must pay back four times as much as he took.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man”.

All at once David knew it saying, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’. Then he goes on to compose Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:

As I said before, the words we sung earlier are just a handful of lines from David’s original song.

They capture the essence of the psalm but to understand them properly we need to hear them in the context of the whole
From verse 1 we read…

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

These opening verses summarise the psalm – David wants mercy from God. Previously he had wanted justice. Now that he sees himself as he is, he wants mercy.

David’s plea for mercy shows what he believes about God’s character – that God is gracious and good.
Someone once said that faith is believing that God accepts me even though I am unacceptable.
David knows he is unacceptable and yet he has the faith to believe that God is generous enough to forgive him and accept him.

David doesn’t rely on his own good works to save him – he doesn’t say to God, ‘I’ve done a lot of good things for you and Israel over the years Lord. Remember what I did with Goliath. How about you let this slide.’

Rather, David relies on God’s steadfast love and mercy, God’s hesed.

David describes his wrong doing with the words: iniquity, transgressions & sin

They are essentially three ways of saying the same thing, although each word has a different nuance.
Iniquity is any act of injustice
Transgressions refers to the ways David has crossed the line of God’s law (in this case coveting, adultery, murder and lying)
While sin is more a state of being in which we act independently of God, as though God did not exist.

The word wash, as in ‘wash me thoroughly’ is the same word that is used for washing clothes

In David’s day, people got stains out of clothes by rubbing the fabric together or by beating the clothes on a rock
For David to ask God to ‘wash me thoroughly’ then, is to invite some rough treatment for his sin – David does not expect cheap grace.
God’s forgiveness of David did not mean David got off scot free.
In 2nd Samuel 12 the prophet Nathan tells David that, while he is forgiven, his child to Bathsheba will die and the sword will never depart from David’s house. God is merciful but he’s also just.

From verse 3 we continue…

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. 5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

These verses contain David’s confession. Often when we mess up in some way, our first instinct is to deny our wrong doing or make excuses or blame someone else. David does not do this. David admits he is wrong and God is right. No excuses.

At the beginning of verse 4 David says he has sinned against God alone, which jars with us a bit because clearly David’s iniquity has affected Uriah, Bathsheba, the nation of Israel, his family and himself as well.

I think David is using the word sinned in the sense of operating independently of God, behaving as though God did not exist.
The point is, sin is first and foremost an affront to God
So often we judge ourselves by the ethic of: “It’s okay as long as I don’t harm anyone else.”
But in saying that, we exclude God. We don’t consider God as a person
We forget how our actions affect the Lord.
As offensive as David’s behaviour was to other human beings, it was even more offensive to God.

Derek Kidner observes the change in David’s attitude here…[2]

Previously David’s only concern was, ‘How do I cover my tracks?’ How do I protect myself and my reputation?
Now David is more concerned with ‘How could I treat God like this?’

David is not blaming his mother or his parents in verse 5, where he talks about being guilty even in the womb

No. David is saying the problem is with me. My character is deeply flawed. I have always been prone to sin. I am to blame.

From verse 6 we read…

6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
The problem is inside us. Sin starts with a lie, with stinking thinking.
We need God to teach us the wisdom of being honest with ourselves so we can think straight – then change will happen from the inside out.

Verse 7: 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

When a priest declared a leper clean and fit to re-join the community they would dip the branch of a hyssop tree in sacrificial blood and sprinkle the person seven times. David is comparing himself to a leper.
Jesus’ blood, sprinkled on us, makes us clean.
The word purge is equivalent to ‘de-sin’ [3] – in other words, ‘remove from me any desire to be independent of you God’.

Verse 8: 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

The weight of David’s guilt is crushing him deep inside and, like broken bones, it is extremely painful, not to mention paralysing
He can’t enjoy anything because of his guilt.

And so we get to the verses we sing in church…

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

The words create and renew go together. They refer to something only God can do. David is asking for a miracle of transformation, a deep conversion of himself from the inside out

In the Genesis account of creation God brings order to the chaos, so that it becomes functional.
David wants God to bring order to the chaos of his heart – to renew the core of his being, as opposed to replacing it.

Over the past few months our car has been playing up. Not all the time, just randomly, sporadically. Sometimes, when we turned it on, it would start up for a few seconds and then the engine would die. Other times it ran fine.

I took it to the mechanic last week and he diagnosed that it was a faulty cam-belt sensor. The sensor thought there was a problem, when there wasn’t, and shut the engine down unnecessarily.
These days we fix a problem like a faulty sensor by throwing the old one away and putting a new one in, but this is not God’s preference.
Sometimes God replaces but more often He is inclined to use what is already there – to transform what is broken and make it functional again.
So create in me a clean heart does not mean throwing the old heart away and replacing it with a new one, like with the sensor in our car
Create in me a clean heart means transforming the old heart so that it functions in the way it should.

The words heart and spirit (as in the human spirit) go together

It’s difficult to tie these words down or define them exactly because they can be used in different ways depending on the context

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart because it is the well-spring of life

The heart is to our soul what a water bore is to a farm.
The heart is to our life what roots are to a tree.

Spirit can mean the breath that animates the body and makes it alive, but it can also refer to something that is not physical or material and yet still very real.

Spirit normally has to do with relationship though – as in the bond between God and people and what characterises that bond

For example, a ‘spirit of fear’ describes a relationship based on fear.
Or we might say, someone has a ‘gentle spirit’, meaning they relate with others in a gentle way, as opposed to a rough or violent way
A right spirit is a relationship characterised by treating others right
A right spirit can also be translated as a ‘steady spirit’ or a ‘loyal spirit’. David doesn’t want to be inconsistent in his relationship with God or others – he wants to be steady and loyal and faithful.

We express our self (who we are) through our heart & spirit

Our heart and spirit characterise the condition and direction of our life [4]
In praying for a clean heart and a right spirit David is acknowledging that the direction and condition of his life have gone haywire
David’s heart & spirit have expressed adultery and murder and he doesn’t want that to happen again
David wants his life to be open to God and directed toward His purpose.

My lawn at home has quite a few daisies and butter cups in it. As much as I like mowing lawns I’m reluctant to cut the flower heads off.

During the day the daisies and buttercups open up to face the sun.
They direct themselves toward the light and in doing so they express the beauty of their heart and spirit. But then at night they close up again.
We human beings are a bit like flowers. In the same way a flower expresses its beauty by opening its petals to the sunlight, so too we express our beauty as we direct our lives toward God and open our heart to His light (the light of Christ).

Verse 11: 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

God’s presence and God’s Holy Spirit go together – God is present through His Spirit.
Today the children in the Flock Sunday school are learning how Samuel anointed David to be king of Israel
When king Saul disobeyed God, the Lord took His Spirit away from Saul and gave it to David
The anointing of God’s Spirit gave David both the power and authority to rule as king of Israel – God’s Spirit made David royalty. God’s Spirit makes us royalty too.
Perhaps David is worried that God will take away his kingly authority, like he did with Saul.
More likely though David doesn’t want to lose the intimacy he enjoys with God through the Holy Spirit.
The application for us here is that we can’t presume upon God’s grace.
God’s Spirit is a gift, freely given. But God can and will take His Spirit back if we abuse our power or position without remorse.

God’s presence may also be a reference to the temple in Jerusalem – the temple being a symbol of God’s presence

This psalm would have been particularly poignant for the Israelites in exile in Babylon (a few hundred years after David).
They knew what it was to be cast away from God’s presence and longed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
The body of Christ, the church, is the new temple of God’s presence
When we sing this line we aren’t just asking for some personal mystical experience of God’s Spirit – we are asking to remain in Christ as part of His body the church.
We are saying, ‘Don’t excommunicate me Lord. Let me enjoy communion with you and your people.’

Verse12: 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Joy is a positive energy – it sustains our spirit. David had no joy.
People may lack joy for a whole lot of reasons, often through no fault of their own. But, in David’s case, it was because of what he had done wrong, because of his guilt.
God’s salvation for David, in this situation, means God’s forgiveness
David has killed an innocent man and therefore he deserves to die
Salvation would mean having his life spared
Salvation would also mean a clear conscience.
David wants to be free of his guilt so he has the energy he needs to willingly do what God wants.
A willing spirit can also be translated a princely spirit, as in a noble spirit.

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

I don’t think David is intending to preach to people here. I think he means his example will be a sermon to others.
When people see how God has saved David, they will repent. They will think, if God can forgive David’s sin, then he can forgive mine too.
Indeed, David’s example of honest (excuse free confession) and deep heart felt repentance has provided hope for forgiveness and a pathway to redemption for millions of people down the centuries.

The rest of the psalm then talks about worship…

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. ¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. ¹⁶For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. ¹⁷The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. ¹⁸Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, ¹⁹then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

For our worship to be acceptable it must come from a broken spirit and a contrite heart – from the inside out

‘God is looking for the heart that knows how little it deserves and how much it owes’ [5]
Our humility is beautiful to God, like an open daisy or a buttercup

Conclusion:

I’m not sure why Keith Green chose to do a cover of Create in me a clean heart

Perhaps it was because he identified with David in being a prodigal son who had returned to God his heavenly Father
Or maybe it was to irritate the church’s conscience – a kind of call for God’s people to live holy lives and not take God’s salvation for granted.
Keith longed for deep conversion for himself and others.

Like Keith Green, king David had been forgiven much and so he loved much

Worship is an expression of our love for God
Psalm 51 begins with confession and ends in worship
Before we can worship God properly we have to realise how much we have been forgiven
And before we can realise how much we have been forgiven we have to face the truth about ourselves, we have to feel the depth of our sin and make our confession.

Let us pray…

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me;

Cast me not away from Your presence, O Lord

Take not Your Holy Spirit from me;

Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to (or sing) the song, ‘Create in me a clean heart’. What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does it evoke for you?)
How did you come to faith in Christ? In what ways is your conversion story similar to Keith Green’s? In what ways is it different?
How do you feel as you read the story of David & Bathsheba & Uriah? Who do you identify with most in this story? (David, Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab or Nathan.) Why?
What is sin? How does David’s sin affect him? How does sin affect you?
What do we notice about David’s confession and repentance? How do we find forgiveness with God?
How is your heart & spirit? Are you open to God’s light or are you closed off to God?
What does God require from us in worship?

[1] Refer 2 Samuel 12:1-7.

[2] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on Psalms 1-72, page 208.

[3] Ibid, page 209.

[4] Refer James Mays commentary on the Psalms, page 203.

[5] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72, page 211.

Create in me a clean heart

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Published by Tawa Baptist