WASH ME!

WASH ME!

Ps 51:1-2

51 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Ps 51:7

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

          Twice in this Psalm David asks to be washed. He had sinned with his neighbor’s wife, produced a child, and had the husband killed. He then played the savior by marrying the widow and adopting the child as his own. Everything would have been fine had it not been for Nathan, the prophet who came to him and exposed the whole sordid mess. Now David has no need to hid or pretend. He is exposed and rightly asks for cleansing.

It is interesting that the Hebrew word for wash is kabac which is a primitive word meaning “to trample.” The idea is that the clothing was agitated by trampling with the feet. I don’t think it is coincidental, however, that our sin must be trampled before there is cleansing. Pride must be broken and self must yield. Otherwise forgiveness and restoration is a farce. It is exoneration without justice.

Isa 1:18

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Trample me, Lord, if that is what is necessary to make me clean! AMEN