HORRIBLE CONSCIENCE!

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

HORRIBLE CONSCIENCE!

Ps 51:1-3

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.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

           The word “conscience” has its origin in Middle English (also in the sense ‘inner thoughts or knowledge’): via Old French from Latin conscientia, from conscient- ‘being privy to,’ from the verb conscire, from con- ‘with’ + scire ‘know.’ Literally the word means “with knowledge.”

           David’s sin haunted him night and day! It was ever before him. He interpreted everything through the filter of this sin. Every conversation was scanned for clues that he had been found out. Every event, whether good or bad, was measured by his own personal and persistent knowledge of his sin. He understood the proverb which says: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth” Proverbs 28:1.

           Lady Macbeth imagined blood on her hands which she could not wash away. She had convinced her husband to kill King Duncan and so she could become queen of Scotland. This blood, seen only to her, prompted her to wash her hands obsessively and to utter the famous soliloquy: “Out, damned spot!”

Jer 2:22

22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, [mineral potash effervescing with acid] and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.

           David knew what was required to wash away his sin and to cleanse his mind. He asked that his transgression be blotted out – that his iniquity might be washed – that his sin might be cleansed! In verse 7 he mentions being purged with hyssop which is a reference to the Passover custom of dipping hyssop, a bitter herb, in sacrificial blood and striking the lentil and the doorpost to protect against the avenger. Oh, the blood of Jesus, it washes white as snow!

Nothing But The Blood

Words and Music: Robert Lowry

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain

Oh! precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Dear Lord, wash my conscience in Thy blood and let me cease from being chased by the ghosts of past sins! AMEN