“ON RESTORATION”
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your free spirit.”
– Psalm 51:10-12
Restoration. A cool word. Four syllables. It rolls off the tongue rather easily… and yet not a word we use every day as it sounds like something one does to a car… or a painting… or an old house or piece of furniture… or maybe a marriage… or a friendship… or in the case of the Psalmist here… a life.
Yeah, that works. Restoration of a life… and the reason for that kind of restoration is connected to that which was lost… or stolen… or fell through the cracks… from unintentional neglect… or in another way… one that appears more positive… when given away… as in volunteered… emptied out… and now missed and in need of replenishing. Restoration rises to replace that important thing when it shows up gone… and no matter what the circumstance… this is a specialized need.
Perhaps in the wake of what is unfolding in the Middle East and what seems to not be going away in Ukraine and the fact that we are still talking about a pandemic and its lingering affects… we could use a bit of it… restoration … that is… I know I can… and I know why… and hopefully you can articulate your need for restoration, too!.
Bible scholars and preachers love Psalm 51… as it is about out and out sin… one caught red-handed… confronted and judged guilty… yet falls face down to receive God’s mercy… as this passage is connected to a moment in time when King David did a terrible thing by seducing another man’s wife and then had the husband killed… intentionally… by sending him to the front of the front lines in a terrible battle and then when Nathan the priest and prophet called King David out on this… the good king had to face his God… and that’s why this Psalm starts out…
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” (Psalm 51:1-6)
Even the king is not immune from the Law of God… and when someone like that breaks not one or two but almost all the commandments in one weekend… we can only ask… “what if that was me?” You see… we really can’t embrace anything that sounds like good news without first recognizing there’s been some bad news first! Who’s Nathan the priest and prophet in your life? We all need a pastor. Faith matters… even when and especially if you’re the king!
We far too often take advantage of God’s love and mercy. We know how good it is… how faithful God is… when we really need it… yet the trouble is… far too many of us expect love and mercy from God because we think we deserve it… because … you know… “me and God… we got this special thing going…” and King David walks a thin line here when he says… ‘restore to me the JOY of your salvation…” and because he took advantage of his position as king… thinking he was above the law… he was overcome by a lack of favor because of his wretched antics and had a deep need to have his joy restored. So… what’s missing in your life? What’s been lost… or stolen… or has fallen through the cracks? Have you spent so much time giving JOY away… you’ve none left?
Leonard Cohen once said, “There’s a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” because what we lack… our brokenness… our darkness… is temporary knowing that JOY comes in the morning… and it lasts… all… day… long…
The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Gigee is a long-time resident of Pearland, having pastored four churches over the last four decades in Texas and Louisiana. Read more following Brian’s blog ‘murmurings’ at https://briangigee.wordpress.com/. Send comments and/or questions to godworks247365@gmail.com.
