“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

We know the setting for this great psalm of lament. It came after God exposed David’s sin with Bathsheba. We may not have a Bathsheba in our past but we have something; something like it, some sin that has disrupted our relationship with God. Our spirit has been in need of renewal and our hearts in need of a cleansing. Have we, like David, owned up to it?

This psalm is a cry for mercy, for forgiveness, for an opportunity to start over with God. We’ve no doubt been there and done that. If we haven’t, then this would be a good time to do it because we all like sheep have strayed from the right path. God is merciful and forgiving. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost and He will grant us a new heart.

Getting a clean heart is not a task we are capable of on our own. It is a God wrought process and so the psalmist goes to God and asks for this renewal of the inward man. Those of us in the New Testament church have the Holy Spirit living within us; God’s guarantee that He has given us a new heart, one cleansed from sin.

Task for Today: If you haven’t already, do something about your heart; about the spirit inside you.  Whatever it was, however vile God has the power to make new. Surrender today to His cleansing power; be washed in the blood of the lamb. Have a new Spirit within you; accept the gift of the Holy Spirit.