“One has to wonder”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, September 11, 2022
Psalm 51:1-10 (Forward, p. 44) CEV p. 585
King David has been caught, as it were, ‘with his fingers in the cookie jar’. What he has done was not hidden from God, who knows all our doings, and so the prophet Nathan was sent by God to expose and lay bare his most grievous sin and wrongdoing.
But, I have to wonder, to wonder three things. Firstly, I have to wonder what would have transpired, both for David and his family and for the state as a whole, had this sin not been brought to light. Countless people over the centuries have managed to do horrendous things, the extent of which was sometimes exposed only after the person’s death, sometimes years after. Here we can easily think of some of past and present federal government policies over the years, policies directed, for instance at our First Nations people or immigrants or refugees, or towards the West or Atlantic Canada or the Arctic. Some of these policies have truly been quite benighted and destructive, and yet they were not well known at the time.
Nevertheless, I suspect that such actions and policies, even if unknown or unpublished, sow a seed of inner rot and instability, and seeds of mistrust and suspicion and lack of trust. I think this is true of government misdeeds and I suspect that it might well have been true of David’s household and kingdom. And, if nowhere else, I think that it would have impacted David’s own soul.
My second wondering is even less benign: what if David had merely shrugged it off, laughed it off as ‘business as normal’, as a certain world leader did when his sexual improprieties were brought to light. Does that dismissal also sow the seeds of instability and recklessness, does it not also denote a lack of accountability and responsibility that might later show itself in government policies and actions? I think so. David, however, did not shrug it off. He took it most seriously.
And that takes me to my final point: David knew himself and knew the workings of his own heart and was willing to deal with this and amend it. He knew that this was only ‘the tip of the iceberg’, that his entire life and inclination was slanted, right from birth, right from the very start of his life, toward not quite toeing the line as far as God’s will was concerned. He knew that he was a sinner from birth. Even so, he did not give up or despair. He knew that with God there was the prospect of cleansing and healing, of forgiveness and a fresh start, and that is what he asked for from God.
That, however, brings me to two other observations. Firstly, on the one hand, just how many people are blissfully unaware of their own true selves and the imperfection found there, and so unable to deal with it? Or secondly, on the other hand, how many people are aware of this but cannot see a way out? Cannot see that God can take over and cleanse and restore them? Cannot see this and so wallow in despair, and so turn to drink or drugs or other even more drastic means of escape?
David, then, for all his imperfections—or, perhaps because of them—is a great role model, for we all, no matter who we are, stand in his shoes. We have all ‘erred and strayed like lost sheep’ (as the old Prayer Book put it) and we all need God’s loving cleansing, restoration and forgiveness. May we, like David, freely admit our need and come to God for the help that He most graciously wants to give us. Amen.
Forward notes: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (verse 11).
“Today in the United States, we remember the 9/11 terror attacks. Last year, as we marked the twentieth anniversary of the attacks, I was struck by a common thread in the experiences people shared. There was story after story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. One person who had been a first responder on that day in New York City and later had the task of digging through the rubble at Ground Zero said it succinctly: ‘What I saw was love.
“This passage from Psalm 51 reads like a prayer: ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God.’ Yes, God, give me a heart filled with your love so that in a moment of great fear, confusion, and anguish, I might be guided by your love. Renew a right spirit within me, O God, so that I am ready.”
Moving Forward: “Spend time reading the stories of people who survived and responded to the 9/11 attacks. How do their stories help ‘renew a right spirit’ within you?’”
A concluding note: our author’s words, though well intentioned, have missed the mark rather broadly. King David is not asking for a heart filled with love—though his treatment of Bathsheba and her husband certainly betray a lack of love—but a heart that is no longer sullied by sin and wrong-doing. I wonder whether anyone in the United States, or elsewhere, has been looking, on this horrible day in history, at their own policies and entrenched and systematic wrongdoing, and also asked for God’s cleansing and forgiveness, and for a brand-new start.
