Righteous worship that pleases God
[Psalms 51]
In Pastor John Owen's book “Sin and Temptation,” it is said that sin is against God in four ways: (1) Sin turns against God by stimulating the passions of our flesh (Gal. 5:17). Our hearts have secret tendency to do evil. Our hearts are habitually tempted to do evil. Satan encourages us to do evil by sympathizing with sin by the lust of our flesh. (2) Sin causes quarrel and strife to oppose God (Rom. 7:23; Jam. 4:1; 1 Pet. 2:11). The fight against sin consists of three elements: (a) The first is to reject grace, (2) the second is to attack the soul to take control, and (3) the third is to confuse emotions. (3) Sin is against God by capturing the soul (Rom. 7:23). The concept of being caught up in sin has four meanings: (1) The power of sin is so powerful that it binds us like slaves. (b) Sin captures us with repeated attempts and successes. (c) The state of bondage is a very miserable state. (d) The concept of being captured applies especially to the believers. (4) Sin opposes God by gradually causing madness (Eccl. 9:3). Satan ignites a small ember, creating violent flames. Satan uses our previous sinful career to induce another sin, even greater sin (Internet).
Why don’t we feel the pain of our own sins even after our sins are exposed by the revelation of the God's Word? Why can't we feel the pain of sin? There are two causes: (1) The first reason is because our hearts are paralyzed because we love the world more than God. (2) The second reason is because we have psychology that says that we are righteous (Park). The psychology of self-righteousness is (a) false, (b) pride that is wiser than God, (c) a sin that denies the authority of God's Word, and (d) sin that blasphemes the blood of Christ.
In Psalms 51:19, the psalmist David confesses: “Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.” In the words, “You will delight in righteous sacrifices,” we are taught that we should have righteous worship that pleases God. In order to do so, what should we do? We need to know what God wants from us who worship God. So, I would like to receive couple of lessons by meditating on two things about what God wants from us in order for us to offer righteous worship that pleases God. In the midst of that, I sincerely hope and pray that all of us can be raised up as righteous worshipers who please God.
First, what God wants from us is “truth in the inner most being”.
Look at Psalms 51:6 – “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” We thought about ‘Hypocrisy’ as we meditated on Psalms 50 last Wednesday. In the midst of that, we also thought for a moment about David's hypocrisy. David tried to send Uriah to pregnant Bathsheba in order to cover up his sin. But when the faithful Uriah didn’t go down to his house, David eventually sent Uriah to General Joab with his letter and eventually killed Uriah, a soldier loyal by the Gentiles’ sword. So God sent Prophet Nathan to David who was covering up his sins and revealed his sins. And this was what God said to David: “Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun” (2 Sam. 12:12). We sin in secret, but the holy God is the God who reveals our sins before everybody.
What should we do when God reveals our secret sins? We must repent our sins with truth in the inner parts.
(1) We must confess our sins to God.
Look at Psalms 51:3-4: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, ….” Also, look at 2 Samuel 12:13a – “Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD. …” David admitted and confessed his sins to the prophet Nathan, who pointed out his sins. He saw his sin from God's point of view. At that time, his confession was “have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.’ In other words, David confessed,'Lord, I have done evil in Your eyes.' When I think about whether this was easy, I think it would never have been. The reason is that it is somewhat more difficult to confess our sins to people than to confess our sins to God when God has exposed our sins. What was David's sin? Of course, among the Ten Commandments we know, we can think that David’s sin was breaking the 6th commandment “You shall not murder”, 7th commandment “You shall not commit adultery”, 8th commandment “You shall not steal”, 9th commandment “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” and 10th commandment “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife …” (Exod. 20:13-17). Prophet Nathan pointed out David’s sin in this way: “'Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? …” (2 Sam. 12:9). In a word, we can say that David's sin was 'Sin of despising God' (v. 10). But David didn’t stop here and saw what his sins were. So in Psalms 51:5, David confessed, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” David saw that from the very beginning of his existence he was stained with sin. He saw the deep-rooted content of his sin. This is also God's grace. God gave David wisdom (v. 6) to see the truth in the deepest part of his heart (Park).
(2) We must seek God’s mercy and unfailing love.
Look at Psalms 51:1 – “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” After committing sins, it is the Lord's mercy and His unfailing love that we must rely on as we confess our sins. The reason is because sins cannot be forgiven without God's mercy and unfailing love. Therefore, like David, we have no choice but to ask,'God, have mercy on me.'
(3) We must cry out to God to cleanse us from our sins.
Look at Psalms 51:2, 7 – “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. … Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” There are two types of repentance: legalistic repentance and evangelical repentance (Park). Legalistic repentance is a prayer of repentance offered to God by worrying about the punishment of sin rather than sin itself. However, evangelical repentance isn’t a prayer of repentance by worrying about punishment of sin; rather, it is a prayer of repentance in worrying about concealing God's glory as result of sin and giving the enemies of God occasions to blaspheme (2 Sam. 12:14). David offered evangelical repentance to God. When we look at the terms that David used in his prayer of repentance including “blot out my transgressions” (Ps. 50:1), “Wash away all my iniquity”, “cleanse me from my sin” (v. 2), we see that David didn’t pray for exemption from the punishment declared by Prophet Nathan (2 Sam. 12:11-14) but for God to cleanse the things that had become so dirty that he couldn’t have fellowship with God (Park).
We must confess our sins to God with truth in the inner parts. And we must truly repent. This time, a pastor of a large church said that he confessed in tears to the members of the church like this (Internet): ‘I have committed the seventh commandment before God by committing adultery. … I spent last two months like the same time as my death.’ He also confessed, ‘Although my Lord forgave me as He forgave David for adultery and the woman caught in adultery, I couldn’t bear when I thought about my church members who felt betrayal and their burdens.’
Second, what God wants from us is “a broken spirit”.
Look at Psalms 51:17 – “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Here, what is the broken spirit? It is “a broken and contrite heart” (v. 17). It is the stiffness and pride of the heart that are changed, and the feeling that there is no one but God who can save us (Park). So David cried out to God with his broken spirit: “Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, …” (v. 14). It can be said that the possessor of the broken spirit is the act of a believer turning himself into something very desperate when he repents. He doesn't feel the importance of himself at all (Park). From now on, we can't find any hypocrisy in him. So David said: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings” (v. 16). He learned that God didn’t want worship in a religious hypocrisy. He confessed that he didn’t want worship that was routinely offered while hiding his sins without real repentance. David no longer relied on himself and went to God, believing that only God could save him. What were the contents of David’s prayer as he relied solely on God and humbly pleaded with Him?
(1) David asked the Creator God to create in him a pure heart and s steadfast spirit within him.
Look at Psalms 51:10 – “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Since David wanted to stop sinning again and knew that there was only way to stop sinning again, that was for the Lord to create and renew his heart. In the midst of that, David asked God to renew “a steadfast spirit” within him. In other words, he asked God for the heart to believe in the Lord firmly (Park).
(2) David asked God for His presence.
Look at Psalms 51:11 – “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” David prayed that God and himself would not be separated (Park).
(3) David asked God for restoration.
Look at Psalms 51:12 – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” What kind of restoration did he ask God for?
(a) It was the restoration of the joy of his salvation.
Look at Psalms 51:12 – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Sin takes pleasure or joy away from us. In other words, if we violate God's commandments and sin, we suffer from guilt and lose the true joy that God gives us. Therefore, after repenting, David asked God to restore the joy of the Lord's salvation.
(b) It was the restoration of service.
Look at Psalms 51:13 – “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.” David repented, and after receiving God's grace, he vowed to lead others to God (Park).
(c) It was the restoration of praise (worship).
Look at Psalms 51:14-15: “Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” One of the truly important restorations is, of course, the restoration of worship and praise.
In reading the article that dealt with the incident of the pastor of the large church violating the seventh commandment “You shall not commit adultery”, I read something like this: ‘What does God ask of us in this time? It isn’t a great church building, many sophisticated training programs, and big events and great talented people. What God asks of us is the broken and contrite spirit. God, who is neither slumber nor sleep, is waiting for the prodigal sons who have left their father's bosom to repent and return (Internet). What God wants from us is for us to repent with the broken spirit.
In order to have righteous worship that pleases God, we need to know what God wants us from us, that is “truth in the inner parts” and “a broken spirit”. We must repent our sins with truth in the inner parts. Also, we must ask God with the broken spirit. We must ask God for renewal of a steadfast spirit within us. Also, we must ask for God's presence and restoration. We must ask God for the restoration of the joy of salvation and of service and also for the restoration of praise (worship).
Desire to offer righteous worship that pleases God with truth in the inner parts and the broken spirit that God wants from me,
James Kim
(Wishing to be raised as a worshiper established by the Lord)