coexistapart's Diaryland
Diary
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Questions for Further Thought: Psalm 51
Sonoma Springs is doing a study of various psalms this semester. I've been meaning to answer the "Questions for Further Thought" weekly, but it was especially timely coming back down from the high of feeling so loved & cherished back home in Canada last week. The sermon was originally titled "As Real As It Gets: On Self-Destruction." 1. The events which lie behind the writing of this Psalm by King David can be found in 2 Samuel 11:1 - 12:25. How did David get in trouble? How did he seek to solve his moral failure on his own? How did God confront him? How do you think David could have avoided this trouble? What were the consequences of David's failure?
-David sees Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop and takes her to be his. She becomes pregnant. David calls her husband, Uriah, home from battle, but he refuses to visit his home (and sleep with his wife) because he cannot leave behind the idea that many of his compatriots are still at the frontlines. David tries to get Uriah drunk and still he will not return home, to sleep with Bathsheba. So David conspires to have him sent to the worst of the fighting on the front lines, where he is killed by the Ammonites. David takes Bathsheba as a wife, but God strikes down the son that is born of impurity after having used the prophet Nathan to confront David with his sin using the metaphor of one poor farmer with a baby lamb. A new child is born, Jedidiah (Solomon) out of David's repentance. 2. Only two crimes in Old Testament times could not be atoned for by sacrifices: rape and murder. David has committed both. Without atonement, David cannot have a relationship with God. What requests, then, does David make in Psalm 51?
-David asks for God to deploy his mercy by cleansing him of all his sins, his transgressions, and the iniquity in his heart. David asks for a clean heart even when he acknowledges that everyone born of their mother is born into sin. David asks to live again in God's salvation on the promise that he will spread God's word. David hopes that his broken heart and soul are the only sacrifice that he can given for these unrepentable crimes. 3. How does David view God in this psalm? How does David characterize himself int his psalm? How does he describe his actions?
-David understands that his actions have heart God alone, who simply wants his children to have inner truth and a clean spirit. God does not take joy in receiving expensive, complicated offerings. He does not want any gifts other than his people to try their best in the first place. He is a kind and loving caretaker. 4. What does this psalm have to teach us about the nature of sin and how it works in our lives?
-On the one hand it is something unavoidable, which we are born into. That being said, God does not wish us to sin; he is open-minded, and hopes that we will choose the right path and avoid tempation. He is patient and does not take pleasure in receiving our repentance; he wants us to spread the word and help others come to grips with our failure as a way of growing, learning, and returning to the joy of salvation that exists in God's spirit. 5. What does David promise to do if God forgives him? Whis is this important?
-David promises to spread the word of God, and to do "good" in Zion and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He will also, at a later more appropriate time, offer expnsive whole offerings and bulls on the altar of God in the Temple. 6. What words or phrases from this psalm might you use to pattern your own personal confessions of sin to God? A constant failure to live up to not living in sin. A desire to seek restoration to live in the light of God's love. A desire to live better, and not to live in making up for the worse. I need to realize more that I'm sinning against God, and that God is blameless when he passes judgement on me and not that it's "NOT FAIR" because really, most of the time (read: always) it's deserved, for some reason or another. 7. Psalm 51 suggests that every sin is a sin against God. Why is this so? -Because it is, if we stop and think about it.
12:43 p.m. - 2009-01-11
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