The Heart of Repentance

Psalm 51 in its entirety.

This week we have lifted up the Promise of Forgiveness, which says “God will forgive anyone who believes in His Son and forgives others.” In order for us to truly experience the beauty of God’s forgiveness, we must walk in the Principle of Repentance. The Principle of Repentance says “Regular repentance keeps us aware of the imperfection of our flesh and the absolute need of God’s love, grace, wisdom and strength.”

Repentance is defined as the turning of the heart towards the Father. It is an essential posture for the believer, one that keeps our eyes continually on the love of God. Although repentance is an act that has been vilified in the church, one that has been spoken of negatively, it is the key to a fruitful relationship with God. Therefore, throughout this week we will look at the five characteristics of the heart of repentance.

Our focus text is found in Psalm 51 where David pens his prayer to God after being confronted about his sin. At the time of writing this, He’s had an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of faithful soldier named Uriah. As a result of the affair, she’s become pregnant, and David has attempted to cover his tracks by having her husband killed on the battlefield. After she mourned her death, David had her brought to the palace and she became his wife and gave birth to a baby boy. It seemed like his plan had worked, as though he successfully hid his sin from the sight of the nation. But while David fooled the world, he did not fool God (2 Samuel 11).

Nathan was a prophet, David’s trusted advisor ­– He was sent by God to David to rebuke him for his evil acts. David was clearly wrong, there was no way around this at all. But the significance of this moment is not the sin, but David’s response to God’s rebuke. “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13 NIV). David was humble. He didn’t try to refute God’s claim – there was no argument, no passing of the buck. This humility is expressed deeply in Psalm 51 where he starts it out by saying:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Psalm 51:1-2 NIV

This is a complete opposite of his predecessor, King Saul, who when confronted by Samuel about his disobedience, attempted to justify himself and made excuses. Because of this lack of humility, Saul was rejected as King by God and David was anointed shortly thereafter. I want you to know that the heart of repentance is a heart that is humble. When we turn our hearts to God, it’s not because we’re right but because it’s clear that we’re not and we desperately need His help.

One of the things that God has no appetite for is dishonesty. Of the six things that God hates, lying is number two on the list (Proverbs 6:17). He hates it so much that a person who lies cannot remain in His presence (Psalm 101:7, Galatians 5:19-21). Someone who hears this may say “Isn’t that a bit harsh? Everybody tells a little white lie here and there.” My response is no, it’s not harsh at all. It’s important to know that a little lie is a whole lie, but this is not a popular view in a culture that has normalized the use of lying even in the most prominent roles of our communities and nation.

Nevertheless, I understand God’s point of view on this. As a parent, one of the things that makes my skin boil is when my daughter looks at me with a straight face and confidently lies. It’s one of the most frustrating things! When we reveal that we know she’s lying, she wonders “How did you know?” and Chanell always tells her “Because we made you! We’ve known you from birth, through diapers to where you are today!” The thing is we are only her biological parents, but when it comes to God, He didn’t just make us naturally, He created us spiritually. Therefore, God knows every minute detail about us, everything that makes us who we are. When we lie to God, it’s a slap to the face – it’s a direct insult to His intelligence. God is omniscient, meaning He knows all and is limitless in wisdom. An attempt to deceive Him is absolutely pointless.

An honest heart is a responsible heart – a person that doesn’t pass the buck or make excuses. They own their mistakes and the consequence that will follow. David modeled this in Psalm 51:

“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; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.” – Psalm 51:3-6 NIV

David didn’t wiggle out of his sin or pass the buck on someone else. He didn’t try to pay God off with an offering. Instead, he was honest and owned his mistake. Bathsheba was now his wife, therefore his sin was always before him – that is the memory of his mistake. Therefore, it would be fruitless to act as though all was well and it wasn’t. For some of us the consequence of our sin is clearly present in our life and there’s no need to waste energy hiding it. We must own up to the truth that we knew better.

As a parent, not only is it frustrating when your child lies to you, it’s heartbreaking. It hurts to know that my child didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. I believe the same is with God. Do you trust Him enough to tell Him the truth? To bring your failures, reveal your inconsistencies and nakedness in His presence? God desires to help but we must first be honest. And I want you to know that He can be trusted.

David understood something significant about God, that sacrifices due to sin are not something that God takes pleasure in. The blood/burnt sacrifice was a requirement of the law, it was a technicality. For us today, we are not required to supply animal sacrifices because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for sin. However what God really desires is the same thing He desired from the beginning ­– brokenness. The word used in the text for “broken” means just that – broken, shattered, crushed. In other words, He wants us to feel what He feels, the breaking of the heart that occurs when one's significant other steps out on the relationship. God desires more than just an apology; He desires the brokenness that only comes through repentance. Then repentance will lead to the restoration of the relationship.

The heart of repentance is a heart that is restored. In verses 7-12 of the 51st Psalm, David describes this restorative process with four key parts. Through these verses, I want to show you that the restoration process God will clean, renew, establish and restore.

Clean – In verse 7, David says “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Hyssop is an herb that was used for cleansing for those with leprosy and chest ailments. When David spoke of God’s cleansing with hyssop, he was not physically sick. Therefore, God’s cleansing is not simply an exterior washing, but it’s the cleansing and healing of the soul. This connects to what’s written in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” Therefore, when God restores us, He will clean us.  

Renew – David illustrated the renewal process in verse 10, saying “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” David requested a new heart because he understood the condition of the one he possessed. Jeremiah described the heart as being desperately wicked, deceitful above all things and without a cure (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, the heart of man cannot be fixed but must be replaced. God confirms this through Ezekiel when He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you” (Ezekiel 36:26). God desires that we be renewed and this is a thing only He can do.

Establish – As we continue through David’s prayer, he says “renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10b-11). David is asking that God would establish him by making his spirit steadfast. But then he goes further and requests to not be removed from God’s presence or the removal of God’s spirit. I wondered why David would say this but then I remembered that David knows from experience what it looks like to function in Kingdom assignment without the effectiveness of God’s spirit. When King Saul disobeyed God’s commands, not only was he rejected as king, but God’s spirit was removed from Saul then an evil spirit  came upon him. This evil spirit would torment Saul day and night. David was called upon to come and play his harp for Saul and when he played, the evil spirit would leave him. I bring this up, not to focus on the anointing in David’s playing, but the result of living and serving without God’s spirit. David saw what life looked like without the Spirit of God, he experienced it up close and personal through Saul. Therefore, he requested that God stabilize what was spiritually insecure in his life and allow Him to maintain the effectiveness of God’s presence and spirit.

Restore – Finally, in verse 12, we see David conclude his request to be restored. He says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” What a prayer! What a request! Do you remember the joy that you experienced when you were first saved? The way we celebrated? How nothing could bring us down? We should ask God to restore to us that joy. I remember, as a little boy, my mother would sing a song that says “Take me back. Take me back, dear Lord, to the place where I first received you.” One may ask, “Why do I need to go back?” Because when we’re in a low place, it’s helpful to remember how much it gave me joy when God saved my life.

As we posture ourselves with a heart of repentance, will undergo the process of restoration. God will clean us, renew us, establish us and restore us.

Lastly, I want you to know that a repentant heart is a productive heart. In Psalm 51:12-13, David says “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you.” Something significant has happened here and we cannot allow this moment to slip by us. As David is writing this Psalm, he’s in a tough place emotionally; he pens these words through feelings of guilt and shame. If you’ve ever experienced either of those emotions, you know as well as I do how difficult they can be to shake, especially when it includes the lives of other. However, instead of laying in the stain of his failure, David chose to leverage the power of his testimony through his heart of repentance.

In the Revelation of John, we find an example of the power of the testimony where there was a war in heaven between Satan, his angels and Michael with his angels (read Revelation 12:7-12). The scripture shows us how Michael and the armies of heaven defeated Satan. Their strategy consisted of two key pieces: the blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and their testimony (Revelation 12:11). David demonstrates the power of this weapon of ancient warfare in overcoming the spirit of guilt and shame by teaching others about his experiences. There are times when God brings us through seasons of failure, struggle, trauma, or loss and we choose to push those memories into a place far, far away from our thoughts. Normally it’s because the enemy saw the opportunity to leverage the power of our shame and/or guilt to keep us silent. You may be thinking, “If God has put it in the sea of forgetfulness, then I have too.” And while that may be true, I encourage you to not throw in the trash, what God has repurposed as treasure. Your shame and guilt, that’s trash and it should stay there. But your testimony is a treasure that can be used to encourage someone else in their circumstances or weaponized to defeat the enemy in someone else’s life.

There’s a song we used to sing when I was a child, it says “Jesus, I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me. Jesus, I’ll never forget how you set me free. Jesus, I’ll never forget how you brought me out. No, no, no, no, no! No, never!” You can forget the shame, but don’t forget the story of how He brought you over! David decided to not waste his experience but use it to teach others the things of God. This is made possible because, in God, nothing is wasted. He is masterful in His ability to take any and everything and cause it to work together for our good (Romans 8:28). Think of it as a spiritual compost, using the waste of life to become the soil for a future harvest.

During the time when John the Baptist was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins, there were some pharisees that came to be baptized also. John was harsh towards them because pharisees were infamous for being teachers of the law but in many ways, they did not live what they taught. John challenged them before the people, telling them to “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, John is saying, don’t just go through the motions of baptism or confession without changing – produce fruit that proves your repentance. Friend, today I challenge you in the same way. Knowing that a repentant heart is humble, honest, broken and restored, use your new heart–your new life to produce new fruit. Because a heart of repentance is a heart that can produce.

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