"falling Deeply In Love With God"

“Falling Deeply in Love with God”

Psalm 51

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by your own sin, to the point of believing that God would abandon you and never forgive you?

Or perhaps, you are frustrated by what you have done, and this causes you to become really depressed and you don’t know how you can keep going.

Sin can make us feel as if we are entirely un-love-able, can it not?

A London psychologist once said that 70% of the people in mental hospitals in England could be released if they could only find forgiveness.

Their problem is a bad conscience and they can’t get any relief from the guilt and pressure under which they live—it drives them nuts, it causes all kinds of anxiety-related mental problems, self-hatred and the fear of being “found out.”

Can you relate?

Can I?

Psalm 51 is one of the few Psalms where we are given the historical background from which it came.

The inscription reads: “A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.”

David was on his palace roof one day after the army had gone out to battle, and he saw a beautiful woman--named Bathsheba—taking a bath.

He let his lust get the best of him, and he ordered her to be brought to him.

David had relations with Bathsheba—a woman who was married to a soldier in David’s army-Uriah the Hittite—who was away fighting for David his King.

Later, when David found out that Bathsheba was pregnant with his child, he panicked and tried to cover it up.

He ordered Uriah to come home from battle hoping he would sleep with his wife so he would think the child was his.

When David realized this wasn’t going to work and that his sin would be found out, he took things a step further.

And this is what sin does, is it not?

It has a tendency to lead us down deeper and deeper than we ever planned to go.

King David became more and more desperate until he finally ordered Uriah to be put on the front lines of battle where he would most certainly be killed.

When David was told that Uriah had been killed, he thought he had covered his sin.

But God loved David too much to allow him to go on covering up his sin and thus damaging himself, his relationship with God and his Kingdom.

So, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God sent Nathan the Prophet to David in order to convict David of his sin and his need to repent.

When convicted, David fell on his face before God, and out of that experience of confession comes Psalm 51.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.”

I was at a small group prayer meeting a few weeks ago, and a friend of mine read this Psalm.

And as he was reading it, I got thinking about the pain David must have felt, the guilt that he must have been dealing with after having murdered another person after having slept with his wife.

How overwhelming it must have been—how crushing.

And then, I started thinking about my own sin, and times when I have done things that have hurt other people.

And even though I have never done some of the things David did, I do still deal with the consequences of things I have done in the past.

And it causes me great pain.

I have done things that have hurt people.

And if it weren’t for God’s forgiveness—God’s great love and compassion—I might just go insane because of it.

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned…”

When we hurt other people.

When we sin, we are sinning against God.

You know why?

We are not only hurting ourselves, we are hurting others.

And God is so in love with people, that when we do something to damage those whom God loves—we are damaging God Himself.

What did Jesus say?: “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me…

…whatever you did not do for [someone else] you did not do it for me.”

Does that hit you hard?

It hits me hard.

And you know what?

Our sins have a ripple effect out beyond the person or persons we think we have hurt.