Nearing the End (1)
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12 NASB
Heart – In Hebrew the words are often arranged so that what comes first is recognized as the emphatic focus of the text. English rearranges what Hebrew constructs and in the process we often lose the author’s deepest concern. That’s the case here. In Hebrew what comes first is lev—lev tahor—a heart clean. Overwhelmed by his sin, David pleads for something he does not possess—a heart without the stains, sins and corruption that led him into so much sorrow. Lev is the Hebrew word that captures the full range of human personality—emotion, volition and cognition. Everything that makes us who we are is summarized in lev. What David needs is a new lease on life, a new beginning, a new innocence—all lost when he chose Bathsheba over duty and obedience.
David knows full well that he is not able to bring this about on his own. His life is filled with the destructive consequences of his choices. His outlook is skewed. His attitudes jaded. When he looks at himself, he sees failure, regret, disappointment, hopelessness. No amount of therapy, no ritual restitution, no personal sacrifice is going to clean this pollution. Unless YHVH creates, David is done.
That’s why David does not use the standard verb, yatsar (to do, to fashion, to make). David uses the Creator verb, bara’. Yatsar is about shaping something from existing material. Bara’ is about initiating, bringing into being something that was not there before. David does not need remodeling. He needs a brand new house. Bara’ is used in the Hebrew Qal tense only with God as the object. Therefore, in this form it is a highly charged theological term limited to actions that only God can perform. David does not need a new house built by priests, rituals or restitution. He needs a new house that only God can provide. And unless God provides, David will be homeless in the world for the rest of his life.
David’s experience and plea are just like ours. Remodeling will not do. There is no sense in trying our best to reform our ways. We are too far gone to recover by boot-strap psychology. Our hearts, the centers of our personalities, are riddled with excuses, deferrals, desires and self-acquittals. We can try—and try again—but without a new house the old guests will remain. We don’t need a make over. We need a new birth.
As we reach the end of this Gregorian calendar year, as we reflect on our progress or lack thereof since Yom Kippur some 86 days ago, perhaps an assessment of our current dwelling is useful. Are we still in the remodeling efforts? Keep some, get rid of some? Try to determine what is good and what isn’t? Sounds like Havvah’s dilemma to me. David reached the end of remodeling when Nathan arrived. Perhaps a prophet has visited you recently. Unless God builds the house, the laborers strive in vain.
Topical Index: bara’, create, heart, lev, clean, tahor, Psalm 51:10
Love it.
I think it may be because there just simply is no room for faith in “excuses, deferrals, desires and self-acquittals”. Faith is the one thing I cannot seem to manufacture no matter how hard I try, but I am told that without faith I cannot please Him, for without faith everything I do is sin. Everything. Even the acts of righteousness. Why? Because even the acts of righteousness are sin if they are in the wrong order, or timing, or because of the wrong motivation. There can even seem to be the right motivation in my heart; I can have love as my motive, even, but when I set out to a accomplish it ‘my way’, it is not going to line up with the way the rest of the universe is going. I am going to be starting the dance off on the wrong foot. The timing will be off, or something. There will be something of the yetzer ha-ra that will be hindering me from the free expression of love. Some pride, some shame, some guilt – the driving forces behind those ‘fig leaves’ listed above.
The dance of love only works if I am dancing with Him, but the dance will only end on the right foot – the goal of love will only get accomplished correctly – if I start off on His foot. The dance is going to go nowhere if I dance alone. He can only tabernacle in me if my house is built according to the tabernacle in heaven that is not “built with human hands”, but I find that the only materials I have to build with in my yetzer ha-ra are the wood, hay and stubble of those “excuses, deferrals, desires and self-acquittals”. I am certainly going to build in vain if I build alone.
I have found that there exists not one speck of faith in myself, generated of my own volition. If He does not put His faith in me, I cannot even get out of my own driveway. I know, because I spun wheels for DECADES, with the net result that I got a big hole in my front yard: I was really sick from all that trying! Literally.
When David sinned, he lost faith. I know that is so, because that is what I lose when I sin. I start hiding. Faith restores my vulnerability, which, when you think about it, is the only place that the full range of my choices are going to be available. Sin destroys what faith has to build upon. To get faith back, the foundation has to be re-set. (Which means I pretty much have to start over about umpteen times a day, some days!) It takes a creative act beyond me to even get a door that the Spirit can get through to tabernacle with me. He pretty much has to show up with His own tent crew. The heavenly plan calls for all of Him and none of me, but I do not have the wherewithal (faith) to get myself out of the place He belongs in my heart. I have to let Him push me out, and put Himself in. I even have to ask Him for the faith required to trust Him enough to do that. Oh. That dying and re-birthing stuff. Frankly, I think both take an act of creation. Even the dying part. Paul said he died daily. Bet he wasn’t doing that by an act of his yetzer ha-ra!
Very well said both Skip & Laurita! Thank you, Father, for a love that is inexpressible & pure. Let our heart’s desires be as Yours. Please give us new hearts!
Very true, Laurita, both you and Skip hit the nail on the head today – on my head!
A timely ‘word’ for reflection as we enter into a new year. Thanks Skip!!
I have to believe that YHVH told you to write this specifically for ME….as I’m struggling in this area….thank you for this….it helps me to understand where I am and what I really want…’bara’ NOT ‘yatsar’
Great article Skip. It seems like many these days are discovering they are but growing children who are eternal receivers of our Fathers eternal life. Once we discover that we have nothing to bring nothing to the table, receiving from the Father is easy. But how hard it is to discover this! Breaking after breaking is needed before we truly are humbled and discover our true place in this eternal relationship.
WHAT IS DAVID REQUESTING? TO GO BACK TO GEN 1:1 WHEN IT FIRST MENTION ,IN THE BEGGINNING YEHOVAH [CREATED]….
A NEW CREATION! AMEN
This was the most beautiful and accurate translation of the TRUE meaning of this Psalm ever! I am going to stop remodeling! A total demolition is required:) amein and amein!