Just a Reminder

Wash me thoroughly from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.  Psalm 51:2 NASB

Guilt/ sin – Jonathan Sacks makes a very important point about guilt.  Do you remember?

“. . . Judaism is overwhelmingly a guilt rather than a shame culture.  Shame attaches to the person.  Guilt attaches to the act. . . In a shame culture, wrongdoers tend either to go into exile, where no one knows their past, or to commit suicide. . . Guilt makes a clear distinction between the act of wrongdoing and the person of the wrongdoer.  The act was wrong, but the agent remains, in principle, intact.  That is why guilt can be removed, ‘atoned for,’ by confession, remorse, and restitution.”[1]

In this verse we have two separate categories of disrupted relationship.  The first is ʿāwōn, meaning “iniquity, guilt.”

עָוֹן (ʿāwōn). Iniquity, guilt or punishment for guilt. [The derivative noun ʿāwōn occurs with only the derived, abstract theological notion of the root: “infraction, crooked behavior, perversion, iniquity, etc. . . When the distortion pertains to law it means ‘to sin, to infract, to commit a perversion/iniquity.’^[2]

The second is ḥaṭṭāʾt.  This is the word for missing the mark.  In its verbal form, “The verb has the connotation of breach of civil law, i.e. failure to live up to expectations.”^[3]  In a religious context, this means a failure to observe God’s Torah.  “In so acting, man is missing the goal or standard God has for him, is failing to observe the requirements of holy living, or falls short of spiritual wholeness.”^[4]

With these two Hebrew words in mind, what is David really saying?  He asks God to wash away the stain of his crooked behavior.  That stain is metaphorically attached to him, that is, what he did and what he needs removed is the outer consequences of his perverse act.  This is the public persona he has foisted upon himself.  In addition, David asks for purification cleansing.  Removing the stain clinging to his public reputation isn’t enough.  He must also experience inner restitution, a purification process that will rinse away the effects that this outward action have had on his inner conscience.  Both are needed.  Both are necessary.

What we learn is that outward recovery which erases the damage done by willful acts doesn’t complete the job.  The public image might be restored but the inner man still needs decontamination.  The inside of the pot must also be made clean.

Topical Index: guilt, shame, ʿāwōn, ḥaṭṭāʾt, sin, infraction, Psalm 51:2

[1] Jonathan Sacks  Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: Leviticus: The Book of Holiness (Maggid Books & The Orthodox Union, 2015), pp. 250-251.

^[2] Schultz, C. (1999). 1577 עָוָה. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 650). Moody Press.

^[3] Livingston, G. H. (1999). 638 חָטָא. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 277). Moody Press.

^[4] Ibid.