The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Psalm 51: Repent Like David

Episode Date: December 18, 2020

Sin affects all of us, and the story of David in 2 Samuel proves that. Today, Jeff explains how praying with Psalm 51 can help us prepare our souls for confession, through the example of David. Snippet from the Show “There is no such thing as private sin, it affects all of us, all of mankind.” - Pope St. John Paul II Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavens show, Episode 197, Psalm 51. Repent like David. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, thanks for joining me on the show today coming up on Christmas, just right around the corner. If you're listening to the show, out of sequence, that's what we're facing right now, is just a number of days before Christmas, and we're in the middle of the whole COVID-19. It's a Christmas like no other Christmas we've ever experienced before.

And one of the things that we are really encouraged to do as Christians, is to go to confession, and that's something you can do before Christmas, make the path straight, make the road straight. As John the Baptist talks about, we do this in Advent, we prepare our heart for the coming of the Lord. And there's a lot of ways that you can do that, but the principal way is to go to confession. Now, that's a little bit hard for some people, given COVID right now, But I do believe, with all of my heart, that if you seek confession in your diocese, you will find it. You will find it. And priests are going out of their way, yay to priests.

We love you guys, going way out of their way to make this wonderful sacrament available to us. You know, when I came back in the Catholic Church, back into the Catholic Church, I should say, I always got this language coming from my Protestant friends, which I know they meant well, but they would say, well, why would you go to a confessional and confess your sins when you can go straight to Jesus and confess your sins? And, you know, at first glance, that sounds like a good question. Why not just go to Jesus? But when you think about it, in the sacrament of reconciliation in the Catholic Church, it is going to Jesus. That's what confession is, is we go to Jesus, and the priest is in Persona Christi. The priest is there in the place of Christ to hear and to absolve you of

your sins and to give you some correction to deal with this. And so we do go straight to Jesus, but in this sacrament of reconciliation, we get more than just walking off in a field and saying, I'm sorry, not that that's bad, but we get more. And so when you go to confession, you are going, straight to Jesus. And that is really what is called for before Christmas. And on today's show, I'm going to talk about Psalm 51, because that is the big, big Psalm of repentance, as David really found himself in a terrible situation, sin greatly. We'll talk about that, and then went to the Lord. And so there's a lot of different points in this Psalm that I would recommend you use before you go to confession. Before you go to confession, take Psalm 91 and read it. It really is tremendous.

Okay, a little housekeeping here. If you do have questions for the show or you have ideas for the show, I'll put everything in the show notes. You can get in touch with me, the email, and send me your questions, send me your ideas. And you can text my name for all the show notes. And you can text it to, see, my name is Jeff Kavens, one word, Jeff Kavens, and you can text it to 33777. And a quick reminder, Father Mike Schmitz and I are working on a one-year read-through-the- Bible, and he's going to be doing that, and I'm going to be joining him periodically. A lot of fun. We're taking the Great Adventure Bible, and we're going to read in chronological order. We're going to read the narrative. One day at a time, Father is going to do it. And if you'd like to sign up for that,

It's a little podcast. You can take it with you as you're going to work, listen in the car, at lunch break, whenever. You can go to ascensionpress.com and get that information. In fact, I'll put it in the show notes. And if you're interested in going to the Holy Land with Father Mike and myself, this coming June, you can go to my website, jeffcavens.com, under pilgrimages, and you can sign up. We had a lot of people last year, and then it was all shut down because of COVID. but we're optimistic that we're going to be able to do that this coming June, and we would love

to have you with us for this perhaps once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's like none other, and it really does something for your life. Okay, let's turn our attention to how do we go to confession in light of Psalm 51? Well, Psalm 51, first of all, to give you the context of Psalm 51. The historical background for this tremendous Psalm is 2 Samuel 11 and 12. Second Samuel 11 and 12. And what happened was David was staying in Jerusalem while his armies were battling the Ammonites. And as he stayed in Jerusalem, and if you've ever been to the city of David, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here. Because on that peninsula, jetting out from the Temple Mount in the southern direction,

if you're there, you can look down across the valley and see the tops of houses. And this is what David did when his armies were out to war. He was out and he looked over and saw Bashiba bathing on top of one of the houses. And apparently she was quite good-looking, and David called for her, and he had a sexual relationship with her. She ended up pregnant, and then David conspired to have Uriah, her husband, killed in battle. That's serious stuff. That is very serious stuff.

On a number of points, one is adultery, and the other is murder. He's complicit. And he's got himself in a world of trouble here. And after doing it, he feels the... the results of it in his soul, in his mind, and in his body. And I imagine that he thought about this for a while, and it wasn't until Nathan, the prophet, told David a bit of a little story. He told him a little story, and I'll share a little bit of that with you here. It's from 2nd Samuel Chapter 12. Now, he's setting a trap for David, because he's talking about sounding like he's talking

about somebody in the kingdom that did something wrong, and David was very upset with this guy, and the guy ended up becoming David, because Nathan was telling a story about David, and it goes like this, the rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little eulam, which he had bought, and he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now, there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had

come to him. Now, at this point in the story, in verse five, David's anger was kindled greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, and you can imagine with, with like fire coming from his nostrils and smoke, you know, he said, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Listen to this, Nathan said to David, you are the man. Wow. You. You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your bosom and gave you the houses, the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would

add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight. You have smitten Yeriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. For you

it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. And then David said to Nathan, he said, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. And David, you can go right from that statement of David saying, I have sinned against the Lord and move right into Psalm 51. Now, what I'd like to do is I'd like to go through Psalm 51 with you and give you a number of key phrases and concepts that make up this tremendous repentance, this tremendous, you know, searching of the heart and looking to see where my heart is at before going to confession. Now, David, he mingles this introspection with the words to the Lord all in one beautiful psalm, and that psalm can become your psalm.

We'll talk about that next. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ chose corrupt, broken, imperfect, sinful men to be the foundation. of his church. And because these broken and perfect men chose to remain in relationship with Jesus, they became saints. And they were used by Jesus to transform hearts and minds 2,000 years later. I invite you to check out my book, Broken and Blessed,

where you'll find practical tools to overcome habitual sin, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to walk with an imperfect church. toward a perfect God who is calling all of us to perfection over time. To order the paperback book or audiobook, broken and blessed, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. All right, are you ready? Now, I don't know what's going on in your life.

I don't know if you're like David and you're guilty of the type of sin that David was guilty of. Maybe not, probably not. that's a pretty heavy duo of sins, David, with murder and adultery. But no matter what you have done or what you have not done, what we have, you know, in mass we say, forgive me of what I have done and what I have not done, right, failed to do. It has consequences in your heart. And if you're like David, who is a man after God's own heart, you're going to feel that in your heart. You remember in Psalms where Saul sinned, didn't he? He sinned, but what was his response?

Keep it off the front page of the paper. Why do we got to talk about this? Come on, let's move on. But not David. David had a heart after God, and it was deep in repentance. Let's look at it. Psalm 51, this is to the choir master, a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. He starts off in verse one and says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love, according to thy abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Did you hear that in verse one right there? Have mercy on me, he says to the Lord. Have mercy on me.

That is such a beautiful, beautiful phrase. And this idea of mercy, the Hebrew word is Raham. Raham. And it's very much related to the Hebrew word Recham, which means womb. And so there's a beautiful teaching here about Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, as a source of mercy. And from the womb, Recham, comes the mercy, Raham, to the world. And so it speaks of this type of mercy that a mother would have, a love that a mother would have, even for a child in the womb. He pleads with God. Have mercy. Have Raham on me, oh God. And so he starts off his confession with, I need your mercy, Lord. I need your mercy. I can go to no other. No one has the answer for me.

No talk show, no DVDs, nothing on television, Netflix, nothing. It's your mercy that I need, oh God. Notice that David isn't trying to explain it away and, you know, tell. God, well, given the circumstances and so forth, and I had a little wine and this and that. No, he just says, have mercy on me. In verse two, he goes and says, he goes on and he says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. So right after asking God for mercy, he turns his attention to, Lord, wash me from my iniquity, get this away from me, cleanse me from my sin, oh God. He's not interested in just recognizing. He's not interested in just reconciliation and saying, can we put this behind us? Can I just return to my job and like nothing's

happened here? No. He says, I need to be cleansed from this iniquity in my life. And so I'd pause there and ask you, when you go to confession, so far these first two verses, do you ask for mercy? Is that the intent? Lord, have mercy on me. And Lord, wash me thoroughly. I want this out of me. I want to be cleansed from this sin. I don't want to mentally. just covered up. I really want to be cleansed in my heart. In verse three, he says, For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. If you ever been involved in such a sin that you just couldn't get it off your mind? It followed you day and night, tortured you, blamed you. Boy, that can be heavy. And that's what David is experiencing. He says,

wherever I go, that sin is before me. I can't get away from this. I can drink. I can do all kinds of things, but it comes back to me. Oh, God. Verse four, another major point, against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. So he comes to the conclusion in his marvelous repentance when he says, Lord, this is about you. This is about you. I have sinned against you and you alone. Now, some would argue and say, well, he sinned against Eurya too and against other people as well. And yes, he did. But here he's wrapping it all up into Lord. This was against you. And so often you see in the scripture that when somebody sins against somebody else, they will say,

sin against God. And that ties right into the New Testament teaching that this relationship we have with God is related to our relationship with others. If you have sinned against somebody else, don't go to the Lord and kneel before his altar, get up, go back and deal with it. So there's that interplay there. Verse 5, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me? It's kind of almost like a recognition of original sin, concupiscence, that we all deal with in our lives. Verse six, behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Isn't that beautiful?

He goes into the confessional, sort of speak, and not only does he say, have mercy on me and cleanse me, and I've sinned against you, he says, Lord, teach me. teach me i don't want to do this again teach me about how this works why i do what i do teach me wisdom in my secret heart and when we go to confession as catholics so often the priest will give you penance he will give you something to do that hopefully will teach you wisdom in your secret heart so that that was his next step verse seven purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. See, the goal of going to confession or the goal of repentance is that we will be washed and cleaned whiter than snow. Purge me with hyssop. Isn't it

interesting? That when Jesus was on the cross, they gave him something on a hyssop branch. Powerful. And then I love this one, verse 8. It goes on, fill me with joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Fill me with joy and gladness. Now, that tells me something about David, and I'm sure you've experienced it. I got my hand in the air. I've experienced it. When I sin, whether it's saying something to someone or an attitude or, you know, just out of steps with God, the joy and the gladness are gone. And anybody that says I can walk around in sin and still be filled with joy and gladness, no, they're not filled with God's joy and God's gladness. It just doesn't work that way. And so David is saying,

Lord, fill me with that joy. Fill me with that gladness. I miss it. I long for that joy. And I'm reminded of what one of the prophets said, they said, the joy of the Lord is my strength. and so he must have felt weak after this. My goodness, for a king to be joyless, no gladness, and feeling weak, broken. This is not what a king should do. 51.9, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. And then verse 10 is my favorite. It's my favorite here.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit. it within me. I love that. I love it. When you're on your knees going to confession, you could even take this psalm with you, and when you get ready to confess your sin, you could actually say these major points. And this one is so good. Oh, God, oh Jesus, created me a clean heart. I need a new heart, God. Put a new and right spirit within me. I know I have done wrong. Lord, give me that new and right spirit, clean my heart. Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. See, sin, sin is very dangerous. And David has this sense that the Holy Spirit may be taken from him. And he says, do not take thy spirit from me, O Lord. Verse 12, restore me.

Oh, he hits on this one again, doesn't he? Restore me to the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Boy, how many, you know, I was just thinking to this, how many times have you gone to confession? And when you are driving away, you just have this lightness of being. You have this, this light, joyful, new start of a heart. I've experienced that many times. And I think that you can experience that even if you are confessing venial sin. If you're confessing mortal sin, my guess is that you would have a tremendous new joy in your heart. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. And then he turns outward at that point.

When he says to God in verse 13, then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee. In other words, this is beautiful. What David is saying is that after I've confessed my sin, after I have been restored, after I have experienced the joy and the gladness of thy salvation, you know what? I've got some knowledge here. I've got some experience, and I'm going to teach transgressors your ways, God. And so I would really recommend to you that if you run up into people who are struggling with certain sins in their life and they talk to you about it, give them instruction, teach them

God's ways. Beautiful opportunity. And just like Peter, when he was dealt with by the enemy, Jesus said, when he is through, go and strengthen your brethren. And this is sort of the same idea that after you have gone to confession, teach transgressors your God's ways. Very, very powerful. Verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness. O God, thou God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing allowed of thy deliverance. Boy, that's a nice one on the way home from confession. And then he says in verse 15, O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. What do you think about that? That is a beautiful expression of the work that God has done in David, in his grand repentance. And I would, I would, I would,

suggest that. When you go to confession before Christmas on the way home, say, Lord, open up my lips and my mouth, I want to show forth thy praise and just be honest and give God praise. Delight in the Lord. Just do it. So often we don't. We don't. You know, we go back out of confession into the car. We get into the car. We turn into our favorite radio station and start singing or listening to news on the way home. why not just say to ourselves, I am not going to get involved in that after confession. I'm going to show forth thy praise. Psalm 5115 says, oh, Lord, isn't this good stuff? I'm just thinking about that as I'm going through this.

This is just gold. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Verse 16, for thou hast no delight in sacrifice, were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldest not be pleased. Wow. Do you know what that means? That means that if you don't go to confession, you can do all the rituals you want. You can do all of the things that we normally do. But that is not what pleases the Lord. And so we have to resist this idea that, yes, I know that I'm guilty of sin and I should go to confession, but I'm going to live and act like everything is okay. God isn't going to be pleased with that. I'll say that again, for thou hast no delight in sacrifice were I to

give a burnt offering. David knows that. And then Psalm 5117, the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit and a broken contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise. So that's so beautiful because he says, he says in verse 16, you don't delight in sacrifice if I were to give a burnt offering. But then in verse 17, he says, but the sacrifice that is acceptable to God, it's not a bull, it's not pigeons, it's not a lamb or a goat, it's a broken spirit. A crushed spirit, says one translation, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, thou will not despise. You see, that's the goal of repentance, is that you would have a broken contrite heart. I'm not talking about a broken spirit in the bad sense. I'm talking about a spirit that is pliable now in the hands of God.

Not a proud spirit. Not a selfish spirit. Not a self-righteous heart, but a broken spirit, a broken contrite heart. God will not despise that. And then the last two verses, we have Psalm 51, 18, and 19, do good to Zion in thy good pleasure. Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on thy altar. So I love the way this ends because David's sin, while it was personal with the adultery and the murder, it had effects in the kingdom. It jarred the kingdom. And so he ends with rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. him. My friend, if you're guilty of sin in your life, I really recommend you go to confession with

Psalm 51 and remember that at the end, if you're married and you have children, they have been affected, even though they don't know it. They've been affected. And that's what John Paul the second said in his writing on sin and repentance. He said that there is no such thing as private sin. It affects all of us, all of mankind. And so in our repentance, we should also take in mind, Lord, rebuild the walls of my family, rebuild the walls of my corporation, rebuild the walls of my extended family, rebuild the walls of my church, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Wow, that's some good stuff. And put that in a box, put a ribbon on it, wrap it up. That's my gift to you for Christmas, just days away from now. And that's what we're called to

is to go to confession. At the time of this recording right now, I have already planned to go to confession tomorrow. And I am printing this out. I have it printed out with those phrases that I gave you in bold, and I'm taking it with me. I'm going to do what I'm teaching, and I'm going to bring this to the Lord. Again, my friend, I'm praying for you. I love you, and I ask you to pray for me. and if you want the show notes, just simply type my name, Jeff Kavens, and text it to 33777. And if you want to go to Israel with Father Mike Schmitz and myself next June, go to my website, jeffcavens.com. And if you want to read the Bible with Father Mike in a year starting January 1st, it'll be in the show notes. I'll give you all the material in the show notes of how to do that at ascensionpress.com.

Look forward to seeing you there. Let me pray for you. name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, we love you. We love you, O God. We raise our hands to you and proclaim liberty and freedom in you. Lord, deliver us from sin, create an us a clean heart, O God, restore us to the joy of thy salvation. Lord, I lift up my friends now and ask that you would give them a heart for you, not a heart like Saul, but a heart for you to come to you in repentance, in contrition, and experience that freedom before the great, great, great day of your birth, Christmas. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. I love you.

See you next week. Thank you.