A Genesis Week

SCRIPTURE:  Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise. Psalm 51:7-15 MSG

THOUGHT: As a lover of good prose, I truly enjoy reading the paraphrase, The Message. It’s like seeing something old and valuable in a new and valuable way. I am especially touched by this passage from Psalm 51, the well-known psalm of repentance written after Nathan confronts David with his double commandment-breaking spree: adultery and murder.

The thing I notice most is David’s wholehearted trust in God his Savior. He comes boldly to the throne of grace, not trying to dumb-down his sin, explain or make excuses, or hold onto his pride – but boldly none-the-less. He doesn’t creep into the throne room and mutter. He loves God more than he loved his sin and is 100 percent confident that if God will forgive him, he will be cleaned up, set on his feet, dancing again, teaching others how not to sin, and singing anthems to God’s life-giving ways.

The phrase “shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life” was probably the phrase that first made me love Peterson’s paraphrase – it so captured my own need for a fresh start 20 years ago, at the same time capturing the big truth about our Big God who can do more than we ask or imagine. He who created the world can also shape a Genesis week from the chaos of our lives. I can testify to that!

So, if you need forgiveness (again), come boldly to the throne of grace, obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). That’s what King David did, and he found what he was seeking.

PRAYER: Oh God, we need your grace, mercy and forgiveness so much more than we ask for it. Help us come boldly, full of trust, and empty of pride and excuses.