Psalm 51 | Awareness of Sin

AIM Commentary

Discussion Questions

Sermon Resources

Key Quote

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  The recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation.

  Martin Luther

Key Illustration

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  A Deep Breath and a Turn

  There is an interesting history of the word repentance. The word in Hebrew means originally “to take a deep breath and sigh.” A deep feeling of sorrow, of remorse. Repentance at the root, at the very beginning, seems to have the idea that you realize that you have done something wrong and you feel badly about it. And you feel it deeply; it gets down deep inside you, and you groan or sigh or you breathe deeply.

  All of us know how that works. We know that part of repentance. We know the part that has to do with our feelings. The interesting thing is that use of the word didn’t last long in the Bible. Very quickly the writers began to substitute another word for the same action, and this other word meant “return” or “turn around and go.”

  Not a word of feeling at all, but a word of action. Under the influence of the prophets, repentance became not something you felt but something you did. And it’s essential you get that through your head if you are going to understand what the Bible means about repentance. You don’t repent by taking a deep breath and then feel better.

  You repent only when you turn around and go back or toward God. It doesn’t make any difference how you feel. You can have the feeling, or you don’t have to have the feeling. What’s essential is that you do something. The call to repentance is not a call to feel the remorse of your sins. It’s a call to turn around so that God can do something about them.

  Eugene H. Peterson

  Eugene H. Peterson, A Month of Sundays (The Crown Publishing Group, 2019), pp. 51-53.

Liturgical Resources

Call to Worship

• Adapted from Psalm 51 (ESV)
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  Leader: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
  according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
  People: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

  Leader: For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
  People: Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight,
  so that you may be justified in your words, and blameless in your judgment.

  Leader: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

  People: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
  Leader: Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

  People: Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

  Leader: Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
  People: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

  Adapted for liturgical use.

  Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway Publishing

  Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Prayer of Confession

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  Now the careful words of repentance
  Must be said for me.
  He from whom I hope for the robe of immortality
  And the ring of immortality
  And the ring of dignity,
  Who for my arrival slays
  The fattened calf from the herd,
  Whose blood restored
  The structure of the whole world,
  And whose blood in the figure of a lamb
  Sprinkled and painted on thresholds,
  By whom the hand of Didymus is pressed in
  And the house of Rahab the harlot is saved.

  Moucan

  Taken from “The Prayers of Moucan”, in Celtic Spirituality (Series: Classics of Western Spiritiuality) Trans., Oliver Davies, (Paulist Press, 2000). Modernized and adapted for Corporate Worship by Stuart Strachan Jr.

Assurance of Pardon

• Inspired by Psalm 32:5
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  When we speak of our sin
  When we stop the silence and cover up
  God is faithful to forgive our guilt.
  Thanks be to God!

  Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Benediction

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  Leader: Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

  Dustin Ray

  Adapted for liturgical use.

  Bible Translation: WEB World English Bible eBible.org

  Scripture quotations marked (WEB) are from the World English Bible. The World English Bible is in the public domain.