Reading: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. Psalm 51:1

David felt his sin with Bathsheba very deeply in his heart. He lamented in Psalm 38:4, “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.”

Notwithstanding his acute sense of guilt, David bravely ventured upon God’s mercy. With such guilt, how might one exercise such “bravery” and confidence in God? David’s courage was based on his apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ.

David had a sense of divine love. David was aware that he had sinned against love, the same love that would welcome him back. Repentance is based on an awareness that we can return, and, indeed, that we must return. He knew that “a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

David had a sense of divine pardon. David later wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven” (Psalm 32:1). There is joy like none other when, in mercy, God gives you a sense of pardon.

David had a sense of divine cleansing. Psalm 51:7: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

David had a sense of divine merit. David knew that any release from guilt, any peace of mind, would be on the merits of God`s mercy in Christ. Psalm 51:1: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

Are you aware of your guilt and the pollution of sin? Step out with confidence on the promise of 1 John 1:9 and find peace: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

God blots out not only the cloud but the thick cloud, enormities as well as infirmities —Thomas Watson