![]() ![]() He can’t just grit his teeth, try harder and make his own heart change. ![]() He has to depend upon God to do it within him. Through repentance-acknowledging his sin-David recognizes he can’t change his own heart. No wonder David needed a heart transformation, both a re-creation and a renewal. He exclaims, “I have sinned against the Lord” (verse 13). Hearing all that Nathan says finally causes David to recognize his great sin. Then Nathan describes the ways God will give David and his family many harmful circumstances thus communicating how seriously David has sinned and that sin has many repercussions. Nathan has to clearly say, “You are the man!” ( 2 Samuel 12:7). Even after hearing Nathan relate a fictional story to David about a sinful man who killed the beloved lamb of a poor man, David’s hardened heart doesn’t recognize Nathan’s story as a metaphor for what David has done. ![]() David has deceived his own heart to think he can have anything he wants, and he can get away with his sins. The prophet Nathan has come to David to confront him about David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and David’s selfish plan for the murder of Bathsheba’s husband ( 2 Samuel 12:13). The context of David’s words in verse 10 and the whole of Psalm 51 is sobering. What Is the Context of Psalm 51:10 and 'Create in Me a Clean Heart'? It’s not until we are in heaven that all our old sinful motives will no longer influence us ( Philippians 1:6). It’s where everything else springs from.Įven after a person becomes a “new creation,” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) by becoming a Christian, he is still influenced by his old nature. That’s why having a pure heart is so important. It is the natural condition of man, the same as our motives. The Hebrew word for “ heart” is leb and commentators define it as the inner person, the self, the base upon which thought and emotion are energized. David is asking God to take away any motive of his heart that is selfish, harmful, and reject God’s rightful place as Lord and Master. The Hebrew word tahor means clean, pure, and without foreign matter. In the context of David’s words in Psalm 51, David is praying that God will take his already existing sinful heart and renew it with purity. The Hebrew word bara, which is “create” in English refers to both creating something from scratch out of nothing, and also reforming something already existing. Let’s look at the elements of this phrase, “create in me a clean heart.” What do the words mean? What is David asking God to do? What Does Create in Me a Clean Heart Mean? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (ESV). Jeremiah 17:9-10 states these ideas in the strongest terms. You are basically good so your heart leads is right.” Sometimes there’s also the attitude, “You don’t need to involve anyone else in your decision making. Most often it turns into a kind of philosophy that if you feel like it, you should do it. ![]() In fact, Proverbs 16:2 urges us to know, “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.”The NIV words it: “ All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” Unfortunately, when current culture gives us the message to follow our heart, the evaluation of our motives isn’t included. As a result, it’s dangerous to only depend upon our inner being which can steer us the wrong way. If our heart is supposed to guide us, why did David write in Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (ESV)? His words indicate a human heart-not the physical but the spiritual-isn’t always pure. The wording is often “follow your heart.” The concept seems innocuous and even comforting. There’s a lot of talk today about trusting your heart. ![]()
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