A CLEAN HEART PSALM 51:10

       The word “create” appears in the book of Psalms only one time, and the word  “created” appears four times.  The Hebrew word “bara”  means create, and it is also used of the past tense in English.  “Create” means “to set going”, or “to bring into existence.”  In that sense it is possible for man or even beavers to create.  Men create works of art or literature, and beavers create dams.  In the strictest sense, however, create means to make something physical out of nothing, and only God can do that.  Matter (atoms) is anything that has weight, and takes up space.  The creation of matter is something that only God can do. 

Evolutionists who deny the existence of God occasionally use the word “create,” but it seems obvious to anyone that matter cannot create anything.  Evolutionists now use the word “design ” sometimes, but there can’t be a design without a designer, but   they reject the Designer.

Victonious Strigelius back in the 16th century said that “This psalm is the brightest gem in the whole book, and contains instruction so large, and doctrine so precious that the tongue of angels could not do justice to the full development.”  This psalm is often called the sinner’s guide.  Athanasius recommended that all Christians repeat it when they awake at night.  It is a psalm that I often qu ote on broadcasts as a pr ayer, so that I might enjoy the power of a clean heart, and a humble spirit.

 David wrote this psalm in which he cried,

 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (vs,10)

David lived a thousand years before Calvary, and he had not the privilege of calling upon a crucified Saviour.  He knew not about the new birth.  But he did have a very keen sense of his sinfulness as a mortal man.  In verse 1 of Psalm 51 he pleads for mercy, and speaks of his transgressions.  In verse 2 he again speaks of his sin.  In verse 3 he acknowledges his transgressions, and says his sin is ever before him.  In verse 4 he again acknowledges his sin, and speaks of his evil.  In verse 5 he laments that he was shapen in iniquity, and was conceived in sin.  Before there can be cleaning, there must be an awareness of a need for cleaning.  Nobody is going to set out to clean a clean house.

 Then David turns to the grace of God in verse 6, and exalts God Who alone is able to make the vilest sinner clean.  In verse 7 he calls upon God to purge him and wash him.  In verse 9 he pleads for forgiveness, and in verse 10, he prays,

 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” 

 David is so convicted of his sins that he knows that his only hope is a new heart.  Remodeling the old one will never do.  It is too blackened with sin.  It is too filled with iniquity.

 Had David been living a thousand years ago instead of three thousand years ago, he could have called upon the Lord for an application of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing.  Today the old heart is left to decay and die, and a new heart is created when we are born again, and the new heart is kept clean by the I John 1:9.  Psychologists and psychiatrists cannot understand the human psyche until they understand that man is a sinner who must have a new heart.  People do not need to be counseled as much as they need to obey God’s Word.

What did it require to create the physical heart that beats within our chests?  An organ so complex and endurable is a marvel of design and construction.  It is incredible that a muscle can work for a hundred years, and never rest; never miss a beat.  The heart is probably the most durable living organism on Earth.  Trees live for thousands of years, but they are unconscious, and grow extremely slow.  When God formed man of the dust of the earth, when He came to the heart, surely, He must have taken extra care in putting it together.  The notion that the heart evolved without any guidance or intelligent planning by an intelligent, living being, is to assert that matter can create itself.

 But David was calling upon God to create an even more complex and enduring thing.  David was referring to his soul, his very inmost being.  David’s soul was soiled by his blood guiltiness.  God paid an awful price to make it possible to create in us a clean heart. David’s old heart was hopeless.  It could not be repaired.  So vile was it that it was beyond hope.  David’s prayer today would be, “Forgive my sins, O God, and save me for Christ’s sake.”  Our old nature is left untouched by the grace of God.  God creates us a new man when we are born again.  The old heart is left in place to make us sick, and to torment us all of our life, and to be the target of Satan’s darts.  Our old heart is left to cause us to doubt, and to fear.  Our old heart is left to be redeemed at the resurrection. 

          Paul described his troubles caused by his old rotting heart in Romans 7:24. 

 “O wretched man that I am?  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 

 A body of death has a heart of death.  A dead heart, stored in formaldehyde will never pump a drop of life-supporting blood.  A dead soul will never raise to the Throne of Grace a word in prayer that the Lord will receive and respond to.  A dead heart, lying on a table beside an operating table, will never beat faster at the sight of a beautiful thing.  A dead heart, keeping alive one who has mocked at sin, will never throb to the melodies of old hymns.  A man must have a new heart, and it can be provided only by Him Whose voice startled the non-existent matter in Genesis 1:1, and caused it to come into existence?

David also craved a right spirit, and without a newly created heart, he was not able to have a right spirit.  David had enemies who were determined to kill him.  His enemies were chasing him to death.  Yet, David wanted a right spirit.  With a divinely created heart, David could have a right spirit.  That David had a right spirit is demonstrated time after time in his interaction with Saul, his bitter enemy.  David and his warriors saw Saul asleep, and his men wanted to go and kill Saul, and they could have done it, but David said “No.”  David mourned when he heard of the death of Saul.  With a newly created heart, we, too, can live in a way that will make us a powerful witness to the grace of God.  After God creates a new heart for us, we need be concerned only with keeping it clean.  Yes, the created heart gets soiled.  Our walk in the world every day, and the problems with the carnal, sin-blackened, and corrupted old heart, causes us to greatly need daily cleansing.  This is what the Saviour meant when He said to Simon Peter,

 “. . . He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.” 

 Jesus knew that Judas did not have a clean heart.  We are prone to sin, and wander away from the God Who loved us and gave Himself for us.  Further instruction is found in I John 1:9,

 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 We should glory and marvel in the grace of God more than anything else in human experience.  The grace of God that goes out to every human, offering forgiveness of sins when we don’t deserve to be forgiven.  When we understand that God will forgive anyone, no matter what his crime may be, or how long he has soaked in the crimson dye, God will forgive him if he will only come to God in faith believing and receiving.  I am struck as I read Jeremiah how the grace of God is sent forth to His erring people over and over again.  All of us have our various shortcomings and trespasses.  I have mine, and you have yours, but God is the God Who will cleanse us from all sin.  We can live with a clean heart if we live close to the gracious God Who is grace personified.

 In Verse 12 of our chapter, David pleads, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

  There is no cost in coming to Calvary.  The joy of God’s salvation is lost only when we forget it.  Keep in mind the moment you were born again.  Revel in that minute, and allow the joy of God’s salvation to be a flame in even the darkest time in life.  The joy of God’s salvation comes with a clean heart.  The joy of God’s salvation has seen the open grave.  It has been to the unemployment office, to the prison, to the nursing home.  The joy of God’s salvation will do us when we are dying. 

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  The God of creation will abundantly answer that prayer.  God wants to perform that creative act, and only the resistance of the individual prevents the Lord from creating a new heart for the unbeliever.

Below are reproduced verse 10 from two new  versions:

 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  NKJV (vs. 10).

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  NIV (vs. 10).

 I am left wondering why it was necessary to change the three words I have underlined. Doesn’t the Word of God place great importance even upon every jot and tittle? Is it not possible for one to be steadfast in sin? David did not want to be steadfast in the sin he was guilty of, he wanted to be right.  

 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18).

 To learn what God said, we must use His Word – it’d called the Authorized Version.