LentDay 1
Mercy first
Ash Wednesday · Psalm 51: Create in Me a Clean Heart
For today
Lent opens with the Church's great prayer of confession. It begins with God's steadfast love, not with our failure, and it ends with a broken heart he will not despise.
Begin with these verses
verse 1Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. verse 2Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
In Christ
How this psalm points to Jesus
A theme the whole Bible completes in Christ · verse 1
The mercy this psalm pleads for is given at the cross. God made the sinless one to be sin for us, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
verse 7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. verse 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. verse 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Optional. Kept only on this device, and never counted.