Wash Me Thoroughly

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2, WEB)

David wrote this after being confronted with a sin he had tried hard to bury, one that had cost real people real harm and that he had covered with more sin to keep it hidden. When the prophet finally named it to his face, he did not minimize it or spin it or manage his image. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. He asks to be washed thoroughly, which is the prayer of a man who knows the stain has gone deep into the fabric and that a surface rinse will not reach it.

What matters is the ground he stands on to ask. He does not appeal to his track record, to the giant he killed or the songs he wrote or his usefulness to God. He appeals only to God's steadfast love and abundant mercy. He has nothing to bring to the table but the confession itself, and he throws his whole weight on who God is rather than on anything he has done. That is the only honest place to pray from after a real fall, and it turns out to be more than enough.

A man in this fight can feel the dirt so persistently, day after day, that he starts to believe he is a lost cause, beyond the reach of any washing. David's prayer says otherwise. The one who made you is both willing and able to cleanse what you cannot cleanse yourself, and he does the thorough kind of washing, not the surface kind that leaves the stain waiting underneath. You are asking the right person, and you are asking on the right basis, which is his character and not yours.

God, have mercy on me according to your steadfast love. I cannot wash this off on my own. Wash me thoroughly, and make me clean where I could never reach.