The More, the More, the More and More
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Psalm 51:1-131.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. 5. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8. Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. 9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. 12. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee.
Let’s break it down to the bottom line. We need God. We desperately, completely and absolutely need God. The problem is we edge Him out during our day. We forget where we came from. We don’t remember whose we are. I don’t know about you, but after reading these verses I feel so relieved and refreshed. We can’t hide our true selves from God, so just giving everything to Him, in and of itself relieves stress and anxiety.
I don’t take this passage to be a self-loathing, debasing series of statements. Rather, a confession or realization not that we are nothing but that we are nothing without God. We have no intrinsic value unless it is as a child of God. Without our souls, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are like all the other creatures God made. He loves them all, but we are His precious, coveted, priceless creations for which and about which everything else was created.
That thought alone is enough to send us to our knees! We are not worthy of that much love! We are not capable of earning the right to be God’s precious ones, and yet we are! We are worth it, because God made us. He is the source and center of our worthiness—it's not of our own making, but of His. I feel like David must have felt when I have forgotten this truth. When I fail to rest in God, to turn everything over to Him, when I think I can go out on my own and “run the world” my way, and fail miserably, that’s when I fall on my face, in the dirt, calling out to God.
We can rejoice because we are His beloved. He lets us wallow around in self-pity and self-recrimination for a while, until we get it all out of our systems. Hey, that sounds like a day in the life of my classroom full of three-year olds! God probably has a similar vision of us: He knows our potential, already planned our future, lets us have our little fits and bouts of independence and defiance and then welcomes us back into His loving arms. Or as we say in my classroom, “OK, I need a hug now.” One the little girls in my class often throws open her arms, looks up at me and says, “I love you the more, the more, the more and more.” If that’s not a reason to get out of bed in the morning, I don’t know what is!
We say, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” God replies, “I love you the more, the more, the more and more.” We beg God, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” God’s response is, “I love you the more, the more, the more and more.” We continue, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” God, in his mercy and infinite patience repeats, “I love you the more, the more, the more and more.” Get it? Try reading the verses of this passage one by one, inserting, “I love you the more, the more, the more and more” after each one. What were you getting ready to say about a bad day on the horizon?
My prayer today is that no matter what you’ve done or haven’t done; no matter how much success you celebrated or the miserable failures you have experienced; no matter what,
no matter what, you’ll remember God loves you the more, the more, the more and more. And that He waits for you with loving arms open wide.
Mary
