An Ash Wednesday Reflection

Psalm 51, the assigned text for Ash Wednesday, is a confessional of sorts. The back-story goes like this: King David had decided to take another man’s wife (something you can do when you are the King.) and in so doing he had sinned against God, against his people and against another man’s family and like any sin there were consequences to his actions.

In this case David’s deception and infidelity, lead to a murder and a stillborn child. God saw the entire thing unfold and he sent Nathan, the prophet, to remind David that what he had done hadn’t gone unnoticed.

The one character trait that David had which made him “great” and a “man after God’s own heart” was that he was able to recognized his failure and turn in the right direction. Psalm 51 may be described as David’s journey back to God and it outlines for us some of the critical steps on that journey.

It began with confession:
“1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your 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.”

This is how OUR journey toward God begins. We have to be able to see ourselves as we really are, realize the physical and spiritual consequences of our brokenness and then be willing to let God work in our lives to heal us. Until we understand our need for God’s forgiveness we will never look for him or lean on him. We need to recognize our need before we will begin our journey in his direction.

This may be one of the great challenges of the Lenten season. We are supposed to use this time to remember who we are and what our need really is. We are supposed to give more time to building our relationship with this Jesus who was willing to sacrifice his life for us and then surrender more of our lives to his control.

But, for the most part, we have made Lent into a time when we give up unimportant things for no apparent reason and we have made a day that was set aside for us to sweep out all of the excess in our lives and prepare ourselves for this time of penitence into one of the largest hedonistic celebrations in the entire calendar year.

We are supposed to be learning to live humble and sacrificial lives by allowing God to give us a new heart and new desire to be like him. Like David said,

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

This isn’t magic. We are not attempting to manipulate God into giving us what we want. We can’t expect that ashes on our foreheads or a cross in our pockets will somehow make us different. We must come with a sincere desire to be made new and a willingness to surrender everything we have to God’s control.

And if this is done right (if our journey actually takes us into the presence of the living God) then we should see a change in our lives and it should be natural to us to want to share what we have found. Like David said,

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

And if God is making us new then it should be expressed in thanksgiving. Like David said,

15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

So, psalm 51 is for all of us who have found ourselves on the wrong end of the stick. If we are looking for healing then at some point we have to be willing to take our first step in God’s direction. Lent was meant to be that first step.

The Ash Wednesday ashes are a temporary reminder of our weakness and a testimony to our need for God’s forgiveness. The way we live our lives is meant to be an on-going testimonial to a Jesus who lives today and makes a difference in the lives of ordinary people like you and me. As David learned,

17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.