Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Psalm 51(50):10
How many times in your life have you ever felt like you needed a do-over in your life? We all have, probably many times. The student wishes he could retake a test or rewrite a paper. The fired worker wishes he did some things different. There is regret when a marriage fails. It is many times impossible to take back a hurtful comment. Most of us have had the experience of losing a friend and wish we could go back and somehow take a different fork in the road. And more times than we can count, we’ve all felt like we’ve gone away from God because of a sin we have committed.
Most of us have heard of David in the Old Testament. David was the boy shepherd who killed the giant Goliath with a slingshot. David was later anointed king. He was popular and powerful. He was also greedy. Not satisfied with his own wife and family, he committed adultery with Bathsheeba, the wife of his friend Uriah. He then had Uriah transferred to the front lines of fighting, as Uriah was a soldier. He told his top soldiers that when the battle started, they were to go away from Uriah, so that Uriah would be killed. He had committed adultery and essentially committed murder. He was visited in 2 Samuel 12 by Nathan the prophet, who called him out for what he had done. He told David that his son would die. David was distraught. He knew that only God could forgive what he had done, and this is when he wrote the 50th Psalm, asking God to create in him a clean heart. David is one of the ancestors of Christ. Despite his grievous sin, God didn’t give up on David, just like He won’t give up on us.
Thankfully, when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, there is always a way back. It is called repentance. And repentance begins with desire. There is no waiting period. One can express that desire at ANY time.  The 50th Psalm (Psalm 51 is most Western Bibles) is the Orthodox Psalm of Repentance. It is offered during the Orthros service every morning, as a reminder not only that we need to be repenting, but as a COMFORTING prayer, asking for God to create a clean heart in us, to give us a new and right spirit, and to “restore unto me the joy of Your salvation” (v. 12). It is offered by the celebrant priest or bishop prior to the Great Entrance, as a gentle reminder of the importance of repentance.
Whenever I am in a time of sorrow, or sadness for what I’ve done, the 50th Psalm comes to my mind. I may not always be able to be forgiven by someone I have wronged, even if I’m sorry and repentant. But I can always come to God with repentance and count on Him to forgive and restore me.
Where is the practical application? If we are supposed to be working towards theosis, to become like God in our behavior, then we must not only repent to God, but make repentance towards one another. And more important, when one comes to us with a genuinely repentant heart, and asks us to “create a clean heart” and a “new spirit” within the relationship, ideally we are supposed to show the heart of the Lord and forgive and restore. Easier said than done of course.
This is not a mandate to go out and forgive your greatest enemy. But what a great start it would be for you to forgive a friend, and to restore a friendship to the fullness of what it could be. Today’s prayer takes three verses from Psalm 50/51 (v. 10-12). Pray this for yourself. Recall the parts of your relationship with God that need fixing and go at them with a clean heart. Think of your relationships with other people—go to them today with a clean and renewed heart. And most important, allow your friends to come to you in the same way. None of us go to church on a daily basis, but try to make this Psalm, or at least these three verses, part of your daily prayer life:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Make a new start today!