Transformation and Psalm 51

Psalm 51 reads as follows from the New American Standard Bible:

1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion 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. 
4Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge. 
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me. 
6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 
9Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities. 
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
11Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit. 
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You. 
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 
15 O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise. 
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering. 
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. 
18 By Your favor do good to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem. 
19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar

This psalm brings to point a number of strong messages

The forgiveness needed is at the level of soul and the sins are at the level of soul and are a danger to the soul

While a good portion of this psalm is about forgiveness, it is also strongly constituted to the overall relationship with the Lord, both in its direction and its expanse.

This psalm brings forth images of the greatest expanse from the Far East to the farthest west,

Encompassing all the know possibilities, yet with all that is out there, there is no other third party involved

And the Lord will take you anywhere you need to go.

In this psalm, David is speaking at the level of soul, and everything about the soul points to the Lord as "you alone."

People even within practiced prayer may have some difficulty orienting themselves to this reality and this reality should seal the deal that this is the route to go and the only route to go.

The beginnings of prayer can use the words of this psalm, if it was good enough for David it is enough for anybody else in history as it evolves, and the words can be brought forth at the beginning of any given request that it is " you alone " Lord

While this may be an unspoken understanding, David himself did speak it, and we can follow suite and also speak these words, as we initially bring forth our prayers and requests to the Lord.

This psalm strongly highlights the transformative nature of the presence of the Lord to even one individual

This transformation can be as far ranging as the East is from the West, opening up a new landscape of blessings and goodness from the presence of the Lord that can in all ways be trans-formative.

This psalm speaks of a situation, a place that is white than snow.

Even you have ever been to a place like Alaska, where a vast snowstorm at the change of seasons can bring about a whole new transformed look to a landscape that had previously only had a little snow at the mountain tops, you can see that there is nothing that is whiter than snow.

Even in the later portion of the gospel of Mathew, chapter 28, it speaks of an angel that was as white as snow, not whiter than snow, which indicates that within this psalm the far reaches, as whiter than snow take on mystical portions of transformation. This is a place, a space that is beyond.

And all of the sudden, everything is changed

But it is important to understand that even without the transformation, East from West, the Lord still has his sights on the soul of the psalmist, even in whatever ways he was both knowingly and unknowingly wayward.

The Lord does not have to transform somebody and their life situations, within forgiveness, but may in fact do this out of great mystery.

And while the transformation depicted in this psalm is towards an individual, it could be also coming towards others through an individual in the manner of intercessory prayer

Even as nature itself presents us with great mystery, so may the actions of the Lord as they are pointed to an individual, and how they may be brought realms that are otherwise an impossibility, places " whiter than snow", places that we don't know as there is nothing we know of that fits that description in nature.

The road the Lord is pointing to may include transformation, but whether it includes transformation or not, its arrival can only be from the hand of the Lord, as this psalm says, "you alone" and everything this psalm is talking about is directly from the Lord and isolated to the direct relationship with the Lord.

An individual would never find through any other source, the transformation that this psalm speaks of.

People try for many things that are championed as almost life savers, wealth, position, power, fame, relationships, and it might get to the level where they think these things can be transformative

But the level and places of transformation spoken of in this psalm can only come about through the hand of the Lord.

Without the Lord's actions, this transformation cannot happen.

The image of cleansing means that the work of readying and reading the soul for transformation to follow, is also of the Lord in working in agreement with the free will repentance and turning of heart to the Lord and his works of transformation.

The only hope of transformation as presented in this psalm is the presiding presence of the Lord to one individual.

Secret sins might include stances and positions that offend the Lord, positions that might be concealed in that the person does not bring about actions regarding these positions, but if they were to be teachers or preachers or leaders, they would be sharing the wrong information to the people they were addressing

An example might be the belief of the reverse Robin Hood, rob the poor to help the rich. Someone might not actually do this, but if they believe it is okay, and they were put in the position of a teacher, they might also teach this to others.

Even sins such as this require real contrition, as this psalm says the Lord is looking for a contrite heart to work with and this includes addressing the secret sins with the help and aid of the Lord in enabling you to do this, so you can bring about full contrition, from which the Lord may work miracles of transformation.

Pride might be one example, that can drag someone further down a given road of perdition, in that pride keeps someone in a given set of beliefs and ideals, and they need to break this pride to get with the Lord in the mold of a contrite heart, to receive what the Lord really does have for them that can indeed be miraculous and transformative to what they otherwise would have considered impossible.

The presence of angels may be involved in the transformation as David mentions them in other psalms.

The transformations can take on any form, any direction, any possibility, it can happen by the still waters or by the great breakers of the sea, it can happen in the inner recesses of the heart or in the great expanses of the outer world, it can happen in and through other people but the key is to understand the actions behind the transformation are from the hand of the Lord and only from the hand of the Lord.