Devotional: October 13, 2025

During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:1-12

Devotional

Every one of us at one time or another has made a mistake. (If you have never found this to be the case, I’d suggest that you sit down with those who know you best and ask them for some clarification.) Most often, these mistakes are minor indiscretions that result in some hurt feelings to those whom we have wronged or a need to think through how we can approach a similar situation differently in the future. But there are times when one small mistake leads to a larger one. That can become a slippery slope, where the small issue becomes one that gets us called on the carpet in a more severe manner than we would ever have anticipated.

When King David wrote the words of our Psalm for this week, he had allowed his wandering eyes to turn to lust, which had led to adultery, which then snowballed to the point where he ended up ordering one of his generals to have Uriah the Hittite killed by the inhabitants of the city of Rabbah. His actions were disgraceful in the extreme, showed a complete lack of awareness of how he was to behave as God’s anointed king, and resulted in the death of David and Bathsheba’s child, as well as the writing of one of the most poignant confessional prayers that we possess.

The opening verses of this Psalm point us to the awareness that God desires to offer us His mercy and also offer us a reminder about moments of confession. When we offer confession, we are truly doing two different things: we are confessing to the Lord about the state of our souls and the sins that we have committed, and we are confessing that we trust that He will forgive us of our sins. To be willing to confess requires that we trust (or at least want to trust) that we will be forgiven rather than punished. We can see this duality in the moment from David’s life that leads to him writing this Psalm: “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die’” (2 Samuel 12:13).

Importantly, in verse 5, David reminds himself and the Lord that his sinfulness has been inherent in him since before his birth. This understanding should not ever be used as an excuse for our sin. Rather, it should help point us toward our complete dependency upon God for forgiveness, and, through the freedom that we have been offered through Christ Jesus, to adopt a way of living where we have the choice to not sin.

For Reflection

Where do you struggle to be the most honest with God about your failings?
Have you had a time in your own life when you have seen your mistakes grow and grow when you have not sought to address them with the Lord? What helped you to get out of that cycle?

Prayer

Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy upon us when we fail to live as you have called us to live. Have mercy upon us when we believe that we do not need your forgiveness and when we believe that we can handle all that is before us on our own. Open our eyes to the reality of how much we need you, of how we cannot accomplish all that we believe we can. Lead us to the places where we might confess before you both our sin and the knowledge that you will forgive us. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.