Psalm 51 and Making Choices

I've gained a new appreciation for Psalm 51 this week. It's a fairly familiar Psalm, but I never took note that it was written after Nathan confronted David about his choice to sin - first with Bathsheba, and then with the murder of her husband. David knew he had sinned. It must have felt like a punch in the stomach when Nathan came to him and pointed out that both he and God knew his sin. We so often deceive ourselves by thinking that these secret sins really are secret. We make wrong choices every day don't we? It may not be adultery - but every day we choose some sort of sin--to be unkind, to gossip, to lie, to covet. We may not think anyone notices, but what a reminder that God does. He knows it all. We're so naked in front of Him we don't even know we're naked! But still--Psalm 51 reminds us that we He is a gracious God, full of lovingkindness, full of compassion to forgive us. He cleanses us from our sin when we ask it of Him, we don't need to hang on to it. Every wrong thing we do, we do it against God, we are evil in His sight, because there can be no good thing in us without the Holy Spirit. He is right to call us sinful/evil people. But still . . . He desires us to know truth in the deepest part of us, He died so that we can be scrubbed clean--cleaner even than the whitest snow with the sun sparkling off from it. We ask Him to hide His face from our sins, but what a mistake that would be. Only He can create in us clean hearts, and instill us with a steadfast spirit. We can implore Him not to withdraw from us and know that He will not - His Holy Spirit is His gift to us. He will restore us to the joy of His salvation, all because He loves us and we seek after Him. He will open our lips to sing His praise. Hearts that are broken from our sinfulness, hearts that are full of regret for our sin, are the sacrifice that He desires. He longs to restore us to a right relationship with Him. We have only to ask Him and He will do it.