King David did some really bad things. It’s hard to read in the Bible about David’s sins. He committed adultery with a married woman. Then he had her husband killed. Then he covered it up. It’s Ash Wednesday—a day for confessing our sin. For repenting. King David needed to confess his sin!
Thankfully, he did. But not the way we might expect. David wrote Psalm 51 as a song of repentance. His convicted heart confessed his sin to God. But listen to what David wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). David’s sin was deeper than adultery. His sin was worse than murder. Even before he had ever lusted or killed, he desperately needed God’s forgiveness. Those really bad things were just the outward signs of his true problem: A sinful heart.
On Ash Wednesday, may God’s Word lead us to turn to God in repentance—as King David did—and confess our sin. But we don’t just confess a few sins. We don’t just say, “I did this once,” and “I did that a few times.” Our problem is so much deeper. Our hearts have been sinful from birth, sinful from the day our mothers conceived us. So this is what we confess, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”
And God does. God has had mercy on you and me. In his inexplicable grace, he sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and to win for us forgiveness and eternal life. Take God up on his promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). On Ash Wednesday—and every day—come to God with your sinful heart and receive from him the peace and joy that come from Jesus’ forgiveness.
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