CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART?

Friday 18 July

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:10-11

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV)

Have you ever sang songs growing up and then came to the realisation that what you were singing didn’t match up with who you are in Christ, or am I the only one. Let me explain. Create in me a clean heart was one of such songs. But does it apply to the believer? Let’s find out.

David declares ‘create in me a clean heart, O God’. Should we as Christians be singing or saying this? No. Why? Because why would we ask for what has already taken place in salvation? David lived in a time where he knew like Jeremiah that the heart of man was wicked and unpredictable. Two things David, like all the Old Testament prophets had salvation as a promissory note but spiritually was dead in trespasses and sins. They were all old creations. Without Christ they had no way of being cleansed in their souls from sin.

CLEAN referred to in Psalm 51:10 here is the Hebrew word ‘taor’ which also means pure. ‘Bara’ is the Hebrew word for CREATE which also means to form or fashion something new. What David was really asking for was for God to give him a new heart. What he wanted was to be born of the Spirit. As we know, ‘the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified’. In fact Jesus had not even arrived on the scene.

The next line of his dialogue was ‘renew a right or steadfast spirit within me.’ Now let’s think about this for a moment. Should this be a declaration that a believer should be making? Truth be told, it’s religious nonsense for a new creation to be asking to be a new creation. Can you see how this doesn’t apply to those in Christ? Why? We have the Holy Spirit in us who is righteous and steadfast and we are joined with Christ as one spirit. David was in essence asking for the Holy Spirit to make him a new spirit from the inside out. Sound familiar?

Next he says ‘do not cast me away from your presence.’ Does this statement make any sense to the child of God? Absolutely not. Why not? Firstly, it makes no spiritual sense when you know that He is His presence just like you and your presence are one and the same. Secondly, the Father and the Son live in the believer through the Spirit so how can the Christ in you be separated from you? Jesus Himself said that after He gives eternal life to you a.k.a. a new heart in salvation, you can never lose it. Why? Because you have been spiritually born anew. You can’t then be unborn. It’s impossible.

David then says something profound in the latter part of the next verse. ‘Restore unto me the joy of YOUR salvation.’ David was looking for a restoration in His soul which was the only thing that was alive in him. In the midst of this, he recognises that salvation belongs to God. Later on we discover Jesus is the author of salvation and salvation is not personal. When we accept His salvation we are saved.

He continues on with ‘and uphold me with your WILLING and generous spirit’

Come back to the first thing David said for a moment. ‘Create in me a clean heart.’

Remember the story of the leper who says to Jesus ‘Lord, if you are willing, I know you can make me clean’? What was Jesus immediate response without hesitation. ‘I am willing, be clean’.

This shows the heart of God towards making us clean for Him to dwell in. Jesus said another time ‘you are clean by the words that I have spoken to you’. The gospels were a building towards the climax of salvation in Christ in Acts and the epistles.

In Christ we know that Ezekiel’s word by the Spirit of prophecy has been fulfilled. Through salvation, God has given every believer a new heart and has put a new spirit in us.

Let’s rephrase Psalm 51:10-14 for the new creation.

You have created in me a pure heart and put a new spirit in me. I can never be cast away from your presence because you live in me and you will never take your Holy Spirit from me because we are ONE forever. I have salvation so joy is in my spirit and I am always upheld by your power in me. Because of all this, I am able teach transgressors you are the only way to eternal life and help sinners change their minds about you by accepting your free gift of grace.

APPLICATION

Only declare things from the Bible that are consistent with the new heart and spirit you have been given and practice reinterpreting the Old Testament and the gospels in the light of Christ.