“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Ps 51:4)
Last week our “memory-verse” was “A fool says in his heart ‘there is no God’” (Ps. 14:1a). In last Sunday’s message we followed the thread of deceit that David had entangled himself in to its source: in his heart David denied God, arrogantly thinking he could take whatever he wanted. Indeed the whole nation, in wanting a king “like the other nations” had denied God (c.f. 1 Sam 8:7).
In a letter by John Wesley to his niece Sarah, on display at the Central Methodist Mission in Cape Town, Wesley wrote “What a fool, what a blockhead, what a madman is he that forgets the very end of his creation!” (Next time you find yourself marginalised, taunted or teased for your faith respond with this line and let me know how it goes .)
A fool denies God but “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 110:10). The inevitable consequence of holy fear is that we see our hearts and our actions as God sees them; we have sinned against God.
Praise God that through Christ’s body and blood we receive forgiveness! Nourished by Him, we are restored to the purpose or “end of [our] creation”, which is to reflect the image of God and to love as we have been loved.
God Bless,
Sean.