Verse of the Day for September 2

David begins this prayer with God, not with himself. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. The measure he appeals to is not his track record. It is the character of the one he is talking to.

That matters because his track record at that moment was terrible. The heading of the psalm names Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba. He had been found out. If he had begun with himself, he might never have reached the second line.

Notice also the word throughly. Wash me throughly. It is an old spelling, but the meaning is plain enough. He does not want a surface rinse. He wants to be scrubbed all the way through, the way you wash a garment that has carried a stain for too long.

The next step after failure is rarely a grand plan. It is usually a sentence. Have mercy. Wash me. Cleanse me. David does not yet know how the rest of his life will go, but he knows who to speak to first.

If you are sitting with your phone, thumb hovering over a message you are ashamed of sending, start where David started. Not with what you deserve, but with what God is like.

The first step back is usually a sentence, not a plan.

Ask to be washed all the way through, not only to look clean.