Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a Psalm a day. We started in January 1, and every day you're gonna get a new Psalm with the opportunity to read the Psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Dani Crowley: As we continue our journey through the Psalms, let's read Psalm 51 together. It says, Have mercy on me, Oh God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stains of my sin. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
For I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sin, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back joy again. You have broken me.
Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a loyal spirit in me.
Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me, but restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels and they will return to you. Forgive me for shedding blood, O God, who saves. When I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness, unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you. You do not desire a sacrifice or I offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repented heart, oh God. What I hear in these verses is David praying a really honest prayer starting with just recognizing where he's at. He's confessing his sin.
And we find David in this moment where he's actually messed up pretty big time. He's murdered. He's committed adultery. And, and he's been a dishonest leader, and he's feeling the weight of his sin. And rather than hiding from God, he says, here it all is.
I can't take myself, out of this one. I can't save myself. God, I need you. And I love how he just starts with, God have mercy. Sometimes when we find ourselves in sin or even just moments where we're lost in our own ways, that's just the prayer to pray is, God have mercy.
And David continues and he asks for God to, renew in him a loyal spirit. I love a translation that says, keep creating in me a clean heart. And that's the idea is, David doesn't pray, God, I will be perfect again. I'll never sin again. He says, keep creating in me a clean heart.
I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm broken. Have mercy. I need your help again and again. And if we look at this in contrast even to back to Adam in the garden when he sinned, he hid and he ran away from God.
But David came fully recognizing where he was, repenting and asking for God to renew him. Not hiding, but fully showing himself before God. And I hear this, as something for us to take with us when we find ourselves in these moments that we can come to God. We don't have to be afraid of Him as we, come to Him asking for mercy. So let's pray that together today.
God, we, we just confess that we need you, that we are people who sin and mess up, and, we can't save ourselves from that. So God, we ask just for your mercy, that you would continue to create in us a clean heart, that you would renew in us a loyal spirit, one that is willing to obey you. God, we know that, because of what we just read that you're pleased by, a heart and a spirit that is broken before you. And, god, we have hope that you will renew us again. So we ask that you would do this in Jesus' name.
Amen.