When Your Sin Stinks Up the Room | Psalm 51:1–12

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Morning, good morning. We talked the whole night through.

Good morning. Good morning to you.

Man.

Hey, it's Tuesday, and I did last week on Wednesday,

so I figured why not do.

It on to you? Just made ours switching it up you.

Good morning everybody. I'm Chris, this is Jeff. We're the

Bible Guys, and we are in a brand new series

talking about the prayers of the Bible and some of

them even being dangerous.

Well, all of these are dangerous prayers. Okay, so all

of these are we double dog Dare you to pray

these prayers? That's that's where they are. Have you ever

been is that in the Bible? Are you susceptible to

double dog theres?

I used to be a little bit. Ye yet yeah,

but I mean like we we would Yeah, there was

actually a thing in our little friend group where we

would we would sort of reserve the double dog theres

and we were only allowed so many months, so many

so many a month. But then if you used it,

then you used it right all right then? And then

then the other person was sort of obligated.

Okay, right, so that's so that these are the kind

of prayers we dare you to pray them. Yeah, that's

that's kind of how we're praying.

Well, before we dive into that, we have a segment,

and today is the famous dead Joke competition, So we're

going to decide whether or not you have the best

batch or whether I do.

Yeah, I just read the first one just now.

I actually think that desiree uh used this one twice.

I think I've used I think I've read this before. You. Yeah,

I think I think maybe she she likes this one

when she was when she was googling at her chat

remember it. Okay, here's my first one. I'm terrified of elevators,

so I'm taking steps to avoid them.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard that one.

We've heard that one.

That's a good one though.

It is very good.

It's a good one. It's better than this one.

Okay.

I told my Peter I needed a break. Now it

won't stop sending me KitKat ads.

Oh that is actually downright awful.

It is one to nothing.

Yeah for sure, it is.

Yeah.

Okay, here we go. I asked the librarian if the

library books. Oops, sorry, let me start over. I asked

the librarian if the library had books on paranoia. She whispered,

they're right behind you.

That's a good one.

It's really good.

That's a good one. That would have been a great

thirty second skit. Yeah, I mean that's a good like

TikTok it's a right scary music.

That's really funny.

Oh, that'd be awesome. Okay, let me see. I tried

to write a joke about a broken pencil, but it

had no point. Oh yeah, okay, to nothing nothing at

this point.

Here we go. I used to be a velcrow salesman,

but I couldn't stick with it.

Okay, it's better than this one shoe salesman until I

got the boot.

Oh actually, I like yours of slightly better better Okay,

all right?

Number four okay, so it's it's two to whirrow and one. Okay,

so we'll call it a tie.

Okay, number four. Uh, what do you call a factory

that makes okay products? A satisfactory I like it.

That's a good one.

I like it.

Very clever. I think so too, very clever. I tried

to start a business selling mirrors. It's something I could

really see myself doing Oh that's good. Okay, Okay, that's going.

But yours is better satisfactory that one. If she'd given

that to me in the previous one, yeah, I would

have gotten a point. But you're you're satisfactory.

Okay, way better.

Here we go beyond satisfactory.

I got hidden the head with a can of soda.

Luckily it was a soft drink.

Oh yeah, was that number five?

Yeah, it was number five.

I tried to organize a hide and seek tournament, but

good players are hard to find.

Oh that's a pretty Yes, that's.

A good one. Okay, I'm winning that one. Yeah, so

it's three one and one. That's how it worked out.

So I win.

Yeah, you win. Yeah, you're the winner. You're the best.

You're the best at the dead joke competition that she wrote.

That's right, that's what we read. I was lucky.

I was lucky enough to receive luck of the draw.

Yeah, I was lucky. It's like car It's like cards,

YATSI or whatever. If you're playing the ever play a

game that requires no skill whatsoever.

Yes, I hate it.

Like YACHTSI is like a game where it just doesn't

even matter. You just roll and whatever happens happens. Yeah,

but we love Yatzi. Yeah, we played at our family

all the time. We still play Yatsi when we do

game night was like Yasi. And then we have this

thing called YACHTI Free for All. It's like a version

of YACHTI that's really complex. That's actually spices it up

pretty much and it does require a little bit of skill.

Well okay, yeah, sounds good.

Yeah.

Well, yesterday, kicking off this new series of dangerous prayers,

we talked about dangerous prayers. God searched me.

Wait a minute, there's no transition.

Do you have a transition for this one?

I was going to say, no, I don't. Actually, don't

you ignored it?

I just ignored it. Yep, all right, well I had

I was going to do a good transition today.

Okay, how about this. Some of those jokes made me sad, Yeah,

some of them. Some of them were stinky, yes, right, yeah,

And when your sin stinks up the room, it makes

you sad. And that's the prayer of So I'm fifty one.

Okay, So yeah, that was a rough one. Rough. That's

why I was just going to say yesterday.

Well you said stink. You changed the direction. I was

just going to go with sad.

Well, the title of the day is when your sins?

I know, but I was going with a sad angle.

I'm sorry. That's all right, okay.

I think you stunck my transition up with your stink.

Okay. The idea, So, yesterday we talked about praying prayers

that ruin your comfort. Particularly God, show me if there's

anything that needs to be changed in my life. Really, yep,

search me and know me, show me. And today it

goes further because in Psalm fifty one, David is confessing

his sin with Bathsheba, and it's a powerful prayer. So

I'll just read it. Here's what it says. In Psalm

fifty one, he says, have mercy on me, oh God,

because of your unfailing love, because of your great compassion,

blot out the stain of my sins, 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've done what

is evil in your sight. You'll 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 sins

and I will be clean. Wash me and I will

be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again.

You've broken me. Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking

at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create

me a clean heart, Oh God, renew a loyal spirit

within me. Do not banish me from your presence. Do

not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me

the joy of your salvation. Make me willing to obey you.

Yeah, that's awesome. You know there, I think that Psalm

fifty one is one of the most powerful psalms in

all of the Book of Psalms. And there's one hundred

and fifty of them.

Yeah, one hundred and fifty psalms. Yeah, and the biggest

book in the Bible.

And I think that I think that it's really a

there's a hang on a second, where is the versus? Yeah,

So people always focus on the creating me a clean

heart of God, which by the way, is also a song.

Yes, right, you know a lot, a lot of these songs.

Obviously, the psalms were songs, there you go. But I'm

talking about modern day songs. Yes, right, so I know,

remember yesterday I referred to the fact that created me

a clean heart. I actually knew two versions of that song, right,

I liked one way more than the other. But but

I sing it all the time.

Right, creating me a clean heart, Oh God, that I

might serve you, created me a clean heart, O God,

that I might be renewed, So phil me and heal

me and bring me back to you. Created me a

clean heart, O God, that I might serve you.

That's that's a song. Yeah. And then and then then

today I should have.

Sung that yesterday. Well that No, that's that's that's today's today. Well,

good news we sang it today.

Yeah. Yeah, because I know two version of this song too.

But even though the people go to this song, this,

this verse a lot, creating me a clean heart of God,

do not banish me from your presence, Do not take

your Holy Spirit from me. I like verses sixteen and

seventeen better. Oh really, yeah, I do, because I think

that I think that the concept of this is a

is a life lesson for all of us, because he says,

you do not you do not desire sacrifice, or else

I would offer one you don't want to burn, offering

the sacrifices you desire a broken spirit. You will not

reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. And so

the reason why I like that concept is because God

wants your repentance and your heart more than anything else.

And so there are people who try to say, you know,

like David, he said, you know, he says he could

have probably offered the sacrifices of a thousand rams of

the snap of a finger. Right, Hey, I'm gonna I'm

gonna give this, you know, I'm gonna write this big check.

I'm gonna make this donation, right, I'm gonna I'm going to.

Give the idea of penance.

Yeah, I'm gonna try it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to

make up for it by saying, you know, all of

these repetitive prayers or I'm going to you know.

Give this money, give this money, whatever it is.

And it's like no, no, no, no, you can do that.

But God doesn't want sacrifice or else. David says, I

give it, but that's not what God wants, So David

knows what God wants. David had all the power to

do whatever he wanted to do. He was rich, he

could have done all the good in the world. But

what he was acknowledging here is that God, I would

do all those things. But I know that's not what

you want. You want one thing. You want a broken

and contrite heart, a repentant heart, and these things you

will not despised. So I think it's an acknowledgment that

there's only one thing that God requires in these moments. Now,

I like to create in me a clean heart of God.

I love it. It's obviously phenomenal. Right, But I think

somebody should write a song about sixteen and seventeen. Maybe

I'll do.

That being broken in spirit yeah yea broken repenting heart.

Yeah, the fact that God only wants one thing and

that is your repented heart.

Yeah. And repent heart isn't I'm sorry, repent heart is.

I'm stopping it and I'm turning to you.

Yes, he's a desire to turn yeah. Yeah. Repent means

literally to turn the other way.

So this this comes after Nathan has confronted David. So

David has had an affair with Bethsheba. Bethsheba was the

wife of one of David's Mighty Men, one of David's

special forces, guys Uriah, and then she gets pregnant, and

so David makes sure that Uriah is killed in battle

so that then he can marry.

After he tries to cover it up another way.

Right, can come home and sleep with his wife. And

so it was. It was just a crazy little season

in David's life, and it winds up defining a big

chunk of the rest of his life. So he his

his concern are just to hide and to cover his reputation.

And then Nathan shows up. He's a prophet of God.

God sent Nathan to go and correct David, and he

tells me the story. Hey, there's this rich man who

lives next door to poor man. Rich man has a

guest come over, and the rich man had so many sheep.

But he goes over and he gets the sheep of

the poor man. And this poor man loved this sheep shep,

and he took care of the sheep, and the sheep

lived in his home and he fed him. He just

had his one lamb, and he loved that lamb. But

the rich man went and got that one poor man's lamb.

He said, he's one of his many many lambs. He

goes and kills that poor man's lamb and feeds him.

And he asked David, what do you think should be

done to that guy? Well, David was a shepherd as

a young man, so this was a perfect story. Yeah,

And David is so ticked off, he said they should

hunt down that guy killing.

Yeah.

And then Nathan says, well, you're the man, right right,

you're the king man. You have anything you want, you

have any woman you want, but you went and took

the one wife of a poor man who is loyal

to your right. And so then judgment came. The baby died,

Bessie was pregnant, the baby died, all those things, and

it was a difficult time in David's life. And it's

from that confrontation somebody who cared enough and had the

courage to confront David with his sin, that David comes

and praise this prayer and his first statement is, have

mercy on me, right, God, I don't deserve you to

forgive me, but you have great compassion. And then he says,

wash me clean of my guilt, blot out the stain

of my sins that blot out. You know, back in

that day, they would when they wrote with ink, they

would you know, dip the pen in the ink, write it,

and if there was a mistake, you try to blot

it out. It was kind of a try to pull

the ink back up off of the parchment or off

the paper with a blotter. It was the closest thing

to an eraser that you and I would use today. Right,

that's what they're trying to do. And he says, God,

but you know, have you ever used a blotter. It

never makes it right?

Yeah, well I've blotted out different things, just probably not

in parchment.

Yeah, you can still see right, right. But he's like, hey,

clean it up as much as possible. Would you clean

it up? And he says, creating me a new heart?

And so it's interesting at first he says, would you

just cover it? Then he's like, could you blot it up,

maybe get rid of as much of it as possible,

And then finally says, would you make a new one.

There's kind of a progression to his prayer here, God,

I have no hope of my life ever turning around

unless you make a new life in me because I'll

go do this again. Probably I'm what kind of a sinner?

Am I? This is kind of where he's coming at.

What was I doing? Why did I do this? And God,

you know I'm a wicked person. Would you forgive me

for this? And then he's repenting of his sin, not

just that he he acknowledges I was born a sinner

and I sin, but that's not an excuse. And he's

asking God to forgive his sin and to make him

a new person. And then, like you said, he also

the one thing that we didn't talk about Verse thirteen,

fourteen fifteen. He says, God, then if you fix me

and change me, I'm not going to just use this

story for me. I'm going to use it to then

I'll teach your ways to rebels. Right, I'll use my

I'm not going to waste this story. I'll use my story,

this broken story, for others to maybe warn them and

unseal my lips that my mouth may praise you. Right,

he's saying, my actions are going to be different as

a result of the fact that you begin to change me.

And then he says, you know, I understand that God,

you know sacrifices are required for sin. He ends verse

nineteen says, you'll be pleased with sacrifices offered in the

right spirit. Right, So the sacrifices are required for the sin,

but they mean nothing without the heart. And so that's

what David is trying to extend to God is my

heart is all for you. And so I think that

that's the issue. Is first the heart has to turn

towards God. Then the behaviors will start to turn towards God.

Because when your heart turns towards God, your want tos

start to move towards God, and your feelings, your emotions

start to move that way, and those things tend to

drive your behaviors. And so as you're saying and then

all the other things, you know, the faith based stuff,

I'm supposed to be doing. Those please you. Then when

my heart is right, but when my heart's not for you, you

don't care about the ritual. Ritual doesn't matter.

Yeah, yeah, And you know this is the sin where

David says, my sin is ever before me, and so

you know, this was a public sin. And the thing

even though that we just briefly mentioned, Nathan, I think

one of the most powerful things about this whole story.

And even when you read this prayer, you have to

you know, sort of you know, receive it in that context. Right.

Nathan actually pointed out David's sin publicly as well. Did

you know it was in the courtyard with the kingdom

And so think about like it's what does that phrase

the emperor's emperor has no clothes or something. Yeah, and

nobody wants to tell the emperor is no clothes. It's

the same thing. It's the idea that like, David has

done this thing, and everybody knows that. Everybody knows that

that he is supposed to be our spiritual leader. He

is the guy. He's a man after God's own heart.

He is a godly man. But he is also the king,

and so other kings we fear because of the wickedness.

David is supposed to be king that we don't fear,

you know, because of wickedness. And yet he's done this

wicked thing, but nobody wants to say anything and fear

that he's going to kill him, like the messengers, Right,

and then all of a sudden Nathan comes along and

he's the prophet of God. Think about the courage that

Nathan had the assignment that God gave to Nathan is

to go and confront David. Well, you know, think about it.

It's like, you're the guy who's going to confront Nathan

or David publicly in front of everybody and point it out,

knowing that he has the power to kill you, and

he has a history of killing people who bring bad news,

and so he when he looks at him and he says,

you are the man. You know, you know this man

should be killed. Well, guess who. Guess who it is.

You're the man. You're the man of the story. You're

the one who did this. And then then he decrees

and then he actually lays out judgment in front of everybody.

And I just think to myself in that moment, we

also can use that as a life lesson for us,

because we also have a choice, don't we When people

confront us, When people approach us in love and they say, hey,

I'm gonna I'm gonna confront you about something. I'm gonna

confront you about something that I noticed in your life

that isn't you know, right, and whether it's right or wrong,

you know that that's that's for a discussion to decide.

That's for God's word to decide. But your reaction is everything,

and you have a choice. You can react like David

did right here, or you can react like all the

other kings of the world might right right, which is

which is, don't tell me what to do, and it's

my life. I'm the king of my world, right, don't

bother me with this. And yet David acknowledge the fact

that you're right, so much so that he actually says

against you verse number four, against you and you alone,

have I sinned? And he's talking about you know, God,

I have done with what is evil on your sight. Yeah,

he's done it before the kingdom. But ultimately his offense

is against God. And that's why David repented, because David

acknowledges this is directly a violation of what God wants

from me.

Yeah, of course he sinned against Rayah. Of course he

sinned against Betsheba. A lot of times we think, well,

as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, that this affair,

as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, whatever, I took

a little bit of this money, I did whatever, as

long as there but these things do hurt people. They

just do, and there's consequences that go way beyond and

so a lot of times we feel like, well, it's

just between me and him, it's not. Ultimately, it's between

you and God. And then the fallout is between you

and people. This is why Jesus said the greatest commandment

is right with God, be right with people. Love God.

Love people. Is because when we realize our sins are

ultimately against God, but they cost people something, They cost

us relationships because whatever. This is why David knows, I

have to go get right with you God before I

can be right in front of my kingdom, before I

can get right with best Jiba whatever. And so there's consequences. Certainly,

they lose this baby, he loses his reputation in some things.

But at the same time God does forgive him, and

God does restore him, and God keeps him in his

role as king, and God continues to use him in

a pretty great way. He wrote many, many more psalms

after this point, a big chunk of the Bible. And

so God did forgive him. And so I don't know

what kind of sins you're carrying in your life, but

I know this God forgave David of murder and of adultery, right,

and it was because of a prayer like this, Have

mercy on me. I've only sinned against you. You don't

just want religious ritual. You want my heart. And so

you know I'm broken and I want you to make me,

make me clean right, make me new again, restore to

me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing

to obey you. So he's acknowledging here in his repentance

not only that God, what I did was wrong, but

I want to go back to where I was with

you spiritually. I want to love you as much as

I used to. I want to be as committed to

you as I was. I realized I've drifted, I've kind

of gotten cold. And then he says, you know, make

me willing to obey you. He understands that real repentance

also means a realignment to do what God says is

right and avoid those things that God says is wrong.

So let's talk about this a minute. We talked about

this one time when we were in the Old Testament

with the Bible Guy's podcast. But the Bible says it

was that time of the year when kings go forth

to war spring you know, in those days, the weather

really had effect on when you would fight and when

you didn't, and they would have to wait till the

rains were over, the crops were planted, all those things,

and then usually that's when kings would go to war.

And so you would be ready, even if you weren't

intending to go to war, like I'm going to go

invade my neighbors, you still would rally your troops and

send them out to protect the borders. Right. So this

was that time there, David, that's who he was. He

was a warrior king. It was time for him to

go to war, and it said the Bible says, this

time he decided to stay back. He sent his generals out,

who were very capable, and he sent them out, and

he stayed back. He didn't do what he was supposed

to be doing. And it was in that time that

he sees Bestsheba, he's bored, he's just killing time, he's

just chilling. Yeah, and he feels like he earned this

little vacation. And in that moment, that was also when

he had his laps of judgment, when he wasn't what

we're supposed to be doing. What he's supposed to do.

It's so funny because it reminds me of, oddly enough,

the sin of Adam and even the Garden, because you know,

there's all these different kind of justifications that happen between

the serpent and Adam and Eve and everything else. But

you can trace it all the way back to the

very first words that came out of the enemy's mouth

when he says, did God really say? Right? And so

what ends up happening is is you start to doubt

or make light of God's word. And when you start

to doubt or make light of God's word, then the

snowball rolls right, and the snowball as it goes down

the hill gets bigger and bigger, because then becomes the justification.

Then comes the rationalization, then comes the disobedience, then the consequences,

then the fallout, and then of course the whole human

race right right, And so it's like it's like the

consequences of what tracing back to one thing, which is

did God really say? Is it really that important? Did

you really mean it? Is that? Is that really the

final authority? And so it's it's the same thing. You

have this entire nation, right who knows about David sin

his his sin is ever before him. It leads to murder.

I mean, we're talking about the snowball has rolled down

the hill and it has destroyed towns at this point, right,

And it all comes down to that simple verse, because

the Bible doesn't waste words, right, and the Bible specifically

tells us It starts that chapter and it says in

a time when kings were supposed to go to war,

David stands back and stays back, and then all of

a sudden, what does he do? He sees Beesheba bathing

on a rooftop and then and it's all because he

immediately stepped out of God's will because it was God's responsibility,

his assignment, and so he wasn't where he was supposed

to be. I would argue, that's God's will, and so

he steps out of God's will and that's what started everything.

Yeah, that's right.

So hey, that's a that's a great perspective on Psalm

fifty one, great conversation. Hopefully we'll see you tomorrow with

another dangerous prayer on the Bible.

Guys,