Inner Work and Inner Renewal

Scripture — Psalm 51:10-12 (NRSV)

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Devotion

So far in our examination of David’s inner work in Psalm 51, we have seen his frank acknowledgment of his sin (51:3-5) and his desire for God to teach him truth in his “secret heart” (51:6). In verse 7, David asks the Lord to “purge” him and “wash” him so that he might be completely “clean,” that is, fully forgiven. We might assume that this is enough for David to go forward in life and leadership. But, in fact, Psalm 51 doesn’t end with a request for cleansing and forgiveness. Rather, David seeks something more, something deeper and transformational.

Indeed, the inner work David needs and desires isn’t finished until God gives him a new heart. We see this in verse 10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Notice that David uses the verb “create,” bara’ in Hebrew. This is the same verb that appears in Genesis 1:1 when God creates the heavens and the earth. In the Bible, this verb is only used for God’s activity, never for what human beings do. Only God can do what David desires because he is asking for more than an inner tune-up. Rather, he asks the Lord to create an altogether new heart within him, a heart that is clean, right, and good as new.

The fact that David recognizes that only God can do what he is asking is underscored by verse 11: “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.” Yes, this is about remaining in an intimate relationship with God. But it is also about the fact that only God can do the work of creating, or, in David’s case, newly creating his heart.

Verse 12 supplies added dimensions to the request for a clean heart: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” If David’s heart is created anew, then he will once again experience the joy of God’s salvation rather than the sorrow of his sinfulness. Moreover, he will be sustained with a “willing spirit.” “Spirit,” in this case, could refer either to David’s own spirit, now ready and able to serve the Lord completely. Or it could refer to the Spirit of God who generously helps David to do this. In the end, of course, both options are valid. The Holy Spirit is the one who enables our own spirit to seek and serve the Lord with our whole heart.

Psalm 51 reminds us that honest inner work will help us to see things in us that are not so pretty, things that need cleansing, and ways in which we need spiritual transformation. Inner work doesn’t focus only on such things, of course, but it mustn’t neglect them either. The good news is that God will help us, not only to identify ways in which sin has corrupted our hearts, but also to have our hearts renewed by God’s grace.

That God is in the heart-renewing business can be seen most dramatically in the Old Testament prophecy of Ezekiel. Even though Israel has been unfaithful to God, God will act in mercy toward God’s own people: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:25-27, italics added). In this prophecy, which echoes the language of Psalm 51, the Lord promises to give a new heart and a new spirit to those who don’t deserve it. Yes, we can seek such a work of God, asking for it in prayer. But when it happens, it is a gift of grace.

Banner image by Miha Arh on Unsplash.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Yearning to Be Created Anew.

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