Repentance: An Invitation to RestSample

Can I Have a Do-Over?

How does this passage from David make you feel?

Depart from me, you evildoers,
For I will keep the commandments of my God! (Psalm 119:115 NKJV) 

Do you feel accused? challenged? shamed? justified? condemned? pity? remorse? gladness? sadness?

Do you find yourself in the first part—an evildoer—or the second—a commandment-keeper? Or somewhere outside of both?

We don't all come to Scripture (or even individual passages) from the same vantage point—even on multiple encounters with the same verse. 

But God knows that…

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV)

Falling Short

Today, I find myself wanting to be in the second part but falling short. Today, I see this as an internal dialog David is telling himself in the moment, to remind himself to be a covenant-keeper.

King David was—at once—a man after God's own heart; and a murderer and adulterer. Much we read about David's life gives us pause… apart from His psalms and God's proclamations about him, he's often hard to distinguish from Saul, his predecessor; or Solomon, his successor; or Samson, a proud and rash judge before him; …or me, a flesh-born son of the First Adam. 

It would be laughable at best to read this as David pleading his self-righteousness before God. We only have to remember his treatment of Uriah the Hittite to see him squarely in the "evildoer" crowd—and a hypocrite.

Just like me.

So today—right now—I will choose to keep God's commandments. And rejoice that He is the God of "do overs." Even if EVERY DAY is a do over.

Reflection

Do you come to God only on your bad days?

What if “His mercies are new every morning” is God’s way of inviting you to a “do over” every single day?

When you find yourself in the evildoer crowd, do you “turn yourself in” to your loving Father, who longs for you to walk as a commandment-keeper?