“Create in Me a Clean Heart”

Over the last few weeks, I have been reflecting on the image of a heart, my heart specifically. I’ve brought many questions to prayer such as “Lord, how do you see my heart”, “Lord, why do these scars on my heart still pain me” and “Father, how do I make my heart reflect the goodness of yours”? One morning while praying through the daily readings, I was struck by Psalm 51 which reads “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Restore me to the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit”.

Now, I have heard this Psalm many, many times before but given that I had been praying so intentionally about the image of my own heart, I found myself reflecting on this Psalm as the Lord’s very intentional answer to my questions and prayers. .

There is something both very profound and very simple in the imagery of a “clean heart”. On a very practical level, being clean implies that there must be work done to “clean” what was dirty or broken. And, as certain things are definitely harder to make clean then others, I can’t help but think about the pot of sauce I spent almost 20 minutes scrubbing the other evening after dinner. Well, to be honest, it was a few hours after dinner. It had been a long day and I really just wanted to eat my pasta and go relax, and so I told myself that I would come back down and wash it later after a quick break. Hours later, I finally dragged myself back downstairs just to find the stains on the pot had become stiff, hard and worst of all crusty: I knew I was in for some serious dish washing labour. If I had just washed the pot immediately after dinner and dealt with the mess right away, the stains would have been cleaned much more smoothly, gently and quickly. However, because I ignored the mess, it not only took me triple the time but it also involved some serious elbow grease and effort to make clean again.

The same sort of thing applies to the idea of the Lord creating a “clean heart” in us. The longer we wait to present our stained, messy and broken hearts to the Lord, the more intense the “cleaning” process will be. Psalm 51 is a prayer of invitation, a prayer to invite the Lord into the problem of sin in our lives, of unforgiveness, or whatever our “stains are” - and to let Him create in us a clean heart, a deep clean that only He can do for us. Yes, it may be painful as He scrapes away at the dirt and grime we have ignored and pushed away out of fear and yes, it may take time, but our Lord is so loving, so gentle and so patient with our needs so that in the end, our hearts will come out free to serve Him in a profoundly “new and right” way.

Where my metaphor of dirty dishes fails however is that the process of physically cleaning involves removing and eradicating the past stains and dirt. Our hearts however are more precious to the Lord than simply cleaning pots and pans. No, rather than removing, our Lord is RESTORING, He is bringing us into the “joy” of His salvation once more. He is letting our brokenness and messiness become part of His greater plan for salvation, commissioning us to go and share with others that not only has the Lord saved us from our shared human sins and failings, but that He desires to do the same for every single person. He knows that while our failings and scars do not define us, they can help us identify with others who desire to be "cleaned” and free from the chains of sin in their own lives, compelling us to go out and share this Good News with each and every person we meet.

We need a Saviour who will deep clean our hearts for us. We need a Father who will lovingly work away at the stains on our heart, whispering words of encouragement and hope along the way.

Lord, create in me a clean heart today, create in US clean hearts that are free to do your will and serve your Kingdom here on earth.