Psalm 51 - A New Heart (and Tyre)

Mar 22, 2025

(Another of the “too long for email” posts so click through in your message to see the whole)

So little did I know how this Psalm would speak to our Friday. When I first read it, I was trying to figure out how a Psalm focusing on repentance from a horrific moral failure was going to connect with our last pre-Dublin day in Ireland.

Well, life intervened and something happened. Thankfully not a horrific moral failure like David’s rape of Bathsheba and murder of her husband which is what eventually led to this Psalm being written. But it was something that happened about 15 minutes before this photo that we realized just after we went around the corner ahead on Connor Pass...

We discovered as we went around that corner and heard an interesting noise that wasn’t there before in our rental car. Turns out that the passenger rear tire was flat after we hit a sharp rock on the side of the very narrow road while a truck was going by us. As we found a pull out and started the work of changing the tire, a very kind gentleman stopped and said he could give us a hand. So while we could have done the tire, he did it in about ⅓ of the time and was super kind throughout. We had this amazing view as well while we were dealing with it.

He gave us a recommendation of a tyre place in the next town and off we went. The tyre place we went to didn’t have the tire we needed, however, but true to Irish hospitality, the gent there called ahead to the next town who did have said tire and they prepped to have us in and out once we would arrive. So another small detour through Tralee and we were once again on our way to the Cliffs of Moher!

But here’s the connection. The Psalm is a song of repentance from when things went sideways for David (all by his own choices). There’s no equivocating in the Psalm about what he did - blaming someone else or throwing in the too-common-today, “I’m sorry IF I offended” which is not an apology at all. The Psalm’s first part is a deep acknowledgment of failure and brokenness (although there’s no apology to Bathsheba or to her husband - so I guess there’s that - it seems David’s only concern is about having offended God...)...

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.1

But in the words directed to God, there’s no hiding and no explaining away.

Wash my heart and my body will be whiter than snow...
Let the light of your eye in mine
Clarify my tangles and snarls
So they do not pull or strangle
And my heart becomes clear
And my spirit anew2

But there is also redemption in the Psalm. It doesn’t just stop with the breaking but moves to hope of forgiveness.

In addition to our tire adventure...our journey Friday was to the Cliffs of Moher which were indescribably amazing. Sadly the trail that goes alongside the cliffs edge is no longer open (so sad). Here are some from the cliffs plus a few others from the day including a very deep blue morning at Ventry Beach before we left Dingle.