His Story: A journey through the greatest story of all time
The Bible isn’t just an old book—it’s God’s story, and it’s still alive today. His Story takes you chapter by chapter through Scripture, combining simple readings of God’s Word with prayer for every listener and occasional reflections on what the passage means for our lives right now.
Whether you’re brand new to the Bible or have been reading it for years, this podcast is a space to slow down, hear God’s Word spoken, and be reminded that His story is also our story.
His Story: A journey through the greatest story of all time
What Happens When We Own Our Sin And Ask For Mercy
A king falls hard, then tells the truth. We open Psalm 51 and step into David’s confession after Nathan’s rebuke, tracing how real repentance sounds when pride finally gives way to mercy. Rather than ask for fairness, David pleads for steadfast love and abundant compassion, naming the vertical offense of sin before God while refusing to excuse himself. That clarity reframes our conflicts too, revealing how pride and self-justification keep us from the joy we crave.
Together we walk the language of renewal—blot out, wash, cleanse—and the bold request to create a clean heart, the same creative word that spoke worlds into being. We talk about the fear of distance from God, the ache of bones under discipline, and the surprising promise that forgiveness does more than reset; it remakes. Joy returns. Lips open. Witness flows. Sacrifice loses its performative shell and recovers its sincerity when joined to a broken and contrite heart God will not despise.
We also ask what ownership looks like for us today. How do we move from secrecy to integrity, from negotiating to bowing, from shame to story? By telling the truth without spin, asking for what only God can give, and trusting Him to turn ashes into something new. If you’re ready for renewal that touches the heart and ripples into your relationships and community, this conversation will meet you with honesty and hope.
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The Bible isn’t just an old book—it’s God’s story, and it’s still alive today. His Story takes you chapter by chapter through Scripture, combining simple readings of God’s Word with prayer for every listener and occasional reflections on what the passage means for our lives right now.
Whether you’re brand new to the Bible or have been reading it for years, this podcast is a space to slow down, hear God’s Word spoken, and be reminded that His story is also our story.
Welcome back to His Story, a journey through the greatest story of all time. Today we come to one of Scripture's most personal confessions, David's Prayer of Repentance in Psalm 51. Psalm 51 was written after Nathan confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba. It's the anatomy of repentance, and it highlights how David pleads for mercy, not fairness. The real repentance blends sorrow for sin with hope in grace. John MacArthur points out that David doesn't excuse himself. He owns his sin, begs for cleansing, and longs to be renewed. The Hebrew verb have mercy carries the sense of bending and kindness toward the undeserving. Let's get started. God, thank you for this wonderful David's forgiveness, that we may read your word, that we may see ourselves in this story in which David comes to terms with his sin and repents and begs for your forgiveness. God, we all have sin. We all have moments where we struggle, where we make mistakes, we make the wrong choices. God, I pray that you would help us to make the same action, that we would repent, and that we would ask for forgiveness. Help us today to love you more and to understand you more through your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sinned and my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in a secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion and your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings, then bowls will be offered on your altar. The word of God. This psalm feels like we're standing inside someone's soul. I mean, David doesn't hide or posture or spin. He simply says, I have sinned. He knows sin is ultimately vertical against you. You only have I sinned. And that's not denial of human harm. It's recognition that all sin is first an offense against God's holiness. I think about this a lot when as a parent I would teach my kids about how to respond when somebody treats them bad. And when somebody, you know, harms you or hurts you or says something evil against you or is rude or whatever, it usually means that there's a vertical problem between them and God, not a horizontal problem between you and them. Most human conflict is not a horizontal problem. It's almost always a vertical problem on one or both parties, often based on pride, often based on not wanting to be willing to admit that we're wrong or that we did something bad, but but the pride that says that it's not our fault. It's a vertical problem. And we see that in this psalm as David takes all the blame and says, This is my sin, and only against you, God, have I sinned. He asks God to blot out, wash, you know, cleanse the three verbs that cover guilt, stain, and corruption. When he prays, Create in me a clean heart, the Hebrew word is the same word used in Genesis 1. Only God can create something from nothing, even a pure heart from a broken one, something brand new out of the ashes. David fears losing the Holy Spirit, not salvation, but closeness, relationship. And then he asks for joy and promises that forgiveness will turn him into a witness, as he says, Then I will teach transgressors your ways. It's grace turning shame into story. Repentance doesn't negotiate, it bows. Which is something R. C. Sproul often said about this psalm. I love the fact that it's just so barren. It's authentic, it's so open. And if we were really honest with ourselves, we probably have many of these same feelings from time to time. We have many of these same thoughts. And one of my favorite parts is where he says, My sins are ever before me. You know, we know our sins. Even if we never tell anybody about it, even if we take them to the grave, we know what they are, and God knows what they are, and ultimately all of those sins are an offense to him. May we, as David did, take responsibility for our sins, ask for forgiveness and repent fully from those sins, and then take it a next step further and do what David says here create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. That is something that all of us need so often. And even if we do take responsibility for our sin, we don't ask God to then take the next step and bless us with a clean heart and a right spirit. God, thank you so much for this passage, for this short psalm where David just pours out his heart, where he gets real with himself and his sin and who he is, and asks you to do what only you can do, which is to forgive him for those sins, to blot out his transgressions, to give him a clean heart and to renew a right spirit. God, I pray for that for all of us today. That when we fall short and we will, that we will repent of our sins, take complete ownership of it, and then fully turn to you, asking that you would bless us out of that sin, that you would give us what only you can give us: a clean heart and a right spirit with you. Thank you for providing for all of our needs. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Next time we'll hear Jesus teach his disciples how to pray and how to trust in Matthew 6. Until next time, remember, Jesus wrote the greatest story ever told, and that includes loving you and me completely. See you next time.
