¹   Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
²   Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

³   For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴   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.

⁵   Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶   You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷   Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸   Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹   Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰  Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹  Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

This morning I’m starting with one of the penitential psalms. Of David. The exemplar of Israel — who had a tendency to steal wives, was complicit in murder (of an alien, Uriah the Hittite) and had a fair list of dead enemies, beginning with Goliath. There is no way that David would have survived the kind of personal examination most candidates in the US have.

We have enough difficult keeping the ethics that Paul taught.

Romans 12:9-21

9Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In this life, we will have to deal with the hypocrisy of the world. We cannot make ourselves immune from the evil of this world. We need instead to mitigate small parts of this. By doing good we show people that there is an alternate path. And that can offer hope.

But that path involves guilt and penitence. What used to be called repentance. It is not a cult of self worth, or the pretense of perfection. For the church is for the flawed, not the holy.

Which, of course, is all of us.