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Ash Wednesday Service. Thursday, February 18, 2026.
King David
Repentance
King David Repentance
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-12
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Sermon Summary:
In Psalm 51, you can see that David was completely crushed by guilt and shame. He described himself as a man full of iniquity and sin. When you have messed up and have done things you know you shouldn’t have done, you feel that physical weight upon you and that crushing sensation of the emotions in the heart. Disobedience to God has a way of putting spiritual separation between us and the Lord. It's not that God has gone away from us, but there's a kind of an invisible wall that we’ve built between us and the Lord.
And when we are guilty, when we've made a mess of our lives, when we've made serious mistakes or things that we've done to hurt other people, the only response is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God. The only way that we can make that guilt and sin and wrongdoing go away is to go before the Lord and say, "Lord, I have made a mess of things. Lord, forgive me. Help me to turn from this mistake and this way of thinking.
The dust reminds us that we are broken finite creatures in need of God's mercy to sustain us not only for forgiveness of sin but life itself. So the act of putting ashes on your head is a dependence on God, but it's also a sign that Lord, I'm sorry and I'm repenting. And we put the sign of the cross as the a sign of where that forgiveness comes from. Through Christ's death on the cross, we're forgiven. The Christian life is based on grace, which means it anticipates that we're going to mess up and stumble. And when we do, God's ready to receive us back and forgive us, to set us back on our feet and get us going where we're supposed to go.
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By Lewes Presbyterian ChurchKing David
Repentance
King David Repentance
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-12
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Sermon Summary:
In Psalm 51, you can see that David was completely crushed by guilt and shame. He described himself as a man full of iniquity and sin. When you have messed up and have done things you know you shouldn’t have done, you feel that physical weight upon you and that crushing sensation of the emotions in the heart. Disobedience to God has a way of putting spiritual separation between us and the Lord. It's not that God has gone away from us, but there's a kind of an invisible wall that we’ve built between us and the Lord.
And when we are guilty, when we've made a mess of our lives, when we've made serious mistakes or things that we've done to hurt other people, the only response is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God. The only way that we can make that guilt and sin and wrongdoing go away is to go before the Lord and say, "Lord, I have made a mess of things. Lord, forgive me. Help me to turn from this mistake and this way of thinking.
The dust reminds us that we are broken finite creatures in need of God's mercy to sustain us not only for forgiveness of sin but life itself. So the act of putting ashes on your head is a dependence on God, but it's also a sign that Lord, I'm sorry and I'm repenting. And we put the sign of the cross as the a sign of where that forgiveness comes from. Through Christ's death on the cross, we're forgiven. The Christian life is based on grace, which means it anticipates that we're going to mess up and stumble. And when we do, God's ready to receive us back and forgive us, to set us back on our feet and get us going where we're supposed to go.