Psalm 51:18
May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
For most of this psalm we've been listening to David
relating to God individually. He's talking very personally about his sin, his need for forgiveness, his own individual faith. But in the final two verses we see that he doesn't consider his faith to be purely a private, individual
matter. He is part of the whole people of God ('the righteous' v19). So when he prays for blessing he doesn't say 'May it please you to prosper me'. He wants
to see Zion (that is, Jerusalem) being blessed. He wants the city of God, containing the people of God, to be secure. Building up the walls isn't about being
insular and inhospitable; it's about being safe from enemy attack.
So it is for us. Awareness of our sin can be a really
isolating thing. If we feel ashamed of our failures it can be tempting to withdraw from fellowship with others, forgetting that they too are sinners, every bit as much in need of God's grace as we are. We forget that when Jesus took out sin at the cross he didn't just open the way for us to have a relationship with God, but he also united us together with other Christians. So, every time we repent we can remember that we are part of a body, not alone.
That doesn't mean that we have to tell everyone at church
about every one of our sins! But it does mean that when the devil tells us that we can't be honest with anyone about what we're really like, we know that he's wrong. And when we celebrate our forgiveness, we're not just thankful for restored relationship with God, but for being part of a body of people who all know the joy of being forgiven. So perhaps we will want to pray not just that I will walk more and more in his ways from now onwards, but that we will. We’ll want to pray that God would prosper our church (and the whole universal
church) not just ourselves. That he will keep our church, not just me, secure from enemy attack. Let's ask him for those things today, grateful for the fellowship he has given us as we trust and obey him together.
