Psalm 51:9
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
When we looked at Psalm 80 together we saw how 'God's face' symbolised his relationship with his people. The psalmist prayed that God's face would shine on them with favour. Many other psalms contain prayers for God
not to 'hide his face' - in other words, not to withdraw from his people or reject them.
This verse is unusual - it's the only the psalms where God
'hiding his face' is a good thing. But it makes sense - David knows much his sin offends God. He doesn't want God to have to look at it. But David knows, as we know, that sin is embedded deep within him. How can God turn away from
David's sin without rejecting David himself? God would be completely justified in rejecting David completely, turning his face away once and for all. He would be justified in doing the same to us.
Yet, because of his love and mercy, Jesus came into the
world to bear our sin. At the cross, the Father hid his face from the Son. Jesus bore God's rejection so that we don't have to. So we, like David, can have our sin blotted out without us being blotted out forever. Our transgressions and wrongs can be washed away without us being completely swept away in judgement. God is able to both hide his face from our sin and shine his face us, as forgiven sinners.
Let's praise God for his grace and mercy, and confess our
sins to him today, confident that they are fully and completely blotted out and taken away by the blood of Jesus.
