Re-Newing

Create in me a clean heart . . . I don’t remember where this verse popped up over the holidays, but it has been on my mind ever since. And with it comes the old worship chorus – specifically Keith Green’s live rendition because YouTube Music keeps bringing it around again in my playlist in the car. So, join me in a bit of Bible study here, and feel free to sing along.

Create in me a clean heart, ohhh God . . .

A clean heart . . . what makes my heart unclean? We modern folk hear the word and think of plain old dirtiness, requiring Lysol and a scrub brush, but I’m not sure that’s what we’re talking about. Lepers in biblical times were called unclean. So, there seems to be a connotation of disease here.

And those lepers had to keep away from others because their disease was contagious. So maybe we’re even talking about something that somebody else could catch if they were too close to me? That’s sobering.

When I look this passage up in the Blue Letter Bible online (love that resource), it says the Hebrew word for “clean” here is also translated “pure”. In Exodus, it is used often in the descriptions of the items for the tabernacle – things that should be made from pure gold.

So, purity . . . undiseased . . . clean . . . devoid of anything that doesn’t belong there.

(And, of course, we do need to remember that we’re not talking about the physical organ here. We’re talking about the seat of our emotions and will. That’s what needs to be cleaned up.)

And renew a right spirit within meeee . . .

A right spirit . . . the NIV (which I lean toward) translates this as a steadfast spirit. And the Blue Letter Bible says the Hebrew means firm, stable, established – so I like “steadfast.” In what ways is my spirit not steadfast?

And again, spirit here implies temperament . . . my emotions and will. How are my feelings, my desires, my will, unstable or wavering?

And I notice this, too: God creates the clean heart, but renews the steadfast spirit. Is that significant? Or is that just poetry – trying to find a synonym for the second line of the couplet? I generally operate under the assumption that writers choose words intentionally to communicate clear meaning, and I assume this of the Spirit when he was guiding David in these words also . . .

So, creating is making something (generally from scratch) – and renewing is re-creating, repairing, making it like new again. Hmmm. In this case, I’m not sure the distinction is important enough to parse. The diseased stuff and the unstable stuff all need to be made new.

Is anyone’s head spinning yet? I suspect not everyone out there analyzes scripture the way I do. There are advantages and disadvantages to brains like mine. Sometimes, the deep study and thought brings up fascinating insights . . . and I still think there may be more to glean from this passage (probably why it keeps popping up in my life and on my playlist). But sometimes all the circling and digging brings me back to one simple but important point.

And here’s the important point here: The diseased stuff and the unstable stuff all need to be made new . . . and I can’t do that. I can’t make things new. Believe me, the older I get, the more blemishes I find on my face, the thinner my hair grows, the more fat cells collect comfortably around my middle . . . the more I want to make all these things new again. But I can make nothing new. Not in my body, and not in my heart and spirit. Even when I try to make a new resolution, establish a new habit, take a new path, I’m still carrying the burden of the past with me. It’s an adjustment . . . but it’s not a new creation.

Behold, I am making all things new. That’s God. God creates and renews – around me someday, but within me right now, if I ask.

And so I ask. Create in me . . . and renew in me . . . ohhhh, God.