a steadfast heart.

Psalm 51.

should be the song of every sinner. this is what David cries out to God after the prophet Nathan comes to him about committing adultery with Bathsheba. It's so solemn and broken and yet beautiful because it's David pouring out his heart to God and just surrendering. he knows he wronged God and he comes before him asking him to change him. i wanna take a look at one verse specifically though, that caught my eye:

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Create. create a pure heart, not change my old heart. the definition for create is to make something out of nothing. it's not change, where something is transformed into something different. but rather, it's made of absolutely nothing. and it's something that only God can do. David's asking Him to absolutely just create something that wasn't there before, and that's a heart. he knows his he can't do with the heart he has now, and so he throws it out and asks God for a different, a pure and clean one.

I always just thought when Jesus died for us, our old hearts were changed into something new and heaven-worthy. but i don't think that does it justice. because it's like we were so sinful before, we can't even count what we had as a heart. we were void human beings, filled with and knowing nothing but sin. by asking God to create a heart in him, David knows he can't become 'good' without God. so he leaves it up to divine power to create what's good and pure in him.