"You Desire Truth... Teach Me Wisdom."

"I pray for the desire to pray and meditate on behalf of my congregation.  May we learn patience, gentleness, compassion, empathy, humility, and tolerance.  May we abstain from anger, anxiety, compulsive behaviour, discouragement, and shame.  May we come to know Christ as Christ knows us, as made in the image and likeness of God.  May we seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly."

Psalm 51:6-9

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being;^*
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities.

1)"You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart;" "...let me hear joy and gladness;" "...rejoice;" "...you desire truth;" "...teach me wisdom;" "teach me wisdom in my secret heart;"

2) these words have the familiarity of "home" to them.  "Whiter than snow" makes me flinch with the potential for racists interpretations, but the intent is familiar.  To feel clean, really clean after having been really grimy.  But the words "You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart."  I really love those words, they speak deeply to me.  If only we would all learn to listen to our secret heart.  Joy and gladness are there.  I am delighted by how many "breathprayers" I can hear in these verse.  All would be appropriate to sit with in silence: "truth... in the inward being;" "wisdom... in my secret heart;" "you desire truth... teach me wisdom;" "joy... and gladness;" "Purge me... and I shall be clean;" so many options.  This isn't a passage to think about, but to sit in, like a hot tub. There is certainty in these words: if God cleans, purges, teaches... then it will certainly be done and completely done.

3) What is the invitation in all this?  to sit with the words, to let them soak in; to let them motivate my being, thinking and doing for the next 24 hours.

"May I experience joy, gladness, wisdom, and truth, found in my secret hear, Christ Jesus."

Breathprayer: "You desire truth... teach me wisdom."