Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew and steadfast spirit within me."
Take notice of some things in this very humble and important prayer of David's. First, David requested of the Lord two things, "a pure heart" and "steadfast spirit". The first appeal David did not have at all so he asked God to "create" in him this characteristic of "a pure heart". The second attribute, a "steadfast spirit", David had at one time for he asked God to "renew" it "within" him. The point is David was willing to humble himself and request of God that which he was in deficit on both accounts.
What does purity mean or look like? When I researched the word pure in Psalm 51:10, the definition supplied was clean and fair in a chemical, physical, ceremonial and moral sense. That word was Tahor (tawhor) in the original Hebrew. The root of this word, Taher (tawhare) used a great word to sum up the challenge of purity for the believer - uncontaminated.
Many years ago there was an established moral standard for everyone. This lasted a long time until a corrupting influence on those morals and intellect led to an acceptance of faulty substitutions. Lies, camouflaged as alternate truths, were now put forth as consideration.
Humanity was dealt a self-replicating code, planted illegally, on purpose, to damage and/or possibly destroy humans altogether. The culprit was the Father of Lies, Satan. The code injected into humanity was a virus of disobedience to God or Sin.
Therefore, the instruction from God in Scripture to remain pure after accepting His gift of salvation should come as no surprise. Additional Scripture advise believers to keep their minds pure (Philippians 4:8) and know the pure in heart will be rewarded by seeing God (Matthew 5:8).
In particular, God points to three areas of the body that need constant purity monitoring and application. These corrupted areas are the heart (generator), the eyes (input and output) and the tongue (output) respectively.
The heart is an organ that feels the effects and is considered the prime descriptive word for the source of our emotional, passionate, ambitious and zealous responses. So many times we allow the judgments of our hearts/emotions to outweigh our mind or simply not come into balance with our logic. In Matthew 15:18-20, Jesus reveals just how bad the condition of the human heart or emotional system is when He says,
"But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them."
Christ even lists some major evil conceptions that have their beginnings in our emotions. This is why Psalm 51:10 - "Create in me a pure heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me." - becomes a crucial daily prayer today and always.
The eyes are our input and output. We take in the world visually with these organs, so while we have them open we need to take responsibility as to what we feed them. However, did you know that Jesus says that people will be able to tell there is the light of God within you or darkness within you from observing your eyes? What you have been consuming with your eyes will go a long way in what your eyes reflect.
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" - Matthew 6:21-23
Our motivations and visual world will only get us so far. At some point we will have to speak and if we are not practicing a pure lifestyle with the help of Christ, then our tongue or speech will likely get us in trouble. The Holy Spirit inspired James to write the following about our speech or the power of the tongue -
"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." - James 3:6
Notice that this part is not just a bad section of our body or lifestyle, the tongue or speech can
- corrupt the whole body
- ruin your future (set the whole course of one's life on fire)
- be used by the kingdom of darkness (is itself set on fire by hell)
Our emotions are corrupted, our eyes are potentially dark and rotten and our tongue or speech can only be repaired if we keep a Holy Spirit filter on 24/7 year round. Is it any wonder God instructs us to strive for purity in our lives?
This is how the Christian has to live - purposefully avoiding the pitfalls of worldly contamination that would inject a dose of that virus called sin back into our lives. Not that we will never stumble again this side of Heaven, but we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, called to live sin-less and to help we must strive for Purity.
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