As we drove around today and looked at the beauty the snow covered town We talked with the boys of how the snow covered many imperfections and how the white made things unified and look undefiled!
If you look at our house, it looks beautiful in the snow, as I am sure yours does also.
But what you don’t see is the holes and dead grass underneath.
What you don’t see is the chip in the paint or the mess on the inside.
What you see is a covering of white, clean snow!
The psalmist of 51:7 says,”Purify me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash Me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Many will quote this on facebook or Instagram with a beautiful snow covered picture.
We are so blessed to know that we can come to Jesus, however, messy the underneath is or the inside!
Jesus knows the mess that is there underneath, no matter how we try to cover it.
He knows also, that being washed by Him will bring a cleansing like no other?
When we come to Him with faith in His resurrection, He takes that messy inside and gives it a new heart and what He made on the outside He already saw as good. And like the covering of snow on the ground, He will make beauty!
As you read the whole Psalm 51, you get the impression that the author knows how things can look good on the outside and not clean on the inside.
I do believe for a very important reason~ “Cleanse me with Hyssop” is mentioned before the comparison of being as white as snow. Here are some areas “hyssop” is used,
Here are some areas “hyssop” is used,
They would bunch hyssop together and was used to dip in the basin of the blood of the Passover lamb to apply to the lintel and doorpost before the Israelites left Egypt. (Exodus 12:22)
The cleansing ceremony for a leper in Leviticus 14:1-8. Again, hyssop was the dipping agent into the blood of a bird and used to sprinkle over the unclean person.
In John 19:29, it was used at the crucifixion. “Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.”
The author King David, desires the Lord to use hyssop to cleanse him, it would be implied ~ with blood and not only will I be clean on the inside but that cleanliness will shine bright and as I will someday stand before Your throne, and it will not be my uncleanliness God will see but I will be white as snow.
In a few verse before David pleads with the Lord to blot out my transgressions and states how he knows he has sinned against God and God alone. He acknowledges that God desires truth in the innermost being.
This is the longing in his heart. In his humility, from a time of sinful acts, David seeks the one who can restore and make whole.
May we daily seek to know Him and His power to cleanse us with hyssop that is dipped in His blood that cleanses every part of us.
Let us not be as the town is, that is covered in the appearance of beauty one day and the next as the heat will rise and the covering of snow will disappear the true mess will be revealed.
May we be found in His beauty, the one True beauty!