Psalm 51

It's back! Well, in a sense it has not been gone. There's not a Sunday that goes by that we do not sing and pray some of its words after the homily ("Create in me a clean heart, O God..."), and words from it open Matins and Vespers in LSB. But the whole Psalm was prayed weekly during Lent (Wednesday evening Vespers) and the more one prays it, the more one loves it. All throughout the days of Easter, that Psalm was omitted from the psalm schedule, but today in the General section, it returned (Friday morning, the first week; Monday morning, the third week). It was like welcoming an old friend back, to speak those words again. Especially the "bulls upon Your altar" part - I have really come to think of that in terms of the sacrifice of the old Adam (our "animal self", if you will) and with the humble and contrite heart we offer that old animal self up to God ("if it itches, scratch it!") and ask him to burn it up entirely inside of us. Amen! May it be so.