Wash Me Clean, O Lord -- Praying for Forgiveness and Cleansing

Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial lamb to bring spiritual cleansing and restoration, but being washed whiter than snow comes at a cost. This week I read an article about someone whitening their teeth that has some parallel lessons.

A friend of mine discovered that the whole teeth whitening thing wasn’t the blissful experience she had anticipated. It was far more painful and complicated than expected. The chemicals they use in the bleaching process can cause pain. The nerves under the gum-line exposed to these chemicals can really hurt. I thought about how this applies to God's process of making us white as snow. We want that process to be quick and easy. We don't want the pain, and yet sometimes pain is the only thing that will cause the change God wants to bring about in us.


Whitening takes a long time. The chemicals are so harsh you couldn’t take it all in one application, so they break it up a little at a time.

But think about how gentle and loving our Heavenly Father is, allowing us to go through a process of refinement, instead of being exposed to more than we can take all at once. He leads us along the path of righteousness– a journey. He never gives us more than we can take, balancing just the right amount of pain mixed with just the right amount of perfectly timed relief. It might take longer than we want, but we can find peace in knowing that the end-result will be worth waiting for. God’s whitening process- it might not be easy, or tidy, or even close to what we expected, but we can trust it will be for the best.