Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean

‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. ’ — Yer. 7a.

TAYYD has confessed his sins. ITow follows the *J prayer for redemption which he desires from grace. He would fain have before all else the forgiveness of his sins.

In order to understand this verse we must look back to the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers. There we find this word ’ purify ’ as many as seven times, and the ceremony of cleansing is described with the utmost detail. It was demanded in this way. Whenever any one had touched a dead body he was reckoned unclean. Death was the punishment and the curse of sin, and on this account every member of the people of Israel who had touched a dead body must be reckoned as unclean. He was then also no longer at liberty to come to the tabernacle, in order that he might thus exhibit in an external fashion how fellowship with sin and death separate us from God. Only after he had been purified and washed could he be again clean. And this

HAVE MERCY UPOX ME.

is described to us in that chapter. A red heifer had to be burned and its ashes kept in store. If any one had rendered himself unclean, then the ashes had to be put in water; a bunch of hyssop had to be dipped in it. and the unclean person sprinkled with it. After he had washed himself with water, he would be once more clean. He must thus be purified with hyssop. In the Epistle to the Hebrews this ceremony is definitely mentioned as a type of purification by the blood of Jesus. “We read there (eh. ix. 13.: ‘For if the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean cleanseth them to the purity of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God. cleanse your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God V

David knew already that in this ceremony a spiritual purification was presented, and he prayed that God might fulfill it in him. He felt that his sin had brought him under the power of death, and that he was unprepared to serve the living God until he was first cleansed by God Himself. The light of the New Testament, and especially this word from the Epistle to the Hebrews, shows us that this purification can take place only by the blood of Christ. Let us reflect what David’s prayer, thus illumined by the word of God, can teach us.

And it teaches us. first of all. hov: indispensdbU this cleansing is. It stands written twice over in that chapter (Xum. xix. 13. 20): ‘”Whoever is unclean and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the congregation, because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.’ God is an holy God; nothing that is stained with sin can stand before Him. He who had but touched the dead body might not enter into His temple. By this external strictness under the old covenant is represented the impossibility of any fellowship betwixt God and sin. He who remains in impurity is condemned to death. If he would please God and draw near to God, he must suffer himself to be purged with hyssop. God Himself had in a wonderful way prepared a sacrifice, and water for cleansing, and there was no alternative but to be purified with hyssop or be cast out from the congregation of the Lord. In the New Testament it is not otherwise. God is the holy One. Sin cannot have fellowship with Him, God is the living God. Death may not draw near to Him; our sins are many and we cannot blot them out. Even our apparently good works are but dead works. They bear in themselves the tokens of sin and of the death of the corrupt nature out of which they spring. He that is not yet purified in the way appointed by God, through the sacrifice commanded by God, shall be cut off from the congregation. O my reader, pray understand this, nothing that you can do, no change or reformation, can restore to you access to God. One thing is needful. You must be cleansed, and that by God Himself, otherwise you shall not enter into His heaven. By all the terror inspired by the thought of being cast out forever, I pray you, let this prayer of David become your own: ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.’

And David’s prayer teaches us further that this purifying is to he found. The Spirit of God taught David to pray thus in harmony with what the types of the temple service taught. The ]STew Testament says to us: ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.5 Yes: the blood of Christ: that can cleanse us. The red heifer was killed and burned, and its blood was sprinkled upon the tabernacle. The water of purifying made from the ashes of this sacrifice could cleanse no one. Jesus is the Perfect Sacrifice. He died for our sins. He has overcome the power of sin and of death, and brought it to naught. He has entered with His blood into the Holy Place. O soul, be assured that you also may be indeed purified and cleansed. Draw near to God with this humble prayer, that He would purge you, that He Himself would sprinkle you with this blood, and cause you to experience the power of it. He will do it. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all sin. If in faith, in the grace of Jesus, you seek to appropriate His blood, and on the ground of the word endeavor to hold fast the thought: that blood is also for me, the Spirit of God will give you the quiet assurance that God Himself has taken away all your unrighteousness from you. Go to the fountain of Jesus’ blood: present yourself there to God, praying, watching, trusting. To this faith it will surely be granted; and you shall know that you are clean.

‘I hold my Saviour dear,
For He makes me now appear,
By His Word and Spirit clean
From every stain of sin.’

Yes: you shall know that you are pure; not that your heart is so holy that you cannot any more commit sin, but so purified by the blood that sin is no more reckoned to you, and you yourself no more burdened with it; and so purified by the Spirit which is communicated with the blood, that you have a clean heart in which the law of God is written and in which it lives. Thus did Jesus speak to His disciples: ‘He that is washed has need only to wash his feet. He is clean every whit, and ye are clean.5

Reader, I pray you, let this prayer of David become your own: 6 Purge me, and I shall he clean? And the more earnestly you with your eye upon Jesus express that first word: 6 Purge me] the more powerfully shall the Spirit of God also apply to you that second word: ’ / shall he clean?