“Caught red-handed”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, May 16, 2025
Psalm 51 (Forward, p. 18) CEV p. 585
In the English language we have various expressions to describe this: ‘caught with his fingers in the till’, ‘caught red-handed’ or ‘caught in the act’. They all describe an incidence of someone being apprehended in the very act of perpetuating or carrying out a crime.
While this is not exactly what happened with David and Bathsheba, it comes close. Nathan, and God, of course, are fully aware of what has taken place, and no calculated cover-up or denial is going to ‘do the trick’. David has blood on his hands, no matter how you cut it.
So, how does he deal with it? Here many modern criminals might well take a cue from him and how he deals with it. Instead of denying it, or excusing it away, as do many modern miscreants, he owns up to his deed, freely admits it, and throws himself upon the mercy of the judge, who is no less than God Himself.
And here what David asks for is most instructive: he asks not only that his sin will be forgiven, and he be cleansed, and the guilt and sin be erased and done away with, but also asks for remedial help. In effect, he is asking for a probationary period where he can get the rehabilitation that he so desperately needs. He wants God to change the very way he thinks about things: “Create in me, a clean heart, O God”. He clearly doesn’t want to fall into sin again and repeat his terrible deed, and he understands clearly that a change of heart, a change of the way he thinks, is the best way to achieve this. Furthermore, he desires a return to the cozy and amicable relationship that he once enjoyed with God.
This psalm is routinely used within the Ash Wednesday liturgy that many churches use, but clearly it has an application far beyond that. Surely, it is applicable for widespread use—even daily use—for do we not all stray
away from what God expects and demands of us. Are we not all guilty, in some way or other, and need God’s forgiveness and restoration, even as David did? We may be ‘caught red-handed’ in quite the way that David was, but even so, God knows—and so do we. And so, would it not be wise to go to Him for His new start whenever needed? Thanks be to God for such abundant mercy as He shows to us!
Forward notes: “Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise” (verse 15).
“Since the fall of 2012, these words have been a constant companion in my life. That fall, I moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to join Saint Hilda’s House, an Episcopal Service Corps site based at Christ Church. The community has said Morning Prayer each day for generations, and each morning, we Hildans (as we called ourselves) would take our brief place in the roster of faithful people who had gathered in that place to worship. Each morning, we would drag ourselves out of bed, make the short walk to the chapel, and begin our day by proclaiming God’s praise.
“This was the beginning of a spiritual practice that has carried me through the intervening years. And though I no longer pray Morning Prayer with a physical community each day, these words connect me to those communities whose daily prayer has sustained me and whose faithful offering means that I never truly pray alone.”
Moving Forward: “Read—and pray—the liturgy of Morning Prayer, starting on page 36 in the Book of Common Prayer [US] or in the Book of Common Prayer, 2019, p. 11 and the Book of Alternatives Services, p. 47. Remember that these prayers have been said by faithful followers for centuries.”