Thinking about Psalms of Reconciliation and God's Holiness

Psalms 32 and 51 are psalms of repentance of reconciliation. Have you read them recently? Have you any personal sense of the depth of repentance which each includes?

Each recognizes God's holiness has been transgressed and judgment rightly levied. But there is more, too.

The Psalmist had experienced the consequences of silence:
"When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah" (Ps. 32:3-4; NAS).

The Psalmist also experienced the comfort of repentance:
"I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD'; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah" (Ps. 32:5; NAS).

The Psalmist also asked for more than forgiveness:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit" (Ps. 51:10-12; NAS).

The Psalmist hears a call as a result:
"Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You...then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness" (Ps. 51:13, 14b; NAS).

Those of us who have experienced such forgiveness ought also to sing joyfully of His righteousness.

Infinite Holiness Observed Imperfectly

God's holiness is
Infinite, unchangeable,
Perfect righteousness.
Perfect righteousness,
Holiness is consistent,
Steady, unchanging.
God's holiness is
Triune, is demanded of
All of creation:
"Be ye...for I AM,"
Commanded repeatedly,
Unchanging "be ye."
Examined, I can't
Be what I am commanded:
Holy as He Is.
Oh wretch! Commanded
To be holy, so holy:
God's holiness.
God's holiness
Must be from Himself to
Me, Christ's imputed.
Infinite holiness,
His name for my name is then
Life for life forever.

Holiness: Beginning from the Beginning (Genesis)

God establishes definitions: good [1:14; 1:10; 1:12; 1:18; 1:21; 1:25], very good [1:31}, holy [2:3].

God judges the work of creation in 1:31: "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."

God completes and blesses in 2:1-3: "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God had completed the work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

What is my point here? God, who alone is holy, is the one who sets the standard, who alone can truly bless and sanctify. The first occasion of this is seen in Genesis 2:3.