Wednesday 8 March

Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51; Luke 11:29-32

Our true selves

Today’s Psalm 51 might reawaken in us a sense of our sinfulness and of our need for God’s redemptive grace. In our self-appraisal do we see ourselves as the good guys, keeping the Commandments, keeping the faith, and therefore anticipating that we are ‘earning’ our heavenly reward? Are we inclined to be more like the Pharisee than the tax-collector, more like the elder brother than the prodigal son? If so, thank you, dear psalmist, for shattering such illusions! On all our days of judgement, our first words must be: ‘Lord be merciful to me a sinner.’