Hyssop
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” – Psalm 51:7
“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” – Psalm 51:7
My wife and I were planning to have several guests over to our house for Sunday dinner. As usual, she used her best table linens for our guests, putting her nice linen napkins edged with Battenberg lace beside each place setting.
As conversation around the dinner table began to take shape, a need for some diagrams and drawings emerged. One of our guests, absorbed in the discussion, took a ballpoint pen and proceeded to draw on one of my wife’s napkins. All of a sudden he looked up like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It was a look of, “What have I done?” We could not help ourselves—we all began to laugh. That helped ease the tension of the moment. Then my wife said, “Don’t worry, I have a solution to the problem.” She assured our chagrined guest that no permanent harm had been done.
My wife did have a literal solution for the problem. She later applied some hair spray to the ink marks and washed the napkin. It came out as good as new.
While it is remarkable to me to think that a chemical reaction involving simple hair spray can cleanse a napkin of ballpoint ink, it is even more amazing to consider that the Psalmist found a solution to the problem of sin in his life. The word “hyssop” in the focus verse referred to the bushy hyssop plant used in applying the blood of a slain lamb to the lintels and doorposts of homes when God delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt. This was a foreshadowing of the shed Blood of Jesus which, when applied to a sinful life, will remove every sin and make the heart perfectly clean. It is a miraculous procedure, and it works every time.
Today we have faith in many things, even in the ability of hair spray to remove ink spots! Just so, we come to the Lord Jesus with faith that His Blood will cleanse us of every stain of sin—not just of surface stains, but the entirety of our hearts. May we determine to keep our faith in Jesus alive, and be eager to share with others about the best solution for stains that man has ever found.