Psalm 51:4,10 — Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
… Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Saturday morning is often the best chance that Myra and I have to talk about spiritual things, and sometimes we get to look more closely at ideas we thought we already understood. Often a conversation gets triggered by our Bible reading or the morning’s devotion.
This morning a devotion by Oswald Chambers, based on the story of the Prodigal Son, had us looking more closely at repentance.
It was no surprise that Psalm 51 is the touchpoint for both of us as we think about repentance. We both tended to focus on the sorrow David expresses for the murder and adultery that led to the death of his child. Chambers pointed out to us that sorrow — even genuine sorrow — for sin is only one aspect of repentance. Another critical feature is a change in direction, a turning back to God.
As I thought about it I realized that I needed to look more deeply at repentance. As I have done so, I have studied the word that is translated “repentance”. It is the Greek word “metabolism”. Literally it means “mind change” and is also translated as “conversion”. That usage provided me with what I think is the real sense. We need to have our minds changed (or changed back) so that we look at our sin with the mind of God.
Repentance is not just an emotional regretting of our actions, and even less a regretting of the consequences of our actions. Instead, it is a process.

In 1896, the episcopal preacher Treadwell Walden wrote an essay, “The Great Meaning of Metanoia”, in which he pointed out that in Mark’s gospel, when Jesus says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:15), the word translated as “repent” is “metanoiesete”. This Greek word literally means: “change the way you think about reality”.
To “repent” is not to regret our misdeeds (though this may be included). It is to go through a process that changes the way we think about reality to the way God thinks about reality — as best we can. Only then can God “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”