There Is Working Power In the Blood

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7)

The hyssop pant is of the mint family, an aromatic shrub which grew among the rocky crevices and cultivated on terrace walls. Bunches of the plant would be used to sprinkle blood on the doorposts in Egypt (Exodus 12:22) and during Hebrew purification ceremonies (Leviticus 14). David refers to it here in Psalm 51 as an inner cleansing. The same plant was used to relieve Jesus’ thirst at the cross (John 19:29).

Hyssop purged one from being defiled by touching a corpse or person with leprosy (Numbers 19:18/Leviticus 14:4). David here asked the Lord God to not only cleanse the outside however, but to wash his entire being, even to the soul. One doesn’t simply wash his clothing, but his entire body to be clean. Neither would one was his body and put on the same filthy rags. David desired a thorough cleansing!

Do we seek the total cleansing that the blood of Christ offers us, or do we simply want the brushing of the hyssop plant on the outside? Do we allow the atoning blood to wash our hearts and souls, and relieve us from the drought of sin? There is working power in the blood! Have we allowed it to work from within us?