Psalm 51:10-17 (KJV)

10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13) Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14) Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15) O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
16) For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Introduction:

This page will cover detailed study of the concept of Biblical cleansing. We are currently formatting the information we have into a web friendly version but for now give you the Easton's Bible Dictionary definition of cleansing. More will follow ...


Cleansing as defined in Easton's Bible Dictionary:

or washing, was practised,

(1) When a person was initiated into a higher state: e.g., when Aaron and his sons were set apart to the priest's office, they were washed with water previous to their investiture with the priestly robes (Lev 8:6).

(2) Before the priests approached the altar of God, they were required, on pain of death, to wash their hands and their feet to cleanse them from the soil of common life (Ex 30:17-21). To this practice the Psalmist alludes, Ps 26:6.

(3) There were washings prescribed for the purpose of cleansing from positive defilement contracted by particular acts. Of such washings eleven different species are prescribed in the Levitical law (Lev 12-15).

(4) A fourth class of ablutions is mentioned, by which a person purified or absolved himself from the guilt of some particular act. For example, the elders of the nearest village where some murder was committed were required, when the murderer was unknown, to wash their hands over the expiatory heifer which was beheaded, and in doing so to say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it" (Dt 21:1-9). So also Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by washing his hands (Mt 27:24). This act of Pilate may not, however, have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The same practice was common among the Greeks and Romans.

The Pharisees carried the practice of ablution to great excess, thereby claiming extraordinary purity (Mt 23:25). Mark (7:1-5) refers to the ceremonial ablutions. The Pharisees washed their hands "oft," more correctly, "with the fist" (R.V., "diligently"), or as an old father, Theophylact, explains it, "up to the elbow." (Compare also Mk 7:4; Lev 6:28; 11:32-36; 15:22)