Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
This isn't a request for a small fix. "Create in me a clean heart, O God" uses the same word for what God did at the beginning of everything — not repair, not renovate, create. Whoever wrote this wasn't asking for a better version of who they'd been. They were asking to start over completely.
That's a striking thing to ask for, because it admits something most of us try hard not to admit: that some problems in us aren't surface-level, and no amount of self-improvement reaches them. "Renew a right spirit within me" isn't a New Year's resolution. It's someone admitting the fix has to come from outside them.
You don't need to have hit rock bottom to relate to that. Anyone who's tried to will themselves into being a different kind of person, and failed anyway, has brushed up against exactly what this verse is naming.
What would it mean to stop trying to fix yourself and ask for something to actually be created new?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.