Atonement: Create in Me a Clean Heart (Psalm 51:10)

In Atonement, Briony Tallis tells a lie as a child that destroys two lives. She spends the rest of her life trying to atone—becoming a nurse, writing novels, seeking forgiveness. She cannot undo what she did; she can only offer her broken story. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David wrote Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathsheba—unable to undo, only able to ask for re-creation. Briony learns that some sins cannot be fixed, only forgiven. Atonement is not our work; it is God's. We can only ask for the clean heart we cannot create ourselves.