The psalm’s petition comes to a climax with the plea for spiritual restoration (vv. 10–12). It now places emphasis on the positive, not only on sin’s removal, but also on the miracle that God makes possible a new and changed life. Create in me a clean heart. The heart was regarded as the mainspring of a person’s life, not the seat of emotions, as in Western thought. The verb create (bārā’) is used only of God, as in Genesis 1:1. Only an act of God’s intervention