August 14, 2015
Tom Lowe
PSALM 51
Title : “Prayer of Forgiveness and Purity”
(Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had come to Bathsheba.)
Theme: David’s great penitential psalm.
Psalm 51 (KJV)
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your mercy; according to the multitude of your mercies, blot out my transgressions.
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2 Wash me completely from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, against you alone I have sinned, and I have done this evil before your eyes, so that you may be justified in your words, and be clear in your judgments.
5 Behold, I have been formed in wickedness; and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you desire the truth in the bowels, and in secret you will make me know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I’ll be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness; so that the bones that you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me out from your presence; and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Return to me the joy of your salvation; and sustain me with your free spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways; and sinners will turn to you.
14 Deliver me from blood guilt, O God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing with joy your justice.
15 O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth will publish your praise.
16 Because you do not want sacrifice; otherwise I would give it: you don’t like holocausts.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good with your benevolence to Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the burnt offering and the whole burnt offering; calves on your altar.
Introduction
Psalm 51 was composed after David was confronted about his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:1-25). The psalmist is sick (v. 8), perhaps close to death (v. 14), and longs to be healed. Far more important than that physical longing, however, is his passionate desire for forgiveness from him because he considers his physical condition to be the result of the Lord’s punishment for his sin. David has avoided God for many months (considering that the baby he had fathered had already been born). But given the seriousness of his sin, his confession is shameless. Psalm 51 is the fourth, and in many ways the largest of the seven penitential psalms (penitent, repentant). It is one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament.
This is the very sad story of David’s fall. But, although he fell, he was not discouraged at all, because God in his grace sustained him and lifted him up. The sin he laments in this psalm was the folly and wickedness he committed with his neighbor’s wife. Actually, he broke two of God’s commandments: his sin with Bathsheba broke the seventh commandment: “You shall not commit adultery”; and he broke the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” by causing the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. For a year after these shameful incidents, David did nothing or said nothing; but we have evidence from several of the psalms that his private sufferings were considerable, but David had not publicly acknowledged his sin. He just sat on his throne in Jerusalem and ignored the whole thing. At first glance, it seemed that David had managed. God then sent Nathan to David, and exposed David’s sin and his attempt to cover it up. There were three courses open for David; he could (1) deny the charges, (2) execute Nathan and continue the cover-up, or (3) admit to the charge. David followed the last course; he confessed his sins. All the great men of God have confessed his sin before God.
This sin of David is recorded as a warning to all, so that he who thinks he stands, take heed that they do not fall. Although God may allow his people to fall into sin, and remain in it for a long time, yet, by one means or another, he will recover them through their repentance, and bring them to himself and their sound minds. again.
Comment
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your mercy: According to the multitude of your mercies blot out my transgressions.
Psalm begins with a cry for mercy; “HAVE MERCY ON ME, O GOD.” The psalmist does not declare his innocence or blame someone else. Since he knows that he does not deserve forgiveness, he first pleads for mercy, based on God’s loving-kindness.
God’s “LOVING-KINDNESS” and “TENDER MERCIES” are the basis of his appeal to God: “BLUE OUT MY TRANSGRESSIONS”—either by (1), my conscience, where he has left a stain; or, (2), from your book of records and accounts, in which the sins of all men are written, and by which all men will be judged: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before from the throne, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to their works, as it is written in the books” (Revelation 20:12).
David had a deep sense of guilt as a result of his collusion, lying, adultery, and ultimately murder. Like a man; asking; as a soldier, he finds himself wanting. Why should we dwell on his wretched story, except that it teaches, like no other page in the history of God’s Church, that the potency of divine love can draw sweet aromas of repentance and praise out of the filth of sin? /p
Our only source of forgiveness rests in God’s loving-kindness and in the multitude of his tender mercies. It is only because we believe in this that we dare to look at our sins. Nor can we ever forget that although the blood of Jesus did not purchase God’s love and mercy, yet it is only through his sacrifice that that love can freely continue his loving work of redemption.
David does not try to deny his sin or excuse his behavior. He readily admits in verses 1-3 that his actions were rebellious and sinful. At the same time, however, he also trusts that God is the source of mercy, unfailing love, compassion, and cleanliness.
The psalmist, convinced of his sin, poured out his soul in a prayer that begins with a plea to the Lord for mercy and grace, cleansing and forgiveness. Three different terms are used for sin, leading to a deep sense of spiritual sensitivity. The three are—
a. “TRANSGRESSION”, the sin of conscious rebellion, the act that violates a known norm. To transgress is to go beyond the limits of God. God has placed certain limits in this life. He has certain physical laws. He has certain moral laws. He has certain spiritual laws. Every time the man tries to step over any of them, he will have to suffer the consequences. Doing this is always called trespassing.
b. “INEQITY” (v. 2), the sin of error, that which is totally wrong. You can’t excuse it; you cannot offer any kind of apology for it; you cannot approve it in any way. That is iniquity.
c. “SIN” (v.2), losing a mark that is aimed at. We fall short of God’s standard, and it is in that sense that all of us today are sinners. None of us today reaches God’s standard. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
And these are the three vivid terms he uses for forgiveness: The first, “ERASE”—erase, erase, or erase—is also used for the ritual act performed by the priest to wash away in water the curses he had written on a tablet: “The priest will write these curses on a scroll and then wash them in the water.” bitter water” (Numbers 5:23). The second term, “WASHING” – treading – has its roots in the well-known Eastern method of washing clothes by treading on them thoroughly: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes” (Exodus 19:10). The third “CLEAN ME”, is a ceremonial term used in the ritual in which the priest declares the worshiper clean: “On the seventh day the priest will examine them again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread through the skin , the priest will declare them clean; it’s just a rash. They shall wash their clothes, and they shall be clean” (Leviticus 13:6).
It is necessary to remember that immediately after David made his confession of sin, Nathan declared the forgiveness of the Lord. David is aware, therefore, of the wonder and immediacy of mercy and of a great and precious promise of forgiveness for a very great wrong (2 Samuel 12:13); but he cannot rest on this until a full and sincere confession has been made, and this is the function of the poem. David’s conviction of sin is dominated by four themes.
1. A sense of personal responsibility. But note the frequency of my wickedness, my transgressions, and my sin. There is no evasion of responsibility here. His depth of conviction is emphasized in the words “MY SIN IS ALWAYS BEFORE ME” (v. 3).
2. A conviction of having turned against God. Regardless of Bathsheba and Uriah, his actions ultimately went against God. “AGAINST YOU, AGAINST YOU ONLY HAVE I SINNED” (v. 4).
3. A plea for complete cleansing from sin. The phrases pile on intensity and enthusiasm. “DELETE” (v. 1); “to cleanse”, as writing is erased (Exodus 32:32), or as water from a dish (2 Kings 21:13). “WASH ME THOROUGHLY” (v. 2).
4. A surrender of himself to God, who is the only one who can save him. Only God can supply the necessary cleansing (v. 7), and only God can bring about a total restoration of soul and body from the damage of sin (v. 8).
2 Wash me completely from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Behind these transgressions (51:1), he catches sight of their root cause and prays for the Lord to “WASH” him “THOUGH” from his “INIQUITY” and to “CLEAN” him from his sin against Bathsheba, Uriah and much others. He had used deception to hide his sins from men; and being free from all fear of punishment, he continued boldly in sin, casting aside all reverence for the holy and omnipresent majesty of God, and all fear of his judgments. Sin is a horrible thing; it defiles us, makes us loathsome in the sight of Holy God, uncomfortable with ourselves, and unable to commune with God. What filth is to the body, sin is to the inside of the person, so it was only right that David should feel polluted by what he had done.
The Hebrew word he used for “WASH” is a vigorous word. which means “to trample with the feet”. Clothes were often cleaned this way in ancient times, as they still are today in developing countries. The dirt in David’s life was so ingrained that no light soaking or rinsing would do.
Notice the language David uses; language…