Psalm 51

(Guest Post from Austin Wynn)

Psalm 51

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(Psa 51:1-19)

Psalm 51 is the classic psalm of contrition and repentance. David, in 2 Sam. 11, commits adultery with Bathsheba, then plots to hide it by having her husband Urriah come sleep with her, then orders that Urriah is murdered in battle in a way so as to hide this as well. The Lord has seen all his deception and wickedness and sends Nathan the prophet to rebuke David and call him to repentance. Psalm 51 is David’s prayer after having been confronted by the Lord about his sin. The first sentence displays David’s deep brokenness over his sinful actions. When one is confronted with their sin, they need only to plead His mercy by His steadfast love. The only ground David has of being forgiven by God is the unshakable record of steadfast love the Lord has displayed. David here, does not plead mercy from another but directly from the Lord. His first cry is to his God whom he has offended, not to the woman he has just dishonored. There is no other who is truly offended as much as God here, so David rightfully acknowledges that God’s forgiveness of His sin is the very forgiveness he needs. David desires that his sin not only be forgiven by God, but that it also be forgotten by Him. God has the ability to wipe away the memory of such sin in our lives because of His awesome majesty, whereas we are left with remembering how much it affected us. Sin is described in a few different terms in this psalm: transgression, iniquity, sin, evil, and blood guiltiness. Transgression is a word describing the revolt or rebellion against the holy law of God that every person commits. Iniquity speaks of the perversity that goes on when someone indulges in that which is not pleasing to God. The word sin is used when speaking of an offense committed against the holy God of heaven. Just as it is not enough to use the term “love” for ice cream, dogs, and your spouse, so it is also not enough to use the word sin for the deep, multifaceted levels of betrayal against the sovereign God of heaven. David sees the sin first as his own. We learn hear from the great man after God’s own heart that accountability to our own sin is a must when seeking forgiveness from God. There is to be no blame game with the God of heaven, for He knows the secrets and intentions of our hearts. Only blatant confession and brokenness will do. David was unwilling to confess this sin to the Lord until his friend Nathan brought it out in the open. David was too busy plotting and hiding and sneaking around to slide his sin under the rug out of God’s sight to desire to let the holy light of God’s law shine in his darkened situation. Until we acknowledge that God sees all the intents of our hearts, we cannot expect to be forgiven and our foolish, sinful hearts will lead us to believe that we can hide our sin. Only when one is open before the Lord can true revival begin and sometimes we need close brothers and friends to help us see sins we may not. The practice of self-examination, which Jonathon Edwards so clearly described, must be a practice of every Christian on a regular basis. David acknowledges that his sin is first and foremost a sin against God before it is against people. When we do something that is offends another person, we offend the great Lawgiver and life-giver primarily. David obviously does not mean that his sin did not affect anyone else, but he uses the phrase, “against You only have I sinned” to show that God is the one he has offended the most. As David did, we must call a spade a spade. He openly confessed that he had done what was evil in God’s sight. God sees evil with a lens we cannot. God is supremely righteous and just and evil to Him is not as easily noticeable as it is to us humans born into sin and who have only known sin every day of our lives. For a Being outside of sin to even exist is awesome in itself, for every fiber of our existence has always been sin-soaked from the beginning and there is nothing about man that has not been tainted by sin. In David’s guilty mindset, he is only concerned with the Lord being just in his judging. There comes a point when a man no longer desires to be right, but desires to allow the Lord to have His just sentencing against the man. A man who openly confesses and calls the Lord to search him out is a man who knows the Lord can change him. When David speaks of being “brought forth in iniquity”, it is clear that he is referencing original sin. Each baby that comes crying from its mother’s womb is a rebel to the ways of God and does not know God until conversion has occurred and the old heart is replaced by the new one. David longs for God to not only justly sentence him, but also to forgive and cleanse him from all sin. David hates the man he has been and longs to be a new man. All believers long to be rid of their sin and to be more deeply filled with the Savior. David not only pleads for his sin debt to be removed in several ways: purge me, wash me, let me hear joy, hide Your face, blot out….but he also prays that God will give him a new heart that longs to obey and please Him. The essence of the new birth is seen here when David asks God to create within him a clean heart. At this point, David is already a man after God’s own heart, but his plea echoes that gracious moving of the Holy Spirit that first brought him to new life. He is calling on God to give him new life and a life that clings to the ways of God. A new heart that loves God will change everything about his way of living. Until we all have new hearts, as Ezekiel speaks of, we will never walk in the ways of God’s Law. David once again acknowledges, as the prodigal son did in Jesus’ parable, that his sin rightfully deserves God’s just punishment and he calls on God to withhold such sentencing. This sentencing was ultimately not withheld, but simply averted to the sinless Son of God on Good Friday. A joyful restoration of the Spirit’s work in his heart must take place in David’s heart for him to escape his guilt and shame over recent sins. When a person confesses there sin, there ought not to be any emotion of gaiety or joy, but simply brokenness and a godly fear. The end response of David being reconciled by God is that he will carry on the ministry of reconciliation with the lost around him. Those who have been forgiven much, will love much and that love will play out in obedient service. David then acknowledges something everyone must acknowledge when he says that God does not delight in sacrifice, but rather in broken-hearted confession and reverent submission to His will. All that God cares about is whether His people, who are called by His Name, will humble themselves and return to Him. David states rightly that God will not despise such true repentance and Jesus Himself states this when He says He will in no wise cast out those who come to Him. There is no individual who can come to the Lord without receiving His abundant mercy and grace. All who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved! Once the Spirit of God has indwelt this broken-hearted and repentance sinner, the Lord will actually be pleased with any offerings they bring in the future. God loves the praises and obedience of His people, but despises and shuns the false obedience of those who would do holy activities without themselves knowing Him.