Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Parallel Translations
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Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
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Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
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(51-1) For the Leader. A Psalm of David; (51-2) When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. (51-3) Be gracious unto me, O God, according to Thy mercy; according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgressions.
Cross-references (31)
Passages linked to Psalms 51:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
- Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
- Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
- Psalms 51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
- Colossians 2:14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
- Psalms 69:16 Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
- 2 Samuel 11:2–12:13 At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?” David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and didn’t go down to his house. When they had told David, saying, “Uriah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!” David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next day. When David had called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die.” When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; and he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king, it shall be that, if the king’s wrath arise, and he asks you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’ ” So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate. The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.” Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.” When Uriah’s wife heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh. Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!” Nathan said to David, “You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’ “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ ” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.
- Ephesians 1:6-8 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
- Psalms 4:1 Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
- Psalms 25:6-7 Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness, for they are from old times. Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.
- Psalms 106:45 He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
- Romans 5:20-21 The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Exodus 34:6-7 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
- Lamentations 3:32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
- Micah 7:18-19 Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
- Ephesians 2:4-7 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
- Psalms 119:124 Deal with your servant according to your loving kindness. Teach me your statutes.
- Numbers 14:18-19 ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’ Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
- Psalms 40:11 Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
- Psalms 109:21 But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me;
- Psalms 5:7 But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.
- Psalms 106:7 Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
- Psalms 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
- Psalms 145:9 Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works.
- Isaiah 63:7 I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has given to us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has given to them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
- Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where are your zeal and your mighty acts? The yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
- Daniel 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
- Psalms 77:9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?”
- Jeremiah 18:23 Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity. Don’t blot out their sin from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.
- Nehemiah 4:5 Don’t cover their iniquity. Don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.”
- Daniel 9:18 My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Have mercy upon me. David begins, as I…
1. Have mercy upon me. David begins, as I have already remarked, by praying for pardon; and his sin having been of an aggravated description, he prays with unwonted earnestness. He does not satisfy himself with one petition. Having mentioned the loving-kindness of the Lord, he adds the multitude of his compassions, to intimate that mercy of an ordinary kind would not suffice for so great a sinner. Had he prayed God to be favorable, simply according to his clemency or goodness, even that would have amounted to a confession that his case was a bad one; but when he speaks of his sin as remissible, only through the countless multitude of the compassions of God, he represents it as peculiarly atrocious. There is an implied antithesis between the greatness of the mercies sought for, and the greatness of the transgression which required them. Still more emphatical is the expression which follows, multiply to wash me Some take הרבה, herebeh, for a noun, but this is too great a departure from the idiom of the language. The sense, on that supposition, would indeed remain the same, That God would wash him abundantly, and with multiplied washing; but I prefer that form of expression which agrees best with the Hebrew idiom. This, at least, is certain from the expression which he employs, that he felt the stain of his sin to be deep, and to require multiplied washings. Not as if God could experience any difficulty in cleansing the worst sinner, but the more aggravated a man’s sin is, the more earnest naturally are his desires to be delivered from the terrors of conscience.
The figure itself, as all are aware, is one of frequent occurrence in Scripture. Sin resembles filth or uncleanness, as it pollutes us, and makes us loathsome in the sight of God, and the remission of it is therefore aptly compared to washing This is a truth which should both commend the grace of God to us, and fill us with detestation of sin. Insensible, indeed, must that heart be which is not affected by it!
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain To reprove him because he had committed so horrible…
To reprove him because he had committed so horrible sins, and lain in the same without repentance more than a whole year.
As his sins were manifold and great, so he requireth that God would give him the feeling of his excellent and abundant mercies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 51:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm…
Psa 51:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. » Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
A Psalm of David] Who was not ashamed to do open penance here in a white sheet, as it were; so did Theodosius the emperor, at the reprehension of Ambrose, after the slaughter at Thessalonica; he spent eight months, saith Theodoret, in weeping and lamentation; he fell down on his face in the place of the penitents, and said, My soul is glued to the earth, &c. Henry IV (then king of Navarre only, afterwards of France also), having abused the daughter of a gentleman in Rochel, by whom he had a son, was persuaded by Monsieur Du-Plessis to make a public acknowledgment of his fault in the church, which also he did before all the nobility of his army. This counsel being thought by some to be too rigorous, Du-Plessis made this answer, That as a man could not be too courageous before men, so he could not be too humble in the presence of God (Life of Phil. de Morn., by Mr Clark).
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When Nathan the prophet came unto him] Rousing him out of a long lethargy, into which sin and Satan had cast him. See here the necessity of a faithful ministry, to be to us as the pilot was to Jonah, as the cock to Peter, &c.; as also of a friendly admonitor, such as David had prayed for, Psa 141:5, and here he is answered. David had lain long in sin without repentance to any purpose; some remorse he had felt, Psa 32:3, but it amounted not to a godly sorrow, till Nathan came; and in private, dealing plainly with him, more prevailed than all the lectures of the law or other means had done all that while.
After he had gone in to Bathsheba] This was the devil’s nest-egg that caused many sins to be laid, one to and upon another. See the woeful chain of David’s lust, 2Sa 11:1-27; 2Sa 12:1-25, and beware.
Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] It was wont to be, O my God, but David had now sinned away his assurance, wiped off his comfortables; he dares not plead propriety in God, nor relation to him, as having forfeited both. At another time, when he had greatly offended God by numbering the people, God counted him but plain David, "Go and say to David," 2Sa 24:12, whereas before, when he purposed to build God a temple, then it was, "Go tell my servant David," 2Sa 7:5. Sin doth much impair and weaken our assurance of God’s favour; like as a drop of water falling on a burning candle dimmeth the light thereof. The course that David taketh for recovery of this last evil is confession of sin, and hearty prayer for pardoning and purging grace. In the courts of men it is safest (saith Quintilian) to plead Non feci, Not guilty; not so here, but Ego feci, miserere miserrimi peccatoris, misericors Deus. Guilty, Lord, have mercy, &c.
Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei.
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies] They are a multitude of them, and David needeth them all, for the pardon of his many and mighty sins; that where sin had abounded grace might superabound, it may have a superpleonasm, 1Ti 1:14.
Blot out my transgressions] Out of thy debtbook; cross out the black lines of my sins with the red lines of Christ’s blood; cancel the bond, though written in black and bloody characters.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Have mercy upon me; pity, and help, and answer…
Have mercy upon me; pity, and help, and answer me, in the desires I am now spreading before thee.
According to thy loving-kindness: I pretend to no merit, but humbly implore thy free grace and mercy. Thy mercies are infinite, and therefore sufficient for my relief, and such indeed do I need.
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Blot out; either,
1. Out of my conscience and soul, where it hath left a stain and filthy character. Or,
2. Out of thy book of remembrance and accounts, in which all men’s sins are written, and out of Which all men shall be judged hereafter, Rev 20:12; which is spoken of God after the manner of men. See Poole "Isa 43:25"; See Poole "Isa 44:22".
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The title has reference to a very sad story,…
The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David's fall. But, though he fell, he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him and raised him up. 1. The sin which, in this psalm, he laments, was the folly and wickedness he committed with his neighbour's wife, a sin not to be spoken of, nor thought of, without detestation. His debauching of Bathsheba was the inlet to all the other sins that followed; it was as the letting forth of water. This sin of David's is recorded for warning to all, that he who thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall. 2. The repentance which, in this psalm, he expresses, he was brought to by the ministry of Nathan, who was sent of God to convince him of his sin, after he had continued above nine months (for aught that appears) without any particular expressions of remorse and sorrow for it. But though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet he will, by some means or other, recover them to repentance, bring them to himself and to their right mind again. Herein, generally, he uses the ministry of the word, which yet he is not tied to. But those that have been overtaken in any fault ought to reckon a faithful reproof the greatest kindness that can be don them and a wise reprover their best friend. Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be excellent oil. 3. David, being convinced of his sin, poured out his soul to God in prayer for mercy and grace. Whither should backsliding children return, but to the Lord their God, from whom they have backslidden, and who alone can heal their backslidings? 4. He drew up, by divine inspiration, the workings of his heart towards God, upon this occasion, into a psalm, that it might be often repeated, and long after reviewed; and this he committed to the chief musician, to be sung in the public service of the church. (1.) As a profession of his own repentance, which he would have to be generally taken notice of, his sin having been notorious, that the plaster might be as wide as the wound. Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own their repentance; but, having lost the honour of innocents, they will rather covet the honour of penitents. (2.) As a pattern to others, both to bring them to repentance by his example and to instruct them in their repentance what to do an what to say. Being converted himself, he thus strengthens his brethren (Luk 22:32), and for this cause he obtained mercy, Ti1 1:16.
In these words we have,
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I. David's humble petition, Psa 51:1, Psa 51:2. His prayer is much the same with that which our Saviour puts into the mouth of his penitent publican in the parable: God be merciful to me a sinner! Luk 18:13. David was, upon many accounts, a man of great merit; he had not only done much, but suffered much, in the cause of God; and yet, when he is convinced of sin, he does not offer to balance his evil deeds with his good deeds, nor can he think that his services will atone for his offences; but he flies to God's infinite mercy, and depends upon that only for pardon and peace: Have mercy upon me, O God! He owns himself obnoxious to God's justice, and therefore casts himself upon his mercy; and it is certain that the best man in the world will be undone if God be not merciful to him. Observe,
1. What his plea is for this mercy: "have mercy upon me, O God! not according to the dignity of my birth, as descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, not according to my public services as Israel's champion, or my public honours as Israel's king;" his plea is not, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions, how he vowed to build a place for the ark (Psa 132:1, Psa 132:2); a true penitent will make no mention of any such thing; but "Have mercy upon me for mercy's sake. I have nothing to plead with thee but," (1.) "The freeness of thy mercy, according to thy lovingkindness, thy clemency, the goodness of thy nature, which inclines thee to pity the miserable." (2.) "The fulness of thy mercy. There are in thee not only lovingkindness and tender mercies, but abundance of them, a multitude of tender mercies for the forgiveness of many sinners, of many sins, to multiply pardons as we multiply transgressions."
2. What is the particular mercy that he begs - the pardon of sin. Blot out my transgressions, as a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor has paid it or the creditor has remitted it. "Wipe out my transgressions, that they may not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion and terror." The blood of Christ, sprinkled upon the conscience, to purify and pacify that, blots out the transgression, and, having reconciled us to God, reconciles up to ourselves, Psa 51:2. "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity; wash my soul from the guilt and stain of my sin by thy mercy and grace, for it is only from a ceremonial pollution that the water of separation will avail to cleanse me. Multiple to wash me; the stain is deep, for I have lain long soaking in the guilt, so that it will not easily be got out. O wash me much, wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me from my sin." Sin defiles us, renders us odious in the sight of the holy God, and uneasy to ourselves; it unfits us for communion with God in grace or glory. When God pardons sin he cleanses us from it, so that we become acceptable to him, easy to ourselves, and have liberty of access to him. Nathan had assured David, upon his first profession of repentance, that his win was pardoned. The Lord has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die, Sa2 12:13. Yet he prays, Wash me, cleanse, blot out my transgressions; for God will be sought unto even for that which he has promised; and those whose sins are pardoned must pray that the pardon may be more and more cleared up to them. God had forgiven him, but he could not forgive himself; and therefore he is thus importunate for pardon, as one that thought himself unworthy of it and knew how to value it.
II. David's penitential confessions, Psa 51:3-5.
1. He was very free to own his guilt before God: I acknowledge my transgressions; this he had formerly found the only way of easing his conscience, Psa 32:4, Psa 32:5. Nathan said, Thou art the man. I am, says David; I have sinned.
2. He had such a deep sense of it that the was continually thinking of it with sorrow and shame. His contrition for his sin was not a slight sudden passion, but an abiding grief: "My sin is ever before me, to humble me and mortify me, and make me continually blush and tremble. It is ever against me" (so some); "I see it before me as an enemy, accusing and threatening me." David was, upon all occasions, put in mid of his sin, and was willing to be so, for his further abasement. He never walked on the roof of his house without a penitent reflection on his unhappy walk there when thence he saw Bathsheba; he never lay down to sleep without a sorrowful thought of the bed of his uncleanness, never sat down to meat, never sent his servant on an errand, or took his pen in hand, but it put him in mind of his making Uriah drunk, the treacherous message he sent by him, and the fatal warrant he wrote and signed for his execution. Note, The acts of repentance, even for the same sin, must be often repeated. It will be of good use for us to have our sins ever before us, that by the remembrance of our past sins we may be kept humble, may be armed against temptation, quickened to duty, and made patient under the cross.
(1.) He confesses his actual transgressions (Psa 51:4): Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. David was a very great man, and yet, having done amiss, submits to the discipline of a penitent, and thinks not his royal dignity will excuse him from it. Rich and poor must here meet together; there is one law of repentance for both; the greatest must be judged shortly, and therefore must judge themselves now. David was a very good man, and yet, having sinned, he willingly accommodates himself to the place and posture of a penitent. The best men, if they sin, should give the best example of repentance. [1.] His confession is particular; "I have done this evil, this that I am now reproved for, this that my own conscience now upbraids me with." Note, It is good to be particular in the confession of sin, that we may be the more express in praying for pardon, and so may have the more comfort in it. We ought to reflect upon the particular heads of our sins of infirmity and the particular circumstances of our gross sins. [2.] He aggravates the sin which he confesses and lays a load upon himself for it: Against thee, and in thy sight. Hence our Saviour seems to borrow the confession which he puts into the mouth of the returning prodigal: I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, Luk 15:18. Two things David laments in his sin: - First, That it was committed against God. To him the affront is given, and he is the party wronged. It is his truth that by wilful sin we deny, his conduct that we despise, his command that we disobey, his promise that we distrust, his name that we dishonour, and it is with him that we deal deceitfully and disingenuously. From this topic Joseph fetched the great argument against sin (Gen 39:9), and David here the great aggravation of it: Against thee only. Some make this to intimate the prerogative of his crown, that, as a king, he was not accountable to any but God; but it is more agreeable to his present temper to suppose that it expresses the deep contrition of his soul for his sin, and that it was upon right grounds. He here sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, against his own soul, and body, and family, against his kingdom, and against the church of God, and all this helped to humble him; but none of these were sinned against so as God was, and therefore this he lays the most sorrowful accent upon: Against thee only have I sinned. Secondly, That it was committed in God's sight. "This not only proves it upon me, but renders it exceedingly sinful." This should greatly humble us for all our sins, that they have been committed under the eye of God, which argues either a disbelief of his omniscience or a contempt of his justice. [3.] He justifies God in the sentence passed upon him - that the sword should never depart from his house, Sa2 12:10, Sa2 12:11. He is very forward to own his sin, and aggravate it, not only that he might obtain the pardon of it himself, but that by his confession he might give honour to God. First, That God might be justified in the threatenings he had spoken by Nathan. "Lord, I have nothing to say against the justice of them; I deserve what is threatened, and a thousand times worse." Thus Eli acquiesced in the like threatenings (Sa1 3:18), It is the Lord. And Hezekiah (Kg2 20:19), Good is the word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken. Secondly, That God might be clear when he judged, that is, when he executed those threatenings. David published his confession of sin that when hereafter he should come into trouble none might say God had done him any wrong; for he owns the Lord is righteous: thus will all true penitents justify God by condemning themselves. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us.
(2.) He confesses his original corruption (Psa 51:5): Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He does not call upon God to behold it, but upon himself. "Come, my soul, look unto the rock out of which I was hewn, and thou wilt find I was shapen in iniquity. Had I duly considered this before, I find I should not have made so bold with the temptation, nor have ventured among the sparks with such tinder in my heart; and so the sin might have been prevented. Let me consider it now, not to excuse or extenuate the sin - Lord, I did so; but indeed I could not help it, my inclination led me to it" (for as that plea is false, with due care and watchfulness, and improvement of the grace of God, he might have helped it, so it is what a true penitent never offers to put in), "but let me consider it rather as an aggravation of the sin: Lord, I have not only been guilty of adultery and murder, but I have an adulterous murderous nature; therefore I abhor myself." David elsewhere speaks of the admirable structure of his body (Psa 139:14, Psa 139:15); it was curiously wrought; and yet here he says it was shapen in iniquity, sin was twisted in with it; not as it came out of God's hands, but as it comes through our parents' loins. He elsewhere speaks of the piety of his mother, that she was God's handmaid, and he pleads his relation to her (Psa 116:16, Psa 86:16), and yet here he says she conceived him in sin; for though she was, by grace, a child of God, she was, by nature, a daughter of Eve, and not excepted from the common character. Note, It is to be sadly lamented by every one of us that we brought into the world with us a corrupt nature, wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude; we have from our birth the snares of sin in our bodies, the seeds of sin in our souls, and a stain of sin upon both. This is what we call original sin, because it is as ancient as our original, and because it is the original of all our actual transgressions. This is that foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child, that proneness of evil and backwardness to good which is the burden of the regenerate and the ruin of the unregenerate; it is a bent to backslide from God.
III. David's acknowledgment of the grace of God (Psa 51:6), both his good-will towards us ("thou desirest truth in the inward parts, thou wouldst have us all honest and sincere, and true to our profession") and his good work in us - "In the hidden part thou hast made," or shalt make, "me to know wisdom." Note, 1. Truth and wisdom will go very far towards making a man a good man. A clear head and a sound heart (prudence and sincerity) bespeak the man of God perfect. 2. What God requires of us he himself works in us, and he works it in the regular way, enlightening the mind, and so gaining the will. But how does this come in here? (1.) God is hereby justified and cleared: "Lord, thou was not the author of my sin; there is no blame to be laid upon thee; but I alone must bear it; for thou has many a time admonished me to be sincere, and hast made me to know that which, if I had duly considered it, would have prevented my falling into this sin; had I improved the grace thou hast given me, I should have kept my integrity." (2.) The sin is hereby aggravated: "Lord, thou desirest truth; but where was it when I dissembled with Uriah? Thou hast made me to know wisdom; but I have not lived up to what I have known." (3.) He is hereby encouraged, in his repentance, to hope that God would graciously accept him; for, [1.] God had made him sincere in his resolutions never to return to folly again: Thou desirest truth in the inward part; this is that which God has an eye to in a returning sinner, that in his spirit there be no guile, Psa 32:2. David was conscious to himself of the uprightness of his heart towards God in his repentance, and therefore doubted not but God would accept him. [2.] He hoped that God would enable him to make good his resolutions, that in the hidden part, in the new man, which is called the hidden man of the heart (Pe1 3:4), he would make him to know wisdom, so as to discern and avoid the designs of the tempter another time. Some read it as a prayer: "Lord, in this instance, I have done foolishly; for the future make me to know wisdom." Where there is truth God will give wisdom; those that sincerely endeavour to do their duty shall be taught their duty.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Have mercy upon me, O God,.... David, under a…
Have mercy upon me, O God,.... David, under a sense of sin, does not run away from God, but applies unto him, and casts himself at his feet, and upon his mercy; which shows the view he had of his miserable condition, and that he saw there was mercy in God, which gave him hope; and upon his bended knees, and in the exercise of faith, he asks for it;
according to thy lovingkindness; not according to his merits, nor according to the general mercy of God, which carnal men rely upon; but according to his everlasting and unchangeable love in Christ; from which as the source, and through whom as the medium, special mercy comes to the children of men. The acts of special mercy are according to the sovereign will of God: he is not moved to mercy neither by the merits nor misery of men, but by his free grace and favour; it is love that sets mercy to work: this is a most glaring gleam of Gospel light, which none of the inspired writers besides, except the Apostle Paul, saw, Eph 2:4;
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according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions; for his sin was complicated, attended with many others; and, besides, upon a view of this, he was led to observe all his other sins; and particularly the corruption of his nature, his original sin, which he mentions, Psa 51:5. These he desires might be "blotted out"; out of the book of account, out of God's debt book; that they might not stand against him, being debts he was not able to pay or make satisfaction for; and out of the table of his own heart and conscience, where they were ever before him, and seemed to be engraven; that they might be caused to pass from him, and he might have no more conscience of them; or that they might be blotted out, as a cloud by the clear shining of the sun of righteousness, with the healing of pardoning grace in his wings; or that they might be wiped away, as any faith is wiped from any person or thing: and all this "according to the multitude of his tender mercies". The mercy of God is plenteous and abundant; he is rich in it, and various are the instances of it; and it is exceeding tender, like that of a father to his children, or like that of a mother to the son of her womb; and from this abundant and tender mercy springs the forgiveness of sin, Luk 1:77. The psalmist makes mention of the multitude of the mercies of God, because of the multitude of his sins, which required a multitude of mercy to forgive, and to encourage his hope of it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain David prays for pardon, ver. 1, 2. Confesses his…
David prays for pardon, ver. 1, 2. Confesses his sins, ver. 3- 5. Prays for renewing grace, ver. 6-14. Promises unfeigned thankfulness, ver. 15-17. Prays for the whole church, ver, 18, 19. To the chief musician, A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for…
PSALM LI
The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for remission
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of sins, 1-4;
which he confesses, and deeply deplores, 5-14;
states his willingness to offer sacrifice, but is convinced that
God prefers a broken heart to all kinds of oblations, 15-17;
prays for the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem, and
promises that then the Lord's sacrifice shall be properly
performed, 18, 19.
NOTES ON PSALM LI
The title is long: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba." The propriety of this title has been greatly suspected, says Bishop Horsley: "That this Psalm was not written on the occasion to which the title refers, is evident from the 4th and 18th verses. The 4th verse Ps 51:4 ill suits the case of David, who laid a successful plot against Uriah's life, after he had defiled his bed: and the 18th Ps 51:18 verse refers the Psalm to the time of the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins." Dr. Kennicott is of the same mind. He says: "The title is misplaced; that it was written during the captivity, and the cessation of the temple worship; the author under great depression of mind, arising from the guilt of some crime, probably some compliance with heathen idolatry, not murder nor adultery; is plain from the 4th verse, "Against THEE ONLY have I sinned."
The crime mentioned in the title was not only against God, but against the whole order of civil society; against the life of the noble and valiant captain whose wife Bath-sheba was, and against every thing sacred in friendship and hospitality. It was a congeries of sins against God and society. Were it not for the 4th, 18th, and 19th verses, the rest of the Psalm would accord well enough with the title, and the deep penitence it expresses would be suitable enough to David's state. But see on Ps 51:4; Ps 51:18-19.
Verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] Without mercy I am totally, finally ruined and undone.
According to thy loving-kindness] Mark the gradation in the sense of these three words, Have MERCY on me, חנני chonneni; thy LOVING-KINDNESS, חסדך chasdecha; - thy TENDER MERCIES, רחמיך rachameycha, here used to express the Divine compassion. The propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation.
The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they respectively make over them.
The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former.
The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks called σπλαγχνιζεσθαι, that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which nature is susceptible. See Chandler.
Blot out my transgressions] מחה mecheh, wipe out. There is a reference here to an indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the mercy, loving-kindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God —…
Psa 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God — O thou, who art the supreme Lawgiver, Governor, and Judge of the world, whom I have most highly offended many ways, and, therefore, may most justly be condemned to suffer the effects of thy severest displeasure; I cast myself down before thee, and humbly supplicate for mercy. O pity, help, and answer me in the desires I am now about to spread before thee; according to thy loving- kindness — Thy known clemency and infinite compassions. For I pretend to no merit: I know my desert is everlasting destruction of body and soul; but I humbly implore the interposition of thy free grace and unmerited goodness. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies — Hebrew, רחמיךְ, rachameicha, thy bowels of mercies, yearning over thy fallen, sinful, and miserable creatures. Thy mercies are infinite, and, therefore, sufficient for my relief: and such mercies, indeed, do I now need. “How reviving,” says Chandler, “is the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender compassions of God, to one in David’s circumstances; whose mind laboured under the burden of the most heinous, complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance!” Blot out — מחה, mechee, deleto, absterge, destroy, wipe away, my transgressions — That is, entirely and absolutely forgive them; so that no part of the guilt I have contracted may remain, and the punishment of it may be wholly remitted. The word properly signifies to wipe out, or to wipe any thing absolutely clean, as a person wipes a dish: see 2Ki 21:13. Blot out my transgressions — As a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor has paid it, or the creditor has remitted it; wipe them out — That they may not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion and terror. Give me peace with thee, by turning away thine anger from me, and taking me again into thy favour; and give me peace in my own conscience, by assuring me thou hast done so.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Have mercy opon me, O God - This is…
Have mercy opon me, O God - This is the utterance of a full heart; a heart crushed and broken by the consciousness of sin. The psalmist had been made to see his great guilt; and his first act is to cry out for mercy. There is no attempt to excuse his sin, or to apologise for it; there is no effort to vindicate his conduct; there is no complaint of the righteousness of that holy law which condemned him. It was “guilt” that was before his mind; guilt only; deep and dreadful guilt. The appeal properly expresses the state of a mind that is overwhelmed at the remembrance of crime, and that comes with earnestness to God to plead for pardon. The only hope of a sinner when crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ. “Accordingly to thy Iovingkindness.” On the meaning of the word used here, see the notes at Psa 36:7.
(a) The “ground” of his hope was the compassion of God:
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(b) the “measure” of that hope was His boundless beneficence; or, in other words, he felt that there was need of “all” the compassion of a God.
His sin was so great, his offence was so aggravated, that he could have no hope but in a Being of infinite compassion, and he felt that the need of mercy in his case could be measured and covered “only” by that infinite compassion.
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies - The same idea occurs here also. The psalmist fixed his eye on the “vastness” of the divine mercy; on the numberless “acts” of that mercy toward the guilty; here he found his hope, and here alone. Every instance of extraordinary mercy which had occurred in the world furnished him now with an argument in his appeal to God; was an encouragement to him “in” that appeal; was a ground of hope that his appeal would not be rejected. So to us: every instance in which a great sinner has been forgiven is evidence that we may be forgiven also, and is an encouragement to us to come to God for pardon. See the notes at 1Ti 1:16.
Blot out my transgressions - In allusion to an account that is kept, or a charge made, when such an account is wiped away, erased, or blotted out. Compare Exo 32:32-33; see the notes at Isa 43:25; notes at Isa 44:22; notes at Col 2:14. Never was a more earnest appeal made by a sinner than that which is made in this verse; never was there a more sincere cry for mercy. It shows us where we should “begin” in our prayers when we are pressed down with the consciousness of sin - with a cry for “mercy,” and not an appeal to “justice;” it shows us what is to be the “ground” and the “measure” of our hope - the mere compassion of an infinitely benevolent God; it shows us the place which we must take, and the argument on which we must rely - a place among sinners, and an argument that God has been merciful to great sinners, and that therefore he may be merciful to us.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 51
Psalms 51
To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba
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Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions:
And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in thy sight:
That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
And be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity;
And in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness;
That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins,
And blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence;
And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
And uphold me with thy free Spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
And sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips;
And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
Thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:
Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.—A penitential Psalm of an almost evangelical spirit and character, “which has been used by the Church in song and prayer oftener than any other in the Psalter” (Luther). For the prayer for expiation through the mercy of God (Psa_51:1-2) is founded upon the penitent confession of his own grievous transgression (Psa_51:3-4) and the assurance that he who has been conceived and born in sin can obtain truth and wisdom only from God (Psa_51:5-6). On this foundation rises at first a double prayer for forgiveness of sins (Psa_51:7-9) and renewal through the Holy Spirit (Psa_51:10-12); then follows the vow of thanksgiving, partly in the instruction of sinners unto conversion, partly in the personal praise of God (Psa_51:13-15), because the will of God is not that external sacrifices should be brought, but He desires spiritual contrition of heart (Psa_51:17-18); finally there is an intercession in behalf of the bestowal of grace upon the entire people, in order that they may be in the right condition, with true disposition to offer likewise the external ritual sacrifices at Jerusalem prescribed in the law (Psa_51:18-19). It is very natural to suppose that the last two verses are a later, perhaps liturgical addition (Venema, Rosen., Maurer, Köster, Tholuck [Perowne, et al.], yet this is not entirely necessary (vide Psa_51:18-19). Still less are we compelled, in order to maintain the authenticity of the composition of this Psalm, to descend to the time of the exile at Babylon (De Wette), and explain it as a prayer of the nation (Paulus, Olsh.), or ascribe it to the author of Isaiah 40-66., as a prayer of the prophet, to support him in his calling (Hitzig). The latter reference to the prophet’s calling is forced by the most violent explanations. The undoubted similarities with Isaiah are not limited to the last chapters, so that it is more natural to suppose a manifold use of this Psalm by the prophet Isaiah (Delitzsch), and emphasize the thoroughgoing reference to 2 Samuel 12 (Hengst.), and indeed in these very expressions and turns of thought, which are not as it were usual phrases (Hupfeld), but relate to that very transgression of David and its consequences, which is mentioned in the title. The fact that this title uses the same word to designate the official coming of Nathan to David, and the sexual coming of David to Bathsheba (2Sa_11:4, comp. Gen_6:4; Gen_16:2), shows a carelessness of Hebrew style (Delitzsch) rather than a significant antithesis. (Stier, Hengst.). At any rate כַאֲשֶׁר is not to be regarded as=such as, expressing the correspondence of guilt and punishment; but it is to be taken as a particle of time=when, which, connected with the perfect (1Sa_12:8; 2Sa_12:21), receives the meaning=after that, and indicates the pluperfect. Compared with Ps. 6. and 38. the feelings expressed here are in a more advanced stage, whilst the situation is the same. Psalms 32. carries out what is promised here in Psa_51:13.
Str. I. Psa_51:1. According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.—The plurality of his transgressions is not to be explained historically but psychologically. He prays that they may be blotted out or wiped away, either as letters, Exo_32:32; Num_5:23; comp. Psa_9:5; Psa_69:23, from the book of guilt (J. H. Mich., Rosen., et al.), or as clouds from the heavens by a wind, Isa_42:22 (Delitzsch). In this connection, however, we are not to think of the figure of filth (Stier), but of the idea of entire removal, 2Ki_21:13 (Hupfeld).
Psa_51:2. Wash me thoroughly, or wash me much. הַרְבֵּה is hardly the full form of the imper. hiphil, for which הֶרֶב is the shortened form (Geier, Rosen., De Wette, Stier after Aben Ezra and Kimchi), although, at times, the imperative of the auxiliary verb and the imperative of the principal verb, follow one another without the conjunction ו, comp. 1Sa_2:3 (Gesen. § 139, 3 b.); but it is the infin. absolute (Kimchi, J. H. Mich alternately, Hitzig, Hengst., Hupfeld), used as an adverb (Ewald, § 240 e., 280 c., Gesen. § 128, 2), and here placed before the verb with emphasis, as in Ps. 131:7, before the noun. The washing is expressed by a verb which usually refers to cleansing the clothing by means of kneading, and thus designates the iniquity as filth deeply soiling him.—Make me clean from my sin.—This verb is used at the same time for declarative and actual purification, and represents the sin as a leprosy.—It is unnecessary to inquire whether all these expressions refer more to the objective greatness of the guilt, in reference to which the greatness of Divine compassion is emphasized (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or to the subjective strength of the feelings (Hupfeld). For if the consciousness of his sin is directly mentioned as constantly before the Psalmist, whether as a ground of longing and prayer for forgiveness (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Stier, et al.), or as a motive for the fulfilment of this petition, because his confession indicates the presence of the condition of forgiveness (Geier, Rosen., Hengst.): he yet likewise afterwards not only mentions blood-guiltiness, in Psa_51:14, but in the immediate course of the thought, Psa_51:4, designates sin as evil before the eyes of God (Isa_65:12; Isa_66:4), and Psa_51:5 brings it in connection with the universal human sinfulness, and indeed not as an excuse (Flamin. and Rosen. after some Rabbins), but as a testimony to the depth of ruin and the enormity of transgression.
Str. II. Psa_51:3. For my transgressions I know.—[Perowne: “There is no need to render with the A. V. ‘I acknowledge,’ though no doubt the confession of sin is implied. That, however, is not here prominent, but rather that discernment of sin and of its true nature which leads to a confession of it.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_51:4. Against Thee alone, etc.—This expression does not say that the sin in question is to be regarded as idolatry, that is, as sin against the one only true God (Paulus), or as a then (in the exile or in the Maccabean time) unparalleled guilt (Olsh.). It certainly is not against the reference to the transgression of David against Bathsheba and Uriah. It does not mention this fact, but emphasizes the sinfulness of it, and shows that the speaker, in the sincerity and strength of his penitence, which corresponds with the depth of his knowledge of his sin, has in mind, not the injuries done to men, but his relation to God, which was thereby disturbed, to whom the sin as such refers, that is to say, according to its idea and nature, solely and alone. The word alone is not superfluous (Flacius), since it is rather indispensable to express the thought indicated above. Yet we must not limit the emphasis and tone to this word, but at the same time extend it to the word “sinned.” For the conception and designation of the nature of sin as opposition to the holy will of God, who not only alone recognizes the springs of sinful action in the interior of man (Kimchi), but is the only supreme lawgiver and judge, discloses a frame of mind (Hupfeld) in which the religious reference to God alone is felt (Flamin., Rosen., Maurer, De Wette), and therefore likewise urges to the seeking of purification and sanctification in God alone (Isaki, et al.). But this conception and designation is neither brought about by an abstraction from the appearances of sin, nor does it spring from a merely subjective frame of mind and feeling, but it originates from a knowledge of the essential relation of sin, and hence the objective truth of the clause is to be maintained.1 For since לְמַעַן=ἴνα states not the consequences but always the design or the aim, and moreover the context as well as the character of David excludes the interpretation that the Psalmist confesses, that he has sinned with the design or to the end that the righteousness of God might become manifest; these words must not be referred back to the thoughts contained in the prayer, Psa_51:1, or in the confession, Psa_51:3, but must be put in the closest connection with the words: “against Thee alone” and “the evil in Thine eyes.” It is not necessary then to insert the words: “this I confess” (Olsh., von Leng.). The Psalmist has by the confession in Psa_51:4 already renounced excuses and self-justification, and indeed every thought which might include an accusation against God, at the same time, moreover, by putting his act under the head of actions condemned by God, by condemning himself, he thus fulfills the purpose that the righteousness and purity of God should be presented and recognized in fact. The appearance of doing away with human freedom and of a Divine predestination of evil, which, moreover, Calvin did not find here, originates mostly from the fact that the speaking and judging of God is usually referred directly and immediately to the condemning oracle of Nathan, which it is admissible to make use of here only in a general way. Of course the reference is not to a judicial judgment of God absolving an accused person, as if the meaning were that no one’s right is injured when God Himself is the offended person, and He bestows His grace upon the person who is deficient (Hitzig); still less is it of the speaking and internal judgment of God in the conscience of man (De Wette, Hupfeld). The expression is a general one, and is thus taken by the Apostle Paul, Rom_3:4, and secured from misinterpretation and misuse by a fuller explanation of the facts of the case.2 The sense is not essentially altered, although he cites from the Septuagint, which has the noun “in Thy words,” instead of the infinitive, and has taken the word זכה in accordance with the usage of the Syriac, in the meaning of “conquer,” “overcome,” instead of “be pure,” and has taken the active “judge” as passive, which then, with respect to this passage of the Psalm, the interpreters with this conception, refer to the offence which the fall of a man like David had given (Calvin). The unusual pointing of בְּדָבְרֶךָ, as the infinitive Kal, appears to have been chosen for the sake of similarity of sound with the parallel בְשָׁפְטֶךָ.
Str. III. Psa_51:5. Behold, in guilt was I born,etc.—The Psalm does not refer to an adulterous action on the part of his mother, of a sinful condition of birth and generation (Isaki), although the word יִחַם is generally used of the lust of animals, Gen_30:41; Gen_31:10, it merely refers to descent from sinful parents (Job_14:4), and inborn sinfulness, which with its guilt and its ruin is transmitted from parents to children, by means of natural propagation, so that they are infected with sin from their mother’s womb and from their youth, Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21; Psa_58:4.
Psa_51:6. Behold, Thou delightest in truth in the reins,etc.—Since God’s good pleasure and desire is directed to a truth present in the reins as the seat of the tenderest feelings (Chald., Jerome, Rabbins, Gesenius, Delitzsch), or, according to another derivation of the word: in the hiding-place, that is to say, in the most secret depths of the heart (Sept., Syriac, Jerome, Aben Ezra, Luther, Calvin, and most interpreters); he must pray that God will make known wisdom in the hidden parts. It does not mean secret wisdom, an understanding of the typical sense of the Old Testament ceremonies, or a deeper insight into the guidance of God, and into the secret of the atonement (most of the older interpreters, recently Stier), but according to the accents and the context, the correlative of truth, the practical wisdom of life, which God is to make known in the hidden parts, that is to say, internally in the heart, Job_38:36 (Rosen., Hengstenberg, recent interpreters). It is too narrow to regard truth as truthfulness, or sincerity in the knowledge and confession of sin (J. H. Mich., Tholuck, et al.); too wide to ex-plain it as the essence of all good (De Wette). It is the sincere nature corresponding with its ideal, whose character and reliability may be trusted, or the righteousness in accordance with the will and requirements of God, the true righteousness in contrast with lies, appearance, hypocrisy, Jos_24:14; Jdg_9:16; 1Ki_2:4; 1Ki_3:6; 2Ki_20:3; Psa_145:18 (Calvin, Hengst. et al.). The supposition that ב, in בָטֻּחוֹת, is not the preposition but the initial letter, as Job_12:6, and that it is therefore to be translated: behold, faith Thou lovest, confidence (Hitzig), is opposed by the fact that the word in question is used in Job in the objective sense, but here is applied in the subjective sense, just as אֱמֶת, which might indeed be translated: “faithfulness,” but is here taken by Hitzig as=אֱמוּנָה, and this again explained as=πίστις, in the subjective sense; and all this in the interest of the hypothesis that a prophet speaks here, before whom there is an uncertain future, which he nominally longs for (Psa_51:10 b. 12), but really desires to be turned away (Psa_51:11; Psa_51:14), and now has become disquieted and faint-spirited, because things have turned out different from his expectations; yet now as a prophet, on account of his official duty, he has to look into the future, and has not yet lost all hope; hence the sense of the passage is said to be: Thou requirest likewise from me believing confidence, and this will I become partaker of, if Thou revealest to me hidden things.
Str. IV. Psa_51:7. Purify me with hyssop,etc.—The Old Testament stand-point is disclosed in the fact that the means of purification are still designated figuratively and without a particle of comparison, by that symbol, with which the sprinkling of the men or things that had become unclean by contact with a corpse, Num_19:6 sq.; Num_19:18 sq., as well as the sprinkling of the leper, Leviticus 14., was performed, comp. Bähr, Symbolik des mos. Kultus II. 503. This stand point, however, is broken through by the fact, that there is no mention here of the priestly mediation, which was ordained as well for this act of sprinkling as for the washing of the clothing and bathing of the body, likewise mentioned here, but rather purification is implored directly from God, and the washing desired not for the clothing but for the person. Isa_1:18 makes use of Psa_51:7 b., where the redness of sin is brought in contrast with the whiteness of snow, which is occasioned by the mention of hands stained with blood, Isa_1:15.
Psa_51:8. Joy and gladness.—These expressions frequently combined are always used of loud and festive manifestations of joy (Hupfeld). They accordingly designate, not the effect of a message of peace within the heart, as by the preaching of grace in the word of God (Luther, Calvin, Stier), or else a message which gives joy (Hitzig), but the expression of joy, which is here published by the speaker himself, and thereby brought to a hearing, and actually accomplished by the fact that the declaration of pardon made to David through Nathan, which had taken place historically long before the composition of this Psalm, and therefore cannot be meant here, has penetrated finally, after long struggle and conflict, into the penitent soul, even to the point where its internal appropriation and sealing by the Holy Spirit can be hoped for and implored.—[Bones.—Perowne: “These are not merely as Hupfeld says, instead of the heart, but as constituting the strength and frame-work of the body, the crushing of the bones being a very strong figure, denoting the most complete prostration, mental and bodily, see Psa_6:2.”—C. A. B.]
[Psa_51:9. Hide Thy face.—This is the angry face, the judicial look of God, vid. Psa_21:9.—C. A. B.]
Psa_51:10-11. A pure heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.—The pure heart, the condition of communion with God (Psa_73:1; Mat_5:8), is designated not only as a heart cleansed from sin (Act_15:9), but at the same time as a new heart, by the fact that it is implored from a creative act of God, from which likewise the renewal of the spirit (Ezek. 4:23) to a steadfast one takes place, that is to say to a spirit firmly grounded in God’s grace, and thereby not only fearless and confident (Psa_57:7; Psa_112:7), but firm (Psa_78:37). What is implored here does not go beyond that which is required in Psa_24:4; moreover it is promised by the prophets as a gift of God (Jer_24:7; Eze_11:19; Eze_36:26), and includes a change of disposition (1Sa_10:9), which presupposes and is conditioned on penitence, and at the same time a believing turning unto the Divine grace, as it is made known in the prayer, not to be cast away from the presence of God, that is to say, utterly rejected (2Ki_13:23; 2Ki_17:20; 2Ki_24:20; Jer_7:15), not to be deprived of the Holy Spirit (Isa_63:11), with which David had been anointed (1Sa_16:13). The context is opposed to the insertion of “for ever” (Kimchi), not less than the explanation that this is the prayer of one already converted (Calvin).3
Psa_51:12. With a willing spirit uphold me.—The reference is not to a princely or guiding spirit (Sept., Vulgate, Isaki, et al.), or indeed to a mighty spirit (Jerome). The use of the Hebrew word in question for a person noble by birth (Job_30:15) or political rank, was rendered possible only after a series of intermediate steps. The fundamental meaning leads to the opposite of being legally necessary or externally forced, that is, to a being driven from within outwards (Exo_25:2), and accordingly to joyous willingness (Isa_32:8; Ps. 54:8). Grammatically this spirit of willingness can only be regarded as the subject nominative, and the following verb as the 3d per. fem. (Rabbins, Luther, Geier, J. H. Mich., et al.). But it is more in accordance with the context of the prayer to adopt the explanation which is likewise admissible, that the verb is the 2d masc. with double accusative, as Gen_27:37 (Sept., Jerome, Hengst., Hupfeld, Delitzsch). This part of the prayer affords a suitable transition to the following vow of true thank-offering, comp. Psa_32:8.
Str. V. Psa_51:13. I will teach, etc.—The optative form includes at the same time the petition that he may do it or be able to do it, presupposes accordingly the consequences of his prayer, so that it is unnecessary to supply “then” (De Wette, Hengst., [A. V.]). The ways of God are either those in which God Himself walks, particularly His treatment of penitent sinners, which is favored by Psa_51:14-15 (Stier), or those ordained of God, upon which man is to walk, the commandments of God (De Wette, Hupfeld), which is favored by Psa_32:8 (Hengst.).—[And sinners shall return unto Thee.—Alexander: “The Hebrew verb is not a passive (shall be converted) but an active form, shall turn or return to the Lord, perhaps with an allusion to the great apostasy, in which the whole race is involved. See above, in Psa_22:27. To this verse there seems to be particular allusion in our Saviour’s words to Peter, Luk_22:32.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_51:14. Blood-guiltiness, derived from the bloody deed, presses as a burden upon the conscience of David. Both ideas mingle with one another frequently in the Hebrew word which denotes primarily blood poured forth by violence, e.g. Psa_9:12; Psa_106:38. The prayer for deliverance seems to lead to the latter signification. Then we have to think of a hostile act directed against the Psalmist, a murder of the prophet which was to be feared (Hitzig) from men of blood (Psa_59:2), or of a still further effusion of blood which was expected by the people (Olshausen). But this passive reference of the word is unusual, so that the prayer for deliverance from impending death (Psa_33:19) affords no parallel. The deliverance is rather such an one which takes away the Psalmist (Psa_39:2) from the blood that he has shed. Since now the act cannot be undone, and can least of all be forgotten by the penitent himself, the expression manifestly refers to the expiation and forgiveness of guilt, which is referred to generally in this Psalm. The mingling of the idea of punishment (even by Hengst. and Hupfeld) can only work confusion, although fear of it, and remembrance of threatenings, as 2Sa_12:9 sq.; Gen_4:10; Gen_9:5 sq., might awaken and sharpen the consciousness of guilt.—The righteousness of God is not that tempered by grace and changed into mercy (Calvin, Geier, et al.), or that bestowed upon the sinner by grace (J. H. Mich., Stier), but that attribute of God, by virtue of which He gives every one his dues, comp. 1Jn_1:9 (Hengstenberg), the general principle of the Divine government (Hupfeld).
Psa_51:15. The opening of the lips is not merely as a consequence of the forgiveness of sins in contrast with the silence of the anxiety of sin (Calvin, Geier, Hengstenberg, et al.), but at the same time as an act of God, which not only opens the mouth of His prophets and consecrates their lips (Isa_50:4 sq.; Eze_3:27; Amo_4:13), but likewise works thankfulness, and invokes the song of praise, Psa_42:9; Psa_49:5; Psa_71:15 (Hupfeld). This is, according to Psa_51:8; Psa_51:12, a rejoicing heart, and seems therefore to presuppose a glad heart.
Psa_51:16-17. A broken heart is designated as the essential thing in the offering well-pleasing to God, and indeed the זִבְחֵי, that is to say sacrifices, which word in accordance with usage is neither offering in general, or sin offering in particular, but constantly the peace offering brought by those already expiated and justified, the שְׁלָמִים and the thank-offering תּוֹדַה. We must entirely reject the explanation that penitence has taken the place of the sin-offering, and indeed in the present case, because such an intentional transgression as that of David against Bathsheba and Uriah, allowed of no legal sin-offering (Rabbins, et al.), which cuts the nerve of the entire passage. The inadmissibleness of this interpretation is confirmed by the parallel mention of burnt offering עוֹלָה, by the offering of which the renewed devotion to God and His service was fulfilled. But it is not only said that the glad thankfulness for the deliverance, favor, forgiveness of sins, comes from a broken heart as the condition of salvation (Hitzig, Delitzsch), or remains constantly accompanied by a pain on account of sin (De Wette), which was at the same time a measure of the thankfulness for the forgiveness of sins (Hengstenberg). The heart itself is the essential thing in all the sacrifices of thanksgiving. To bring this is not the only offering which God demands after the abrogation of the propitiatory sacrifice, because in it the man denies himself, and abandoning any merit of his own, implores his entire salvation from God’s grace alone through faith (Calvin); it is the sign that grace has broken the heart, and that the favored one, in true humility, regards himself unworthy of what God has done to him, Gen_32:10; Luk_5:8. The statement of Joshua ben Levi, imparted by Delitzsch from the Talmud Sanhedrin 43 b., is related with this: at the time when the temple was standing, he who brought a burnt-offering received the reward of such, and he who brought a meat-offering, the reward of such, but the humble is to the Scriptures as one who brought all the offerings at once. However, the explanatory addition to Psa_51:17 in Iren. IV. 17 and Clemens Alex. pædag. III. 12, gives the present statement a somewhat different turn: “A savor well-pleasing to God, is a heart which praises Him who has smitten it.” Moreover, it is not to be left out of consideration that Psa_51:17 b. leads back, not to the means of forgiveness of sins, but rather to the subjective prerequisite and condition of it, which the Psalmist, still imploring forgiveness, experiences in himself as a personal condition of heart, and to this unites a hope, which in Isa_57:15 is sealed by the consolation of the prophecy, that God will take up His abode in such hearts as these.
Str. VI. Psa_51:18-19.—Do good, etc.—The remark made in the previous verse enables us to conceive of the use of this verse in the spiritual and New Testament sense. But this does not allow us to explain this passage in the typical or Messianic sense of the spiritual edification of the congregation (Flam.), or of the spiritual offerings of Zion built up again of broken and restored hearts (Stier). Psa_51:19 speaks of real Old Testament offerings, and indeed again of thank-offerings, especially consisting of sacrifices of bullocks, which are designated directly as burnt-offerings, and by the word כָּלִיל, not as perfect (Maurer), but, in accordance with usage, whole burnt-offerings, that is, as offerings which were to be entirely consumed, and here apparently not the whole vegetable offering, Lev_6:15, but that identical with the burnt-offering, 1Sa_7:9, of which the offerer did not receive a part as they did of the shelamim. These sacrifices, the Psalmist foresees, would be brought upon the altar after that God in His favor had done good to Zion, and built the walls of Jerusalem; and his prayer is that God may do this. There is not a syllable in the text to indicate that God’s grace was turned again to Zion, which would presuppose an apostasy of the people, or of a rebuilding of the walls which had been destroyed, by which either this concluding strophe or the whole Psalm would be pressed into the time of the Exile. The author has spoken only of his own guilt; since, however, he has mentioned its connection with universal human sinfulness, the transition in the prayer to intercession has been sufficiently prepared. If now David is the petitioner, it involves not only an extension of the view in the direction of his royal glance in general, but in view of the threatening, 2Sa_12:10, he must fear that evil would come from his sin upon the whole nation (Hengstenberg), and therefore feel himself impelled especially in his prayer for personal pardon, finally for constant exhibitions of the Divine favor to Zion and Jerusalem. The building of the walls is in contrast with the tearing down (Psa_89:40), and includes the idea of duration and preservation, Psa_89:3 sq. Thus the statement is explained without difficulty and without its being necessary to regard the building of the walls of Jerusalem round about by Solomon, 1Ki_3:1, as the fulfilment of this prayer of David.—There is no inconsistency with Psa_51:16, as those suppose who regard the closing verses as a later attempt to restore the offerings rejected in Psa_51:16 (Köster, Maurer, Tholuck), or who suppose that Psa_51:16 merely says that God has no pleasure in the offerings which might be brought during the exile in the heathen land, since the only admissible place for the bringing of the true and legal offerings was Jerusalem (Isa_36:7), where then after the restoration of the city they should be brought in the true and proper manner (Paulus, De Wette, Hitzig). All these suppositions are as untenable as they are unnecessary. For it follows from Psa_51:17, where the offerings well-pleasing to God are described, that the reference in Psa_51:16 is not to accidental deficiencies, external hindrances, ritual incompleteness, but that the thought is entirely parallel with that expressed in Psa_40:6 sq.; Psa_50:8 sq.; and Psa_51:19 shows, not that moral actions are described symbolically as offerings, but that the thank-offerings, which were to be brought on the altar at Jerusalem after the experience of the favor of God, are not offerings of merely ritual value, but offerings of righteousness (Psa_4:5), that is to say, such as are brought with the disposition well-pleasing to God, demanded likewise by the law, Deu_33:19; comp. Num_26:31. Finally it is commonly overlooked that the Psalmist expresses as a prophet of God in Psa_51:16-17 a doctrinal statement, and in it a truth of universal application, while in Psa_51:19 he proclaims a fact, the historical occurrence of which may be expected as the consequence of the hearing of his intercession.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is very gracious in God not to leave the believer, who has fallen into sin, to himself or his sad condition, so likewise not to send the judge, but the preacher to his house, and by the proclamation of His word chastise him earnestly it is true, yet likewise call him to repentance and point out and lead him in the true way of gaining forgiveness of sins and spiritual renewal: and it is a sure sign of the efficacy of this grace, when the chastised sinner does not creep behind his exalted position in the world, excuse himself with the universal inborn sinfulness, comfort himself with his previous state of grace, justify himself with his services and offerings in the worship of God, but unreservedly confesses his trespasses, experiences sorrowfully his guilt and his ill-desert, seeks expiation and improvement by faith in the saving grace of God, and implores for both purposes the efficacy of the ordinary means of grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit.
2. It is true, we must distinguish between personal sin and original sin; yet we must not overlook or undervalue the close connection between them. But we should not derive from this any excuse to weaken, but rather an occasion of increasing our penitence, and the more unconditionally feel ourselves driven to seek our deliverance in God alone, as all our sins and those of our race in their deepest ground and according to their innermost nature, are a manifestation of a moral apostasy from God, occasioned by unbelief and disobedience. Even on this account the particular sin which in its extreme form has terribly and painfully torn asunder human relations, may yet not be experienced by the penitent as a violation of human ordinances, or be designated as a trespass committed against man, but may awaken in him the feeling that he has to do, essentially and properly, with God alone. In God’s eyes sin has always been evil, whilst human eyes have often been blinded to it. But God’s guidances lead to this, not only that His judgment should be actually exhibited, but likewise expressly recognized. Thus even the sin itself must finally serve to glorify God, comp. Exeget. and Crit. II. 4.
3. The human soul is so darkened and ruined in consequence of original sin, that the sinner is unable to know or to love the truth in his soul’s experience, not to speak of gaining it again, without the guidance of Divine wisdom. The sinner is not at all in the position of moderating his misery or changing his condition. He must turn entirely to the mercy of God, and abide there in order to gain expiation as well as a change of heart and improvement in life, and he must use penitently and believingly the prescribed means of grace. Only thus does the true and blessed co-operation of the Divine and human spirits take place, but this is not synergism.
4. It is true, the Old Testament knew of the connection between expiatory offerings and atonement, yet not of the complete and only sufficient offering for the the sins of the whole world. Hence the idea moves partly in insufficient figures and comparisons only approximating the true sense, partly in types and symbols straining to express their meaning and exciting the expectation and attention. But the idea of the offering itself is thus in particular turned by a purer interpretation into the subjective and the moral, which is indeed an advance compared with the merely legal and ritual fulfilment of the offering, but yet is only a transition from the law to the gospel. For the breaking of the heart and spirit is indeed a worthier offering than the slaying of animals; but it cannot take their place, since it is not a means of atonement, but on the one side a characteristic of true penitence, on the other a condition of the efficacy of the Divine grace in the penitent person, in order to the purification of the heart as well as to the renewal and strengthening of the spirit. As long as the objective and absolutely sufficient means of atonement and salvation were missing, it was therefore necessary that there should be animal offerings, with the required disposition as the true offerings of righteousness, and that they should be demanded and performed with like satisfaction.
5. The conversion of the sinner is under all circumstances a miracle and gracious work of God on the ground of a moral and religious process, for which the Lord is entitled to thanks from the individual and the congregation. This thanksgiving will be the more lively the stronger the feeling of delight which the delivered one has in contrast with the pain of his previous condition; the more instructive, the richer the experience of the pardoned one in both of his situations; and the more perfect, the more sincerely we offer ourselves, in it as the offering always and everywhere well-pleasing to God, the bringing of which does not cease even in the new covenant, but is then first made entirely possible, Romans 12.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Although sin may have become great, grace is still greater; but it is not easy for the sinner to resign himself entirely and fully.—No man is placed so high, that he cannot fall deep into sin; but the deeply fallen may be lifted up again by the mercy of God, if he repent.—God can chastise more severely with His words than with the rod; but the same word of God has likewise balsam for the wounds.—Men can bring no offerings which expiate their sins, but such as express their desire of atonement with God, and which testify their thanks for the redemption that has taken place.—True penitence has a hard beginning, a bitter course, and a glad end.—Sin brings scarcely so much pain, however great it is, as conversion to God creates joy, if it is thorough and sincere.—A converted man has not only joy in his heart, but likewise pleasure in praising God, and in laboring for the conversion of other sinners.—We please God best when we place ourselves at His disposal as a thank-offering for His grace.—Forgiveness of sins is not effected by penitence, but is neither sought nor gained without penitence.—Without forgiveness of sins there is no pure heart, without change of heart and renewal there is no steadfast and willing spirit.—One may fall into sin and yet may not have fallen away from grace.—The earlier the penitence, the super the salvation.—There are many ways into sin, but only one way out of sin.—The contrast of what we are by nature and birth, and what we become by grace.—The misery of sin is very deep and full of pain, but the well of grace is deeper still and full of joy.
Luther: Two things are necessary to true penitence: (1) that we recognize sin and then likewise grace; (2) that we know and believe that God desires to be gracious and merciful to all who believe in Christ.—David speaks not only with God, but with his Father God, whose promise he knows, and whose grace and mercy have been bestowed.—If we would speak and teach properly respecting sin, we must consider it and point it out more deeply in its roots, and in the entire ungodly nature that it produces, and not notice only the sins which have been committed.—For from the error that sin is not known nor understood, arises still another error, that grace is neither known nor understood.—If we have received the righteousness and grace of God through faith in Christ, we can do no greater work than speak and preach the truth about Christ Jesus.—If, however, one would confess Christ and His word, a glad spirit is necessary.—Calvin; We certainly cannot know our sins thoroughly in any other way, than by charging our entire nature with corruption. Yet every individual sin should lead us to this general knowledge, that only ruin rules in all parts of our soul.
Starke: David has many followers in sin, but sad to say, only few in true penitence, especially among the great.—If a man after God’s own heart can fall into great sins, what watchfulness and perseverance in prayer is necessary for those who fall far short of this advantage!—A penitent man seeks earnestly with God as well the grace of forgiveness as likewise the grace of improvement.—God alone can make the heart contrite, so He alone can comfort it mightily.—The restoration of the lost image of God demands no less Omnipotence than the first creation.—As the goodness of a tree may be known by its fruits, so likewise justification from diligence in sanctification.—Let every converted man see to it, that he likewise deliver the soul of his neighbor from the rage of Satan by word and conversation.—The stronger and more sure we experience the forgiveness of sins in the heart, the more fervently we can praise God for His grace.—If Jerusalem is to be built, Babel must perish.
Osiander: Where God’s grace and mercy are involved, our merit has no place.—In spiritual things we can do nothing of ourselves, unless the Holy Ghost helps us and impels us.—Selnekker: No one should be proud of his gifts, which he has received from God, but constantly should stand in fear, and think more of that which he lacks and needs, and how full he is of sins and impurity, than of his own excellence.—Frisch: The fall of the great saints should make the little saints tremble (according to Augustine’s saying: casus majorum sit tremor minorum). They stand not as examples of falling, but of the rising up of those who have fallen.—Arndt: It is a characteristic of true penitence and conversion, that we should properly know the grace of God from the word of God, and that we should not make God’s mercy less than our sin, or our sin greater than God’s mercy.—Sin and trespass are constantly before the eyes of an evil conscience; it cannot be delivered from them or forget them.—Faith does nothing by compulsion, but voluntarily, out of pure love and thankfulness.—Umbreit: Righteousness writes down our transgressions, love wipes them out.—David has transgressed greatly against men, but to his God alone has he sinned.—Tholuck: The beginning and end of all improvement must be in God’s power.—Guenther: When kings sin, the guilt and punishment of their sins come upon their people likewise; and when kings repent before their people, the blessings of the gracious condition now attained stream out likewise over the whole people.—Taube: There are two principal fruits of every thorough conversion, that they now work and live for the salvation of their neighbors and the glory of God.—The way of penitence is at the same time a way of faith and favor.—Gerock: What are the offerings which please God? (1) The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; (2) an anxious and contrite heart; (3) the vow of thankful love and new obedience.
[Matt. Henry: Though God may suffer His people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet He will by some means or other recover them to repentance, bring them to Himself, and to their right mind again.—Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own their repentance; but, having lost the honor of innocents, will rather covet the honor of penitents.—The great thing to be aimed at in teaching transgressors, is their conversion to God; that is a happy point gained, and happy they that are instrumental to contribute towards it. —F. W. Robertson’s Sermons: In our best estate and in our purest moments, there is a something of the devil in us which, if it could be known, would make men shrink from us. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all.—Personal religion is the same in all ages. The deeps of our humanity remain unruffled by the storms of ages which change the surface.—From his first moments up till then, he saw sin—sin—sin; nothing but sin.—It is not the trembling of a craven spirit, in anticipation of torture, but the agonies of a nobler one in the horror of being evil.—Barnes: The only hope of a sinner when crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ.—The only way to enjoy religion is to do that which is right, the only way to secure the favor of God is to obey His commands; the only way in which we can have comforting evidence that we are His children is by doing that which shall be pleasing to him, 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:10. The path of sin is a dark path, and in that path neither hope nor comfort can be found.—Spurgeon: None but a child of God cares for the eye of God, but where there is grace in the soul, it reflects a fearful guilt upon every evil act, when we remember that the God whom we offend was present when the trespass was committed.—God’s voice speaking peace is the sweetest music an ear can hear.—Never yet has God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent, and never will He while God is love, and while Jesus is called the man who receiveth sinners.—A saved soul expects to see its prayers answered in a revived Church, and then is assured that God will be greatly glorified.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][Perowne: “All sin as sin, is and must be against God. All wrong done to our neighbor is wrong done to one created in the image of God; all tempting of our neighbor to evil is taking the part of Satan against God, and so far as in us lies, defeating God’s good purpose of grace towards him. All wounding of another, whether in body or soul, is a sin against the goodness of God.” Vide 1Co_8:12; Mat_25:40; Mat_25:45. Hengstenberg: “How must David have trembled, how must he have been seized with shame and grief, when he referred everything to God, when in Uriah he saw only the image of God, the Holy One, who deeply resented that injury,—the gracious and compassionate One, to whom he owed such infinitely rich benefits, who had lifted him up from the dust of humiliation, had so often delivered him, and had also given him the promise of so glorious a future!”—C. A. B.]
[2][Perowne: “The Biblical writers drew no sharp, accurate line between events as the consequence of the Divine order, and events as following from the Divine purpose. To them all was ordained and designed of God. Even sin itself, in all its manifestations, though the whole guilt of it rested with man, did not flow uncontrolled but only in channels hewn for it by God, and to subserve His purposes. Hence, God is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart, to have put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets, to do evil as well as good in the city, and the like. We must not expect therefore that the Hebrew mind, profoundly impressed as it was with the great phenomena of the universe, and beholding in each the immediate finger of God, but altogether averse from philosophical speculation, should have exactly defined for itself the distinction between an action viewed as the consequence, and the same action viewed as the end of another action. The mind which holds the simple fundamental truth that all is of God, may also hold, almost as a matter of course, that all is designed of God.”—C. A. B.]
[3][Perowne: “The petition expresses rather the holy fear of the man who has his eyes open to the depth and iniquity of sin, lest at any moment he should be left without the succor of that Divine Spirit, who was the only source in him of every good thought, of every earnest desire, of every constant resolution. It is the cry of one who knows, as he never knew before, the weakness of his own nature, and the strength of temptation, and the need of Divine help; and to whom therefore nothing seems so dreadful as that God should Withdraw His Spirit.”—It is better, however, to fix our mind upon the Holy Spirit which David possessed as the anointed of Jehovah, and whilst not confining our attention to this. yet let it be the central thought. This Holy Spirit had been troubled and wounded by David’s great sin, and he was in danger of having the Holy Spirit taken from him, as it had been from Saul, and he himself rejected from the angry presence of Jehovah, and another anointed in his stead. He realizes his official as well as his private sin, and its guilt and evil consequences, and whilst imploring a pure heart and steadfast spirit, he prays that he may remain in the presence and favor of God, and retain and enjoy the Holy Spirit, and the grace with which he had been anointed by Samuel.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Have mercy upon me—Psa_51:1-2, are a simple, earnest…
1. Have mercy upon me—Psa_51:1-2, are a simple, earnest plea for mercy. In the greatness of David’s guilt the compassion of God afforded the only ray of hope.
According to thy lovingkindness—The infinite “kindness” of God could alone supply a rule of measurement for that grace which the enormity of his offences called for. (Compare “according to the riches of his glory,” Eph_3:16.) This quality and fulness of grace are twice urged by the particle “according.”
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Multitude of thy tender mercies—The greatness and manifoldness of grace are still kept in view.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Have mercy upon me] Or, Be gracious unto…
1. Have mercy upon me] Or, Be gracious unto me, as the word is rendered in 2Sa_12:22. It suggests the free bestowal of favour rather than the exercise of forgiving clemency, and is connected with the word rendered gracious in Exo_34:6. Cp. Psa_4:1; Psa_56:1; Psa_57:1.
thy lovingkindness] The origin and the bond of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel.
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according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies] Or, according to the abundance of thy compassions. Cp. Psa_25:6; Isa_63:7; Lam_3:32; 1Pe_1:3.
The prayer for pardon is thus based upon God’s revelation of His character as “a God full of compassion and gracious, abundant in lovingkindness and truth; keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exo_34:6-7);—a passage which seems to have supplied the Psalmist’s language. Cp. Psa_86:15; Joe_2:13.
Sin is described, as in Exo_34:7 (cp. Psa_32:1-2), in three different aspects, as transgression, iniquity, sin: the Heb. words thus rendered meaning respectively, (1) defection from God or rebellion against Him: (2) the perversion of right, depravity of conduct: (3) error, wandering from the right way, missing the mark in life.
The removal of guilt is also triply described. (1) Blot out (cp. Psa_51:9): sin is regarded as a debt recorded in God’s book which needs to be erased and cancelled (cp. the use of the word in Exo_32:32; Num_5:23; and see note on Psa_32:2): or the word may be used more generally (wipe out) of cleansing away defilement so that no trace of it remains (2Ki_21:13). Cp. the promise in Isa_43:25; Isa_44:22; and also Neh_4:5; Jer_18:23. (2) Wash me: the word means properly to wash clothes, as a fuller does (LXX correctly, πλῦνον, cp. Rev_7:14; Rev_22:14), and is frequently used of ceremonial purifications (Exo_19:10; Exo_19:14, &c.): here it denotes that inward cleansing of which external washings were the type. Cp. Jer_2:22; Jer_4:14. He prays, ‘wash me thoroughly,’ or, abundantly, for “the depth of his guilt demands an unwonted and special grace.” But if transgressions abound (Lam_1:5), so does mercy. (3) Cleanse me (cp. be clean, Psa_51:7); like wash, a common term in the Levitical ritual, especially in the laws concerning leprosy, meaning sometimes to cleanse, sometimes to pronounce clean. This use of it suggests the comparison of sin with leprosy. Cp. Lev_13:6; Lev_13:34, &c.; 2Ki_5:10; 2Ki_5:12-14.
1–4. Prayer for forgiveness and cleansing: its ground, God’s grace; its condition, man’s repentance.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Blot out.—The figure is most probably, as in…
(1) Blot out.—The figure is most probably, as in Exo_32:32-33, taken from the custom of erasing a written record (comp. Num_5:23; Psa_69:28). So LXX. and Vulg. Isaiah, however (Isa_44:22) uses the same word in a different connection, “I will blot out thy sins as a cloud.” A fine thought that the error and guilt that cloud the mind and conscience can be cleared off like a mist by a breath from heaven.
Transgressions.—See Psa_32:1. The word seems to imply a wilful throwing off of authority or restraint, perhaps here the breach of the covenant-relation irrespective of any particular sin by which the breach was brought about. Whether it is an individual or the community that speaks, the prayer is that Jehovah would act according to His chesed or covenant-favour towards the suppliant, and wipe out from His records whatever has intervened between the covenant parties.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THIS is the first of a series of fifteen…
THIS is the first of a series of fifteen psalms assigned by their titles to David, and mostly attached to special circumstances in his life, which are said to have furnished the occasions for their composition. The school of writers which brushes aside the "titles" as unauthorized and unhistorical, and so regards itself as wholly free to assign to any psalm any date and any author that it prefers, places this among post-Captivity compositions, especially on account of vers. 18, 19 (so Professor Cheyne, Dr. Robertson Smith, the Four Friends, and others). Those, on the contrary, who consider the "titles" to be entitled to regard and respect, even if not absolutely authoritative, find either nothing in the psalm unsuitable to David"s time, or else nothing but what may well have been a subsequent addition for liturgical purposes. This is the view taken by many with respect to the last two verses. Others, however, note that the walls of Jerusalem were not built, but only in the course of being built, in David"s time, and regard the whole psalm as eminently suited to the period whereto the title ascribes it (so Hengstenberg, Canon Cook, Dr. Kay, Professor Alexander, and others).
The psalm consists of an opening strophe, extending to four verses, which is an earnest prayer for mercy and forgiveness (vers. 1-4); a second strophe, of eight verses, which is an entreaty for restoration and renewal (vers. 5-12); a third strophe, of five verses, setting forth the return which the psalmist will make, if he is forgiven and restored (vers. 13-17); and a conclusion, in two verses, praying for God"s blessing on the people, and promising an ample return on their part (vers. 18, 19).
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Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness. It is observable that the whole psalm is addressed to God (Elohim), and not to Jehovah (the "Lord" in ver. 15 is Adonai), as though the psalmist felt himself unworthy to utter the covenant-name, and simply prostrated himself as a guilty man before his offended Maker. It is not correet to say that "loving-kindness implies a covenant" (Cheyne), since God is "good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works". (Psa_145:9) According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. David"s first prayer is for pity; his second, to have his offences "blotted out," or "wiped out entirely removed from God"s book. (comp. Exo_32:32 Isa_43:25 Isa_44:22) He says "my transgressions," in the plural, because "his great sin did not stand alone adultery was followed by treachery and murder" (Canon Cook).
The penitent"s plea for pardon.
"Have mercy," etc. This psalm is like a page of autobiography written in the author"s life-blood. It is, indeed, the utterance of what ver. 17 describes, "a broken and a contrite heart." Nowhere in the Old Testament Scriptures do we find so profound depth and tenderness of penitence, joined with such childlike faith in God"s pardoning mercy. If the dark record of David"s crime had been silently omitted, we should have been utterly at a loss to understand this psalm. Who could have thought that from the same harp which uttered the sweet strain of Psalm 23, could proceed so deep a wail of grief and self-abasement? Yet it is just because David"s joy in God and love to God were so real that his repentance was so bitter. No hypocrite could have penned this psalm. Any one who calls David a hypocrite shows dense ignorance of human nature.
I THE PENITENT"S PLEA FOR PARDON. "According to thy loving-kindness or, "mercy; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies or, "compassions." He has nothing to plead in defence or palliation. God"s mercy and pity are his sole hope. What warrant has he to expect them? Answer: God"s covenant with Israel. Such sins as David"s (murder and adultery) could not be purged by sacrifice. (see Heb_10:28) And while under the condemnation of such guilt, it would have been vain presumption to offer peace offerings. Ver. 16 may include both. But the whole law of sacrifice revealed God"s delight in mercy, while it foreshadowed the true atonement. The gospel puts this plea in our mouth in a new form. It supplies an incomparably more glorious warrant and encouragement than the Old Testament believer possessed the atonement which God himself has provided. (2Co_5:21 Eph_1:7 Rom_5:8)
II THE UNLIMITED EFFICACY OF THIS PLEA. It is difficult to imagine sins more heinous than those of which David had been guilty. Their guilt was enormously aggravated by the fact that he was the divinely chosen king of the chosen people, an inspired prophet, and the object of signal and unrivalled blessings from God. Perhaps we have sometimes wished this dark page of Scripture had remained unwritten. But there it stands, to teach us that no sinner need despair of God"s mercy. The door at which David entered is wide enough for every true penitent. So St. Paul points to his own case as an encouragement to all. (1Ti_1:15, 1Ti_1:16)
III THE EXCLUSIVE ADEQUACY OF THIS PLEA. It admits no addition, no partnership, no substitute. It is this or none. (Rom_3:23-26) By one sin, St. James teaches us, God"s Law is as completely broken as by many. (Jam_2:10) Therefore only the blood which cleanses from all sin (1Jn_1:7) can cleanse from any. (Tit_3:4-7) In the heavenly world there will be immense differences in glory and happiness, according to attainment and service. But in this respect the ground of pardon and salvation all stand on one level; all join in one song. (Rev_1:5, 6 5:9)
The folly and guilt of impenitence appear most of all in this that it is a despising of God"s mercy and compassion. (Rom_2:4)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-19. This might be called The minister"s psalm.
We may imagine the servant of the Lord engaged in devout meditation. He looks before and after. He communes with himself as to his life and work. The deepest thoughts of his heart are revealed.
I EVER-GROWING SENSE OF THE EVIL OF SIN. Sin is thought of in the abstract, and its badness is seen. It is looked at in the world, in society, in the Church, and more and more its evils are discerned. But worst of all, it is felt to belong to one"s self My sin.
II DEEPER SYMPATHY WITH ALL TRUE SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH AND HOLINESS. The task is noble, but difficult. Only these who have tried know how difficult. There are not only obstacles without, but there is the fearful obstacle within of a sinful heart.
III TRUER REALIZATION OF THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK OF RESTORATION. Experience is the best teacher. It is better to judge from fact than from theory. Such as have themselves been "restored" are the fittest to speak of restoration. They know that the work is possible, though hard, for they themselves have experienced it. Like John Newton, the minister may take heart in time of despondency: "God has converted me, therefore I can never doubt of his power to convert the greatest sinner." This was Paul"s argument. (1Ti_1:15, 1Ti_1:16)
IV THE NECESSITY OF NEW AND THOROUGH CONSECRATION. Looking to the past, there is much to humble us. Looking to God, there is everything to encourage us. We need to give ourselves anew to Christ. Opportunities are precious. To save ourselves from "bloodguiltness," we must pray more and watch more. The nearer we live to God, the more interested we shall be in God"s work.
V INCREASED DELIGHT IN CARRYING THE MESSAGE OF PEACE TO SINNERS. What we prize ourselves we commend to others. The peace we enjoy we would have others enjoy also. The freedom and the bright hopes that cheer our path we would gladly impart to others. When pressed with the burden of our own sins, we are under restraint; but when freed from guilt and fear, we can plead for God with boldness.
VI CONFIDENCE IN GOD"S LOVE AND POWER AS A SAVIOUR. Our highest ambition is to "convert" sinners, not to a Creed, or a party, or a Church, but to God. "To thee." But this is God"s work. He only is able to make the Word effectual unto salvation. Having the witness in our own hearts of his saving might, we speak with all boldness. "The love of Christ constraineth us.
VII BRIGHTER HOPES OF THE FUTURE. There is a good time coming. The hope of this springs immortal in the hearts of the redeemed. When we are low, we take low views of things. If it be a dark time with ourselves, we are apt to despond as to the work of God in others. But when we are lifted up, all things seem possible. The future grows bright and yet brighter before us, and our hearts are thrilled with a foretaste of celestial joys. "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb! W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-8. Repentance and forgiveness.
Some deny the Davidic origin of this psalm; but most refer it to the time when Nathan charged David with the sins of adultery and murder. In these verses we have set forth the nature of forgiveness, and the nature of repentance.
I PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS.
1. Forgiveness is the inward and outward cleansing from sin. It is blotting out a record or a debt that is against us that is, the outward cleansing. And it is a washing, or cleansing, or purging-that is, the inward forgiveness, or the taking away of sin. So that it is a double work.
2. When we become conscious of such forgiveness, we rejoice with a great gladness. (Ver. 8) The strength (bones) which sin has broken is restored and rejoices.
II THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.
1. It is a trust in the Divine goodness and mercy. (Ver. 1) Sorrow for sin without hope in God is remorse and death not repentance.
2. A consciousness that our sin is more against God than against man. (Ver. 4) "Inasmuch as ye did it against one of the least of these," etc.
3. An acknowledgment of the Divine righteousness in the punishment he has suffered. (Ver. 21)
4. He not only confesses the sinful deed, but traces it to the inheritance of a nature sinfully inclined. (Ver. 5)
5. He prays for inward truthfulness and wisdom as his only safety for the future (ver. 6). S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Title. To the Chief Musician. Therefore not written for…
Title. To the Chief Musician. Therefore not written for private meditation only, but for the public service of song. Suitable for the loneliness of individual penitence, this matchless Psalm is equally well adapted for an assembly of the poor in spirit. A Psalm of David. It is a marvel, but nevertheless a fact, that writers have been found to deny David's authorship of this Psalm, but their objections are frivolous, the Psalm is David like all over. It would be far easier to imitate Milton, Shakespeare, or Tennyson, than David. His style is altogether sui generis, and it is as easily distinguished as the touch of Rafaelle or the colouring of Rubens. "When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of sighs and tears. The great sin of David is not to be excused, but it is well to remember that his case has an exceptional collection of specialities in it. He was a man of very strong passions, a soldier, and an Oriental monarch having despotic power; no other king of his time would have felt any compunction for having acted as he did, and hence there were not around him those restraints of custom and association which, when broken through, render the offence the more monstrous. He never hints at any form of extenuation, nor do we mention these facts in order to apologize for his sin, which was detestable to the last degree; but for the warning of others, that they reflect that the licentiousness in themselves at this day might have even a graver guilt in it than in the erring King of Israel. When we remember his sin, let us dwell most upon his penitence, and upon the long series of chastisements which rendered the after part of his life such a mournful history.
Divisions. It will be simplest to note in the first twelve verses the penitent's confessions and plea for pardon, and then in the last seven his anticipatory gratitude, and the way in which he resolves to display it.
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Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God. He appeals at once to the mercy of God, even before he mentions his sin. The sight of mercy is good for eyes that are sore with penitential weeping. Pardon of sin must ever be an act of pure mercy, and therefore to that attribute the awakened sinner flies. "According to thy lovingkindness." Act, O Lord, like thyself; give mercy like thy mercy. Show mercy such as is congruous with thy grace.
"Great God, thy nature hath no bound:
So let thy pardoning love be found."
What a choice word is that of our English version, a rare compound of precious things: love and kindness sweetly blended in one-- "lovingkindness." According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Let thy most loving compassions come to me, and make thou thy pardons such as these would suggest. Reveal all thy gentlest attributes in my case, not only in their essence but in their abundance. Numberless have been thine acts of goodness, and vast is thy grace; let me be the object of thine infinite mercy, and repeat it all in me. Make my one case an epitome of all thy tender mercies. By every deed of grace to others I feel encouraged, and I pray thee let me add another and a yet greater one, in my own person, to the long list of thy compassions. Blot out my transgressions. My revolts, my excesses, are all recorded against me; but, Lord, erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever; many strokes of thy mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou has a multitude of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.
Title. "After he had gone in to Bathsheba." This was the devil's nest egg that caused many sins to be laid, one to, and upon another. See the woeful chain of David's lust, 2Sa 11:1-27 12: 1-31. John Trapp.
Title. "When Nathan the prophet came unto him as he (i.e., David) had come unto Bathsheba." The significant repetition of the phrase came unto, is lost in the English and most other versions. "As" is not a mere particle of time, simple equivalent to when, but suggests the idea of analogy, proportion, and retaliation. J. A. Alexander.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is the brightest gem in the whole book, and contains instruction so large, and doctrine so precious, that the tongue of angels could not do justice to the full development. Victorinus Strigelius, 1524-1569.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is often and fitly called THE SINNER'S GUIDE. In some of its versions it often helps the returning sinner. Athanasius recommends to some Christians, to whom he was writing, to repeat it when they awake at night. All evangelical churches are familiar with it. Luther says, "There is no other Psalm which is oftener sung or prayed in the church." This is the first Psalm in which we have the word Spirit used in application to the Holy Ghost. William S. Plumer.
Whole Psalm. I cannot doubt the prophetic bearing of this Psalm upon the nation of Israel. In the latter day they shall consider their ways: repentance and self loathing will be the result. Blood guiltiness heavier than that of David has to be removed from that nation. They will become the teachers of the Gentiles, when first the iniquity of their own transgressions has been purged away. Arthur Pridham.
Whole psalm. This is the most deeply affecting of all the Psalms, and I am sure the one most applicable to me. It seems to have been the effusion of a soul smarting under the sense of a recent and great transgression. My God, whether recent or not, give me to feel the enormity of my manifold offences, and remember not against me the sins of my youth. What a mine of rich matter and expression for prayer! Wash, cleanse me, O Lord, and let my sin and my sinfulness be ever before me. Let me feel it chiefly as sin against thee, that my sin may be of the godly sort. Give me to feel the virulence of my native corruption, purge me from it thoroughly, and put truth into my inward parts, that mine may be a real turning from sin unto the Saviour. Create me anew, O God. Withdraw not thy Spirit. Cause me to rejoice in a present salvation. Deliver me, O God, from the blood guiltiness of having offended any of thy little ones; and so open my lips that I may speak of the wondrous things thou hast done for my soul! May I offer up spiritual sacrifices; and oh! let not any delinquencies of mine bring a scandal upon thy church; but do thou so purify and build her up, that even her external services, freed from all taint of corruption or hypocrisy, may be well pleasing in thy sight. Thomas Chalmers.
Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God. I tremble and blush to mention my name, for my former familiarities with thee only make me more confounded at being recognized by thee after my guilt. I therefore say not, "Lord, remember David, "as on a happier occasion; nor as propitiating thee, I used to say, to thy "servant, "or, "to the son of thy handmaid." I suggest nothing that should recall my former relation to thee, and so enhance my wickedness. Ask not, then, Lord, who I am, but only forgive me who confess my sin, condemn my fault, and beseech thy pity. Have mercy upon me, O God. I dare not say my God, for that were presumption. I have lost thee by sin, I have alienated myself from thee by following the enemy, and therefore am unclean. I dare not approach thee, but standing afar off and lifting up my voice with great devotion and contrition of heart, I cry and say, Have mercy upon me, O God. From "A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms, chiefly from ancient sources." By the Right Rev. A. P. Forbes, Bishop of Brechin, 1857.
Ver. 1. Have mercy. The Hebrew word here translated have mercy. signifieth without cause or desert; Ps 35:19 69:4 Eze 14:23; and freely, without paying any price, Ex 21:11. And it is made use of in Le 6:8, where Noah is said to have found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that is, special favour, such as the Lord beareth to his chosen in Christ Jesus. Charles D. Coetlogon, A.M., in "The Portraiture of the Christian Penitent, "1775.
Ver. 1. Mercy, lovingkindness, tender mercies. I cannot but observe here, the gradation in the sense of the three words made use of, to express the divine compassion, and the propriety of the order in which they are placed, which would be regarded as a real excellence and beauty in any classical writer. The first (yngx), denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over any object that we love and pity--that otorge, natural affection and tenderness, which even brute creatures discover to their young ones, by the several noises which they respectively make over them; and particularly the shrill noise of the camel, by which it testifies its love to its foal. The second, (Kdoxk), denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition to goodness and compassion powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as milk into the breasts, or as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former. The third, (Kymxr), denotes what the Greeks express by oplagcnizeoyai; that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which human nature is susceptible. And how reviving is the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender compassions of God to one in David's circumstances, whose mind laboured under the burden of the most heinous complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance! Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 1. According to the multitude. Men are greatly terrified at the multitude of their sins, but here is a comfort--our God hath multitude of mercies. If our sins be in number as the hairs of our head, God's mercies are as the stars of heaven; and as he is an infinite God, so his mercies are infinite; yea, so far are his mercies above our sins, as he himself is above us poor sinners. By this the Psalmist seeketh for multitude of mercies, he would show how deeply he was wounded with his manifold sins, that one seemed a hundred. Thus it is with us, so long as we are under Satan's guiding, a thousand seem but one; but if we betake ourselves to God's service, one will seem a thousand. Archibald Symson.
Ver. 1. Tender mercies, or, according to Zanchy in his treatise upon the attributes of God, such a kind of affection as parents feel when they see their children in any extremity. 1Ki 3:26. Charles D. Coetlogon.
Ver. 1. Blot out my transgressions. (hxm), mecheh, wipe out. There is reference here to an indictment: the Psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the mercy, lovingkindness, and tender compassions, of the Lord can do. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. Blot out my transgressions. What the psalmist alludes is not, as Mr. Leclerc imagines, debts entered into a book, and so blotted out of it when forgiven; but the wiping or cleansing of a dish, so as nothing afterwards remains in it. The meaning of the petition is, that God would entirely and absolutely forgive him, so as that no part of the guilt he had contracted might remain, and the punishment of it might be wholly removed. Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 1. Blot out, or, as it is used in Ex 17:14, utterly extirpate, so as that there shall not be any remembrance of them forever. Isa 43:25 44:22. Charles de Coetlogon.
Ver. 1. MY transgressions. Conscience, when it is healthy, ever speaks thus: "MY transgressions." It is not the guilt of them that tempted you: they have theirs; but each as a separate agent, has his own degree of guilt. Yours is your own: the violation of your own and not another's sense of duty; solitary, awful, unshared, adhering to you alone of all the spirits of the universe. Frederick William Robertson.
Ver. 1,5. Transgressions...iniquity...sin.
1. It is transgressions, (evp), pesha, rebellion.
2. It is iniquity, (Nwe), avon, crooked dealing.
3. It is sin, (tajx), chattath, error and wandering. Adam Clarke.
The Psalm is upon its surface so full of suggestions for sermons that I have not attempted to offer any of my own, but have merely inserted a selection from Mr. G. Rogers and others.
Ver. 1.
1. The Prayer.
1. For mercy, not justice. Mercy is the sinner's attribute--as much a part of the divine nature as justice. The possibility of sin is implied in its existence. The actual commission of sin is implied in its display.
2. For pardon, not pity merely, but forgiveness.
II. The plea.
1. For the pardon of great sins on account of great mercies, and lovingkindness.
2. Many sins on account of multitude of mercies.
3. Hell deserving sins on account of tender mercies. We who have sinned are human, he who pardons is divine.
"Great God, thy nature hath no bound,
So let thy pardoning love be found."
Exposition of the Fifty-first Psalm, by MARTIN LUTHER, in "Select works of Martin Luther, translated by REV. HENRY COLE." Vol. I., pp.
51-197.
"An Exposition upon the 51 Psalm, "in "Certain Godly and learned Expositions upon divers parts of Scripture. As they were preached and afterwards more briefly penned by that worthy man of God, Maister GEORGE ESTEY...Late preacher of the word of God in St. Edmund's Burie." 1603. (4to.)
"David's Penitential Psalm opened: in thirtie severall Lectures thereon. By SAM. HIERON. 1617." (4to.)
"Good News from Canaan; or, An Exposition on the 51 Psalm, "in "The Workes of Mr. William Cowper, late Bishop of Galloway." 1629. (Folio.)
"David's Repentance; or, A plaine and familiar Exposition of the LI. Psalm: first preached, and now published for the benefit of God's church. Wherein euery faithful Christian may set before his eyes the Patterne of vnfeigned Repentance, whereby we may take heed of the falling into sin again. The eighth edition, newly revised and profitably amplified by the author, SAMVEL SMITH, preacher of the word of God at Prittlewell in Essex...1630." (12mo.)
"A Godly and Fruitful Exposition of the Fifty-one Psalm, the fifth of the Penitential, "in ARCHIBALD SYMSON'S "Sacred Septenarie."
1638.
"Meditations and Disquisitions upon the 51 Psalm of David, "in "Meditations and Disquisitions upon the seven Psalms of David, commonly called the Penitential Psalmes." By SIR RICHARD BAKER, Knight. 1639.
"CLII. Lectures upon Psalm LI. Preached at Ashby Delazovch, in Leicester Shire. By the late faithful, and worthy Minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. ARTHUR HILDERSAM. 1642." (Folio.)
"An Exposition of the one-and-fiftieth Psalm, "in pp. 51-239, of "Sermons with some religious and divine Meditations. By the Right Reverend Father in God, ARTHVRE LAKE, late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells." 1639. (Folio.)
"David's Broken Heart; or, an Exposition upon the whole Fifty-one Psalm. By that Reverend divine Doctor SAMUEL PAGE, late Pastour of Deptford Stroud, in Kent...1646." (4to.)
Exposition of Psalm LI., in "Chandler's Life of David." Vol. 2 pg 254-273.
"The Portraiture of the Christian Penitent: attempted in a course of Sermons upon Psalm LI...By the Rev. CHA. DE COETLOGON, A.M. 1775."
"Lectures on the Fifty-first Psalm, delivered in the Parish Church of St. James', Bristol. By the Rev. THOMAS T. BIDDULPH, A.M. 1835."
"The Penitent's Prayer: a Practical Exposition of the Fifty-first Psalm. By the Rev. THOMAS ALEXANDER, M.A., Chelsea."
Psalms 51:2*
Ver. 1,5. Transgressions...iniquity...sin.
1. It is transgressions, (evp), pesha, rebellion.
2. It is iniquity, (Nwe), avon, crooked dealing.
3. It is sin, (tajx), chattath, error and wandering. Adam Clarke.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy…
Psa_51:1-19
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.
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The fifty-first psalm
A darker guilt you will scarcely find--kingly power abused--worst passions yielded to. Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell; something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate: generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred, undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature.
I. Scripture estimate of sin.
1. Personal accountability. My sin. It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own. We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his.
2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it. Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry. Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. Perhaps evil is not so bad after all--perhaps good--who knows? Remember, therefore, in matters practical, conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this language of the Bible.
3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it, but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and Gods will. This is the feeling of this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-nature!
II. Restoration.
1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin in two feelings: one human, one divine. The feeling that there must be something surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism, and are even now found in common views of Christs sacrifice. But men like David felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to Gods will: that a mans best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice. Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you--yourself--your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the last and highest evidence of entire surrender.
2. Spirit of liberty. Thy free spirit--literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit, unconstrained--the royal law of liberty. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The exceeding sinfulness of sin
I. The nature of sin in the eyes of one who sees God. Just as one crime against the State can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it.
II. Where iniquity did abound, grace did much more abound. The penitent, having laid bare his sin, now asks for Gods grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, Mercy! meant Ransom!--Spare my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, Mercy! we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! The soul that sinneth it shall die; but He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace. But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to blot them out, as we read elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer: Wash me throughly--more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry out.
III. The grounds on which he asks for pardon.
1. There is the multitude of Gods mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me; though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope, and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin. Let us hope.
2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing.
3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. Behold, I was shapen in wickedness; and therefore the truth in the inward parts can only be reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. (Canon Newbolt.)
Davids repentance
I. The cry of contrition. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of Gods righteous law.
II. The cry for cleansing. This cry for cleansing is twofold--cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin--Gods and Davids. From each gazer these sins must be hidden--from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Makers hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin!
III. The cry of consecration. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.)
The prayer of the penitent
I. The prayer. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates.
1. The general petition. Have mercy upon me. He did not plead right or merit; he did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the mark of his need;
2. The specific petition.
(1) Blot out my transgressions. All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness (Isa_43:25; Isa_44:22). 42) Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. This is a prayer for justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence Davids allusion to the ceremonial law (Psa_51:7). (Compare Lev_14:4; Lev_14:9; Num_19:18; Heb_9:22.) The allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel (Isa_1:18), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus (Rev_1:5).
(3) Cleanse me from my sin. This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls. Gods mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing (Eph_5:25-27).
II. The confession.
1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. I have sinned--that is the long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve.
2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is cast behind Gods back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our backs.
3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friends wife, he most bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them.
4. Deep conviction. Behold I was shapes in iniquity, etc. David is convinced that an inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil proceeds. Hence his further prayer, Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin must be renewed inwardly.
III. Renewed petition. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after bath in the cleansing tide.
1. Joy and gladness.
2. He prays for a new heart.
3. He prays for the restoration of salvations joy.
4. A vow of consecration. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
A petition and an argument
I. The petition Have mercy upon me, etc.
1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner.
(1) It frees us from the greatest evil--sin.
(2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness.
(3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us.
(4) It sweetens all other comforts.
2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular.
3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him.
(1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages.
(2) Prayer and seeking to God.
(3) Forsaking it and turning from it.
(4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins.
II. The argument. According to thy lovingkindness, etc.
1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a multitude of tender mercies.
(1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace (Psa_116:5; Psa_86:15; Psa_145:9). Here is matter of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of information, that we may be able rightly to discern of Gods love and affection to us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all; and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it, thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse. Gods kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example.
(2) Mercy or compassion.
(a) The tenderness of Gods mercy is seen in--
(i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person who sins against Him (Psa_103:13).
(ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where, notwithstanding, there is ground for it (Psa_86:15; Joe_2:13; Jon_4:2; Nah_1:3).
(iii.) The moderating of His corrections (Jer_30:11). Severity knows no limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself; and this also is in God (Psa_103:10; Ezr_9:13).
(iv.) The seasonable removal; theres tenderness in that also (Psa_103:9).
(b) The greatness of it (Psa_57:10; Psa_119:156).
(i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving of great sins (Isa_1:18; 1Ti_1:13).
(ii.) For the freeness of it (Rom_9:17; Isa_43:25).
(iii.) For the duration (Isa_54:7-8; Psa_103:17; Lam_3:22).
(c) The number and plurality. He has mercy for:
(i.) Many persons.
(ii.) Many offences.
(iii.) Many times of offending (Isa_55:7; Jam_2:13; Rom_5:20; Hos_14:4; Psa_103:3).
2. The inference.
(1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage.
(2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God.
(3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The psalmists prayer for mercy
I. To whom the prayer is addressed. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One.
II. The object which a penitent sinner proposes to himself in drawing near to God; and the spirit or frame of mind in which he addresses Him. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. In Thy favour is life. Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away.
III. The measure or rule, according to which a penitent sinner desires to be dealt with in the expected answer to his prayer, According to Thy lovingkindness. How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, the life of God in the soul of man. The term lovingkindness seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace--a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this river of the water of life. (T. Biddulph, M. A.)
The greatness of sin to a true penitent
1. The true penitent sees sin as against God.
2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.
3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. Thou desirest not sacrifice . . . Thou delightest not in burnt offering. If religious acts, offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts.
4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power.
5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. Build thou, he prays, the walls of Jerusalem! Every backsliders sin has this destroying power.
6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough.
7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin, separated from God.
8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, If he ever repents he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his repentance. But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us.
9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin.
10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward cleansing. Purge me with hyssop refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due honour. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The prayer of the Penitent
I. The guilt of sin. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place--vice as though it were merely an evil against self alone; crime or an offence against society. All such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God. You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God.
II. The Divine forgiveness, Between blinding ones eyes against the guilt of sin and seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges.
III. The new heart. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus.
IV. The fruits of the new life.
1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own.
2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the followers in the service of God. Then will I teach transgressors, etc. (David O. Mears.)
The moan of a king
The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling after a higher mode of being. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. I acknowledge my transgressions. Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns kings evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his crime. But Davids is far other than these. My sin is ever before me. The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume material manifestation. Covetousness--a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger. Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (verse 4). Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned. Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every respect--hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth! What shall be our prayer in relation to it? Wash me throughly, etc. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The penitent sinner
I. The penitents prayer.
1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. Gods way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy.
2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored.
3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition--
(1) Of his perilous position; and
(2) Of his personal accountability: nay sin.
II. The penitents plea. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position, princely prowess; but the plenitude of Gods mercy. A multitude of tender mercies! (Homilist.)
Lessons
1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress.
(1) There is a commandment for it (Psa_50:15).
(2) There is a promise of success (Isa_65:24).
(3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses (Pro_18:8; Eph_3:20).
(4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired (Psa_46:1; Mic_7:18; Psa_145:18).
(5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished them with the Spirit of prayer (Gal_4:6; Rom_8:26).
2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit.
3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on Gods part of the guilt of sin (Psa_32:1-2; Isa_44:22; Mic_7:18-19; Jer_31:34; Jer_50:20).
4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of Gods grace in making suit for the pardon of his sins (Psa_130:4; Ezr_9:6; Ezr_9:10; Ezr_9:15). (S. Hieron.)
The prayer for mercy
1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence of God is a wonder. Gods spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy. For there God is known as the Holy One.
2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace alone can be his hope.
3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries, that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy.
4. This longing is in full harmony with what Gods Word teaches us on these points. The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy, partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it is called giving mercy, showing mercy. (Andrew Murray.)
Gods lovingkindness
Gods kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called loving. The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no kindness like His. All kindness but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it. The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a father or a mother--for that is the kindest that this world possesses--that, even that, has its limits. Gods kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. (T. Alexander, M. A.)
According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Gods mercy
The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works, extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. (A. Symson.)
Gods-tender mercies
They are unbounded, and they are tender. Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, I forgive, but I do not forget. There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it tender. But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all. He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee. The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of the sea. Gods mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless, endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. Gods mercies, beginning with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life journey. (T. Alexander, D. D.)
Gods former dealings a plea for mercy
These words, According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies, may be taken not only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the advantage of Gods children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives. The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; Gods mercies are so linked and chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
Blot out my trangressions
The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. The law of God takes reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no intercourse with the holy and righteous God so long as this old guilt was not abolished, was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace. Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and therefore he prays, Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions. (Andrew Murray.)
Sin blotted out
A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, I will blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions. And he said: Mother, what does God mean when He says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I cant see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean--blot out? The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, Didnt I see, you yesterday writing on your slate? Yes, he said. Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, Where is what you wrote? Oh, he said, I rubbed it out. Well, where is it? Why, mother, I dont know. But how could you put it away if it was really there? Oh, mother, I dont know. I know it was there, and it is gone. Well, she said, that is what God meant when He said, I will blot out thy transgressions. (Campbell Morgan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 51
Psalms 51
THE main grounds on which the Davidic authorship of this psalm is denied are four. First, it is alleged that its conceptions of sin and penitence are in advance of his stage of religious development; or, as Cheyene puts it, "David could not have had these ideas" ("Aids to Dev. Study of Crit.," 166). The impossibility depends on theory which is not yet so established as to be confidently used to settle questions of date. Again, the psalmists wail, "Against Thee only have I sinned," is said to be conclusive proof that the wrong done to Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah cannot be referred to. But is not God the correlative of sin, and may not the same act be qualified in one aspect as a crime and in another as a sin, bearing in the latter character exclusive relation to God? The prayer in Psa_51:18 is the ground of a third objection to the Davidic authorship. Certainly it is hopeless to attempt to, explain "Build the walls of Jerusalem" as Davids prayer. But the opinion held by both advocates and opponents of Davids authorship, that Psa_51:18-19 are a later liturgical addition, removes this difficulty. Another ground on which the psalm is brought down to a late date is the resemblances in it to Isaiah 40-46, which are taken to be echoes of the prophetic words. The resemblances are undoubted; the assumption that. the psalmist is the copyist is not.
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The personified nation is supposed by most modern authorities to be the speaker; and the date is sometimes taken to be the Restoration period, before the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah (Cheyne, "Orig. of Psalt.," 162); by others, the time of the Babylonish exile; and, as usual, by some, the Maccabean epoch. It puts considerable strain upon the theory of personification to believe that these confessions of personal sin, and longing cries for a clean heart, which so many generations have felt to fit their most secret experiences, were not the wailings of a soul which had learned the burden of individuality, by consciousness of sin, and by realisation of the awful solitude of its relation to God. There are also expressions in the psalm which seem to clog the supposition that the speaker is the nation with great difficulties-e.g., the reference to birth in Psa_51:5, the prayer for inward truth in Psa_51:6, and for a clean heart in Psa_51:10. Baethgen acknowledges that the two latter only receive their full meaning when applied to an individual. He quotes Olshausen, a defender of the national reference, who really admits the force of the objection to it, raised on the ground of these expressions, while he seeks to parry it by saying that "it is not unnatural that the poet, speaking in the singular, should, although he writes for the congregation, bring in occasional expressions here and there which do not fit the community so well as they do each individual in it." The acknowledgment is valuable; the attempt to turn its edge may be left to the readers judgment.
In Psa_51:1-9 the psalmists cry is chiefly for pardon; in Psa_51:10-12 he prays chiefly for purity; in Psa_51:13-17 he vows grateful service. Psa_51:18-19 are probably a later addition.
The psalm begins with at once grasping the character of God as the sole ground of hope. That character has been revealed in an infinite number of acts of love. The very number of the psalmists sins drove him to contemplate the yet greater number of Gods mercies. For where but in an infinite placableness and lovingkindness could he find pardon? If the Davidic authorship is adopted, this psalm followed Nathans assurance of forgiveness, and its petitions are the psalmists efforts to lay hold of that assurance. The revelation of Gods love precedes and causes true penitence. Our prayer for forgiveness is the appropriation of Gods promise of forgiveness. The assurance of pardon does not lead to a light estimate of sin, but drives it home to the conscience.
The petitions of Psa_51:1-2 teach us how the psalmist thought of sin. They are all substantially the same, and their repetition discloses the depth of longing in the suppliant. The language fluctuates between plural and singular nouns, designating the evil as "transgressions" and as "iniquity" and "sin." The psalmist regards it, first, as a multitude of separate acts, then as all gathered together into a grim unity. The single deeds of wrong doing pass before him. But these have a common root; and we must not only recognise acts, but that alienation of heart from which they come-not only sin as it comes out in the life, but as it is coiled round our hearts. Sins are the manifestations of sin.
We note, too, how the psalmist realises his personal responsibility. He reiterates "my"-"my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin." He does not throw blame on circumstances, or talk about temperament or maxims of society or bodily organisation. All these had some share in impelling him to sin; but after all allowance made for them, the deed is the doers, and he must bear its burden.
The same eloquent synonyms for evil deeds which are found in Psalms 32 occur again here. "Transgression" is literally rebellion; "iniquity," that which is twisted or bent; "sin," missing a mark. Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful authority-not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but opposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The definition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of God and opposition to His will.
Not less profound is that other name, which regards sin as "iniquity" or distortion. Then there is a straight line to which mens lives should run parallel. Our lifes paths should be like these conquering Roman roads, turning aside for nothing, but going straight to their aim over mountain and ravine, stream or desert. But this mans passion had made for him a crooked path, where he found no end, "in wandering mazes lost." Sin is, further, missing an aim, the aim being either the Divine purpose for man, the true ideal of manhood, or the satisfaction proposed by the sinner to himself as the result of his sin. In both senses every sin misses the mark.
These petitions show also how the psalmist thought of forgiveness. As the words for sin give a threefold view of it, so those for pardon set it forth in three aspects. "Blot out"; -that petition conceives of forgiveness as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript full of false and bad things. The melancholy theory of some thinkers is summed up in the despairing words, "What I have written, I have written." But the psalmist knew better than that; and we should know better than he did. Our souls may become palimpsests: and, as devotional meditations might be written by a saint on a parchment that had borne foul legends of false gods, the bad writing on them may be obliterated, and Gods law be written there. "Wash me thoroughly" needs no explanation. But the word employed is significant, in that it probably means washing by kneading or beating, not by simple rinsing. The psalmist is ready to submit to any painful discipline, if only he may be cleansed. "Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, do anything with me, if only these foul stains are melted from the texture of my soul." The psalmist had not heard of the alchemy by which men can "wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb"; but he held fast by Gods "lovingkindness," and knew the blackness of his own sin, and groaned under it; and therefore his cry was not in vain. An anticipation of the Christian teaching as to forgiveness lies in his last expression for pardon, "make me clean," which is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial purity, and for the other priestly act of making as well as declaring clean from the stains of leprosy. The suppliant thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted record or as a polluted robe, but as a fatal disease, the "firstborn of death," and as capable of being taken away only by the hand of the Priest laid on the feculent mass. We know who put out His hand and touched the leper, and said, "I will: be thou clean."
The petitions for cleansing are, in Psa_51:3, urged on the ground of the psalmists consciousness of sin. Penitent confession is a condition of forgiveness. There is no need to take this verse as giving the reason why the psalmist offered his prayer, rather than as presenting a plea why it should be answered. Some commentators have adopted the former explanation, from a fear lest the other should give countenance to the notion that repentance is a meritorious cause of forgiveness; but that is unnecessary scrupulousness. "Sin is always sin, and deserving of punishment, whether it is confessed or not. Still, confession of sin is of importance on this account-that God will be gracious to none but to those who confess their sin" (Luther, quoted by Perowne).
Psa_51:4 sounds the depths in both its clauses. In the first the psalmist shuts out all other aspects of his guilt, and is absorbed in its solemnity as viewed in relation to God. It is asked, How could David have thought of his sin, which had in so many ways been "against" others, as having been "against Thee, Thee only"? As has been noted above, this confession has been taken to demonstrate conclusively the impossibility of the Davidic authorship. But surely it argues a strange ignorance of the language of a penitent soul, to suppose that such words as the psalmists could be spoken only in regard to sins which had no bearing at all on other men. Davids deed had been a crime against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against his family and his realm; but these were not its blackest characteristics. Every crime against man is sin against God. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of theseye have done it unto Me" is the spirit of the Decalogue as well as the language of Jesus. And it is only when considered as having relation to God that crimes are darkened into sins. The psalmist is stating a strictly true and profound thought when he declares that he has sinned "against Thee only." Further, that thought has, for the time being, filled his whole horizon. Other aspects of his shameful deed will torture him enough in coming days, even when he has fully entered into the blessedness of forgiveness; but they are not present to his mind now, when the one awful thought of his perverted relation to God swallows up all others. A man who has never felt that all-engrossing sense of his sin as against God only has much to learn.
The second clause of Psa_51:4 opens the question whether "in order that" is always used in the Old Testament in its full meaning as expressing intention, or sometimes in the looser signification of "so that," expressing result. Several passages usually referred to on this point {e.g., Exo_11:9; Isa_44:9; Hos_8:4} strongly favour the less stringent view, which is also in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew race, who were not metaphysicians. The other view, that the expression here means "in order that," insists on grammatical precision in the cries of a penitent heart, and clogs the words with difficulty. If their meaning is that the psalmists sin was intended to show forth Gods righteousness in judging, the intention must have been Gods, not the sinners; and such a thought not only ascribes mans sin directly to God, but is quite irrelevant to the psalmists purpose in the words. For he is not palliating his transgression or throwing it on Divine predestination (as Cheyne takes him to be doing), but is submitting himself, in profoundest abasement of undivided guilt, to the just judgment of God. His prayer for forgiveness is accompanied with willingness to submit to chastisement, as all true desire for pardon is. He makes no excuses for his sin, but submits himself unconditionally to the just judgment of God. "Thou remainest the Holy One; I am the sinner; and therefore Thou mayest, with perfect justice, punish me and spurn me from Thy presence" (Stier).
Psa_51:5-6 are marked as closely related by the "Behold" at the beginning of each. The psalmist passes from penitent contemplation and confession of his acts of sin to acknowledge his sinful nature, derived from sinful parents. "Original sin" is theological terminology for the same facts which science gathers together under the name of "heredity." The psalmist is not responsible for later dogmatic developments of the idea, but he feels that he has to confess not only his acts but his nature. "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." The taint is transmitted. No fact is more plain than this, as all the more serious observers of human life and of their own characters have recognised. Only a superficial view of humanity or an inadequate conception of morality can jauntily say that "all children are born good." Theologians have exaggerated and elaborated, as is their wont, and so have made the thought repugnant; but the derived sinful bias of human nature is a fact, not a dogma, and those who know it and their own share of it best will be disposed to agree with Browning, in finding one great reason for believing in Biblical religion, that-
"Tis the faith that launched point blank her dart
At the head of a lie-taught Original Sin,
The Corruption of Mans Heart."
The psalmist is not, strictly speaking, either extenuating or aggravating his sin by thus recognising his evil nature. He does not think that sin is the less his, because the tendency has been inherited. But he is spreading all his condition before God. In fact, he is not so much thinking of his criminality as of his desperate need. From a burden so heavy and so entwined with himself none but God can deliver him. He cannot cleanse himself, for self is infected. He cannot find cleansing among men, for they too have inherited the poison. And so he is driven to God, or else must sink into despair. He who once sees into the black depths of his own heart will give up thereafter all ideas of "every man his own redeemer." That the psalmists purpose was not to minimise his own guilt is clear, not only from the tone of the psalm, but from the antithesis presented by the Divine desire after inward truth in the next verse, which is out of place if this verse contains a palliation for sin.
We can scarcely miss the bearing of this verse on the question of whether the psalm is the confession of an individual penitent or that of the nation. It strongly favours the former, view, though it does not make the latter absolutely impossible.
The discovery of inherent and inherited sinfulness brings with it another discovery-that of the penetrating depth of the requirements of Gods law. He cannot be satisfied with outside conformity in deed. The more intensely conscience realises sin, the more solemnly rises before it the Divine ideal of man in its inwardness as well as in its sweep. Truth within - inward correspondence with His will, and absolute sincerity of soul are His desire. But I am "born in iniquity": a terrible antithesis, and hopeless but for one hope which dawns over the suppliant like morning on a troubled sea. If we cannot ask God to make us what He wishes us to be, these two discoveries of our nature and of His will are open doorways to despair; but he who apprehends them wisely will find in their conjoint operation a force impelling him to prayer, and therefore to confidence. Only God can enable such a Being as man to become such as He will delight in; and since He seeks for truth within, He thereby pledges Himself to give the truth and wisdom for which He seeks.
Meditation on the sin which was ever before the psalmist, passes into renewed prayers for pardon, which partly reiterate those already offered in Psa_51:1-2. The petition in Psa_51:7 for purging with hyssop alludes to sprinkling of lepers and unclean persons, and indicates both a consciousness of great impurity and a clear perception of the symbolic meaning of ritual cleansings. "Wash me" repeats a former petition; but now the psalmist can venture to dwell more on the thought of future purity than he could do then. The approaching answer begins to make its brightness visible through the gloom, and it seems possible to the suppliant that even his stained nature shall glisten like sunlit snow. Nor does that expectation exhaust his confidence. He hopes for "joy and gladness." His bones have been crushed-i.e., his whole self has been, as it were, ground to powder by the weight of Gods hand; but restoration is possible. A penitent heart is not too bold when it asks for joy. There is no real well-founded gladness without the consciousness of Divine forgiveness. The psalmist closes his petitions for pardon (Psa_51:9) with asking God to "hide His face from his sins," so that they be, as it were, no more existent for Him, and, by a repetition of the initial petition in Psa_51:1, for the blotting out of "all mine iniquities."
The second principal division begins with Psa_51:10, and is a prayer for purity, followed by vows of glad service. The prayer is contained in three verses (Psa_51:10-12), of which the first implores complete renewal of nature, the second beseeches that there may be no break between the suppliant and God, and the third asks for the joy and willingness to serve which would flow from the granting of the desires preceding. In each verse the second clause has "spirit" for its leading word, and the middle one of the three asks for "Thy holy spirit." The petitions themselves, and the order in which they occur, are deeply significant, and deserve much more elucidation than can be given here. The same profound consciousness of inward corruption which spoke in the former part of the psalm shapes the prayer for renewal. Nothing less than a new creation will make this mans heart "clean." His past has taught him that. The word employed is always used of Gods creative act; and the psalmist feels that nothing less than the power which brooded over the face of primeval chaos, and evolved thence an ordered world, can deal with the confused ruin within himself. What he felt that he must have is what prophets promised {Jer_24:7; Eze_36:26} and Christ has brought-a new creation, in which, while personality remains unaffected, and the components of character continue as before, a real new life is bestowed, which stamps new directions on affections, gives new aims, impulses, convictions, casts out inveterate evils, and gradually changes "all but the basis of the soul." A desire for pardon which does not unfold into such longing for deliverance from the misery of the old self is not the offspring of genuine penitence, but only of base fear.
"A steadfast spirit" is needful in order to keep a cleansed heart clean; and, on the other hand, when, by cleanness of heart, a man is freed from the perturbations of rebellious desires and the weakening influences of sin, his spirit will be steadfast. The two characteristics sustain each other. Consciousness of corruption dictated the former desire; penitent recognition of weakness and fluctuation inspires the latter. It may be observed, too, that the triad of petitions having reference to "spirit" has for its central one a prayer for Gods Spirit, and that the other two may be regarded as dependent on that. Where Gods spirit dwells, the human spirit in which it abides will be firm with uncreated strength. His energy, being infused into a tremulous, changeful humanity, will make it stable. If we are to stand fast, we must be stayed on God.
The group of petitions in Psa_51:11 is negative. It deprecates a possible tragic separation from God, and that under two aspects. "Part me not from Thee; part not Thyself from me." The former prayer, "Cast me not out from Thy presence," is by some explained according to the analogy of other instances of the occurrence of the phrase, where it means expulsion from the land of Israel; and is claimed, thus interpreted, as a clear indication that the psalmist speaks in the name of the nation. But however certainly the expression is thus used elsewhere, it cannot, without introducing an alien thought, be so interpreted in its present connection, imbedded in petitions of the most spiritual and individual character: much rather, the psalmist is recoiling from what he knows only too well to be the consequence of an unclean heart-separation from God, whether in the sense of exclusion from the sanctuary, or in the profounder sense, which is not too deep for such a psalm, of conscious loss of the light of Gods face. He dreads being, Cain-like, shut out from that presence which is life; and he knows that, unless his previous prayer for a clean heart is answered, that dreary solitude of great darkness must be his lot. The sister petition, "Take not Thy holy spirit from me," contemplates the union between God and him from the other side. He regards himself as possessing that Divine spirit; for he knows that, notwithstanding his sin, God has not left him, else he would not have these movements of godly sorrow and yearnings for purity. There is no reason to commit the anachronism of supposing that the psalmist had any knowledge of New Testament teaching of a personal Divine Spirit. But if we may suppose that he is David, this prayer has special force. That anointing which designated and fitted him for kingly office symbolised the gift of a Divine influence accompanying a Divine call. If we further remember how it had fared with his predecessor, from whom, because of impenitence, "the Spirit of the Lord departed, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him," we understand how Sauls successor, trembling as he remembers his fate, prays with peculiar emphasis, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me."
The last member of the triad, in Psa_51:12, looks back to former petitions, and asks for restoration of the "joy of Thy salvation," which had lain like dew on this man before he fell. In this connection the supplication for joy follows on the other two, because the joy which it desires is the result of their being granted. For what is "Thy salvation" but the gift of a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, the blessed consciousness of unbroken closeness of communion with God, in which the suppliant suns himself in the beams of Gods face, and receives an uninterrupted communication of His Spirits gifts? These are the sources of pure joy, lasting as God Himself, and victorious over all occasions for surface sorrow. The issue of all these gifts will be "a willing spirit," delighting to obey, eager to serve. If Gods Spirit dwells in us, obedience will be delight. To serve God because we must is not service. To serve Him because we had rather do His will than anything else is the service which delights Him and blesses us. The word rendered "willing" comes by a very natural process, to mean nobles. Gods servants are princes and lords of everything besides, themselves included. Such obedience is freedom. If desires flow with equable motion parallel to Gods will, there is no sense of restraint in keeping within limits beyond which we do not desire to go. "I will walk at liberty; for I keep Thy precepts."
The last part of the psalm runs over with joyful vows-first, of magnifying Gods name (Psa_51:13-15), and then of offering true sacrifices. A man who has passed through such experiences as the psalmists and has received the blessings for which he prayed, cannot be silent. The instinct of hearts touched by Gods mercies is to speak of them to others. And no man who can say "I will tell what He has done for my soul" is without the most persuasive argument to bring to bear on others. A piece of autobiography will touch men who are unaffected by elaborate reasonings and deaf to polished eloquence. The impulse and the capacity to "teach transgressors Thy ways" are given in the experience of sin and forgiveness; and if anyone has not the former, it is questionable whether he has, in any real sense or large measure, received the latter. The prayer for deliverance from blood guiltiness in Psa_51:14 breaks for a moment the flow of vows; but only for a moment. It indicates how amid them the psalmist preserved his sense of guilt, and how little he was disposed to think lightly of the sins of whose forgiveness he had prayed himself into the assurance. Its emergence here, like a black rock pushing its grimness up through a sparkling, sunny sea, in no sign of doubt whether his prayers had been answered; but it marks the abiding sense of sinfulness, which must ever accompany abiding gratitude for pardon and abiding holiness of heart. It seems hard to believe, as the advocates of a national reference in the psalm are obliged to do, that "blood guiltiness" has no special reference in the psalmists crime, but is employed simply as typical of sin in general. The mention of it finds a very obvious explanation on the hypothesis of Davidic authorship, and a rather constrained one on any other.
Psa_51:16 introduces the reason for the preceding vow of grateful praise, as is shown by the initial "For." The psalmist will bring the sacrifices of a grateful heart making his lips musical, because he has learned that these, and not ritual offerings, are acceptable. The same depreciation of external sacrifices is strongly expressed in Psa_40:6, and here, as there, is not to be taken as an absolute condemnation of these, but as setting them decisively below spiritual service. To suppose that prophets or psalmists waged a polemic against ritual observances per se misapprehends their position entirely. They do war against "the sacrifice of the wicked," against external acts which had no inward reality corresponding to them, against reliance on the outward and its undue exaltation. The authors of the later addition to this psalm had a true conception of its drift when they appended to it, not as a correction of a heretical tendency, but as a liturgical addition in full harmony with its spirit, the vow to "offer whole burnt offerings on" the restored "altar," when God should again build up Zion.
The psalmists last words are immortal. "A heart broken and crushed, O God, Thou wilt not despise." But they derive still deeper beauty and pathos when it is observed that they are spoken after confession has been answered to his consciousness by pardon, and longing for purity by at least some bestowal of it. The "joy of Thy salvation," for which he had prayed has begun to flow into his heart. The "bones" which had been "crushed" are beginning to reknit, and thrills of gladness to steal through his frame; but still he feels that with all these happy experiences contrite consciousness of his sin must mingle. It does not rob his joy of one rapture, but it keeps it from becoming careless. He goes safely who goes humbly. The more sure a man is that God has put away the iniquity of his sin, the more should he remember it; for the remembrance will vivify gratitude and bind close to Him without whom there can be no steadfastness of spirit nor purity of life. The clean heart must continue contrite, if it is not to cease to be clean.
The liturgical addition implies that Jerusalem is in ruins. It cannot be supposed without violence to come from David. It is not needed in order to form a completion to the psalm, which ends more impressively, and has an inner unity and coherence, if the deep words of Psa_51:17 are taken as its close.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain THE superscription informs us both as to the author…
INTRODUCTION
THE superscription informs us both as to the author of the psalm, and the occasion of its composition. “To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” The contents of the psalm accord with the superscription on both points. For the history of the painful circumstances, see 2 Samuel 11 and 2Sa_12:1-14.
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That the psalm is addressed “To the Chief Musician” shows that it was not merely a private confession of the poet’s guilt to God, but a public expression of his penitence. Hengstenberg, quoting the Marburg Bible, says: “ ‘David wrote this psalm not for himself alone to be used as a prayer, but for those also who had charge of the temple music, that he might again edify, by his repentance, the people of God, whom he had offended by his sin; and till then he had no rest in his bosom, as he confesses in Psa_32:2.’ This publicity in the confession of the sin was quite as great a work of God’s grace in David, as the depth of his knowledge in regard to it. Nature must have struggled hard against it. But the design of the publicity he gives us in Psa_51:13. He would, through his repentance, lead others to the same.”
THE PENITENT’S PSALM
“This psalm,” says Robertson, “written three thousand years ago, might have been written yesterday: it describes the vicissitudes of spiritual life in an Englishman as truly as of a Jew. ‘Not of an age, but for all time.’ ” We have here—
I. The Penitent’s Confession. Confession is not a single act. It comprehends, at least, three things: (α.) A right estimate of sin. The true penitent regards sin not as mere misdirection, or the result of imperfect development, but as the guilty violation of a holy law. (β.) A right feeling in relation to sin. The sincere penitent loathes sin, and “grieves for having grieved his God.” (γ.) Right conduct in relation to sin. He endeavours to forsake sin, and to follow after holiness. The Psalmist in his confession—
1. Recognises the evil of sin. He regards it
(1). As an unrighteous thing. “Mine iniquity.” Sin is a reversal of true moral relations and order.
(2.) As a breach of moral law. “My transgressions.” By his sins he had violated the holy laws of the supreme and gracious Sovereign.
(3.) As a defiling thing. He felt himself utterly polluted by his sins, and asks again and again for cleansing. Thus David recognises the essential evil of sin, and its injurious influence upon human life and character. He does not attempt to palliate its wickedness; but exhibits unmistakably its blackness, and deformity, and blasting power.
2. Recognises the sin as his own. “My transgressions … mine iniquity … my sin.” We are prone to try to shift the responsibility of our sins from ourselves to others. We blame the circumstances in which we were placed, or the temptations by which we were assailed, or the tendencies which we have inherited, or the training which we have received. But of this we find nothing in this penitential psalm. David feels that the sin and guilt of his crimes were his, and his only. “I acknowledge my transgression,” &c. “I have sinned,” &c. His sins appeared so aggravated to him, that he could only express his feeling in this respect by saying that he was born in sin. As Robertson says, “He lays on himself the blame of a tainted nature, instead of that of a single fault: not a murder only, but of a murderous nature. ‘Conceived in sin.’ From his first moments up till then, he saw sin—sin—sin: nothing but sin.” Sin and guilt cannot be transferred from one to another. If I do evil, the guilt is my own. “Every man shall bear his own burden.” The Divinely-awakened conscience ever feels this—confesses this—says, “I acknowledge my transgressions.”
3. Regards sin as hostile to God. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,” &c. The Most High has no complicity with evil. Sin is ever to Him the “abominable thing which He hates.” He brings good out of evil, overrules evil for the accomplishment of His glorious purposes. Yet He is not the author of evil, but its sworn and uncompromising antagonist. His laws in both the material and spiritual realms are against it; His administration is against it; His great redemption is against it; His essential nature is utterly opposed to it. True penitence feels this, and says, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” David had sinned grievously against human society; but it was the fact that his offences were wrongs against his God that chiefly impressed and distressed him. All sins against man are sins against God also. You cannot harm your fellow-man without wronging God. “Every blow struck against humanity is a blow struck against God.” A fact this pregnant with solemn suggestions. Thus the confession of this royal penitent expresses the judgments and emotions of the penitent heart to day.
II. The penitent’s prayer. The Psalmist prays for,—
1. Forgiveness of his sins. “Have mercy upon me, O God,” &c. (Psa_51:1). “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.” Confession and forgiveness are inseparably connected (Psa_32:5; Luk_17:3-4; 1Jn_1:9). Confession is not the efficient cause of forgiveness, but it is its indispensable condition. It is “a necessary basis of forgiveness.” The figures here used to denote forgiveness give clearness and prominence to the idea of its completeness. “Blot out my transgressions, … blot out all mine iniquities:” as the account of a debt is wiped away or cancelled by the creditor, or as a cloud is dispelled by the beams of the sun. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” “Hide Thy face from my sins;” do not regard them; “cast all my sins behind Thy back;” remember them against me no more for ever.
2. Cleansing and renewal of his spirit. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” “Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. All true and lasting change must be made in the nature. The heart is the seat of all wrong. Hence no prayer will avail that does not come from the heart, and express the deepest and holiest aspirations of the soul. Such was David’s prayer.”—Parker.
3. Restoration of the joy of salvation. “Make me to hear joy and gladness. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” Here are three ideas
(1.) The experience of the salvation of God is joyous. The joy of assured forgiveness, of the Divine favour, of exalted hopes, &c.
(2.) By indulgence in sin man forfeits this joy. David did so.
(3.) By sincere penitence and prayer those who have lost this joy may regain it.
4. Preservation from sin and ruin. “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy holy Spirit from me. Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” David’s great fear was that God might abandon him, might leave him to himself. To the penitent soul exile from God would be the deepest misery. And feeling his weakness and proneness to fall into sin, the Psalmist entreats God to uphold and keep him. Such are the main points in this penitent’s prayer. We shall do well to heed one feature of it to which Robertson gives clear and forcible expression. This prayer “is not the trembling of a craven spirit in anticipation of torture, but the agonies of a noble one in the horror of being evil.… Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? I venture to say, into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did, it would be almost a relief: but, oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise! when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real Infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the Devil-nature!”
III. The penitent’s resolution. David resolves that, when the joy of salvation is restored to him—
1. He will seek the conversion of sinners. “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.” The forgiven penitent will seek to lead others to the source whence he has derived his blessing, that they also may partake of it. The ways of God which David would teach transgressors are
(1) The way which He would have sinners pursue,—the way of penitence. And
(2) The way which He pursues towards sinners,—the way of rich and free forgiving mercy. Now the converted man is fitted to teach transgressors these ways. He knows them; for he has trodden the one and experienced the other. He alone is fitted to teach these ways. It is essential that he who would teach others the way of salvation knows that way experimentally himself. He is also impelled to teach transgressors these ways. Gratitude urges him to do so, forbids him to be silent. He must tell others of the blessings he has received, and urge them to seek them for themselves. “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me,” &c.
2. He will worship God. “My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.… My mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou desirest not sacrifice,” &c. (See “The Hom. Com.” on Psa_40:6-8; Psa_50:7-15.)
(1.) The one great sacrifice for sin has been offered and accepted, and is gloriously perfect (Heb_10:1-18).
(2.) Our sacrifice of praise, our thank-offerings of gifts to the cause of God, are worthless in His sight unless they proceed from feelings of sincere devotion and gratitude.
(3.) When the heart is moved by penitence, and gratitude, and reverence, it will offer itself in praise to God, and in service in His cause. When the heart is truly sacrificed to God, all other possessions will be freely offered to Him. On this point, the testimony of Psa_51:19 is conclusive. David would not content himself with offering the sacrifices prescribed by the ceremonial law, but would offer himself to God in humblest penitence and heartiest praise. This self-sacrifice is the very soul of all acceptable sacrifices. David anticipates, as a result of his restoration, that—
3. The whole Church would praise God (Psa_51:18-19). He feared lest, by reason of his sins, the Divine judgments should fall upon the city and kingdom, or the Divine favour be withdrawn from them. No man stands alone. The sin of one man may lead to the injury or even to the ruin of many others. David, therefore, implores the manifestation of the Divine favour in granting them security and prosperity. And he promises that then acceptable sacrifices—the costliest sacrifices offered by sincere worshippers—shall be presented unto Him.
NOTE—The exposition of this psalm might be suitably divided into three discourses,—one, on The Confession; another, on The Petitions; and the third, on The Resolutions of the Penitent.
AN INDISPENSABLE PRAYER FOR EVERY ONE
(Psa_51:2. “Cleanse me from my sin.”)
Consider—
I. The need you have to offer this prayer.
1. You cannot cleanse yourselves from sin. The guilt of your sin you cannot blot out. The pollution of your sin you are equally unable to take away.
2. You cannot live happily without you are cleansed from sin. Surely, as the shadow follows the substance, sorrow follows sin, and joy holiness.
3. You cannot die peacefully unless you are cleansed from sin. “The sting of death is sin.”
4. You cannot be acquitted at the Divine tribunal except you are cleansed from sin. “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,” &c.
5. You cannot be admitted into heaven without you are cleansed from your sin. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,” &c.
6. You cannot escape hell unless you are cleansed from your sin. There is no world between heaven and hell. “The wicked shall be turned into hell,” &c.
II. The requisites you must possess to present this prayer successfully.
1. You must be alive to your sin. Men must be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, before they will be anxious to be saved. Where guilt is not felt, pardon will not be desired.
2. You must see that your sin has been committed against God. Every evil deed perpetrated is done against the Almighty. This David felt.
3. You must take the blame of your sin to yourselves. The common practice is to attribute it to the tempter. Adam laid it on his wife, and Eve cast it on the serpent. Like them we seek to exculpate ourselves. But there must be the impression that we are utterly inexcusable, &c.
4. You must be desirous to part with your sin. Unwilling as men are to forsake their vicious course, they would fain be quit of its dire consequences. But he who will have his sin must have its evils. The cause must be removed before its effects can.
5. You must be sorry for your sin. There is a fitness between contrition and pardon; but there is none between impenitence and remission. The penitent are in a proper state to be forgiven; the impenitent are not.
6. You must have faith in the cleansing efficacy of Christ’s blood. Requisite as are the foregoing to your being in a proper condition to ask or to have the blessings spoken of, they cannot, if relied on, secure it, as there is not the slightest merit in them. The only merit on the ground of which we can be redeemed from all iniquity is in Christ, and in Him alone. For Him to be your redemption you must have faith in His blood.
In conclusion, have you prevailingly urged this petition?—JOHN SMITH. Abridged from “The Congregational Pulpit.”
THE CHIEF EVIL OF SIN
Psa_51:4. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.”
Since the crimes of the Psalmist were of that class which are most directly against society, and since he appears at the time to have regarded them in that very relation, what is the import of the phrase, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned”? The following is the only possible solution. Notwithstanding the deep sense of his crime, as viewed in its social relation, he had such an overwhelming sense of its enormity as committed against God, that it threw into comparative obscurity the injury to man. This language, therefore, dictated by the Divine Spirit, must afford ample authority for the following doctrine:—
The evil of sin consists chiefly in its being committed against God.
This doctrine does not, in the least degree, invalidate the obligations of mortals to each other; or diminish the guilt of crimes viewed merely in their social relation. The man who considers the chief evil of sin to consist in a violation of Divine obligations, has as strong a view of social obligations, as he who overlooks all duty to God, and makes human injury the only criterion of guilt. That sin is an evil, so far as it infringes on the rights and happiness of fellow-mortals, is admitted by all. But the Word of God compels us to believe, that the same transgressions are an immensely greater evil considered as offences against God. Should any one ask, “Why is it a thousand-fold worse for me to murder my neighbour than if God had not forbidden it?” I answer,—
1. Because God is your Maker. We who are parents claim the right to command our children; and, when they disobey, we place the main point of their offending in simple disobedience. And what is the aggravation of violating a parent’s authority, compared with that of rebellion against the Eternal Father of our spirits?
2. God sustains us. From the dawn of our existence to this hour, He has been mindful of us, with more than a parent’s tender care. Amid countless dangers, He has cast His shield about us.
3. He has encompassed us with countless blessings. For us the rivers flow, the oceans roll, the clouds distil, and the seasons keep their appointed times. His sun is made to light us by day—His moon and stars by night. To shield us from cold, He has provided raiment—from heat, a shade—from storms, a shelter.
4. He has prepared a heaven for our eternal home. It is the abode of His own infinite blessedness, the palace of His glory, and the home of holy angels.
5. When we had forfeited this bright heaven, and plunged ourselves in guilt and woe, God gave His own dear Son to redeem us. To achieve this work, it was needful that the Saviour take upon Himself the form of a servant, be made under the law, pass a life of suffering and scorn, and, finally, be crucified by wicked hands. Yet to all this He submitted, not by constraint, but willingly——nay, joyfully.
6. God has given us a revelation comprising the knowledge and motives requisite for the attainment of this great salvation. And how is this sacred volume filled with entreaties to sinful man to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold on the hope set before him!
7. He bears long with us, as a race of guilty beings, and as individuals. Each spared sinner is a perfect demonstration of the infinite goodness of God. And the aged impenitent is as great a monument of the Divine forbearance as he is of guilt. Reflect, then, that against this same God you have committed every sin that has polluted your life. Under this conviction, if your conscience be not dead, you cannot but exclaim with the Psalmist, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,” &c.
From the foregoing we may draw the following inferences:—
1. The punishment denounced against the wicked is manifestly just.
2. There is not so great a difference as men often imagine between different kinds of sin. I would not deny that “some sins in themselves are more heinous in the sight of God than others.” Nor would I at all intimate an equality of guilt among transgressors possessing different degrees of light, or actuated by different degrees of malignity.… But we have seen that the chief evil of sin consists in its violation of Divine obligation. Let no one, then, speak of small sins—little offences—and assign as his reason that he injures no one but himself,—that he does not infringe on the rights of his fellow-men. It is idle and delusive and impious to indulge in thus comparing and extenuating our crimes of rebellion against the infinite Sovereign. Each sin, thus viewed, is of magnitude sufficient to sink a world.
3. The most upright man is a great sinner. Suppose him perfectly honest—exculpate him from falsehood—and say that he never injured the character or feelings of any mortal. A human tribunal would then acquit him. But has he kept all God’s commandments? &c.
4. We are taught by this doctrine our need of Christ’s atonement. And the glorious work is accomplished, and a ready pardon offered, &c.
5. We see the nature of true conviction. It consists in seeing and feeling the evil of sin as committed against God. Fear of punishment is often mistaken for conviction; but it is really not even a necessary part of it. Real conviction does not cease at conversion, but increases with our growth in grace and knowledge of God. David, Isaiah, and Paul appeared to feel it with increasing emotion, and to loathe and abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes.—Ralph Emerson, A.M. Abridged from “The Preacher’s Treasury.”
DAVID’S PRAYER
(Psa_51:7.)
A sermon useful when it goes with a man to his closet, as well as affects him for the present. Nathan’s to David. Hyssop—alluding to the cleansing the leper (Lev_14:1-7). Or to the waters of separation (Numbers 19) Observe:—
I. When God leads us to reflect on our sins, we feel ourselves awfully polluted. David in the text. (Job_42:1-6; Psa_38:4; Isa_6:1-5; Isa_64:6; Eze_20:43; Luk_15:17-19; Luk_18:13; Act_2:36-37; Tit_3:3.) O my soul! O my hearers! reflect
II. The blood of Jesus Christ is even more than a remedy for the foulest iniquities. “Whiter than snow” (Rom_5:20-21). How?
1. As it makes the penitent more acceptable to God, and more secure in His favour than Adam in Paradise. (Luk_15:7; Luk_15:22; Luk_15:32; Rom_8:1, &c.; Eph_1:6; Eph_5:27; Col_3:3-4.)
2. As it excites them to obey God in resisting temptation more than Adam. (Gen_3:11-13, compared with Eph_6:11-17; Rev_12:10-11.)
3. As God will be more glorified in recovering a fallen sinner, than in making man upright. As Redeemer than as Creator. As the God of grace in the Gospel than as Law-Giver. (Isa_44:22-23; Luk_2:10-14; 2Co_3:7-11; 1Pe_1:11-12.)
4. As the happiness of the penitent will be ultimately greater than that of Adam in Paradise. (Rev_7:9, &c.)
III. This remedy becomes effectual by an application to our own case. See text. As food—physic—clothing, &c. Noah’s ark. The brazen serpent. The cities of refuge.
IV. The application of this remedy to ourselves is to be sought in prayer. See text. (Psa_106:4-5; Psa_130:1-6; Luk_18:13.)
V. Though God has pardoned the penitent he can scarcely believe it, and will be applying for pardon again and again. Thus David in this psalm, though Nathan had told him of God’s forgiveness (2Sa_12:13).
USES.—
1. Alarm to sinners impenitent and unpardoned in their sins.
2. Caution to the self-righteous.
3. Bless God for the cleansing blood of Jesus, and use it to God’s glory,—to your own salvation.—F———r.
DAVID’S PRAYER AND VOW
(Psa_51:10-13.)
There is an essential difference between the prayers offered up under the influence of habit merely, and those which are induced by a deep sense of guilt, dependence, and want. When David uttered the words before us, he felt that he needed the grace and mercy of his Maker,—consequently his requests were simple, important, and earnest. Perhaps there is no one here that has fallen into sin such as that which the Psalmist had committed—still, there Is no one but may offer up his prayer with the greatest propriety.
I. Let us glance at the petitions. “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” The Psalmist felt that his heart was Defiled—that it was not in his power to cleanse it—he therefore prayed that God would perform the work renew a right spirit within me.” These words refer to the temper of the mind. The Psalmist knew that his was wrong; and, consequently prayed that God would renew a right spirit within him. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” “Cast me not away from Thy presence.” In the presence of God is “fulness of joy:” therefore, to be cast away from His presence is to be deprived of happiness. “Take not Thy holy spirit from me.” The Spirit of God “helpeth our infirmities:” therefore, to be deprived of the Spirit is to be deprived of help. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter: therefore, to be deprived of the Spirit is to be deprived of comfort. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” The knowledge of salvation produces joy,—this joy the Psalmist had experienced,—it was not his portion when he uttered these words,—he therefore desired its restoration. “Uphold me with Thy free spirit.” Having experienced the sad consequences of falling into sin, the Psalmist here prays that when restored he might be upheld, and prevented from falling again.
II. Notice the predicated results of a gracious answer; or the connection between piety and usefulness. “Then will I teach transgressors Thy way; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” He that enjoys the blessings of salvation, can speak on religious subjects with more feeling, and, consequently, with more effect than others. This may remind Christians, and especially Christian ministers, that eminent piety is exceedingly desirable, not only on their own account, but also that they may be qualified for extensive usefulness.—“The Young Minister’s Companion.”
THE JOYS OF SALVATION
(Psa_51:12.)
“The joy of Thy salvation.”
It is God’s salvation. It is no dreamy following of the upward instincts and aspirations of the nature; no trying to be just, pure, and good, and then, if we fail, and become selfish, sensual, and devilish, forgetting the failure and trying again, always trying, always hoping, with a vague belief that though sin always gets the better of us, there is some good thing in us which, after all, cannot be lost. Neither is it a vague reliance on God’s goodness and mercy, a feeling that He is a Father, and cannot, therefore, doom His children to despair and death. These dreams and hopes are the salvations which men provide for themselves: but they are not, nor are they like, God’s salvation.
God’s salvation rests upon the knowledge of God’s Himself, as He has revealed Himself—His name—His word—His promises—His work; whereby, not by our own dreams or hopes, but by His declaration, “We have strong consolation,” &c. It is one thing to feel that He is a Father, and must be full of love to His children; it is another thing to hear Him say, “I am a Father; I love as no human father can love, &c. (Joh_3:16-17). It is one thing to trust vaguely to God’s goodness for pardon; it is another thing to hear Him say, “Come now, and let us reason together,” &c.; and to follow His guiding finger till we behold “the Lamb of God,” &c. It is one thing to have our hopes and instincts looking on towards immortality, &c.; it is another thing to see “life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel,” to stand by the unsealed tomb of Lazarus and hear such awful words as these, “I am the resurrection, and the life:” &c. (Joh_11:25-44; Joh_14:1-5; Joh_20:17).
The man who has received these truths from God, these gifts of God, and knows why and “whom he has believed,” is the man in whom the joys of God’s salvation abound. He has God’s salvation; his ground is the everlasting rock, the Word of God. What are its joys?
I. The joy of a sufficient and final answer to the self-upbraidings of a guilty soul. The sense of guilt, the dread of doom, must be disposed of, before there can be any freedom, any upright, manly activity, any pure and lasting joy. The man who wakes up to comprehend the breadth and the depth of God’s law, stands self-condemned. All refuges of lies have vanished, the naked realities appear, and his sin clouds over utterly the heaven of God’s love. The sense of guilt torments him. “O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This question of the purging of guilt is the fundamental question of all the religions of heathendom—of all simple, untutored souls (Mic_6:6-8). To this questioning there is but one joyful answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” &c. (Rom_7:25; Rom_8:1-4; Rom_8:33-39). The burden falls off; the darkness is chased by dawn.
II. The joy of a portion which satisfies the heart’s largest conceptions and desires. “My soul panteth for God, for the living God.” There is that in man which the knowledge of the living God only can satisfy, which, having God, has all things in Him. We know what it is to love the creature—to feel that the love and communion of some fond, fair idol would make the bliss of earth, the bliss of eternity. He has the joys of God’s salvation who has done with idols—who loves only that which has eternal beauty and fairness in the creature, and finds that he has the very substance of all that may be loved in the Lord. The commerce between the believing soul and Christ is the ravishing sweetness of the present—the hope of unclouded vision, of unbounded communion, is the glorious treasure of the future.
III. The joy of an answer to all the difficulties and perplexities which beset the spirit and the intellect in their progress. I do not say that the believer, in full communion with Christ and with the joys of His salvation, is freed from the mental and the moral cares which beset the path of a soul’s progress. That joy—the joy of knowing that doubt, darkness, and the anguish of mental and moral conflict, are done with for ever—we shall realise when we can take up the song, “For I am now ready to be offered,” &c. (2Ti_4:6-8). We must win our creed by mental conflict, we must win our crown by moral conflict; hut the joy of God’s salvation is tasted by those who feel that the great central truths, at any rate, are sure. “I know whom I have believed.” I have found the centre; to explore the circumference may be matter of danger, difficulty, suffering, but hope lights the way, the sorrow can never darken into despair. One thing is clear to me, let what will be dark, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” … There is hope of his knowing all things that is good to know, who has already the mind of Christ.
IV. The joy of having the key to all the mysterious ways of Providence in the world. God writes the record of His Providential government in ciphers. We know the cipher; it is a blank to others. To those who know God it is plain and clear. To the soul well grounded in the conviction, “He doeth all things well,” there is no mystery. This or that thing may be difficult to understand; but to him who believes, the mystery, at any rate, is dissipated—the full understanding will come in time. How deadly is the difficulty to those who have not found the key in the love of God in Christ, let these passages show: Job_23:1-9; Job_11:5-10; Isa_38:9-19. But “we know that all things work together for good,” &c. And we believe that God forsaketh not the world in all its agonies and perils, for which the Lord Jesus died. We can even take these sorrows, and make them into joys (Rom_5:3; 1Pe_1:7).
V. The joy of victory over death. It is an awful thing to look upon the face of the dead. Where is the spirit which a moment since? &c. The most dread moment of our experience is before us—every one of us. We may have mastered many agonies; we have yet to wrestle with the agony of death. Then the dearest must leave you; alone you must then face your destiny. As the dear forms of earth grow dim, a grander, more beautiful, more glorious form will come shining through the gloom (Psa_23:4; 1Co_15:55-58). “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
VI. The joy of living union with God with Christ, with all living and blessed beings, eternally. What is that world? What its speech, its habit, the forms of its life? We know not. The veil hangs over all these (1Jn_3:2-3). “We know;” for He is there—the God-man glorified; and the Godman glorified, through trial, suffering, and death, is the key to the life of eternity. This “we know,” for we see Jesus. We can wait to know more till we see Him unveiled in heaven (1Co_15:9.).
These are the joys of His salvation, and now they are freely offered to you by the Gospel—“Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Take in your hand NOW the riches that add no sorrow, the joy that leaves no aftertaste of pain; and let “the joy of the Lord be your strength”—strength for duty, strength for making known to others the joys of salvation God has given you as your portion.—J. Baldwin Brown, B.A. Abridged from “Aids to the Development of the Divine Life.”
DAVID’S PRAYER
(Psa_51:14.)
Notice—
I. To whom David goes when conviction of sin is brought home to his conscience by the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Nathan.
1. Man shuns and avoids his accuser. It was God who had accused David of his sin. Yet to God he goes with confession of guilt and prayer for forgiveness. When God convinces of sin, turn not away from Him, but, &c.
2. Man shuns and avoids his judge. It was God who had condemned David to suffer in his own family for unholy inroad made on sacred family ties of another. Yet to God he goes. When God lays His hand upon us, let us not turn away from Him who corrects (Heb_12:10).
II. The spirit and frame of mind in which he approaches God.
1. As regards himself—with self-abasement. “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness.” Is he not too hard upon himself? Had he actually slain Uriah? He had slain him by sword of children of Ammon (2Sa_12:9). True penitent feels he cannot be too hard upon himself. Confesses sin in all its heinousness.
2. As regards God—with hope in His mercy. “Deliver me … O od, Thou God of my salvation.” Were not God the “God of my salvation,” access with favour would be for ever denied. But He is “the God of whom cometh salvation.” And the God of my salvation when I approach Him through Jesus Christ.
III. The prayer of David. “Deliver me,” &c. All of us must make this prayer our own. The blood-guiltiness of David was on account of murder of Uriah. Blood-guiltiness may be ours in one or other of three ways?
1. If condition not by grace changed, miserable in blood-guiltiness, because crucified Son of God.
2. If any of us stand condemned before God at last, miserable in blood-guiltiness, because condemned suicides. Salvation offered will have been despised. The Spirit resisted—Christ rejected.
3. At the last day shall have to answer for others (Gen_4:9; Pro_24:11-12).
Is there not need that we say, with David, “Deliver me,” &c.?
In last clause of text, pious resolve for the future. Delivered from blood-guiltiness, cannot we take up language of Psalmist and say, “And my mouth shall sing,” &c.? Not our own, but His. The answer of peace comes to us in way of righteousness. Our theme of praise and thanksgiving on earth. And in heaven (Rev_5:12). What shall I render unto the Lord? (Rom_12:1).—R. C. Billing, B.A. Abridged from “The Homiletic Quarterly.”
THE PROSPERITY OF ZION SOUGHT
(Psa_51:18.)
“Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion.” Consider—
I. The importance of the object sought. David prays for the prosperity of Zion.
1. The Church is exposed to many dangers, and needs to be protected by an almighty arm. David probably feared that by his own sin he had brought danger upon Zion; that God might justly manifest His displeasure by giving her into the hand of her enemies, or by withdrawing His favour from her. The Church of Christ needs preservation
(1) from sectarian or denominational strife;
(2) from disunion and discord in individual churches;
(3) from formality;
(4) from prevalent errors. Hence the importance of the prayer.
2. The Church is imperfect, and its prosperity consists in its improvement. “Do good in Thy,” &c. “Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants,” &c. (Psa_90:16-17). The prosperity of the Church is promoted—
(1) When there is an increasing adherence to those truths on which primitive Christianity was established.
(2) When under the influence of these truths, the citizens of Zion are persevering in holiness. “The path of the just is as the shining light,” &c.
II. The grounds of encouragement we have in seeking this object. We might refer to some particulars suggested by the words, “Thy good pleasure:” e.g., (α) that God is the Founder of His Church; (β) He established it at the greatest expense. Christ died to redeem it. (γ) In doing good to His Church He is glorifying His Son, who is “Head over all things to the Church;” (δ) The purposes and promises of God to the Church. But—
1. To pray for Zion is a duty enjoined by Divine authority. “Pray,” said Christ, “hallowed be Thy name,” &c. The security, improvement, and success of the Church depend upon prayer.
2. God is the hearer of prayer.
III. The manner in which we should reek this object. We may lose blessings through not seeking them aright. “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.”
1. We should ourselves be identified with the Church. 2. We should feel a deep interest in its welfare.
3. We should be constant in prayer for its prosperity; should seek it in our closets, in our families, &c.
4. We should unite in prayer for this object.
5. We should present our prayers in faith.
6. We should be importunate and fervent in prayer for this object. Conclude by endeavouring to enforce this duty upon Christians.—Abridged from an unpublished MS.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Psa 51:1-2
Psa 51:1-2
I. Looking at this triad of petitions, they teach us, first, how David thought of his sin. (1) Observe the reiteration of the same earnest cry in all these clauses. It is not a mere piece of Hebrew parallelism. It is much more the earnestness of a soul that cannot be content with once asking for the blessings and then passing on, but dwells upon them with repeated supplication, not because it thinks that it shall be heard for its much speaking, but because it longs for them so eagerly. (2) Notice, again, that he speaks of his evil as transgressions and as sin, using the plural and then the singular. He regards it first as being broken up into a multitude of isolated acts, and then as being all gathered into one knot, as it were, so that it is one thing. But he does not stop there. His sins are not merely a number of deeds, but they have, deep down below, a common root from which they all come, a centre in which they all inhere. And so he says, not only "Blot out my transgressions," but "Wash me from mine iniquity." (3) In all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David’s mind. It is "my transgression," it is "mine iniquity," and it is "my sin." (4) The three words which the Psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. Transgression is not the same as iniquity, and iniquity is not the same as sin. The word rendered "transgression" literally means rebellion, a breaking away from, and setting one’s self against, lawful authority. That translated "iniquity" literally means that which is twisted, bent. The word in the original for "sin" literally means missing a mark, an aim.
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II. Those petitions show us how David thinks of forgiveness. (1) The first petition conceives of the Divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. We have to spread the writing before God and ask Him to remove the stained characters from the surface that was once fair and unsoiled. (2) The second prayer, "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity," does not need any explanation, except that the word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. David then here uses the familiar symbol of a robe to express the "habit" of the soul, or, as we say, the character. That robe is all splashed and stained. He cries to God to make it a robe of righteousness and a garment of purity. (3) "Cleanse me from my sin." That is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial cleanness, the cessation of ceremonial pollution, and for the other priestly act of making, as well as declaring, clean from the stains of leprosy. With reference to both of these uses the Psalmist employs it here.
III. These petitions likewise show us whence the Psalmist draws his confidence for such a prayer. His whole hope rests upon God’s own character as revealed in the endless continuance of His acts of love. And for us who have the perfect love of God perfectly expressed in His Son, that same plea is incalculably strengthened, for we can say, "According to Thy tender mercies in Thy dear Son, blot out my transgressions."
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 2nd series, p. 95.
References: Psa 51:1-6.—R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 376. Psa 51:1-13.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 25.
Psa 51:3
It seldom happens that any person has very deep views of sin till he has learned something of the power of a Saviour. As soon as he has learned to appropriate the one, he has learned to appropriate the other; and it is the man who can say, "My Saviour," who will be able to say, "My sin."
I. There is an ease and satisfaction—I might almost say there is a pride—in acknowledging sin generally. We like to say, "Lord, there is none that doeth good, no, not one." We find in those words a covert for the conscience. Sin, to affect the mind, must be seen, not in the class, but in the individual.
II. If you desire to cultivate that frame of mind which becomes a sinner before God, you must labour, not only for self-knowledge, but for very accurate self-knowledge, to go into the little details of life. Seek more personal views of sin. You will find this a very different thing from your general confession—much harder, much more humbling, much more useful.
III. It is a very serious reflection that there is nothing so much our own as our sins. I do not see on what a man has a title to write, "Thou art mine," unless it be on his sins. Of sin, thus individual and thus possessed, David said that it was "ever before him."
IV. A man’s sins must come before him at some time or other; and whenever they do come before him, it is a very solemn time. To some, by God’s grace, that meeting comes in mid-life; to some on a deathbed; to some, for the first time, as far as their consent goes, in another world.
V. There are seasons even to a Christian when he must feel, like Job, "I possess the iniquity of my youth." Still, if these things be, they are certainly exceptions. The sense of forgiveness is essential to holiness. Our sins are among the things that are behind, which we are to forget, and to stretch forth to those that are before. "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd scries, p. 310.
There are many things in Holy Scripture which teach us that, however natural it may be, it is not a Christian disposition to be dwelling on our good doings and deservings. A habit of daily repentance is the right thing for us; we should every day be going anew to be washed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; in every prayer, whatever else we ask or omit, we must ask for pardon through Christ, and for the blessed Spirit to sanctify, because we have our "sin ever before us" when we come to the throne of grace. Consider what good we may get through doing as David did and having our sins ever before us. There is no doubt the view is not a pleasant one. Yet things which are painful are sometimes profitable, and assuredly it is so here.
I. It will make us humble to think habitually of the many foolish and wrong things we have done. If we would cultivate that grace, essential to the Christian character, of lowliness in the sight of God, here is the way to cultivate it.
II. The habitual contemplation of our sinfulness will tend to make us thankful to God, to make us contented with our lot, and to put down anything like envy in our hearts at the greater success and eminence of others.
III. To feel our sinfulness, to have our sins set before us by God’s Spirit in such a way that it will be impossible to help seeing them, and seeing them as bad as they really are, is the thing that will lead us to Christ, lead us to true repentance and to a simple trust in Him who "saves His people from their sins."
A. K. H. B., Counsel and Comfort Spoken from a City Pulpit, p. 110.
Psa 51:3
I. If there be indeed such places as heaven and hell, if we are in real earnest our very selves to be happy or miserable, both soul and body, for ever, then certainly a light way of regarding our sins must be very dangerous. These sins of ours, which we treat as mere trifles, are the very things which our adversary the devil rejoices to see; for he knows that they provoke God, drive away His Holy Spirit, put us out of His heavenly protection, and lay us open to the craft and malice of the powers of darkness.
II. The New Testament teaches the very serious nature of our sins in the most awful way of all: by showing us Christ crucified for them. Those which we think matters of sport are in God’s sight of such deep and fearful consequence, that He parted with His only-begotten Son in order to make atonement for them.
III. Thinking lightly of the past is the very way to hinder you from real improvement in time to come. The wholesome sting of conscience will be dulled and deadened in that man’s mind who refuses to think much of his sins. The warning voice of God’s Holy Spirit will fall on his ear faint and powerless. Not to spare one’s own faults is the true, the manly, the practical way of looking at things; even if there were no express promise of Holy Scripture, one might be sure beforehand that it is the only way to improve.
IV. Through daily knowing more of yourself—that is to say, more of your sins—you will daily be brought nearer and nearer to Him who alone can save sinners, taught to rely altogether on Him, and made to partake more and more of the pardon and holiness which is only to be found in the Cross.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. iv., p. 144.
I. When we bid a man, after David’s example, to have his sins ever before him, it is not that we mean him to dwell on his sins alone, as sometimes men do when their minds and bodies are distempered, and they wholly swallowed up with a bitter feeling of remorse. That was not David’s repentance; that is not Christian repentance. He who reads his Bible humbly and continually, because he has his sins ever before him, will find his Christian care and fear soon rewarded, even in the way of present peace and consolation. He will be often withdrawn from himself to contemplate the glorious and engaging patterns which God’s book will show him among God’s people. He will feel by degrees as all men, by God’s grace, would feel in such holy society: not less sorry for and ashamed of his sins, but more and more enabled to mix with his shame and sorrow steady resolutions of avoiding the same for the future and assured hope, through God’s assistance, of becoming really and practically better.
II. Above all, you must think much and often of your sins if you would have true and solid comfort in thinking of the Cross of Christ. Those who do not know something of the misery to which they would have been left if their justly offended God had passed them over—how can they ever be duly thankful for His infinite condescension and mercy in dying for them?
III. By such grave thoughts of ourselves, we keep up a continual recollection of God’s presence, which to a helpless being, wanting support every moment, must be the greatest of all consolations.
IV. The remembrance of our sins and unworthiness may help us against worldly anxiety, and make us very indifferent to worldly things. So also we shall be braced to endure sorrow, knowing that it is fully deserved, and shall be continually humbled and sobered by the remembrance of what He suffered who never deserved any ill. And thus, not being high-minded, but fearing, we shall make every day’s remembrance of our past sins a step towards that eternal peace in which there will be no need of watching against sin any more.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. iv., p. 152 (see also J. Keble, Sundays after Trinity, pp. 188, 200).
References: Psa 51:3.—Bishop Alexander, Bampton Lectures, 1876, p. 71; A. C. Tait, Lessons for School Life, p. 249; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 42.
Psa 51:4
Modern blasphemy delights to blacken "the man after God’s own heart." His was a terrible fall, terrible as well as piteous. He, so blameless in youth—could he, when life had begun to set, be stained so miserably through the passions of youth? It is an intense mystery of sin that man should admit so black a spot where all around was so fair; it is an intenser mystery of God’s love that He should have arrested so black a spot from spreading, and overcasting, and infecting the whole.
I. In one way the sin was irremediable. It changed David’s eternal condition. David, like the blest robber, the first-fruits of the redeeming blood of Jesus, is, through those same merits, glorious with the indwelling glory of God; yet his soul, doubtless one of the highest of much-forgiven penitents, is still a soul which, by two insulated acts, broke to the uttermost God’s most sacred laws of purity and of love.
II. How then was he restored? Grace had been sinned away. He was left to his natural self. He had still that strong sense of justice and hatred of the very sins by which he had fallen, which responded so quickly and so indignantly against cruelty and wrong when called out by Nathan’s parable. He must have had remorse. Remorse is the fruit of the most condescending love of our God. Neglected or stifled, it is the last grace by which God would save the soul; it is the first by which God would prepare the soul which has forfeited grace to return to Him.
III. But remorse, although a first step to repentance, is not repentance. For remorse centres in a man’s self. While it is mere remorse it does not turn to God. And so God, in His love, sent to David the prophet, the very sight of whom might recall to him the mercies of God in the past, His promises for the future, and the memory of those days of innocent service and bright aspirations to which the soul overtaken by sin looks back with such sorrowful yearning. The heavy stone which lay on the choked, dead heart was rolled away; the dead was alive again; the two-edged sword of God’s word, judgment and mercy, had slain him to himself that he might live to God. The awakened soul burst forth in those two words, "I have sinned against the Lord." Then was remorse absorbed, transformed, spiritualised into penitent love.
IV. But this was the beginning of the renewed life of the soul, not the end. It issued in a constant longing for a recreation, a reverent fear springing from the sense of what it had deserved, an earnest craving for a more thorough cleansing from every stain or spot of sin, a thirst for the purging by the atoning blood, an unvarying sight of his forgiven sinfulness, spreading far and wide from the core of original sin, a longing to do free, noble, generous service, and all from God to God, from God’s re-creating, renewing, enfreedoming, ennobling grace.
E. B. Pusey, Cambridge Lent Sermons, 1864, p. 163.
Reference: Psa 51:4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 86.
Psa 51:6
We are never more in danger of forgetting that we are sinners than when contemplating the sufferings and death of Him who died to save us from our sins. Like the first tearful spectators of His sufferings, while we weep for Him we forget to weep for ourselves. We listen to the mysterious cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and think not that our iniquities are among those which at that moment hide from Him His Father’s face. If any portion of God’s word can teach us what sin is, and how it should be looked upon by us, it is this fifty-first Psalm of David, the deepest and most heartfelt confession ever poured forth from the heart of a saint of God in the first bitterness of his sorrow for his greatest sin. On examining this confession of sin, we find that it is twofold. There are two things present to David’s mind to be confessed and mourned over. The first is the sin he has just been guilty of; the second is the sinfulness of his nature. This declaration, "I was shapen in iniquity," implies two things—guilt and corruption. It means that every human being is born into the world with the wrath of God abiding on him, and the corruption of sin abiding in him.
I. We inherit from Adam guilt; he stood before God the representative of all humanity, their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker; in him we all once stood upright; in him we were tried; in him we fell; in him we were judged and condemned. (1) St. Paul adduces, in evidence of this doctrine, one fact familiar to us all; it is the fact that men die. Death is the wages of sin; whoever dies therefore has earned death by sin. The death of those to whom no actual sin could be charged is a clear proof that they were held guilty of the original sin of Adam, their federal head. (2) This fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies to a certain extent an answer to the objections made to that doctrine on the score of justice. For the injustice of imparting to us Adam’s guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adam’s punishment. There is no greater difficulty in admitting that we inherit from him a guilty soul than there is in admitting that we inherit from him a diseased and dying body. (3) Though, from the history of the Fall itself, we can thus clearly vindicate the imputation of Adam’s sin from the charge of injustice, yet it is from the history of our redemption that we draw our fullest and most triumphant proof of its justice. Imputation is to be seen in our salvation as well as in our condemnation. If we are accounted to have fallen in the first Adam, we are accounted to have risen in the second Adam. If "God has concluded all under sin," we see that it is that "He may have mercy upon all."
II. Fallen man inherits not only a guilty, but a corrupt, nature. Original righteousness consisted in three things—knowledge in the understanding, righteousness in the will, holiness in the affections. Original sin must then consist in the loss of each of these qualities. Original sin is (1) darkness in the understanding, (2) disobedience in the will, and (3) lawlessness in the affections. When we are tempted to plead the sinfulness of our nature in excuse for our sins, let us think that the one offends the holiness as much as the other offends the justice of God, and both alike require His pardoning mercy and His sanctifying grace; both equally need to be confessed and mourned over.
Bishop Magee, Sermons at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, p. 1.
References: Psa 51:5.—Expository Sermons and Outlines on the Old Testament, p. 224. Psa 51:5-7.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 117.
Psa 51:6
Life is a journey, and the training of the soul by the toils and changes of its pilgrimage is expressed by the law that the character undergoes a gradual preparation, and that thai preparation is subject to an apparently sudden close.
I. What is the hindrance in the human soul to a right application of this fundamental law? The answer broadly is this: The poison of character. Pride and sensuality are the chief evils that poison character.
II. To counteract this, we need to establish the undisputed authority of truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth. The Church is the unfolding of Jesus Christ, and He is the Revealer of the Father. It is by the illumination of grace that the harmony of truth is seen, and only so; it is by the co-operation of will, assisted by the grace of God, that man can see and use what he sees.
III. To direct the soul in the path of preparation, it is needful then that that soul should be struggling to be true. This desire is cramped, is injured, by the Fall. And one of the blessed gifts of the regenerate is a more earnest revival of such desire. There are at least three forms of conspiracy against truth observable in human character: (1) hypocrisy; (2) "cant;" (3) insincerity. Truth of heart is that heavenly principle whereby each soul is guided to a blessed result, under the action of the law of life in subjection to which we prepare to meet our Redeemer and our Judge. God is truth, and God is reigning. They who "will to do His will shall know." Seek, above all, to be true, for truth is like Him; and truth is therefore the first condition of a soul’s perfection.
J. Knox-Little, Manchester Sermons, p. 125.
References: Psa 51:6.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 28; New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 168; W. Hay Aitken, Newness of Life, p. 50; F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 358; F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 190. Psa 51:7.—C. J. Evans, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 357; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1937; E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 123. Psa 51:7-12.—R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 391.
Psa 51:8
I. (1) The sin of David was (a) a sin against light, and (b) a sin without excuse. He fell with frightful injury to himself, and the effect of Samuel’s unction on his head when he made him king over Israel was in this instance only to give him a tyranny over the souls of others. (2) This is its outward aspect. How is it when we look within? Still sadder, still more desperate. He never flinched from the sight of his sin. He looked upon the ghastly sight in apathy. Nathan put his case before him in the form of a parable; he touched David just on the tenderest part, that is, his unkindness and ingratitude. But David felt nothing; he was as secure in the prophet’s presence as if he had been guiltless. He was as blind as Balaam when an angel stopped the way.
II. The repentance. (1) First take the signs of his humility. He suffers Nathan to accuse him of his sins, to threaten him with vengeance, to insult his wives, to condemn his infant child to death. He does not interrupt him; he does not retaliate; he does not so much as breathe an excuse or pray for pity. There is no thought of self, or fear of man, or love of praise. (2) See in after-years the fruits of his repentance, those good works and holy tempers of humility and love which gush out and stream over the heart which really repents and is converted. (3) Notice his cheerful confidence, which I venture to call the specially Christian character of his repentance. Just as there is no limit to his confession of sin, so there is none to his hope of restoration. Now we know why God acknowledged David’s penitence and forgave him at the instant. In his penitence he had humility, meekness, perseverance, the sense of shame rather than the fear of pain, above all that confidence of faith which the Gospel thus describes: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible."
C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 154.
References: Psa 51:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 861. Psa 51:9.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 207.
Psa 51:10
Three things must happen before anything can be created. The Spirit of God must move upon the face of it, the word of God must speak to it, and the blood of Christ must wash it.
I. If you wish to be God’s children indeed, the Holy Spirit must work in your heart. As the Spirit moved over the face of the waters, so must the Holy Spirit move in your heart. The Holy Spirit is often compared to water, because water makes clean.
II. The Bible is the word of God. When God made the world, He spake with His mouth. Now His speech is in the Bible. In Eph 5:26 we read, "That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word"—that is, the Bible.
III. And Jesus Christ, we know, must cleanse us too. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
IV. Suppose you have a clean heart, will it keep clean? Here comes the beauty of the text. It says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God;" and the next part says, "Renew it"—"Renew a right spirit within me." This is what we want every day. If clean today, it will be dirty to-morrow. Therefore we must say, Renew it over and over again. "Renew a right spirit within me."
J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 229.
References: Psa 51:10.—Spurgeon, Sermon’s, vol. ix., No. 490; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 305; E. B. Pusey, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 181.
Psa 51:10-12
I. Here is a remarkable outline of a holy character. Of these three gifts—"a right spirit," "Thy Holy Spirit," a "free spirit"—the central one alone is in the original spoken of as God’s, the "Thy" of the last clause of the English Bible being an unnecessary supplement. The central petition stands in the middle, because the gift which it asks is the essential and fundamental one from which there flow and, as it were, diverge on the right hand and on the left the other two. God’s Spirit given to a man makes the human spirit holy, and then makes it right and free. (1) As to that fundamental petition "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me," one thing to notice is that David regards himself as possessing that Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul because Saul had refused His counsel and departed from Him; and Saul’s successor, trembling as he remembers the fate of the founder of the monarchy and of his vanished dynasty, prays with peculiar emphasis of meaning, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." (2) The primary idea in the holiness which David so earnestly desires is that of separation—separation for God and separation from sin. (3) "A right spirit." "A constant or firm spirit," is the Psalmist’s meaning. (a) There is no stability and settled persistency of righteous purpose possible for us unless we are made strong because we lay hold on God’s strength and stand firm because we are rooted in Him. (b) You can only get and keep purity by resistance. In such a world as this, with such hearts as ours, weakness is wickedness in the long run. "Add to your faith manly vigour." (4) A "free spirit." He who is holy because full of God’s Spirit, and constant in his holiness, will likewise be free. That is the same word which is in other places translated "willing;" and the scope of the Psalmist’s desire is, "Let my spirit be emancipated from sin by willing obedience."
II. Desires for holiness should become prayers. David does not merely long for certain spiritual excellencies; he goes to God for them. He has found out two things about his sin both of which make him sure that he can only be what he should be by God’s help. (1) "Against Thee only have I sinned." (2) He sees in his one deed more than an isolated act: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity."
III. Observe that prayers for perfect cleansing are permitted to the lips of the greatest sinners. Knowing all his guilt, and broken and contrite in heart (crushed and ground to powder, as the words mean), utterly loathing himself, aware of all the darkness of his deserts, he yet cherishes unconquerable confidence in the pitying love of God, and believes that, in spite of all his sin, he may yet be pure as the angels of heaven—ay, even holy as God is holy.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 112.
References: Psa 51:10, Psa 51:17.—E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 22. Psa 51:11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 954; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 272.
Psa 51:12
I. The joy of God’s salvation is the joy of a sufficient and final answer to the self-upbraidings of a guilty soul.
II. The joy of a portion which satisfies the heart’s largest conceptions and desires.
III. The joy of an answer to all the difficulties and perplexities which beset the spirit and the intellect in their progress.
IV. The joy of having the key to all the mysterious ways of Providence in the world.
V. The joy of victory over death.
VI. The joy of living union with God, with Christ, with all living and blessed beings, eternally.
J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, No. 5.
Psa 51:12
I. In the first place, this text distinctly shadows out the sovereignty of the action of the Holy Ghost. For very free, so free as to be utterly untraceable and incalculable, we now know, with better teaching than David’s, are the wind-like motions of the Holy Ghost. One man’s experience of spiritual things is no measure for another’s. No two Christians are ever cast into exactly the same mould, because He divideth to every man severally as He will, for the Spirit is free.
II. The Holy Spirit, wherever He comes, comes unmerited and unbought. You may pray for the Spirit, and He may come in answer to your prayer; but remember, He first inspired the wish which made the prayer which brought the answer.
III. He is the free Spirit because He is the great Liberator of us all. Is it too much to say that he who is under the expanding influences of the Spirit of God is free, and all besides are slaves? To the free Spirit it belongs not only to commence, but to carry on, the great work of grace within a man’s soul. As the Holy Ghost is God, He must partake of that fatherly character in which, we believe, all Deity stands to His creatures; and a father’s aim is always to hold up his child, and to give the strongest arm to the weakest of his offspring.
IV. Our Lord Himself has taught us to view the Holy Spirit under the emblem of water. It is the fundamental law of water that its property is always to rise towards the level of the height from whence it came. True to its type, the Holy Spirit is always ascending to the glory from which it came down to us; and as it mounts, it bears within it, heavenward, the heart that owns it.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 159.
References: Psa 51:12.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 28;Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 267; L.Wiseman, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 406. Psa 51:12, Psa 51:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1130.
Psa 51:13
I.
It is the characteristic of the people of God that they desire the conversion of sinners unto God; they are not at least in a healthy state when this desire is not active. So far as there is backsliding, this principle may be crushed and weakened; but let there be renewed repentance, forgiveness, cleansing, the joy of God’s salvation, and this principle reappears. "Sinners shall be converted unto Thee." That implies (1) that sinners are away from God; (2) that the conversion of a sinner is possible. Our distance from God is the distance of a different, a contrarious nature; it is the distance of alienation from the original constitution of man’s moral nature. And as like draws to like, so do differences shrink from differences, specially contrarieties from contrarieties. So, save in the new and living way, God keeps back from sinners, and sinners shrink back from God.
II.
Sinners are away from God. And what they need is to come back. They cannot return to God by the old way; but God has opened up a new way for the sinner’s return. And now all that God wants of the sinner is simply that he come back again. Conversion as wrought by the Spirit of God is God’s act; conversion as wrought within a sinner denotes His acting also. The Spirit of God is a moral agent. The work of the Spirit is set forth in this prayer: "Turn Thou us;" and the duty on the sinner’s part is set forth in such commands as these: "Be converted;" "Turn ye at My reproof." There is ordinarily in conversion the following method: (1) Conviction. As a rational creature, you cannot turn till you have been convinced that you are all in the wrong and God all in the right. (2) There is compunction. "They were pricked to the heart." The effect of compunction is that the sinner cannot endure sin; compunction makes sin intolerable. (3) There is humiliation. I do not mean here the Christian grace of humility, but the soul’s case when the sinner finds that he cannot save himself, and is forced to submit that another should do this great work for him, when, finding he can do nothing to deliver himself, he looks around for a friend. And that friend must be a saviour.
III.
Sinners are away from God, and being so, can neither be holy nor happy. But sinners may be converted. For sinners of mankind there is a covenant of grace, so their conversion is a possibility. The sinner is willing to be saved, but by whom? He has heard of Christ. Yes, and he had heard of the Law before he was convinced by means of it; but now it has taken its real, effectual hold upon him. And now the Gospel is to him very much what the Law was to him. He has found the Law, and he has heard by the hearing of the ear, from his fellow-men, from Apostles and prophets, of a Saviour. But the same Spirit who has taught him his sin and misery instructs him in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these three things he is called to attend to: the God of the covenant, the provisions of the covenant, and the Mediator of the covenant.
IV.
"Sinners shall be converted unto Thee." It is therefore not sufficient that a conversion be really a conversion; it must be a conversion unto God. The covenant of grace is made with covenant-breakers. (1) It contains this: "I will write My law in their hearts." It is implied that the law is not there, that it needs to be there, and that neither you nor any creature for you can write it there. (2) This is a covenant with ignorant creatures who have not the knowledge of God. (3) The covenant contains this: "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." God’s purpose to forgive is a definite purpose. His forgivingness belongs to His nature, and is infinite. Refusal to take hold of this covenant takes either of these two forms: unwillingness to be saved by Christ or disbelief that He will save you.
V.
The conversion of a sinner is a matter in which the gracious God takes the deepest interest. The voice of conscience is very feeble in fallen man, and the voice of depravity very loud and imperious, and it silences it. But while sinners are not objects of compassion to themselves, they are objects of compassion to God. The conversion of sinners is not accomplished by mere moral suasion; it is of Divine power, yet not so of Divine power as that there is not the use of moral suasion—of counsels, motives, and means such as may operate upon rational creatures. Therefore sinners who desire conversion should be very attentive to God’s appointed means of grace.
J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 310 (five sermons).
References: Psa 51:13-15.—R. S. Candlish, Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 408. Psa 51:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 713; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 98; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 94.
Psa 51:16-17
These words, though none were ever spoken in the world that could be so little intended to perplex any worshipping Israelite, nevertheless must have strangely clashed with some of his most cherished and familiar thoughts. "Thou delightest not in burnt-offering." Why then was it said that the Lord smelled a sweet savour when Noah brought forth the clean beasts after the Flood? And supposing that, in some sense, the heart was a better offering than the bullock or goat, must it not, according to all symbols and analogies, be a whole heart in order to be accepted?
I. The fiftieth Psalm exhibits the chosen race as summoned to answer for itself before its Divine King. It is assumed that the nation is holy, and that God has claimed it as holy by taking it into covenant with Himself. The covenant cannot be separated from sacrifice. This principle was embodied in the institution of the Passover; every part of the service testified that the Israelites were a dedicated, devoted, sacrificed nation. The animal was a dead offering; they were a living offering. The great trial or judgment then which the Lord of the land is making of His subjects has this issue: Have they acted as if this were their state, as if they were dedicated, sacrificed creatures? They had fancied Him altogether such a one as themselves, One who could be bribed as they were bribed. Here indeed was a wonderful exposition of that falsehood which was leading the Israelite astray in all the periods of his history. He supposed that God’s toleration of his sins was to be purchased, and that sacrifice was the purchase-money.
II. No one could have taught his countrymen these lessons who had not learned that he needed to be judged and reformed; that he could not judge and reform himself; that the Searcher of hearts, the King of his land, was doing that work for him; that to submit frankly and freely to that process was the man’s part of the covenant, was the sacrifice which God, above all others, demanded of him. And this is the link between the fiftieth and the fifty-first Psalms.
III. Here was the explanation of the strange fact that a broken heart was better than a whole one; that the maimed offering might be presented by the Israelite, who was to bring only of the firstlings of his flock. The sacrifice was a more complete, a more entire, one than David had ever yet presented. The discovery that he had nothing to present, that he was poor and worthless, was the discovery that he belonged wholly to God, that he was His, and that his sin had consisted in withdrawing from his allegiance, in choosing another condition than his true and actual one.
F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 86.
References: Psa 51:16, Psa 51:17.—W. M. Punshon, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 283, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 117; C. Kingsley, Sermons for the Times, p. 292. Psa 51:16-19.—R. S. Candlish, Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 422.
Psa 51:17
The difference between good and bad men in Holy Scripture may be said to consist in this: whether they have or have not "a broken and a contrite spirit;" the degrees of their acceptance with God seem to depend on this; and in consequence we! shall find in those who are most of all approved some expression that implies this temper. A broken and contrite heart alone can embrace Christ crucified; and he who is most diligent in works of evangelical righteousness will be most contrite, and therefore will most of all have faith in Christ crucified.
I. All good works which God has prepared for us to walk in bring us to know God, and to know ourselves, and consequently to a broken spirit. And the effect of a careless, thoughtless, sinful life, and indeed of every sin, is to close the eyes, so that we cannot see, and the ears, that we cannot hear.
II. It is evident that we have all great reason to fear lest God should take from us His most Holy Spirit, who dwells with the contrite. Nothing can make the heart contrite but the Holy Spirit of God. It is certain that the Holy Spirit will depart from those who reject Him; that it is He who darkens the eyes, and shuts up the ears, and hardens the heart. The very ease and indifference with which we are apt to hear, and see, and act affords us a reasonable cause for apprehension. Is not our very unconcern enough to concern us? "Blessed is he," we are told, "who feareth always."
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. vii., p. 250 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Christmas to Epiphany, p. 357).
Notice one or two of those accepted sacrifices which from time to time have been set up in our world, and which the Holy Spirit has recorded for our humiliation, our comfort, and our happiness.
I. The repentance of David was the repentance of a fallen child of God. If we can say that David’s confession was the cause of his forgiveness, in a truer sense we may say David’s forgiveness was the cause of his repentance. It was none other than the fountain of God’s forgiving love that opened the fountain of a penitent spirit.
II. The case of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, was as dissimilar to that of David as it is possible for the manifestation of the same grace to be in two places. Manasseh was a dissolute, godless man for more than half the years of his life. David was aroused by a voice, Manasseh by an iron chain. Out of the depths he cried to God. Sorrow made him acquainted with himself; prayer made him acquainted with God.
III. The history of the Ninevites stands out with this signalising mark, that our Lord Himself adduced it as the very standard of true repentance, by which others at the last great day shall be measured and condemned. The distinguishing feature in their repentance was that it was national.
IV. Mary was saved at Jesus’ feet, Peter by a look from Jesus’ eye. With each God deals separately—as He pleases, and as each requires. But in all sin is the parent of the sorrow, sorrow is the parent of the joy, and joy is the parent of holiness. Grace and the God of grace are the same yesterday, today, and for ever, "all in all."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 181.
Notice:—
I. The broken heart. This is the most emphatic term that can be employed for setting forth intense sorrow. (1) A broken heart is one which renounces all idea of merit and seeks alone for mercy. (2) A broken heart will always feel its sins to be peculiarly its own. (3) A third accompaniment of a broken heart, and one never wanting, is this: a full confession of sin. When the broken heart makes confession, it does so in the plainest language possible. (4) A broken heart mourns most over the Godward aspect of sin. This is a very crucial test. David says, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." (5) A broken heart will never cavil with God about the deserved punishment. (6) A broken heart will mourn its general depravity. (7) A broken heart will always be as anxious for purity as for pardon. It cries not only, "Blot out my transgressions," but "Create in me a clean heart." (8) A broken heart is not a despairing heart. A broken heart does not doubt God’s power to cleanse, nor does it call in question God’s willingness to forgive. A despairing heart knows nothing about this. (9) A broken heart is an agonised heart.
II. A broken heart is a heart that God will never despise. We have His royal word for it. (1) Christ will never despise it, and that for a very good reason. He has suffered from it Himself. (2) He will not despise it because He broke thy heart. It would be despising His own handiwork were He to reject a contrite spirit.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1036.
References: Psa 51:17.—E. Garbett, The Soul’s Life, p. no; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 3rd series, p. 99; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 40; R. M. McCheyne, Memoir and Remains, p. 393.
Psalm 51
David, in the opening of this Psalm, appeals for mercy. No penitent man ever approached God on the side of His justice. The Pharisee, indeed, appeals to righteousness; but the publican appeals for mercy.
I. "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be. washed and cleansed. There must be not merely a change of state, but a change of nature. David’s words all come, as it were, from the centre of his being. There is no trifling with the surface here.
II. "For I acknowledge my transgressions." Confession is a necessary basis of forgiveness. Confession is in reality a multitudinous act; it is many acts in one; it is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, and right action.
III. In the third verse the Psalmist uses an extraordinary expression, viz., "My sin is ever before me." The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. It is emphatically and exclusively his own.
IV. "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned," etc. The idea is that all sin is against. God. Whoever sins against man sins against God. Then how sacred are all human relations. Every blow struck against humanity is a blow struck against God.
V. Up to the twelfth verse the Psalmist confines his intercessions to subjects which relate immediately to his own spiritual condition; but in ver. 13 he includes others with himself: "Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways." Mark the connection between true personal holiness and true worldwide benevolence. This is the secret of all evangelistic movement. The work begins in personal consecration. Ver. 17 shows that all sacrifice is worthless which is not vitalised by the moral element.
Parker, Wednesday Evenings at Cavendish Chapel, p. 1.
References: Psa 51:18.—A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 328. Psalm 51—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 216; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 84; F. Thluck, Hours of Devotion, p. 25.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain The confession of blood-guiltiness (nationally of the blood of…
The confession of blood-guiltiness (nationally of the blood of Christ; under which they yet find salvation).
To the chief musician, a psalm of David: when Nathan the prophet had come to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
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The fifty-first psalm is a spiritual enigma. Bishop Horsley; nearly a century ago; rightly discerned it to be "the penitential confession of the converted Jews." He adds: "The subject-matter of this psalm can have no reference to the Hebrew title prefixed thereto; because David, polluted with adultery and murder, could not say; Against Thee only have I sinned; and because the prayer for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem would have been an inappropriate petition in the days of David. The application of the psalm to restored; repentant Israel, is self-evident. I view this fifty-first psalm as a precomposed form of penitential prayer, afore designed and prepared by Infinite Wisdom for the use of penitent and believing Israel; in the perilous times of the last days."*
{*Quoted from Coleman’s "Revision of the Book of Psalms," p. 130.}
While we may safely accept this prophetical view, agreeing, as it does; with the whole character and scope of the book; and suiting perfectly the place in which we find it, the negative side as to the rejection of the Hebrew title is by no means so clear; and certainly perilous in the adoption of a principle which makes a difficulty of this kind a reason for correction of the text of Scripture. Others have, viewing the psalm as really a psalm of David, preferred to suppose the last two verses a "later; perhaps liturgical, addition."* But what is the value of such speculations as to unnamed authors? It will be said that there is not the same assuredness as to the titles of the psalms that there is as to the psalms themselves; and that the Septuagint has many differences.** Yet we have found so far the Hebrew titles to recommend themselves by their general suitability; sometimes to have most unique significance, as in that to the twenty-second. Here it is true that there is difficulty in tracing the connection between David’s sin with Bathsheba and the prophetic application to Israel in the latter days. Nor does it seem as if there were or could be typical meaning in this awful blot upon the history of the king. But there may be connection of another nature; and there seems no difficulty as to the details of the history, though here "blood-guiltiness" be the only specified sin. The fourth verse, which is objected; really makes none; and as to the closing prayer, can we undertake to say what shall be the limit of a prophet’s vision in predicting the future?
{*See Moll, in Lange.
**Here, however, it agrees with the Hebrew.}
The psalm is enigmatical in more ways than this; nay; it is full of deep meanings which are little more than hinted at. When we consider its latter-day application, this is not so strange. It is in the meanwhile a mystery for faith; but with Christ revealed to us, the key of all mysteries is in our hand.
The psalm is throughout a prayer, -the utterance of a human voice, as that of the last psalm is largely a divine. It answers the challenge there with the confession of sin; but the sin confessed here does not appear a direct answer to the charge before. There are, however, other links of connection between the two psalms: "The same depreciation of the external sacrifice," says Delitzsch, "that is expressed in Psa 50:1-23 finds utterance in Psa 51:1-19; which supplements the former; according as it extends the spiritualizing of the sacrifice to the offering for sin." But this spiritualizing needs careful consideration, and to be governed by the inspired canon of Psa 40:7, which we have already considered; "In the volume of the book it is written of Me." Nor can we admit Cheyne’s assertion that the psalmist holds a different theory of sacrifice from the writer of Psa 1:1-6. In such ways as these, which quite take Scripture from us, how many are following each other, according to the moment’s whim; today! But let us study the psalm.
1. The psalmist begins with the expression of deep conviction, which is not without the accompaniment of a faith that discerns in God Himself that which answers to the need of which the soul has been made conscious. He supplicates grace from Him with whom is the fountain of grace; abundance of compassions and loving-kindness: that He should act therefore in conformity with His own nature and blot out his revoltings. He calls these by a strong name, which stamps the outward acts with their true character as emanating from a spirit of rebellion, -not defective obedience, but revolt. He prays for complete removal of all this as defilement, -to be thoroughly washed from his perversity, and cleansed from his sin. He represents how conscious he is of it: his sin is always before his eyes. Experience of it has brought him where his rebellious spirit has been humbled to realize every word of God as righteous, and the spirit which would judge even man’s almighty Maker is humbled and broken down before Him.
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned" is never true in an absolute way of any sin that man can commit. We are too closely united together in the world for this to be possible. If I have another god than Jehovah; does this hurt no one but myself? If I degrade Him by an idol, or take His Name in vain, is there no reflex influence of such acts upon others around me? Who that was truly convicted of sin could say this or believe it? and how above all the man who has need to plead for deliverance from the guilt of blood-shedding!
On the other hand, as Delitzsch well says; "Every relation in which man stands to his fellow-men; and to created things in general, is but the manifest form of his fundamental relationship to God:" at every point at which we touch His creatures; we touch God Himself; every blow struck at them is struck at Him, just as obedience to Him necessitates harmonious relationship to all His creatures. The guilt of every sin is fundamentally the same, revolt against God: this is; in a true sense; the only sin.
2. In the next four verses, we find the extent and character of the salvation needed. Here the psalmist begins with the corruption of origin; as to which Job asks the solemn question, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" This is often pleaded as in large measure an excuse; as we well know; though an awakened conscience cannot satisfy itself with this. Here it comes in to show how great is the salvation needed. Just as in Romans the apostle begins with personal sins and judgment in view of these, not of the fall of Adam; but afterwards; where he enters upon the subject of the completeness of the remedy, then he begins with Adam and the corruption of our nature (Rom 5:12; sq.). So here we shall find it: "Behold," says David, "in perversity was I born," -with a moral twist "and in sin did my mother conceive me" -not inside Paradise, but outside. Thus sin is a leprosy, a communicable disease; -so to speak, in the blood; and needing a remedy of corresponding energy to meet it. God turns it to corresponding blessing. The "inward parts" are the reins, the kidneys; -hidden in the centre of the body and enveloped in fat, -the very type of excretory organs; for this is their whole function. In them we have going on continually the purification of the blood from what; if retained, would destroy life. Their special relation is to the processes of nutrition and disassimilation; and thus their work presents to us the plainest analogy to that work of moral discrimination and rejection of the evil which goes on under the oversight of the conscience in the quiet chambers of meditation within the inner man. There God desires "truth" or steadfast fidelity; and in the hidden part makes us to know "wisdom" (chokhma), the word used being one "applied to the discrimination of good and evil" (Wilson).
Thus we find how in God’s sovereignty over all things, He turns this close and necessary acquaintance with evil in the innermost recesses of our being into an exercising of our spiritual senses to discern and separate it from that which is of God and good (Heb 5:14). Would that we knew better this "exercise" which would make us adepts in this work of spiritual discrimination! Here the new nature begins to manifest itself in the quickening of the conscience as the heart is turned to God. Blessed sight, the tender sensitiveness of one new born, thus searched out and exercised, even though yet the gospel be not known so as to give rest before God! and that is the condition here.
But we come now to the gospel, although in that veiled way in which the Old Testament of necessity so largely spoke, and still, as all through this psalm, in the language of prayer for the blessing; not yet as realizing it. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Here nothing is mentioned that had real power to cleanse, even in the Mosaic ritual! The hyssop was of course only that by which the sprinkling that really cleansed was effected. It was used to sprinkle the passover blood upon the doorposts (Exo 12:22). It was that which, along with cedar and scarlet, was dipped with the living bird in the blood of its fellow, which then was sprinkled upon the leper; to cleanse him (Lev 14:6; Lev 7:1-38). It was used in the case of one defiled with the dead to sprinkle the water of purification upon him (Num 19:18). There is no other use of hyssop given us in the Old Testament; and to one of these it must refer.
We can have little difficulty in deciding which is here to be understood. The passover is out of the question. Besides its relation to one special feast, which would hardly make it appropriate to an individual case like this, the blood of the paschal lamb was not sprinkled upon the person; but on the door-posts of the houses within which the feast was being kept. Of the two other occasions, the sprinkling upon the leper might seem to be most appropriate to the case of one so deeply affected with sin; and in a state so naturally incurable; as the fifth verse has shown. In the case of the leper; however, the hyssop has no distinct relation to the cleansing: it is simply dipped in the blood, along with the cedar and scarlet and the living bird, and then it is said only that "he" -the priest -"shall sprinkle." On the contrary, in the ordinance of the red heifer (Num 19:1-22) the hyssop comes again, as at the passover; into unmistakable prominence as the means of sprinkling the blood; while, in contrast with the passover; this is sprinkled upon the person; to cleanse him. Thus the reference in the psalm would naturally be to this. Thus defilement with the dead is expressly what is before us here; while the deliverance sought from blood-guiltiness (in the fourteenth verse) shows us how far beyond ordinary defilement the case here goes. The finger; as it were; points in a certain direction to show us what is in question, but there is still an enigma to be solved: how can the law of the red heifer apply? was it ever ordained for cleansing from. the guilt of blood-shedding? The only answer that can be given is necessarily in the negative.
The truth is that the law necessarily fails to meet the case. No sacrifice was, or could be, ordained to put away the guilt of murder.* The soul was cast for this on the sovereign mercy of God alone. The types here, as just now said; might point in a certain direction, but that was all. The one supreme Sacrifice, to be offered by Him of whom it was all "written in the volume of the book;" alone answers all questions; sets the conscience at rest; purging the soul "to serve the living and true God." Hence the failure of all typical sacrifices in such a case as this is full of instruction and blessing. The sinner here was brought face to face and left alone with God; the types as fingers pointing to that which would do what they could not do -expressly disclaiming virtue to be in them.
{*See the notes on the sin-offering, Lev 4:1-35.}
So the psalmist is beyond law here: it is from God and not from man must come the purging; and yet with a plain reference to the law also; which sends us to it for instruction. Thus viewed, the type of the red heifer, with its confessed incompetency to give us more than the shadow -"not the very image" -may yet help us to find the very image."
In this way another apparent failure must be carefully considered. The ordinance of the red heifer was for the restoration; simply, of a defiled person. It does not in any way speak of the first bringing of a soul to God. But the case here, as we are viewing it, is that of souls brought for the first time to God; and these two things -the salvation of a sinner and the restoration of a saint -are; of course; very different things: how are we to reconcile this difference? or what are we to learn by it?
As reinforcing the reference to the type, the fact of the sin in question being David’s sin is very significant and helpful. The very subject of the psalm then is, after all, the failure and restoration of a saint: for, spite of the enormity of his offence, no one would doubt David to have been this. The type referred to becomes therefore really in harmony with the theme of the psalm.
But does it not lead us away from the application we have made of it? If it apply to Israel in the last days and their confession of the awful murder of the Son of God. sent to them; is not this the time of their conversion to God and being brought into a new place of blessing, and not their restoration as saints to a state of blessing enjoyed before? How can "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation" be a suited prayer in their mouth?
Consider it again, and this inconsistency will disappear. For, while of that generation it will undoubtedly be true that they will be then for the first time brought to God; -theirs will be in every respect just the salvation of sinners; -yet; if we remember that this is Israel seeking the Lord; we shall realize that, as to the nation it is in fact a case of restoration. Thus the two things are not in this case contradictory to one another. As Israel’s sin, the rejection of their Messiah looks back to their national history.
Another harmony develops from this view of the type. The ordinance of the red heifer provided for the cleansing of one defiled with the dead; not a new offering, not the shedding of blood afresh, but recurrence to an offering before offered; -as far as we have any knowledge; once for all offered. How striking a correspondence is here between the type in question and Israel in the end of her long wilderness journey, cleansed by an offering long before offered! in fact; by that very death on its divine side, of which on its human side they were the responsible and guilty instruments! Thus we find in this application of the water of purification the same recognition of a lapse of time between the offering and its effect in cleansing as we find in the type of the day of atonement and its ordinance of the two goats (Lev 16:1-34, notes).
It is surely the voice of Israel, then, that is heard in the cry, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." The hyssop itself may speak of Christ as man in the lowest place. It is used thus in contrast with the cedar (1Ki 4:33) as the type of littleness; -"the hyssop that groweth out of the wall," -while, as with the shittah-tree (or acacia), it grows in the wilderness, as a "root out of a dry ground," -growing indeed in the clefts of the rock and the driest of places. If it be a caper; as Royle and Tristram agree; then, like the shittim-wood; it has the thorns of the curse upon it. Contrariwise, its name is perhaps derived from a word which means "to shine." One would expect that the hyssop in this connection should give us some memorials of the Lord: "purge me with hyssop; and I shall be clean." Then how blessed to be said by a poor sinner; and yet it is only confidence in God;s work being; as it must be; well done: "wash me; and I shall be whiter than snow."
Gospel this is, and he realizes it as such: "make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice." It is only prayer as yet however; but a divinely taught prayer surely. We too; if the gospel be "good news;" ought to have the joy of the gospel; and healthful; medicinal it is; even for crushed bones. "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
But we pass on to look more deeply at this inner work.
3. The third section, as we have learned to expect; leads us into the sanctuary; and naturally with this speaks of the sanctification needed for the presence of God. But in the first verse we are reminded that this roots itself in, and builds itself up by, the knowledge of complete acceptance. "Hide Thy face from my sins," he says; "and blot out all my perversities." He must have no cloud upon that glorious Face, into which he contemplates looking. For this is the life of holiness itself, the manifestation of God to the soul, the entrancing joy of which the apostle spoke: "whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God" (2Co 5:13). But this would be impossible if in that holy Presence a single stain of sin were discoverable. Here this thought is expressed only negatively and as prayer: but he knows well no spot must be found. The Christian finds it realized in positive "acceptance in the Beloved," all the value of Christ being accounted to him. Not even the thought of a "Face hidden" is worthy of this. The Face beams with radiant appreciation of Him in whom we are represented, and find unchanging, unchangeable perfection. No cloud can come over this sky, save as unbelief darkens it. The veil being rent that so long prevented it; now; says the apostle, "let us draw nigh."
"Let us draw nigh"! what, need of exhortation? Here is One to know whom is to have all things, -to be without whom is the "outer darkness" of hell! God, Creator, Preserver, Redeemer of men, -Light, Life, Love; -revealed in Christ; His love-gift to us, -opens to us the Sanctuary of His Presence. It is not merely possible to draw nigh; there where Moses could not, and seraphs veil their faces; but God has brought us in, -giving us an abiding-place in the Holiest of all; free right of citizenship in the New Jerusalem of God. Here it is lawful to covet and possess, as far as faith can penetrate, -God’s word being the inventory of all that which He has given us richly to enjoy; His Spirit in us "searching the deep things of God:" so that what "eye hath not seen; nor ear heard, nor hath it entered (naturally) into the heart of man," He "hath revealed unto us by His Spirit;" "that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." (1Co 2:1-16.) After all this, do we need exhortation to possess ourselves of it; or to draw near to Him who had drawn near to us?
What hinders us? What hinders any one of us? Nothing, let us speak it plainly, but lack of heart; and unbelief that goes with this, -goes before it, and springs from it as well. "The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver unto one that is learned; saying; Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed; and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying; Read this; I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned." (Isa 29:11; Isa 12:1-6.)
But we have got beyond our psalm. The psalmist realizes at least, as has been said, that God’s face -God Himself -is his one necessity; and that one sin discerned by the holy Eye would be impossible for Him to go on with. Does he not realize something of what the ashes of the sin-offering mean, by which just now he has been in reality asking to be purged? We, at least, know this well. But along with the need of sacrifice, there is need of an initial work also; which none but God can effect; -which needs nothing less than the power of the Creator: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me." And we have learned that we are "created in Christ Jesus unto good works; which God hath before prepared, that we should walk in them" (Eph 1:10). He does not speak formally of the new birth; nor was this clearly known until New Testament times; but he despairs of any effectual change by any effort of his own; he; like the apostle; with a groan of anguish turns from an impractical "body of death," to find a Deliverer outside himself altogether. To possess a "clean heart," for such as he has discovered himself to be; God must "create a creation;" and for the psalmist as for us, the light of heaven must be made to break out in self-revealing, God-revealing power; over the yeasty confusion of the barren and restless deep. O blessed and beauteous Light of heaven; though Thou showest us but the fury of the untamed swell of passion and unrest! Even so communion has begun, if fitfully, with God. The soul begins to side with Him, even against itself; and there, I suppose, a "clean heart" has begun. But a "steadfast [or fixed] spirit" goes beyond this, just in the removal of that fitfulness: the heart being at rest for communion as the calm lake mirrors heaven. But we miss here the Christian how of this: the need is felt, but the manner of accomplishment is not known.
The next verse shows the believer, while it shows also the conflict with doubt. He prays not to be cast away from the divine presence. He has known it; but knows not the conditions of its permanence. Many Christians do not know them today. So, too, he prays, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me"; and many would be in agony over this. There is no need to think of anything special to the king of Israel. To the whole work of God in the soul the Holy Spirit was always necessary; in every saint of every time. The Spirit of God as indwelling in the Christian; the Spirit of adoption by which we cry; Abba, Father, and the baptism of the Spirit by which the body of Christ is formed; -these are distinctive blessings of the dispensation to which we belong (Joh 14:16-17; Gal 4:1-6; Act 1:5; 1Co 12:13). The Spirit of God Himself could teach David such a prayer as this: for us it would be unbelief to utter it; for by the Spirit we are sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph 4:30).
But how do we value blessings so inestimable as these? The breathing after God Himself, so characteristic as it is of the Book of Psalms, may well put to shame the coldness of our hearts in view of it. Where are the souls that pant and long after the presence of God as do these men of another and darker time? We may not use some of their prayers, and can thank God we do not: yes; but do we breathe their longings? Or shall we give men to think that the increase of knowledge and the apprehension of grace chill the heart; and that the more abundantly God has shown us love; the less He is to be loved?
Again the psalmist cries: —
"Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and let a willing spirit sustain me." For heaviness of heart enfeebles both walk and work: the joy of the Lord gives strength and courage. We may not make light of emotion. Our care is to be that it be justified with knowledge and connected with practical result. "The fruit of the Spirit is love; joy, peace" (Gal 5:22); but then "long-suffering; gentleness; goodness, meekness; temperance;" follow after these and sustain them.
So too the practical result is promised here: "I will teach revolters Thy ways; and sinners shall return unto Thee." Israel in fact will lead the nations in obedience. Israel shall become Jezreel, "the seed of God." "And I will sow her to Me in the earth;" says the Lord God (Hos 2:23).
4. The theme of the second part of the previous psalm now comes up again; but from another side. The failure of the sacrifices is now proclaimed by the lips of man, the sinner who has found them fail in his own need, and realizes the divine meaning of this failure. The psalmist returns to the thought of his own sin, which he now names distinctly, and from the guilt of which God alone can be the deliverer. As the God of his salvation, his tongue shall sing of His righteousness. This seems too evangelic, if we take it in the Pauline sense of God’s righteousness revealed in the gospel, a note of which; however, we have heard in the twenty-second psalm. But to measure the depth of an inspired statement by the intelligence (real or supposed) of the writer, would be a folly that would really leave God out of His Word, and make the meaning of it often an impractical attainment for us. He has in the beginning of the psalm been pleading for mercy according to the known compassion of God, that is, in consistency with His own character. This then is already the "righteousness," of which when delivered he will sing; and thus the righteousness spoken of is as the God of his salvation. The cross is the full explanation of this, and that, as we have seen, is in the psalm also, though veiled under the type referred to in it. He then speaks again of the testimony which in fact restored Israel will render to His praise, when their dumb lips shall be opened.
Now comes the disclaiming of legal sacrifices. "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt-offering." In fact, as has been already said, none could be prescribed for sin like this, a thing which limits very much therefore the absoluteness of this disclaimer. Here the "sacrifices of God" could only be "a broken spirit!" Not as if this were the true antitype of the legal offerings, a supposition of which there has been given explicit denial in the words of Christ Himself by His Spirit in the fortieth psalm: "In the volume of the book it is written of ME." Nor can a broken spirit be the justification of God’s grace in salvation, though it may define the condition morally necessary to the sinner’s acceptance. And this is the only possible thought here. That would not be a broken spirit which could estimate itself as having atoning value in the sight of God. It is the very confession of sin and worthlessness which makes it possible for Him to come in in mercy; and in
this way indeed to come to God may have attaching to it all the certainty which the bringing of sacrifice ensured in those cases in which they were prescribed. In this comparison with the legal sacrifices, the failed creature taking his place must necessarily, with God, far outweigh the ritual service, and in fact permit God to come in in his behalf. He will act according to His heart, and we can trust His heart. The case is in His hand; and divine wisdom will be able to conserve divine righteousness in meeting so desperate a condition. Christ is the answer of wisdom as to this: and now it can indeed be said: "a broken and crushed heart" -so it literally reads -"O God, Thou wilt not despise."
5. In the last section, it is openly Zion’s cause that is pleaded: the place in which sovereign grace will act toward Israel, and therefore the place of God’s eternal rest. "Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: Thou shalt build the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar."
The cessation of animal sacrifices is not implied then in what has gone before; and according to Ezekiel they will be offered even in millennial days. (Eze 43:18-27, Eze 45:15-25.) If this is not according to our thoughts, we must always be ready to correct our thoughts by Scripture. The millennial has not the perfection of the eternal condition; and the senses will be again appealed to in a way that does not accord with the present dispensation of faith. Of this there are many examples; and there is no surer way of getting into confusion in our thoughts than by judging of what is suited to one dispensation by the analogies of another. The numerical structure seems here indeed to emphasize the confirmation of sacrifice, as before it did its failure; and both things are suited, each in its place. Their retention and revival are, no doubt, God’s witness to the world of His way of acceptance and blessing ever, at which unbelief has so largely scoffed. As the carcases of the enemies (Isa 66:1-24) in their doom before men’s eyes will be the open testimony to the judgment of hell for the ungodly, -of that Gehenna of which it has already furnished the illustrative images, -and as the city of God will be the perpetual witness of the joys of the blessed, -so it will be good in the Lord’s sight to have this commemorative witness of the way by which the joy of His favor can be realized or attained.
Thus these sacrifices will be now "sacrifices of righteousness," because offered with a true heart and with hands "washed in innocency," as David has elsewhere expressed it (Psa 26:6). And the whole tenor of these closing verses confirms the prophetic character of the psalm as the national confession which will be the necessary pre-requisite for national blessing. This also makes clear the connection with the previous psalm, which is certainly a divine challenge of the nation and of the thought that sacrifices without righteousness could be acceptable to God. The two psalms together give us the double controversy between Israel and the Lord, of which the second part of Isaiah (the second Isaiah of the rationalizing critics) treats at large -the controversy as to the law and as to Christ; of the Old Testament and of the New. One might imagine, from the way that these are presented here, that they would be questions which would be raised with restored Israel in this same order, and that here they have been in the presence of the true Joseph, who has manifested Himself to His brethren; but it may be also that the order is only grounded on the history, and not itself to be thud fulfilled in the history of the future.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Psa 51:1 - Psa 51:2.
Psalms
DAVID’S CRY FOR PARDON
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Psa 51:1 - Psa 51:2.
A whole year had elapsed between David’s crime and David’s penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, ‘My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy on me.’ Then came Nathan with his apologue, and with that dark threatening that ‘the sword should never depart from his house,’ the fulfilment of which became a well-head of sorrow to the king for the rest of his days, and gave a yet deeper poignancy of anguish to the crime of his spoiled favourite Absalom. The stern words had their effect. The frost that had bound his soul melted all away, and he confessed his sin, and was forgiven then and there. ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ is the confession as recorded in the historical books; and, says Nathan, ‘The Lord hath made to pass from thee the iniquity of thy sin.’ Immediately, as would appear from the narrative, that very same day, the child of Bathsheba and David was smitten with fatal disease, and died in a week. And it is after all these events-the threatening, the penitence, the pardon, the punishment-that he comes to God, who had so freely forgiven, and likewise so sorely smitten him, and wails out these prayers: ‘Blot out my transgressions, wash me from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.’
One almost shrinks from taking as the text of a sermon words like these, in which a broken and contrite spirit groans for deliverance, and which are, besides, hallowed by the thought of the thousands who have since found them the best expression of their sacredest emotions. But I would fain try not to lose the feeling that breathes through the words, while seeking for the thoughts which are in them, and hope that the light which they throw upon the solemn subjects of guilt and forgiveness may not be for any of us a mere cold light.
I. Looking then at this triad of petitions, they teach us first how David thought of his sin.
You will observe the reiteration of the same earnest cry in all these clauses, and if you glance over the remainder of this psalm, you will find that he asks for the gifts of God’s Spirit, with a similar threefold repetition. Now this characteristic of the whole psalm is worth notice in the outset. It is not a mere piece of Hebrew parallelism. The requirements of poetical form but partially explain it. It is much more the earnestness of a soul that cannot be content with once asking for the blessings and then passing on, but dwells upon them with repeated supplication, not because it thinks that it shall be heard for its ‘much speaking,’ but because it longs for them so eagerly.
And besides that, though the three clauses do express the same general idea, they express it under various modifications, and must be all taken together before we get the whole of the Psalmist’s thought of sin.
Notice again that he speaks of his evil as ‘transgressions’ and as ‘sin,’ first using the plural and then the singular. He regards it first as being broken up into a multitude of isolated acts, and then as being all gathered together into one knot, as it were, so that it is one thing. In one aspect it is ‘my transgressions’-’that thing that I did about Uriah, that thing that I did about Bathsheba, those other things that these dragged after them.’ One by one the acts of wrongdoing pass before him. But he does not stop there. They are not merely a number of deeds, but they have, deep down below, a common root from which they all came-a centre in which they all inhere. And so he says, not only ‘Blot out my transgressions,’ but ‘Wash me from mine iniquity.’ He does not merely generalise, but he sees and he feels what you and I have to feel, if we judge rightly of our evil actions, that we cannot take them only in their plurality as so many separate deeds, but that we must recognise them as coming from a common source, and we must lament before God not only our ‘sins’ but our ‘sin’-not only the outward acts of transgression, but that alienation of heart from which they all come; not only sin in its manifold manifestations as it comes out in the life, but in its inward roots as it coils round our hearts. You are not to confess acts alone, but let your contrition embrace the principle from which they come.
Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David’s mind. It is my transgression, it is mine iniquity, and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-called wise thinkers to-day: ‘I was tempted, and I could not help it.’ He does not talk about ‘circumstances,’ and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to himself. ‘It was I did it. True, I was tempted, but it was my soul that made the occasion a temptation. True, the circumstances led me astray, but they would not have led me astray if I had been right, and where as well as what I ought to be.’ It is a solemn moment when that thought first rises in its revealing power to throw light into the dark places of our souls. But it is likewise a blessed moment, and without it we are scarcely aware of ourselves. Conscience quickens consciousness. The sense of transgression is the first thing that gives to many a man the full sense of his own individuality. There is nothing that makes us feel how awful and incommunicable is that mysterious personality by which every one of us lives alone after all companionship, so much as the contemplation of our relations to God’s law. ‘Every man shall bear his own burden.’ ‘Circumstances,’ yes; ‘bodily organisation,’ yes; ‘temperament,’ yes; ‘the maxims of society,’ ‘the conventionalities of the time,’ yes,-all these things have something to do with shaping our single deeds and with influencing our character; but after we have made all allowances for these influences which affect me, let us ask the philosophers who bring them forward as diminishing or perhaps annihilating responsibility, ‘And what about that me which these things influence?’ After all, let me remember that the deed is mine, and that every one of us shall, as Paul puts it, give account of himself unto God.
Passing from that, let me point for one moment to another set of ideas that are involved in these petitions. The three words which the Psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. ‘Transgression’ is not the same as ‘iniquity,’ and ‘iniquity’ is not the same as ‘sin.’ They are not aimless, useless synonyms, but they have each a separate thought in them. The word rendered ‘transgression’ literally means rebellion, a breaking away from and setting oneself against lawful authority. That translated ‘iniquity’ literally means that which is twisted, bent. The word in the original for ‘sin’ literally means missing a mark, an aim. And this threefold view of sin is no discovery of David’s, but is the lesson which the whole Old Testament system had laboured to print deep on the national consciousness. That lesson, taught by law and ceremonial, by denunciation and remonstrance, by chastisement and deliverance, the penitent king has learned. To all men’s wrongdoings these descriptions apply, but most of all to his. Sin is ever, and his sin especially is, rebellion, the deflection of the life from the straight line which God’s law draws so clearly and firmly, and hence a missing the aim.
Think how profound and living is the consciousness of sin which lies in calling it rebellion. It is not merely, then, that we go against some abstract propriety, or break some impersonal law of nature when we do wrong, but that we rebel against a rightful Sovereign. In a special sense this was true of the Jew, whose nation stood under the government of a divine king, so that sin was treason, and breaches of the law acts of rebellion against God. But it is as true of us all. Our theory of morals will be miserably defective, and our practice will be still more defective, unless we have learned that morality is but the garment of religion, that the definition of virtue is obedience to God, and that the true sin in sin is not the yielding to impulses that belong to our nature, but the assertion in the act of yielding, of our independence of God and of our opposition to His will. And all this has application to David’s sin. He was God’s viceroy and representative, and he sets to his people the example of revolt, and lifts the standard of rebellion. It is as if the ruler of a province declared war against the central authority of which he was the creature, and used against it the very magazines and weapons with which it had intrusted him. He had rebelled, and in an eminent degree, as Nathan said to him, given to the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme.
Not less profound and suggestive is that other name for sin, that which is twisted, or bent, mine ‘iniquity.’ It is the same metaphor which lies in our own word ‘wrong,’ that which is wrung or warped from the straight line of right. To that line, drawn by God’s law, our lives should run parallel, bending neither to the right hand nor to the left. But instead of the firm directness of such a line, our lives show wavering deformity, and are like the tremulous strokes in a child’s copy-book. David had the pattern before him, and by its side his unsteady purpose, his passionate lust, had traced this wretched scrawl. The path on which he should have trodden was a straight course to God, unbending like one of these conquering Roman roads, that will turn aside for neither mountain nor ravine, nor stream nor bog. If it had been thus straight, it would have reached its goal. Journeying on that way of holiness, he would have found, and we shall find, that on it no ravenous beast shall meet us, but with songs and everlasting joy upon their lips the happy pilgrims draw ever nearer to God, obtaining joy and gladness in all the march, until at last ‘sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ But instead of this he had made for himself a crooked path, and had lost his road and his peace in the mazes of wandering ways. ‘The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to come to the city.’
Another very solemn and terrible thought of what sin is, lies in that final word for it, which means ‘missing an aim.’ How strikingly that puts a truth which siren voices are constantly trying to sing us out of believing! Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. And that for two reasons, because, first, God has made us for Himself, and to take anything besides for our life’s end or our heart’s portion is to divert ourselves from our true destiny; and because, second, that being so, every attempt to win satisfaction or delight by such a course is and must be a failure. Sin misses the aim if we think of our proper destination. Sin misses its own aim of happiness. A man never gets what he hoped for by doing wrong, or, if he seem to do so, he gets something more that spoils it all. He pursues after the fleeing form that seems so fair, and when he reaches her side, and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the tempter, a hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him. The siren voices sing to you from the smiling island, and their white arms and golden harps and the flowery grass draw you from the wet boat and the weary oar; but when a man lands he sees the fair form end in a slimy fish, and she slays him and gnaws his bones. ‘He knows not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ Yes! every sin is a mistake, and the epitaph for the sinner is ‘Thou fool!’
II. These petitions also show us, in the second place, How David thinks of forgiveness.
As the words for sin expressed a threefold view of the burden from which the Psalmist seeks deliverance, so the triple prayer, in like manner, sets forth that blessing under three aspects. It is not merely pardon for which he asks. He is making no sharp dogmatic distinction between forgiveness and cleansing.
The two things run into each other in his prayer, as they do, thank God! in our own experience, the one being inseparable, in fact, from the other. It is absolute deliverance from the power of sin, in all forms of that power, whether as guilt or as habit, for which he cries so piteously; and his accumulative petitions are so exhaustive, not because he is coldly examining his sin, but because he is intensely feeling the manifold burden of his great evil.
That first petition conceives of the divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. There is a special significance in the use of the word here, because it is also employed in the description of the Levitical ceremonial of the ordeal, where a curse was written on a scroll and blotted out by the priest. But apart from that the metaphor is a natural and suggestive one. Our sin stands written against us. The long gloomy indictment has been penned by our own hands. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. We have to spread the writing before God, and ask Him to remove the stained characters from its surface, that once was fair and unsoiled.
Ah, brethren! some people tell us that the past is irrevocable, that the thing once done can never be undone, that the life’s diary written by our own hands can never be cancelled. The melancholy theory of some thinkers and teachers is summed up in the words, infinitely sad and despairing when so used, ‘What I have written I have written.’ Thank God! we know better than that. We know who blots out the handwriting ‘that is against us, nailing it to His Cross.’ We know that of God’s great mercy our future may ‘copy fair our past,’ and the past may be all obliterated and removed. And as sometimes you will find in an old monkish library the fair vellum that once bore lascivious stories of ancient heathens and pagan deities turned into the manuscript in which a saint has penned his Contemplations, an Augustine his Confessions, or a Jerome his Translations, so our souls may become palimpsests. The old wicked heathen characters that we have traced there may be blotted out, and covered over by the writing of that divine Spirit who has said, ‘I will put My laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.’ As you run your pen through the finished pages of your last year’s diaries, as you seal them up and pack them away, and begin a new page in a clean book on the first of January, so it is possible for every one of us to do with our lives. Notwithstanding all the influence of habit, notwithstanding all the obstinacy of long-indulged modes of thought and action, notwithstanding all the depressing effect of frequent attempts and frequent failures, we may break ourselves off from all that is sinful in our past lives, and begin afresh, saying, ‘God helping me! I will write another sort of biography for myself for the days that are to come.’
We cannot erase these sad records from our past. The ink is indelible; and besides all that we have visibly written in these terrible autobiographies of ours, there is much that has sunk into the page, there is many a ‘secret fault,’ the record of which will need the fire of that last day to make it legible, Alas for those who learn the black story of their own lives for the first time then! Learn it now, my brother! and learn likewise that Christ can wipe it all clean off the page, clean out of your nature, clean out of God’s book. Cry to Him, with the Psalmist, ‘Blot out my transgressions!’ and He will calm and bless you with the ancient answer, ‘I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.’
Then there is another idea in the second of these prayers for forgiveness: ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.’ That phrase does not need any explanation, except that the word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. David, then, here uses the familiar symbol of a robe, to express the ‘habit’ of the soul, or, as we say, the character. That robe is all splashed and stained. He cries to God to make it a robe of righteousness and a garment of purity.
And mark that he thinks the method by which this will be accomplished is a protracted and probably a painful one. He is not praying for a mere declaration of pardon, he is not asking only for the one complete, instantaneous act of forgiveness, but he is asking for a process of purifying which will be long and hard. ‘I am ready,’ says he, in effect, ‘to submit to any sort of discipline, if only I may be clean. Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, rub me with smarting soap and caustic nitre-do anything, anything with me, if only those foul spots melt away from the texture of my soul!’ A solemn prayer, my brethren! if we pray it aright, which will be answered by many a sharp application of God’s Spirit, by many a sorrow, by much very painful work, both within our own souls and in our outward lives, but which will be fulfilled at last in our being clothed like our Lord, in garments which shine as the light.
We know, dear brethren! who has said, ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me white raiment, that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear.’ And we know well who were the great company before the throne of God, that had ‘washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.’
The deliverance from sin is still further expressed by that third supplication, ‘Cleanse me from my sin.’ That is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial cleanness-the cessation of ceremonial pollution, and for the other priestly act of making, as well as declaring, clean from the stains of leprosy. And with allusion to both of these uses, the Psalmist employs it here. That is to say, he thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted past record which he has written, not only as a garment spotted by the flesh which his spirit wears, but he thinks of it too as inhering in himself, as a leprosy and disease of his own personal nature. He thinks of it as being, like that, incurable, fatal, twin sister to and precursor of death; and he thinks of it as capable of being cleansed only by a sacerdotal act, only by the great High Priest and by His finger being laid upon it. And we know who it was that-when the leper, whom no man in Israel was allowed to touch on pain of uncleanness, came to His feet-put out His hand in triumphant consciousness of power, and touched him, and said, ‘I will! be thou clean.’ Let this be thy prayer, ‘Cleanse me from my sin’; and Christ will answer, ‘Thy leprosy hath departed from thee.’
III. These petitions likewise show us whence the Psalmist draws his confidence for such a prayer.
‘According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.’ His whole hope rests upon God’s own character, as revealed in the endless continuance of His acts of love. He knows the number and the greatness of his sins, and the very depth of his consciousness of sin helps him to a corresponding greatness in his apprehension of God’s mercy. As he says in another of his psalms, ‘Innumerable evils have compassed me about; they are more than the hairs of my head. . . . Many, O Lord my God! are Thy wonderful works. . . . They are more than can be numbered.’ This is the blessedness of all true penitence, that the more profoundly it feels its own sore need and great sinfulness, in that very proportion does it recognise the yet greater mercy and all-sufficient grace of our loving God, and from the lowest depths beholds the stars in the sky, which they who dwell amid the surface-brightness of the noonday cannot discern.
God’s own revealed character, His faithfulness and persistency, notwithstanding all our sins, in that mode of dealing with men which has blessed all generations with His tender mercies-these were David’s pleas. And for us who have the perfect love of God perfectly expressed in His Son, that same plea is incalculably strengthened, for we can say, ‘According to Thy tender mercy in Thy dear Son, for the sake of Christ, blot out my transgressions.’ Is the depth of our desire, and is the firmness of our confidence, proportioned to the increased clearness of our knowledge of the love of our God? Does the Cross of Christ lead us to as trustful a penitence as David had, to whom meditation on God’s providences and the shadows of the ancient covenant were chiefest teachers of the multitude of His tender mercies?
Remember further that a comparison of the narrative in the historical books seems to show, as I said, that this psalm followed Nathan’s declaration of the divine forgiveness, and that therefore these petitions of our text are the echo and response to that declaration.
Thus we see that the revelation of God’s love precedes, and is the cause of, the truest penitence; that our prayer for forgiveness is properly the appropriating, or the effort to appropriate, the divine promise of forgiveness; and that the assurance of pardon, so far from making a man think lightly of his sin, is the thing that drives it home to his conscience, and first of all teaches him what it really is. As long as you are tortured with thoughts of a possible hell because of guilt, as long as you are troubled by the contemplation of consequences affecting your happiness as ensuing upon your wrongdoing, so long there is a foreign and disturbing element in even your deepest and truest penitence. But when you know that God has forgiven-when you come to see the ‘multitude of Thy tender mercies,’ when the fear of punishment has passed out of your apprehension, then you are left with a heart at leisure from dread, to look the fact and not the consequences in the face, and to think of the moral nature, and not of the personal results, of your sin. And so one of the old prophets, with profound truth, says, ‘Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy sin, when I am pacified towards thee for all thou hast done.’
Dear friends! the wheels of God’s great mill may grind us small, without our coming to know or to hate our sin. About His chastisements, about the revelation of His wrath, that old saying is true to a great extent: ‘If you bray a fool in a mortar, his folly will not depart from him.’ You may smite a man down, crush him, make his bones to creep with the preaching of vengeance and of hell, and the result of it will often be, if it be anything at all, what it was in the case of that poor wretched Judas, who, because he only saw wrath, flung himself into despair, and was lost, not because he had betrayed Christ, but because he believed that there was no forgiveness for the man that had betrayed.
But Love comes, and ‘Love is Lord of all.’ God’s assurance, ‘I have forgiven,’ the assurance that we do not need to plead with Him, to bribe Him, to buy pardon by tears and amendment, but that it is already provided for us-the blessed vision of an all-mighty love treasured in a dying Saviour, the proclamation ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them’-Oh! these are the powers that break, or rather that melt, our hearts; these are the keen weapons that wound to heal our hearts; these are the teachers that teach a ‘godly sorrow that needeth not to be repented of.’ Think of all the patient, pitying mercy of our Father, with which He has lingered about our lives, and softly knocked at the door of our hearts! Think of that unspeakable gift in which are wrapped up all His tender mercies-the gift of Christ who died for us all! Let it smite upon your heart with a rebuke mightier than all the thunders of law or terrors of judgment. Let it unveil for you not only the depths of the love of God, but the darkness of your own selfish rebellion from Him. Measure your crooked lives by the perfect rightness of Christ’s. Learn how you have missed the aim which He reached, who could say, ‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God!’ And let that same infinite love that teaches sin announce frank forgiveness and prophesy perfect purity. Then, with heart fixed upon Christ’s Cross, let your cry for pardon be the echo of the most sure promise of pardon which sounds from His dying lips; and as you gaze on Him who died that we might be freed from all iniquity, ask Him to blot out your transgressions, to wash you throughly from your iniquity, and to cleanse you from your sins. Ask, for you cannot ask in vain; ask earnestly, for you need it sorely; ask confidently, for He has promised before you ask; but ask, for unless you do, you will not receive. Ask, and the answer is sent already-’The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David:…
Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David: when Nathan the prophet' came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.' It is impossible not to feel the general appropriateness of this Ps. to the occasion mentioned in the title, and there is no historic OT. figure except David to whom we can point as an illustration of the great sin and deep penitence which are the theme of the Ps. The theory that the speaker is the nation of Israel hardly accounts for the highly personal tone of the whole poem. At the same time, the affinity of the thought and language with the closing chapters of Isaiah (see especially on Psa_51:11) favours the view that the writer lived during the exile, in which case he may well have chosen David's great transgression and its results as the subject of a 'dramatic lyric' On any supposition as to authorship and date Psa_51:18-19 are to be regarded as a liturgical addition appended to the Ps. when it came to be used in the Temple services. Part of Psa_51:4 is quoted (from LXX) in Rom_3:4.
4. Against thee, thee only] David had sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba as well as against God: but as all obligations to men have their foundation in God's law, so all sin against them is included and hidden in the one fact of offence against God. That thou mightest be justified.. be clear] that Thy justice and holiness might be clearly shown.
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5. This v. does not reflect any stain on the Psalmist's birth, but traces his sin to the inborn evil of his nature.
6. Truth in the inward parts] truth as opposed to self-deception or conscious hypocrisy, in the inward parts as opposed to mere superficial goodness. Thou shalt make me to know] God is willing to give what He desires men to have.
7. Hyssop] employed in the OT. ceremonies of purification, a bunch of the herb being used to sprinkle blood (Lev_14:6-7) or water (Num_19:18) on the unclean. Snow] cp. Isa_1:18.
8. Bones which thou hast broken] see on Isa_42:10.
10. Create in me] RM 'create for me.'
Renew] better, 'make new.' What is sought is something that has never been in the Psalmist's life before. A right spirit] RM 'a, stedfast spirit,' that will not yield to temptation.
11. Thy holy spirit] The only other mention of this in the OT. is in Isa_63:10, Isa_63:11.
12. With thy free spirit] RV 'with a free spirit,' a spirit of willing and unforced obedience.
16. Desirest not] RV 'delightest not in.' Delightest not] RV 'hast no pleasure.'
17. Cp. Psa_34:18
18. This and the next v. form a prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, written either during the exile or in the troublous times before Nehemiah's mission.
19. Be pleased with] RV 'delight in.' Burnt offering and whole burnt offering] two expressions for the same sacrifice, the one emphasising its being burnt, the other the completeness with which it was consumed. The conception of the essence of religion here is evidently very different from that of Psa_51:16-17, which almost look like a criticism of—some even maintain, a protest against—animal sacrifice. In any case they assert that the sacrifice of the broken heart is that which God loves best.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain This Psalm must ever be, in its successive steps,…
Have
This Psalm must ever be, in its successive steps, the mould of the experience of a sinning saint who comes back to full communion and service. The steps are:
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(1) sin thoroughly judged before God (Psa 51:1-6);
(2) forgiveness and cleansing through the blood Psa 51:7.f.c.)
(3) cleansing (Psa 51:7-10.) Cf Joh 13:4-10; Eph 5:26; 1Jn 1:9.
(4) Spirit-filled for joy and power (Psa 51:11-12);
(5) service (Psa 51:13);
(6) worship (Psa 51:14-17);
(7) the restored saint in fellowship with God, not about self, but about the blessing of Zion. Personally, it was David’s pathway to restored communion after his sin with Bathsheba. Dispensationally, it will be the pathway of returning Israel. Deu 30:1-10.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Psalm 51
Psalm 51
The Confession
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1. Conviction and prayer for forgiveness (Psa 51:1-8)
2. Prayer for cleansing and restoration (Psa 51:9-13)
3. Blood guiltiness acknowledged (Psa 51:14-17)
4. Prayer for Zion (Psa 51:18-19)
This great penitential Psalm, according to the inscription, was the outburst of confession and repentance of David when Nathan had uncovered his sin. Well has it been said, “So profound a conviction of sin, so deep and unfeigned a penitence, so true a confession, a heart so tender, so contrite, a desire so fervent for renewal, a trust so humble, so filial in the forgiving love of God, are such as we might surely expect from ‘the man after God’s own heart.’“ We cannot enter into all the petitions and expressions of sorrow over sin which are found in this remarkable Psalm. It goes deep in confession and brokenness of spirit. All the saints of God know something of such deep soul exercises on account of sin.
We point out the prophetic meaning of the Psalm. It is the future confession of Israel of their sin and especially their blood guiltiness which is upon that nation. It is therefore the answer of penitent Israel to the words of the righteous judge in the preceding Psalm. David had blood guiltiness upon him. And when the Jews delivered the Holy One into the hands of the Gentiles they cried, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” This blood guiltiness will then be confessed when the Lord comes, when they look upon Him whom they pierced and shall mourn for Him (Zec 12:10). Isa 53:1-12 is a similar confession which Israel will yet make. It will be the time of their deep contrition, national repentance and weeping. Then they will become the teachers of the Gentiles, to teach transgressors His ways, that sinners be converted unto Him. They will sing aloud of His righteousness, when the Lord has taken away their sins. Then they will bring sacrifices of righteousness and the Lord will do good to Zion and build Jerusalem.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain David’s Penitential Prayer.
David’s Penitential Prayer.
To the chief musician, for public performance, as an open confession of David’s sin before the whole congregation, showing that his repentance was of the right kind, a psalm of David, when Nathan, the prophet, came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11, 12. For about one year after his terrible sin of adultery David had hardened his heart against repentance, although he had no rest in his conscience during this time, Psa 32:3-4. It was when Nathan had thundered the accusation at David, "Thou art the man!" that the latter’s resistance was broken and he confessed his sin. He received the word of absolution at once, but was constrained, as he realized the greatness of his transgression more and more, to plead with the Lord for His full mercy, as well as for the strength which would enable him to devote his whole life to the expiation of his guilt before men.
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David’s Plea for Mercy
v. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, a confession of utter unworthiness and a cry of faith clinging to God as the only Hope of salvation, according to Thy Loving-kindness, for He forgives sins only for His own sake, not for any merit in us; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions, God’s grace and mercy alone being able to cleanse the believer from the greatness of his wickedness, in this case adultery, murder, and a year of hard-hearted refusal to acknowledge the transgression.
v. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, which is like filth polluting the heart and conscience, and cleanse me from my sin, the term referring to the declaration of the priest by which one who was Levitically unclean was declared pure. God declares the sinner justified through the Word of the Gospel, if the latter but confesses his sin in true repentance.
v. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, that is why he was approaching the Lord with such an urgent petition; and my sin is ever before me, it stood before his soul in all its horridness and heinousness. That is the curse attaching to sin, that man cannot forget it, that it rises up before him like a ghost that will not be laid, even though God has long forgiven and forgotten. Lest this condition drive a believer to the despair of Judas, he clings to the Lord, turning to Him again and again for mercy.
v. 4. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, for every transgression of the Law, whether it be directed against the First or against the Second Table, is an infraction of the will of God and an insult to His dignity and holiness; for we are responsible to God alone, also in our conduct toward our neighbor, our apology to the neighbor for a wrong committed being a fruit of our repentance over against God; that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest, for every sin that is revealed and punished will in the end serve to set forth the holiness and justice of God, to glorify Him in the perfection of His essence.
v. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me; for David, like all men, was sinful from the first moment of conception, flesh born of flesh, filled with all the corruption of mankind, all transgressions in thought, word, and deed being the result of the natural state of sinfulness, and the guilt of both laid upon every individual sinner. David thus made a full and unequivocal confession of the depth of his sin and of its full heinousness.
v. 6. Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, without the slightest deceit and hypocrisy to mar the value of his confession of sin; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom, namely, the true wisdom, which has its beginning in the fear of the Lord. The longing for a pure and wise heart is a characteristic of true repentance, and the prayer for this blessing is found with all believers throughout their lives.
v. 7. Purge me with hyssop, a species of marjoram used in ceremonies of purification, Lev 14:4, and I shall be clean, declared justified in the eyes of God; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow, looked upon as innocent of any wrong-doing on account of the forgiveness of sins pronounced upon him, Isa 1:18.
v. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that is David’s confident prayer now that his sins are forgiven, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice, his entire body feeling the relief following the removal of the guilty feeling which rested upon his conscience.
v. 9. Hide Thy face from my sins, turning it away, in order not to see it any longer and thus be incited to new anger and punishment, and blot out all mine iniquities, removing from His presence not only those on whose account he was suffering so severely, but those of his whole life, for a Christian must ask for forgiveness again and again, during his whole life, up to the hour of his death. But it must be the cry of faith clinging to God’s promises of mercy.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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General Information:
In this psalm David asks God for forgiveness.
For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
when Nathan the prophet came to him
It can be stated clearly what Nathan did when he came to David, because this psalm is in response to that. AT: "when Nathan the prophet came to David and rebuked him" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
after he had slept with Bathsheba
"after David had slept with Bathsheba"
because of your covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated as an adjective. AT: "because you are faithful to your covenant" (See: Abstract Nouns)
for the sake of the multitude of your merciful actions
"because you do so many merciful things"
blot out my transgressions
Forgiving sins is spoken of as either 1) blotting them out or 2) erasing a written record of the sins. AT: "forgive my sins like someone wiping something away" or "forget my sins like someone who erases a record of sins" (See: Metaphor)
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity ... cleanse me from my sin
These two phrases mean the same thing. (See: Parallelism)
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
Being acceptable to God is spoken of as being clean. God makes people acceptable by forgiving their sins. AT: "Wash away all my sin" or "Forgive all my sins so that I will be acceptable to you" (See: Metaphor)
thoroughly
completely, totally
cleanse me from my sin
Being acceptable to God is spoken of as being clean. God makes people acceptable by forgiving their sins. AT: "Make me clean from my sin" or "forgive me for my sin so that I will be clean" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
chief
psalm
David
Nathan
prophet
had relations with
Bathsheba
mercy
God
covenant faithfulness
blot out
transgress
iniquity
clean
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Pss 51–65 These psalms of David share a common…
Pss 51–65 These psalms of David share a common thread in their reflection on the experience of evil. In Ps 51, the psalmist confesses the evil he has done and asks God’s forgiveness. Psalms 52–64 lament specific evils that David experienced. A song of praise (Ps 65) brings David’s laments to an end.
Ps 51 This moving prayer for restoration asks for God’s favor, mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing. Out of a broken spirit, the psalmist confesses and accepts responsibility for his sin (51:3-6), then petitions God to remove his guilt and renew him inwardly (51:7-12). The psalmist then recommits himself to a lifestyle of wisdom and joy in the service of God and others (51:13-17).
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51:title regarding the time Nathan . . . Bathsheba: See 2 Sam 11:1-27. The text of the psalm contains no explicit reference to this event.
51:1-2 The repentant offender has nothing to offer God. He needs God’s favor, mercy, forgiveness, and blessing before he can experience renewal and restoration.
51:1 A prayer for God’s mercy and kindness is part of the genre of lament. Sometimes the plea comes from the psalmist’s acknowledgment of his weakness and sin, as here (see also 6:2; 9:13; 25:16; 31:9; 41:4, 10). At other times, it arises from the psalmist’s commitment to the Lord (see 26:11; 27:7; 119:29, 58, 132). In each case, God’s mercy brings an inner renewal.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.