This psalm is very practical and relevant for us today like many other chapters in the Bible. The reason this chapter is so practical and relevant is the fact that it gives us insights on who we are, what our nature is, what is God like and what does God require of us? We see how to get up when we have spiritually fallen down. The same insights tell us how to “stay up” day by day.
Psalm 51 is the story of a desperate man who has been in the fight of his life. He is bruised and he is broken by his sin, he is lost and he is ruined by the fall.
But in many ways, this is a moment of glory for David. David has a glorious limp. It was Joe Novenson who said, “If I were to ask you, ‘What is David’s greatest victory?’ probably, like me, your intuitive response would be, ‘David’s greatest victory is the slaying the giant, Goliath.’ Or surviving the onslaught and man hunt of King Saul for over ten years, or becoming king of all twelve tribes of Israel, or conquering Jerusalem, a fortress that was inhabited by the Jebusites. “Actually Psalm 51, Novenson said, “is David’s greatest victory.” This is the greatest victory of David, given to him by God, on the turf of his heart, over his sin and his past. This can be our victory as well.
The setting is 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12. The Israelites were off at war. David really should have been with them but he’s home and he’s in his palace and he sees a woman bathing on her rooftop, Bathsheba, and he calls for her and he impregnates her. And then to cover it up, he has her husband, Uriah the Hittite, one of his best, really most loyal soldiers, he has him killed on the battlefield. And for at least nine months, David has a quiet conscience. And in 2 Samuel chapter 12, God forces the issue and Nathan confronts him. And as a result of that confrontation, this psalm of repentance is penned by David.
If you’re bruised by your sin and you have a past, if you’re brought low by your sin, you’re dealing with guilt or shame, this psalm is for you. Psalm 51, according to Sinclair Ferguson, is “a guiding star.” It’s a guiding star to understanding the Gospel. It’s a guiding star to understanding our great sin and our great Savior.
In Psalm 51, we see a heart that was hardened and hiding become shattered and shaped by God’s grace. We see confession. We see repentance. We see forgiveness from God. And we see in this psalm that there will be at least three things that God does.
When I Ask God’s Forgiveness He…
1. Removes the Guilt within Me
David starts a plea to God’s mercy and grace, not his own goodness.
In verse 1. He says, “Have mercy on me, O God” – why? He says, “according to your steadfast love.” And so in verse 1, David turns to God’s steadfast love, this covenant word, “hesed,” the love of the God of the covenant. That if He sets His love on you, He will never ever, ever stop loving you. This covenant loyalty, this covenant faithfulness. Derek Kidner, in his famous commentary on the Psalms, says this in verse 1. He says “The opening plea is the language of one who has no claim to the favor he begs.” In other words, David comes with no bargaining chips and the basis for the mercy that he’s begging for is not his credentials, it’s not his productivity or performance or faithfulness, but the basis for the mercy that he’s begging for is something in God’s character. “Have mercy on me according to your steadfast love.”
Then David uses all kinds of Biblical language to describe the many-sided character of his sin. He says in verse 1 it’s “transgression,” in verse 2 it’s “iniquity,” in verse 3 it’s “transgression,” verse 4 it is “evil.” And notice this, in his confessing, he’s using first person singular. And so verse 1 “my transgressions,” verse 2 “my iniquity, my sin,” verse 3 “my transgressions, my sin,” verse 4 “I sinned and have done evil in your sight.” And so you don’t have to be a Hebrew scholar in order to understand what David is getting at in the first few verses. What is he pressing on us? David is owning it. This is a personal ownership of sin. David owns it. He doesn’t give any excuses. He doesn’t clean it up. He doesn’t sterilize it. He doesn’t say, “This was a bad day.” He doesn’t say, “I hit a bump in the road.” He doesn’t say, “This was a growth area or a growth edge.” David owns his sin. This is personal ownership of sin.
And notice this is a precise confession. David says in verse 4, “Against you and you only I have sinned.” So, of course, David is not saying that he didn’t sin against Uriah, that he didn’t sin against Bathsheba or against the nation. But what he’s saying here is that the root sin, and really the sin underneath all of these other sins, is the sin, the evil sin against the character of God. This is a precise confession. David prays in verse 14, he says he has the blood of Uriah on his hands. He says, “Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God.” This is a precise confession and so David is praying, “I am false and full of sin. I am not who I want to be. I’m not how I want to be. I need Your mercy and I need it in deep, deep ways.”
In fact, look at verse 5. David says, “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” So in other words, he’s saying, “I know where this came from.” He’s not blaming his mother but he’s saying, “This is not a fluke. This is not out of left field. This is not a random fumble, but there’s an explanation. Here’s the explanation – I sin because I am a sinner. Before I did sinful act number one, I had nature, I had the native twist in my heart to do it.” And so David is praying. He says, “I need grace in the deepest places, in the coldest corners, in the inner parts. There is a place in me that’s hidden, that’s pervasively twisted. There is a spiritual sickness that I cannot fix myself. I need You, God, to go there. I need Your mercy deep.
This is the first and always the hardest step – to confess what is true, to see yourself clearly, to own it, to admit that you are needy and that you are spiritually broken and bankrupt and bruised. This is step one. David no longer needs anyone else to explain his sin to him. He says in verse 3, “My sin is ever before me.” No less than eighteen times in this prayer, no less than eighteen times, David is begging God, he is pleading with God, “Have mercy on me, purge me, wash me, clean me, create in me, renew in me, uphold me, sustain me, deliver me.” This is a man at the end of his resources. This is a posture of need.
And God delivers. God “blots out, washes away, cleanses, and renews!”
When I ask God for forgiveness, He
2. Restores My Relationship with Him
As we move onto verses 7 to 12, David moves to restorative language. Verse 7, look at the cleansing language. He says, “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
What is hyssop? Hyssop, an herb in the mint family with cleansing, medicinal, and flavoring properties, was prolific in the Middle East and was used in a variety of ways.
Hyssop is also used symbolically in the Bible. When the Israelites marked their doorposts with lamb’s blood in order for the angel of death to pass over them, God instructed them to use a bunch of hyssop as a “paintbrush” (Exodus 12:22). This was probably because hyssop was sturdy and could withstand the brushing, but it also likely signified that God was marking His people as “pure” and not targets of the judgment God was about to deal out to the Egyptians.
And so David knows that he needs this inner washing, this inner cleansing, and so he’s praying, “God, don’t just clean me up on the inside, but be a priest to me. Sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on me to wash me, to make me whiter than snow. I can’t clean myself, God. “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” No other solvent will do to wash away my sin, to cleanse me from all sin, to blot out all of my iniquities.” And so David is asking not only for the removal of his guilt; he’s asking for the obliteration of his past record. He wants to be clean.
And then he moves to this restorative language. He says in verse 8, “Let me hear joy and gladness.” He says in verse 12, “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” This is restorative language. I love this. “So God, You have removed my guilt, You have obliterated my past record, You have washed me, You have robed me in righteousness, You have made me clean. Now joy is on the way, gladness will soon follow. All is well.
When I ask God for forgiveness, He also…
3. Renews My Witness to Others
When a person gets back up on their spiritual feet and has their life right with God, there is a desire to live for Him.
David in essence was saying, “Lord, help me to get back up on my feet and I will live for you. Here is what I will do.” Notice the decisions he has made, for they are important for any person who wants to get back up after they have fallen and stay up.
I will teach transgressors you way, so sinners will turn back to you—Psalm 51:13
When God gets a firm grip on your heart, there will be a desire for ministry to others. This does not necessarily mean you will be a teacher or preacher, but it does mean you will not hesitate to speak about the Lord to others, whether it is in private or public. If you are silent about what the Lord has done for you, then something is wrong. This is not normal for the dedicated Christian. If you are mute about the Lord, the problem may be the fact that you are not as dedicated to the Lord as you think.
When the Lord controls your heart, you will begin to know the heart of God. It is the heart of God that reaches out to sinners. This was David’s attitude. David had a “Rebuilder’s” attitude. He not only wanted God to rebuild his own life, but he wanted to be used of God to rebuild the lives of others as an expression of gratitude to the Lord for His love and mercy, but also out of a concern for people. He did not want people to be scarred by the destructiveness and pain of sin and make the same blunders as he made.
Victor and Mildred Goertzel did a study entitled Cradles of Eminence. It was about the home up-bringing of 300 very successful people who made it to the top. The study included folks like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Clara Barton, Gandhi, and Einstein. The findings of the study revealed that three-fourths of the children were troubled by poverty, a broken home, or by rejecting, over possessive, or dominating parents. Physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs characterized 25 percent of these folks. Yet, they did not let their handicaps slow them down. Seventy-four of eighty-five writers of fiction or drama came from homes of intense psychological drama and conflict. Sixteen of twenty poets came from homes like this too. These people compensated for their weaknesses in one area by excelling in another area. Their brokenness brought out the best in them. It revealed their character.
God breaks us that we might be a channel of blessing to others, a light to those in darkness, a leader to those who are lost, to love to those who feel rejected, to teach lessons to those who are curious or ignorant about God’s care, to show the influence of Christ in our life and to show the loveliness of the Lord in an ugly world.
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Sources:
“David’s Greatest Victory,” David Felker
Rod Mattoon, Mattoon’s Treasures – Treasures from Treasured Psalms, Volume 2, (Springfield, IL: Lincoln Land Baptist Church, n.d.), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 150-199.
https://www.gotquestions.org/hyssop-Bible.html
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