PSALM 51:1-12
INTRODUCTION
A friend of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, once reminded her of an especially cruel thing that had been done to her years before. But Miss Barton seemed not to recall it. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked.
“No,” came the reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.” You can’t be free and happy if you harbor grudges, so put them away. Get rid of them. Collect postage stamps, or collect coins, if you wish, but don’t collect grudges.
We all have seen and used those little electronic calculators. What happens if you get your information confused or make an error? You press the “clear” button and automatically all of the information is eliminated from the calculator. Then you begin again, without trying to sort out the previous mistake. In fact, there is no record of your mistake! It is lost forever!
That is what happens to our sins when God forgives us. The consequences may remain, but the guilt—the legal condemnation for the offense is gone.
I. PRAYER FOR PERSONAL FORGIVENESS VV. 1-2
Background
Psalm 51 is the greatest of the seven penitential Psalms. It is a poignant and moving piece of autobiography. It is a classic on a sinning person’s progress from stubborn impenitence, through deep repentance, to glorious restoration. The language, like the experience it portrays, is contemporary and relevant for every age and race. Who among us has not had occasion to make Psalm 51 our own and to tread with David the path of contrition and restoration? The title of the Psalm gives the clue to its occasion: “For the Chief Musician or Choir Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
Infatuated with the beautiful Bathsheba, the King had fallen into the sordid sin of adultery, which he devised a foul scheme that resulted in the murder of her husband, Uriah. After a period of obstinate refusal to confess his sin (see Psalm 32:3-4), God used the soul-searching charge of Nathan the prophet—“You are the man” to bring home the seriousness of David’s sin, while at the same time displaying His own boundless mercy and grace. “The Lord also has taken away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:7, 13).
God never leaves a penitent sinner in the dust. Psalm 51 is the uninhibited broken outpouring of a person overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, the outburst of sincere repentance after a disgraceful, inexcusable episode. This Psalm is full of encouragement because it reveals the heart of God and His attitude toward those who have failed. You may not have fallen into sin so socially unacceptable as those of David, but are your sins and failures any more acceptable in God’s sight? The answer is obviously no.
All sin ruptures fellowship, destroys intimacy with God, produces a sense of guilt, and involves the sinning person in painful temporal and eternal loss. David made no attempt to clothe his prayer with flowing rhetoric, for it is simply a series of brokenhearted sobs, expressed in vivid verbs: Have mercy! Cleanse! Blot out! Wash! Etc. Here is a true confession free from all sham and insincerity. Let’s examine this Psalm in details and apply it to our lives.
V. 1. In desperate need of divine forgiveness, the sinner can do nothing but cast himself on God’s mercy. And that is exactly what King David does in this Psalm.
Who is the man or woman who feels so big that refuses to acknowledge his/her sin and comes before God in desperation of divine forgiveness? When your sin disrupts the fellowship with the covenant Lord, you have no right to divine blessing. Fellow Africans can I speak to you as African to Africans? As Christians our greatest enemy is not Satan per se. What you and I are to fear are not Satan or the witches and wizards in Africa and elsewhere. Our greatest enemy is sin. What we are to fear is our own propensity to sin (Galatians 5:19-21). Sin is what gives a foothold in your life to Satan. The gossip, the slander, the immorality, bitterness, and others are what give room in your life to Satan. David did not blame his sin on Satan or witches or wizards. He accepted responsibility for his sin. Brothers and sisters if you want to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration own up to your sin and don’t give any excuses or blame it on anybody else. When you accept responsibility for your sin, you can be sure of God’s forgiveness and restoration. The Lord has promised to forgive and His forgiveness is based on His love and compassion (Exodus 34:6-7). Therefore, the Psalmist appeals to God’s love and great compassion.
“Blot out my transgressions.” In this Psalm, David uses three-word pictures to describe his separation from God and his deep desire for restoration. The word, “blot out” means, “To wipe out, to delete, to obliterate, to erase.” The computer wizards understand the term “delete;” school children and students understand “wipe out and erase.” For the Psalmist sin is not a passing shadow but a deeply ingrained stain.
Ladies and gentlemen, take sin seriously, because it can ruin your intimacy with God. Sin can make God’s anointing on your life ineffective. Lack of effectiveness and power in the church today can be traced to sin. You cannot enjoy sin and maintain intimacy with God. Sin will ruin your fellowship with God. When you are living in sin, you can still pray, preach, witness, minister in songs, but the anointing of God will not be there. And as a child of God when the anointing, the intimacy, and the fellowship are ruptured you know it. David knew that his intimacy with God was ruined when he committed both adultery and murder. How long can you cover up your sin, man or woman of God? Your sin will find you out.
Why does David pray to God to blot out his transgressions? This is because of the OT teaching that God had a book of record (Daniel 7:10).
The second word-picture is “wash” in verse 2. This word-picture speaks of sin as an ingrained stain, which could not be removed by any ordinary washing, for example, human means. Forgiveness is an act of divine grace whereby sin is blotted out and the sinner is “cleansed” by the washing away of his sins (Exodus 32:32; Numbers 5:23; Psalm 32:2). The Holy Spirit had worked in the penitent King an acute sense of sin, so acute that no single word was sufficient to express it. David used three words to confess his sins: they are “transgressions, iniquity, and sin.” “Transgression” primarily means a rebellion against an authority. The cognate verb “transgress” is often used to describe an act of revolt (1 Kings 12:19). It also means the overstepping and breaking of God’s law. “Iniquity” means “bend, crookedness, and perverseness, or error, deviation from the right path.” It carries the idea of one who is morally crooked. “Sin” means “to miss the mark” or failing to reach the divine standard and goal.
The threefold picture of sin does not suggest three different kinds of sin that David committed. They are there to emphasize the severity of David’s sin, the completeness of the separation, and the firm conviction that only God can restore the broken relationship. David confessed that he was guilty of sin in all its aspects.
When you sin do you cover it up, ignore it, or admit it and confess it before God and ask for forgiveness? Here in verses 1-2 David’s prayer is for forgiveness and cleansing.
The third word-picture is “cleanse.” The word is used in the OT for religious purification. It can also be used for such activities as the removing of dross from metals (Mal. 3:3). In the OT the people of God used the blood of animals for cleansing from sin. But they knew that only God could cleanse from sin. No amount of sacrifices you make today including self-flagellation can cleanse or blot out your sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away your sin.
I. PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND CONTRITION VV. 3-6
Verse 3, “For I acknowledge” or “I know”; this is an emphatic statement that David himself has become fully aware of his rebellious actions and disloyalty, which had been known to God all along. Isaiah 59:12 states, “For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we know them.” In his search for forgiveness, David opens his sinful heart. The Psalmist does not reject or argue with divine justice (Rom. 3:4), because the Lord’s verdict is right. What do you do when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin? David confesses his sin (v. 4).
Under the pressure of the Holy Spirit, David realized that ultimately all sin is against God. This does not mean that his sin did not affect anybody else. Sin is an insult to God and it is a rebellion against His sovereignty. David realized that his sins have not been private, for they affected not only himself, but also the whole nation. Up until that time his thoughts had been “how could I cover my tracks?”
It is like a person who lies all the time. How far can you go without being caught in your tracks in lying? For David now his only concern is “How can I offer such an insult to such a loving and holy God!” David is prepared to accept God’s verdict and any judgment that would be meted out to him. David knows that God is just and His judgment is blameless. David’s insight into the character of God made him to understand the nature of his sin (v. 5).
Some have mistranslated this verse as a case for celibacy and the sinfulness of marriage. If sons are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3) and children a blessing of God (Gen. 1:28, 9:1; 12:2 etc.), then family life in all its aspects could hardly be regarded as immoral or wrong. Confronted by God’s righteous verdict the Psalmist is more deeply pricked by his own sinfulness. David is saying that his outward crimes are only the expression of his sinful nature. Many years later, Jesus, the Son of David revealed the source of sin: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication (Matt. 15:19). King David was overwhelmed at the depravity of his heart that had dragged him to such degradation.
You and I must admit our sin before God. The only way to deal with sin is to call it by the right name, and accept the blame for it.
What is confession? It means to say the same thing. In other words, you admit your guilt of the offense you are charged with. When you confess your sin to God, you agree with Him in the assessment of the seriousness of your sins and take sides with Him against it (Psalm 32:1-5). While God requires faithfulness in man, man resides in sinfulness. The Psalmist does not offer any excuse but affirms emphatically that any ground for mercy must be found in God alone, and not in man.
Only by receiving revelation from the outside can the inside be whole. Wisdom is not inherent in humans. Wisdom comes from God. However, if you and I ask God, He will give us wisdom without any reproach.
III. PLEA FOR RESTORATION VV. 7-12
The plea for restoration consists of (1) a prayer for God’s forgiveness (vv. 7, 9), (2) a prayer for renewal of joy (v. 8), and (3) a prayer for a heart of wisdom and for full restoration to divine favor (vv. 10-12). The forgiveness that the Psalmist requires must meet the greatness of his need. He is sinful through and through. In his prayer, the Psalmist uses two verbs, purge, and wash, and uses blot out again in verse 9. In these verses the Psalmist goes beyond the prayer for forgiveness (vv. 1-2).
He prays that the Lord, like a priest, may cleanse him from his defilement. The unclean, such as lepers, used to present themselves before the priest on the occasion of their purification. When the priest is satisfied that the unclean person had met the requirements for purification, would take a bunch of hyssop and sprinkle the person with water, symbolic of ritual cleansing. Here David petitions the Lord to be his priest by taking the hyssop and declaring him cleansed from all sin. David realized that like a leper, sin had made him unclean before God. Sin in the sight of God is more deadly than leprosy.
How repentant and remorseful are you when you sin? Do you take sin lightly? Sin disrupts your communion with God. David knew that. The Psalmist wanted his eyes, mind, imagination, will, and conscience to be cleansed of the blood. Nothing less than complete cleansing would satisfy him and relieve his guilty conscience.
In verse 8 David says, “Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones You have broken may rejoice.”
What right does the adulterer and murderer has to make such a request? Is David being presumptuous? What right has he to be joyful and glad? David knew that His God was gracious and delights in those who hope in His mercy. Such was David’s confidence in the mercy of God that he asks even more. Let the bones You have broken rejoice. The word, "rejoice" literally means, dance.
Show me a Christian who plays with sin and refuses to repent and I will show you a person who has lost all joy and going through inner torment. Joy is the result of God’s work in believers. Forgiveness and cleansing are prerequisites for communion with God. David pleads with God to hide His face from his sin. When God hides His face from you that means God has withdrawn His favor from you; that means God is displeased with you. But in the present context, it is applied to the plea that God would disregard David’s sins so that they would no longer separate him from his God. David says that God should wipe out the record of his iniquities. This is the plea of a man who has a repentant heart.
Verses 10-12, David prays for renewal. David’s heartbreaking experience produced a devastating sense of his inability to deal with the corruption of his heart. Because there is no psychological manipulation that can make an unclean heart clean or remove the haunting sense of guilt and defilement that sin inevitably generates. In his distress at the havoc his sin had brought in its wake and the sorrow he had caused to the heart of God, David saw clearly that nothing less than supernatural intervention of God would meet his case. So he called in the Creator!
Only the One who made the heart could meet the heart’s need. Create in me a clean heart O God. The Psalmist knows that unless God brings a radical change, his future will be but a repetition of the past. Therefore, David appeals for a new heart and a new spirit. By the term create, David is not asking for transformation but for new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The heart is the mainspring of life. What affects your heart affects your whole life. Fellowship with God and morality are not natural gifts but supernaturally endowed graces. David in a spirit of true contrition prays for a pure heart, a steadfast spirit (v. 10), the Holy Spirit (v. 11), and a willing spirit (v. 12). Without internal renewal the Psalmist fears the possibility of divine rejection as was the case with King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14). As a result of sin David has lost the steadfast spirit. A steadfast spirit is the fruit of which a pure heart is the root. David longed for a return to the old stability. David also desired a willing spirit, a liberated spirit freed from crippling inhibitions, a heart that embraced and enjoyed the will of God. David desired also that his self-will be crushed and instead the will of God be dominant and all pride and arrogance removed and replaced with genuine humility.
The misery of hell is the absence of God, as the joy of heaven is the presence of God. Love can endure everything but distance. Once the joy of intimacy with God has been experienced, life becomes unbearable without it. David entreats God not to throw him away like a useless vessel. Since the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, you and I are not to fear that God would remove His Spirit. However, if you persist in sin you will lose the joy of your salvation. If you lose the joy of your salvation you may be going through the motions in worship, but the real joy of God is not there.
