A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight--that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise.
Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.
Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Message:
During the past few weeks, we have studied this prayer of David. He had sinned deeply, thus his prayer for pardon has been intense and sincere.
Today, we pick up our study at verse 6. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will speak to all of us as we study together.

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Verse 6 of our Psalm reads: "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom."
BEHOLD. The word is used to indicate the attainment of a new and higher knowledge, as if it had come with something of surprise on the mind, or were seen with a new brightness. The previous verse began with this word BEHOLD. The repetition of the word at the beginning of both of these verses marks the connection and correlation of them. On the one hand, lo! I have seen sin as I never saw it before. On the other, lo! I have leant that truth is what Thou desirest in the secret heart.
Reality, sincerity, true holiness, heart-fidelity--these are the demands of God! He cares not for the pretence of purity; he looks to the mind, heart and the soul. Always has the Holy One of Israel estimated men by their inner nature, and not by their outward professions; to Him the inward is as visible as the outward, and He rightly judges that the essential character of an action lies in the motive of him who works it. In this part of the Psalm, David is saying that God is teaching him truth concerning his nature, which he had not perceived. The love of the heart, the mystery of its fall, and the way of its purification—the hidden wisdom we must all attain; and it is a great blessing to be able to believe that the Lord will "make us to know it." No one can teach our innermost nature but the Lord, but He can instruct us to profit. The Holy Spirit can write the law on our heart, and that is the sum of practical wisdom. He can put the fear of the Lord within, and that is the beginning of wisdom.
PURGE ME WITH HYSSOP, AND I SHALL BE CLEAN, WASH ME, AND I SHALL BE WHITER THAN SNOW. (v.7)
Purge me...wash me...and if we could read this in the original language, it implies that only God has the ability to UN-SIN me!
Purge me with hyssop...or...sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolize. Nothing but the blood can take away my bloodstains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me. Let the sin offering purge my sin. Let Him who was appointed to atone, execute His sacred office on me!
HYSSOP! It was a branch used in sprinkling of blood. It is referred to in Exodus 12 when the children of Israel are instructed to kill and lamb and sprinkle its blood WITH HYSSOP on the doorposts and lintels of their dwellings.
Verse 22 "And you shall take bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door-posts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
Again, hyssop is referred to in Leviticus 14 where the ritual for

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cleansing lepers is laid out.
Leviticus 14:1-7 "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing; He shall be brought to the priest.
And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper,
then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop.
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water.
As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.
And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field."
So Hyssop was always associated with the thought of cleansing, and David is sincerely seeking that cleansing from God. David evidently sees that the outward lustration is a sign of a better cleansing; another proof of that profound spiritual insight which throughout the Psalm is so striking.
WASH ME AND I SHALL BE WHITER THAN SNOW. Isaiah writes: "Come now, and let us reason together. says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Scarcely does the Holy Scriptures contain a verse more full of faith than this verse. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense the Psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all-sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. Considering also the deep, natural inbred corruption which David saw and experienced within, it is a miracle of faith that he could rejoice in the hope of perfect purity in his inward parts.
MAKE ME TO HEAR JOY AND GLADNESS, THAT THE BONES YOU HAVE BROKEN MAY REJOICE, (v. 8) David has asked for pardon...now he asks that once again, joy may return to his heart. All of us will agree that sin has the capacity to take the real joy out of living. In its place, sin brings guilt, anxiety, frustration, pain and remorse. God's voice speaking peace is the sweetest music an ear can hear!
Sin has the capacity to crush us and leave us incapacitated to be our best...and this David has felt deeply.
Observe the man in the gutter, held in bondage of addiction and sin. His occupation is gone, his profession squandered, his family in shreds, and his life without purpose and meaning. The bones...the structures that make life worth living...are broken and useless!

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When David speaks of THE BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN, he is not speaking of fleshly wounds...but his manhood had become a dislocated, mangled, quivering sensibility. He is requesting a great thing; he seeks joy for a sinful heart, music for crushed bones. Preposterous prayer anywhere but at the throne of God!
Verse 9 of our Psalm reads: "HIDE YOUR FACE FROM MY SINS, AND BLOT OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES." The second division of the Psalm begins here with the renewed prayer for forgiveness. From the confident assurance of the last two verses, that God would do that which he asked, David now passes to earnest pleading with God. This is surely what is to be found in all true prayer; it will be marked by fluctuations of feeling; its order will be the order of need, not the order of intellect.
Again, David asks for forgiveness first, and then for renewal. "For though God fully and completely forgives," says Calvin, "still the narrowness of our faith does not take in so large a goodness on His part, but it must flow down to us gradually and drop by drop." Souls in agony have no space to find variety in language; pain has to content itself with monotones. David's face was ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove it from his memory; but he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he himself cannot. If God hide not His face from our sin. He must hide it for ever from us; and if He blot not out our sins, He must blot our names out of His Book of Life.
After the prayer of forgiveness there follows now the prayer for renewal and sanctification.
CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD, AND RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME. (v. 10) The word CREATE is always used strictly of the creative power of God. The whole spiritual being of the man had, as it were, fallen into chaos. The pure heart and the childlike feeling of confidence could only return as a new creation.
Paul picks up this thought in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
In the seventh verse he asked to be clean; now he seeks a heart suitable to that cleanliness; but he does not say, "Make my old heart clean; he is too experienced in the hopelessness of the old nature. He would have the old man buried as a dead thing, and a new creation brought in to fill its place.
None but God can create either a new heart or a new earth!
Salvation is a marvelous display of supreme power; the work in us as much as that for us is wholly of Omnipotence. The heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul way.

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RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME. The law of my heart has become like an inscription hard to read; please write it anew, O gracious Maker. Some translations read: RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME. A steadfast spirit is, firm in faith, not easily swayed hither and thither through its own weakness or by blasts of temptation, and therefore also firm and constant in obedience.
CAST ME NOT AWAY FROM THY PRESENCE AND TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME. (v. 11)
Some Bible scholars see an allusion partly to the exclusion of the leper from the congregation, others see in this prayer David's deep concern that God not reject the nation of Israel from His favor because of his sin.
Could it not be that David witnessed first-hand the taking of God's Spirit from King Saul, the first King of Israel.
1 Samuel 16:13-14
"Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
BUT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD DEPARTED FROM SAUL, AND A DISTRESSING spirit from the Lord troubled him."
In the closing days of Saul's life, he consults a Medium and Samuel confronts him. (1 Samuel 27:11-17)
"Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!"
And the king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What did you see? And the woman said to Saul, " I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth. So he said to her, "What is his form? And she said, "An old man is coming up and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down.
Now Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul answered. "I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, AND GOD HAS DEPARTED FROM ME AND DOES NOT ANSWER ME ANYMORE, NEITHER BY PROPHETS NOR BY DREAMS. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do."
Then Samuel said; "SO WHY DO YOU ASK ME, SEEING THE LORD HAS DEPARTED FROM YOU AND HAS BECOME YOUR ENEMY."
Saul's life was a tragedy and David surely did not want to go through the loss of God's Spirit because of his sin.
So David is praying...Lord, don't give up on me, or banish me from

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Your presence. I can't stand the thought of being away from You, or of having YOUR HOLY SPIRIT taken from me.
RESTORE TO ME THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION, AND UPHOLD ME BY YOUR GENEROUS SPIRIT, (v. 12) Sin does rob us of the joy of the Lord, and David is praying for the restoration of that joy he once knew with God. None but God can give back this joy; He can do it; we may ask it; He will do it for His own glory and our benefit.
Sir Richard Baker writes: "How can God restore that which He took not away? For, can I charge God with the taking away the joy of His salvation from me? O gracious God, I charge not thee with taking it, but myself with losing it; and such is the miserable condition of us poor wretches, that if thou shouldst restore no more to us than what thou takes from us, we should quickly be at a fault in our estates, and our ruin would be as sudden as inevitable."
The Scriptures remind us that we must take heed that when we think we can stand...that is the moment we fall! We must be reliant upon the Spirit of God at work in lives if we are going to stand against wiles and arrows of the devil. Paul tells us that we must put on the full armor of God so that we can stand when temptation comes.
"Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole amour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 9:10-11)
THEN I WILL TEACH TRANSGRESSORS THY WAYS, AND SINNERS SHALL BE CONVERTED TO YOU. (v.13) David does not want his experience to be for naught...he wants others to know the weakness of the human being and pain of sin. It was his fixed resolve to be a teacher of others; and assuredly none instruct others so well as those who have been experimentally taught of God themselves.
Those who have experienced the loss of family, friends, job or profession because of sin, have much to teach others about the price of sin once God graciously has forgiven them. Sin is not something we pride ourselves in...our past is never spoken of just for the purpose to telling how deep we fell...but when referred to, it is for the purpose of warning others. SIN IS ETERNALLY COSTLY, if not forgiven by a gracious God.
DELIVER ME FROM THE GUILT OF BLOODSHED, O GOD, THE GOD OF MY SALVATION, AND MY TONGUE SHALL SING ALOUD OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, (v. 14)
The blood of Uriah, whom he had slain, seems to cry against David for punishment. He had destroyed a beautiful family, had the father murdered, stole the wife...and I can only believe that every time he looked upon the offspring of Bathsheba, the sting of the murder was ever before him. Memory has written its scenes on our mind that never will be erased in this life even though God forgives!

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O LORD, OPEN THOU MY LIPS, AND MY MOUTH SHALL SHOW FORTH THY PRAISE. In the previous verse, David had prayed that with God's forgiveness, his tongue could sing aloud of God's righteousness.
Question? Why is this attribute of God especially mentioned as the subject of praise? Surely not in that vague sense in which, as one Bible student writes, "as the principle of God's government," but with especial reference to the forgiveness of sins. The righteousness of God is that attribute according to which He gives to every one his own, to those who with repentance and faith turn to Him, the forgiveness which they ask, and which He has premised to bestow.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
SIN HAS SEALED HIS LIPS! But with the gift of God's forgiveness, his lips could once again be used as an instrument of praise!
Psalm 66:16
"Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me."
Isaiah 63:7
"I will tell you of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which He is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us--yes, the many good things He has done for the house of Israel, according to His compassion and many kindnesses."
FOR YOU DO NOT DESIRE SACRIFICE, OR ELSE I WOULD GIVE IT: YOU DO NOT DELIGHT IN BURNT OFFERING. (v. 15) It is not some ceremonial act of worship, as significant as that may be...it is a heart that is contrite and spirit that is broken God takes delight in.
There may be another reason why David here affirms that God would not accept of a sacrifice, nor be pleased with a burnt-offering. No particular sacrifices were appointed by the law of Moses to expiate the guilt of murder and adultery. The person who had perpetrated these crimes was, according to the divine law, to be punished with death!
David therefore may be understood as declaring, that it was utterly vain for him to think of resorting to sacrifices and burnt-offerings with a view to the expiation of his guilt; that his criminality was of such a character, that the ceremonial law made no provision for his deliverance from the doom which his deeds of horror deserved.
THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE BROKEN SPIRIT, A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE HEART--THESE O GOD, YOU WILL NOT DESPISE. The joy of forgiveness does not banish sorrow and contrition for sin; this will still continue. And the deeper the sense of sin, and the truer the sorrow for it, the more heartfelt also will be the thankfulness for pardon and reconciliation. The tender, humble, broken-heart is therefore the best thank-offering.