Psalm 51
"Have mercy upon me, 0 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, 0 God, and renew a right (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, 0 God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
0 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 a contrite heart—these, 0 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:
One of the great preachers of London once said: "The alchemy of divine love can extract sweet perfumes of penitence and praise out of the filth of sin." We have an illustration of this in Psalm 51.
In most of our Bibles, the heading tells us when David wrote this Psalm...written by David after Nathan the prophet had boldly exposed him for committing adultery with Bathsheba and for murdering Uriah. Utterly convicted of his sin, David pours out this torrent of penitence from his broken and contrite heart.
One of the most familiar and favored passages of the Old Testament, this Psalm has furnished the language with which contrition has made itself articulate, and given body to sentiments that weigh upon the stricken

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soul.
It is the great prayer for pardon.
Reaching down, as it does, into the corruption of sin, it lifts the heart up for purification by God's aromatic hyssop. Because it knows something of the blackness of human evil, it can speak with hope and confidence of the whiteness of the divine cleansing. It is a prayer seeking God's forgiveness.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of Sumner. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." (Ps. 32:1-6)
Psalm 51 is properly called the "Most Sacred Lyric". Sacred is here taken to mean the quality of spiritual experience that has direct reference to man's converse with God. "Lyric" means the quality of sentiment in poetry that as often as not is irrational—meaning, of course, less concerned with logic than with feeling.
The subject and the event are so obvious...King David s relationship with Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan's rebuke...and then David's agonizing prayer seeking God's forgiveness. David's anger at the cruelty of the fictitious character Nathan had created to point up the nature of the king's own sin was grimly turned back upon the royal sinner.
The hidden scandal was then in the open!
The prophet Nathan had aroused his conscience from its uneasy slumber. Before that, we cannot doubt, remorse had been busy with him. Before that he had felt his misery, had fought against it, but has refused to confess his sin. But the home-thrust, "THOU ART THE MAN," pierced him to the heart, and this Psalm is but the fuller record of the confession, "I HAVE SINNED," which the history mentions so briefly.
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 what we find nowhere else in the Old Testament, but what we might expect from "the man after God's own heart."
In this Psalm, we see the man...David. Great as had been his sin, it was not the sin of a hardened nature, of the merely selfish sensualist, of the despot to whom all man were but as tools to minister to his pleasures and his crimes. And therefore, when the Prophet comes to him, he turns to God with a real sorrow, and God meets him, as the father in the parable meets his erring son, with a free forgiveness.
HAVE MERCY UPON ME, 0 GOD!
Notice, he appeals at once to the mercy of God even before he mentions his sin. Pardon of sin must ever be an act of pure mercy! The Hebrew word here translated

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HAVE MERCY signifies "without cause or desert; and freely, without paying any price."
MERCY, LOVINGKINDNESS, TENDER MERCIES. It is interesting to note the gradation in the sense of the three wards David uses here, to express the divine compassion, and the propriety of the order in which they are placed.
The first, MERCY, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over any object that we love and pity.
The second word, is LOVINGKINDNESS which denotes a strong proneness, a liberal disposition to goodness and compassion powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as waters from a perpetual fountain.
The third word that David uses is TENDER MERCIES. This word denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former, the 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. It is this degree of compassion and mercy that David is pleading for in his case because he was deeply aware of the awfulness of his crime!

David was greatly terrified at the multitude of his sins but he is assured that His God has a multitude of mercies to cover them. If our sins be in number as the hairs of our head, God's mercies are as the stars of heaven; and He is an infinite God, so His mercies are infinite!
David's first feeling was relief that the hidden thing was out; he needed no longer practice deception and subterfuge. This relief let loose a torrent of self indictment. He had said to Nathan: "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he showed no pity." (2 Samuel 12:5-6)
The prophet turned David's indictment back on him, but he softened the judgment—"You shall not die"—and throughout this great penitential prayer, there breathes the atmosphere of great relief.
BLOT OUT MY TRANSGRESSIONS!
What the Psalmist alludes to is 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 contacted might remain, and the punishment of it might be wholly removed.
In this statement, there is reference to the indictment caused by his transgressions. 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 mercies of the Lord can do!
This is the promise of Isaiah....
"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they

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shall be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)
Ezekiel 36:25 "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols."
Hebrews 9:14 "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the Living God."
Isaiah 43:25 "I even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sin no more."
Isaiah 44:22 "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."
1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness."
WASH ME THOROUGHLY FROM INIQUITY AND CLEANSE ME FROM SIN. David prays that the Lord would WASH him; therefore sin defiles, and he was made foul and filthy by his sin. GOD DOES NOT TAKE SIN LIGHTLY! For sin staineth a man's body, it staineth a man's soul, it maketh him more vile than the vilest creature that lives. The verb TO WASH is used of the washing of a dirty garment. David is comparing himself to a foul garment needing to be washed.
SIN...is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature. David is quick to confess this failure and he seeks cleansing of the guilt, even though he knows that sin has its consequences and Nathan has pronounced them. God can and does forgive sin, but all too frequently we have done things which cannot be eradicated or changed, and with these consequences we must live!
FOR I ACKNOWLEDGE MY TRANSGRESSION, AND MY SIN IS EVER BEFORE ME. To acknowledge our transgressions, there is confession; and to have our sins ever before us, there is conviction and contrition.
Proverbs 28:13 "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."
1 Chronicles 28:9 "For the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever."
TO HAVE OUR SIN EVER BEFORE US is to be sincerely troubled in mind about them, to be truly humbled under the sense and guilt of them. Luther says: "That is, my sin plagues me, gives me no rest, no peace, whether I eat or drink, sleep or wake, I am always in terror of God's wrath and judgment." But surely here, not the terror of God's wrath and judgment, so much as the deep sorrow for despite done to God's love and goodness. DAVID DREADS NOT PUNISHMENT AS MUCH AS HE DREADS SEPARATION FROM GOD. "Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." That was his cry! In verse 4 of our Psalm, there follows an acknowledgment of the double evil of sin; first, in its aim, and next in its source; first, as done against God, and then

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as springing from a corrupt nature.
AGAINST THEE ONLY HAVE I SINNED AND DONE THIS EVIL IN THY SIGHT. This language has perplexed commentators, who cannot understand how it could come from the mouth of David, who had been guilty of sins which were directly against men as well as against God! The sin against Bathsheba when he had tempted, the sin against Uriah whom he had slain by the sword of another, the sin against his own family, which he had polluted, and against his kingdom which he had weakened, were not all these sins against men? They were. And yet he says; "Against Thee only have I sinned."

Calvin gives this explanation:
"I think the words are equivalent to his saying, Lord, though the whole world should acquit me, yet for me it is more than enough that I feel that Thou art my Judge, that conscience summons me and drags me to Thy bar; so that men's excuses for me are of no avail, whether they spare me, or whether to flatter me they make light of my crime, or try to assuage my grief with soothing words. He intimates therefore that he has his eyes and all his senses fixed upon God, and consequently does not care what men think or say. But who ever is thus crushed, yea, overwhelmed by the weight of God’s judgment, needs no other accuser, because God alone is more than a thousand others."
To this might be added that all human judges can only regard wrong actions as crimes; God alone takes cognizance of them as sins!
AGAINST THEE ONLY I HAVE SINNED.
The words are to be explained by David’s deep conviction of sin as sin. For the moment all else is swallowed up in that. Face to face with God, he sees nothing else, can think of nothing else, but His presence forgotten, His holiness outraged, His love scorned. Therefore he must confess and be forgiven by God before he could even think of the wrong done to his neighbor. This deep feeling of the penitent heart, of the heart which loves God all above all things, has its root in the very relation in which God stands with His creatures.
All sin, as sin, is and must be against God. All wrong done to our neighbor is wrong done to the 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 toward him. All wounding of another, whether in person or property, in body or soul, is a sin against the goodness of God. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:12: "But when we sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ." In like manner, all love to our neighbor is love to God whom we love in Him. On this principle we shall be judged: "Insomuch as ye have done it to the least of these, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25).
One commentator remarks: "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

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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.
ALL SIN IS AGAINST GOD! It is His law that has been broken, His will flouted, His name dishonored.
Oh! If somehow we could grasp this dimension of sin...that if each time we are tempted we considered its impact upon a Holy God whom we say that we love...maybe our response to temptation would be different!
Nearly fifty years ago, a Bible teacher explained the implications of 1 Corinthians 6 and I have never forgotten it. Here is the passage:
"Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food; but God will destroy them both.
The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also. DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOUR BODIES ARE MEMBERS OF CHRIST HIMSELF? SHALL I THEN TAKE THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST AND UNITE THEM WITH A PROSTITUTE? Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh, but he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in Spirit."
HERE WAS THE EXPLANATION I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN! When we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, His Spirit comes to live within us. When we decide to sin, His Spirit does not leave us while we are in the act of sinning! We drag the Spirit of Christ right into the act of sinning. When we sin the sin of fornication or adultery, we bring our Saviour right into that act! What a terrible thought...but surely this is why David makes this confession..."Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned." Again I say, if only we could grasp this dimension of sin, I believe it would deeply effect our desire toward righteousness and holiness.
Verse 5 of our Psalm reads: "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."
David is not trying to pass the blame of his sin on his mother...that is not the point. In our day there is great effort made to always blame something else or someone else for our wrongdoing. "It was my upbringing." "It was the influence of my parents." "Someone else made me do it."
In our passage, David is simply confirming the fact that all men are born sinners!
Paul writes in Romans 3:9-18:
"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are all alike under sin. As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet

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are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Here is the description of all of us as sinners! .David is just confirming his sinful nature and acknowledging that his birth into this world brought him in a sinner with a sinful nature. The fountain of my life is polluted as well as all its streams!
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." 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 the 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 if before. On the other, lo! I have learnt 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 pretence of purity, He looks to the mind, the 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 makes it.
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!
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 the lamb and sprinkle its blood WITH HYSSOP on the door-posts and lintels of their dwellings.
Verse 22, Exodus 12: "And you shall take a branch 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 cleansing lepers is laid out. 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 the 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." (Isaiah 1:18)
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,

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it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all-sufficient merit entirely to purge it away! David pictures the final sequence in the ritual of cleansing...as noted such as the cleansing of the body or garment...but the descriptive touch, WHITER THAN SNOW, is all his own; a flash of realization that with God there are no half-measures!
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.
WE DO NOT BREAK GOD’S LAW...THEY BREAK US!
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!
When David speaks of the bones which Thou has 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!
HIDE YOUR FACE FROM MY SIN, AND BLOT OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES, (v. 9) 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. 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 sins, 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, 0 GOD, AND RENEW A RIGHT (steadfast) SPIRIT WITHIN. (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."
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!