Psalm 51 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba.

 ¹Have mercy upon me, O God,

According to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,

Blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.

³For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.

⁴Against 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.

⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

And in sin my mother conceived me.

⁶Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸Make me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

¹⁴Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

¹⁶For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

¹⁸Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;

Build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,

With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;

Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Preamble

Psalm fifty one’s title gives us the backdrop to its origins (see 2 Samuel 11:1-12:15). And though this Psalm comes from one of David’s lowest points as king, we through it learn much about his heart, but more importantly the heart of God towards every repentant and broken sinner. Therefore, when a man is forced to face the truth about himself and consequences of his own sin, as David was when Nathan the prophet confronted him, he can either turn to God broken as David does here, or else he will turn to lies and denial, which always has a bad end for him and for all of those who have been affected by his sin. What then will you choose?

Commentary

Vs. 1 “Have mercy upon me, O God,

According to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,

Blot out my transgressions.”

When someone is broken by their sin, they have no more explanations, no more reasons for it, no more “defense” of it. All they have is the unbearable weight of it pressing down upon them, and that is what is taking place here. For David being a man of God knows God’s righteous Judgment, he knows that what he has done is a complete violation of God’s law, and as king he knows that he is held to a higher standard. Therefore, his prayer comes from his seeing his own deep need for the mercies and the grace of God. Thus, he begins by asking for the mercies of God, twice in fact in this verse, that God according to His lovingkindness, and according to the multitude of His tender mercies; which He shows to every repentant sinner; would likewise show the same to him, that He would blot out his transgression. Literally remove all record of it. Now David’s appeal to God is based solely upon God’s Person as being lovingkindness and merciful, and not anything emanating from David himself.

Vs. 2 “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.”

In appealing to God for His mercies, David also asks God to wash him thoroughly from his iniquity, to cleanse him completely of it, all which indicates that David has no desire to ever return to it.

Vs. 3 “For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.”

When David faced was faced with his sin, he didn’t try to deny it, he didn’t seek to offer any excuses for it, instead he confessed it first to Nathan the prophet whom God chose to expose it to him; for only then did he himself bring it out from within; and thus now lay it before the Lord acknowledging all of it Him.

Vs. 4 “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.”

In confessing his sin to God, David now very contritely acknowledges that against Him only he has sinned; for ultimately all sins are against God whose very image we are all created in. Therefore, David confesses to God that his sin was evil in God’s sight, that David knew what he had done was wrong,

Vs. 5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

And in sin my mother conceived me.”

In contemplating his own actions David now rightly sees himself not as having been born “innocent” and without sin. No indeed, David here acknowledges that in iniquity he was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me. The reason he does this is is to heighten his own awareness of his guilt before God, and thus also heighten his awareness of God’s Righteous, for God alone is Righteous. Try then as hard as me might to see ourselves, or others as basically “good” people, the sinful nature of man is our inheritance from Adam to everyone in every generation. This then is the unescapable and undeniable truth about ourselves that David acknowledges here to God.

Vs. 6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”

Two thoughts then are connected then with this understanding, first then is that God desires truth in the inward parts, and that is one the biggest hurdles for people to overcome is acknowledging the truth about ourselves to God, especially when we fail and sin, He wants us to be honest with Him about it and not play the hypocrite before Him. For we all carry secrets, we all have our hidden fears, we all have those things which we have neatly tuck away so as to maintain ourselves and or our outward appearances. These then are the things that God wants us to be honest with Him about, for that is what a growing relationship with Him entails, trusting God with everything about us, for He already knows everything about us, and as seen here having the truth in our inner parts leads Him to teach us His wisdom as well. Therefore having truth in our inward parts is how wisdom grows up in us as well.

Vs. 7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

David then doesn't just want to be forgiven his sin, he wants to be cleansed completely of it. And He knows that only God can do this for him, for only God can wash us and make us whole again, make us whiter than snow, and this He now does through the sacrificial blood of Christ by which He cleanses us of all our sins and takes the guilt of our sin away, for that is the power of the Christ's Cross. For sin left unchecked always has a negative impact on ones spiritual, mental, and physical health. And by all accounts David’s conscience was not only riddled with guilt, but his whole person was suffering the ill effects of it. Therefore, having opened up to God about it he wishes no more to bury it, because the guilt of sin is always an unbearable burden to a righteous person. Thankfully then we have His promise that He will cleanse us from our sin when we confess it to Him (see 1 John 1:9).

Vs. 8 “Make me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones You have broken may rejoice.”

God’s chastisement on David had been heavy, but so had been his transgression, and so David the great psalmist now asks God to once again cause his heart to sing, to grant him restored fellowship with Him and His people, thus to have his joy in the Lord restored, to have then God’s healing hand upon him.

Vs. 9 “Hide Your face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities.”

Such then was David’s guilt through this whole experience that he now asks God to hide his face from his sins, to blot out his iniquities, because if God in His Holiness does not, He will not have any more fellowship with him. David then greatly feared the Lord's rejection of him (vs. 11).

Vs. 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

David in seeking God's forgiveness and restoration now prays for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit within, for his desire, (our desire), is to be holy, to be what God intended him to be. For David now knows that his sin with Bathsheba began in his heart when he first lusted and then went after her. And sin always has a corrupting and degenerating influence on one’s heart and mind if you let it rule you. Therefore you can either confess and forsake it, as David does here, or else you will very likely only grow worse in it. Therefore having the desire to forsake ones sin is where all repentance takes hold.

Vs. 11 “Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

David then is greatly humbled, not only by his sin and its consequences, but also by recalling how God dealt with king Saul who preceded him (1 Sam. 15:10-35; 16:14). Therefore, David knowing these things does not want to lose the Lord, he does not want to be removed from Him. For apart from Him we are helpless. That being said everyone who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ need not fear God taking His Holy Spirit from them (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30), for though God's chastisement may even lead to ones own death (1 Cor. 5:5; 11:30), God's New Covenant Promise does not allow Him to forsake or abandon anyone who believes in Him (Heb. 13:5), "...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:20

Vs. 12-13 ¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

Once again David’s prayer moves to his asking the Lord to restore to him the joy of His salvation, that the Lord would do this for him, that He would by His generous Spirit uphold him, for this was David's heart and life delighting himself in the Lord; which is something king Saul never sought nor had. Indeed all Saul ever worried about was his losing his own seat and legacy as king in the kingdom (1 Samuel 18:1-9; 1 Samuel 20:31). I think if God would've even diminished David to that of being a shepherd of sheep once again he would've still delighted himself in the Lord. And so David having learned from his own transgression now promises that if God restores Him he will now become a very useful vessel for the Lord in teaching transgressors God’s ways, as well as bearing a living witness to the love and grace of God that forgave and restored him, thus through him many sinners would be converted to the Lord! And thus God's Name and Reputation be restored. 

Vs. 14 “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.”

Now David addresses the guilt of bloodshed that was upon him for his ordering the death of Uriah the Hittite through the Philistines sword. For David bore his blood guilt, and David knew this all to well. His plea here then is not based upon anything from himself, but only upon the God of his salvation, that He would remove this transgression from him, and he would sing aloud of God’s righteousness, of His alone. For truly when a person is broken by their sin they are going to worship the Lord in gratitude and thanksgiving when forgiven it, than someone who has never even realized their own sin (consider Luke 7:36-50).

Vs. 15 “O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.”

Again, it had been a long time since David could sing the Lord’s praises, for his own sin had removed this joy from him. And in David’s whole being his greatest delight and desire was in singings praises to the Lord. And for a worshipper not to be able to worship the one they love, our Lord and Savior, is tantamount to an artist not being able to paint, or a writer write, or an athlete perform etc.

Vs. 16-17 ¹⁶For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

Here we have one of the many great truths about the Lord that everyone who wants to know Him must discover for themselves, that sacrifice and offering is not what God desires from us when we sin. For these can be merely ritual and ceremonial, they can be done or given as a matter of course having little or no effect ones heart, and so ultimately all such things only end up as being dead works which do not grow anyone’s faith in, or love for the Lord (consider Isaiah 1:11-20). Therefore, the sacrifices that please God are a broken spirit (consider Matt. 5:3), that the person who sins comes to Him broken and repentant, and thus dependent upon Him for His mercies, and thus is not relying upon their having performed or done some sacrifices or rituals, or giving an offering etc.. For it is the broken and contrite heart that God will never despise (consider Luke 18:9-14). Therefore, when you sin, (for there is no one who does not sin), humble yourselves and come to the Lord broken and contrite and He will forgive and restore you!

Vs. 18-19 ¹⁸Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;

Build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,

With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;

Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

David now closes his prayer by looking outward, asking that the Lord once again due good in His good pleasure to Zion, that He build the walls of Jerusalem, that His holy realm and city once again be a place where He wishes to reside. David then wants the Lord to return to reign not only over him, but his whole realm. For then and only then will the Lord be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness done there, and only then would He once again delight in their whole burnt offerings made there to Him. Therefore when the Lord does they will offer bulls (considered the greatest burnt offering) on His altar.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.