There are many sweet notes in Christian music, but to my own heart there is none so softly, tenderly, sweet as the note of repentance. Full assurance rings out her clarion trumpet strain, and we ought to be able to send it forth, but sometimes we are unable. Conquest over sin gives us Miriam's timbrel to dance to, and it is well; but for everyday use commends me to the harp-strings of penitence. We ought always to be able to play on those strings. They always befit our guilty fingers. They are always sweet to the ear of the Most High. Mr. Rowland Hill used to say that there was one friend of his whom he could not take to heaven, and whom he thought he should regret to leave, and that was sweet repentance. I suppose when God wipes every tear from our eyes we shall not be able to weep for sin, but until then:
«Lord, let me weep for naught but sin,
And after none but thee;
And then I would-(oh that I might!)
A constant weeper be,»
for these bitter sweets these sweet bitters are almost the choicest of our sorrow joys or joyful sorrows that we have this side of heaven. Thus David sings.
Psalms 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
And really, brethren, if we cannot feel that we have need to say, «Have mercy upon me,» and if, indeed, this is not the habitual language of our soul, there must be something more wrong about us than even open sin. Not to be able to confess sin, and not to be able to mourn it, is one of the direst estates of sin, in which even sin can be found; but to be able to say from the very soul, «Have mercy upon me: blot out my transgressions,» indicates that there is a soundness in us still by divine grace. Do you notice what a quick eye David has here for the softer attributes of God? Did ever any man put words together more pleasantly? «According to thy loving-kindness» « according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.» God never looks more beautiful than when he is seen through a tear. If, under a sense of sin, you see him as the strangely forgiving ‘God, oh! how pleasant a God he is, and how our hearts love him!
Psalms 51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
It is not the punishment. The child of God has got away from the legal fear that dreads the punishment. The sin the sin is that which he loathes and hates. «Lord, get rid of it. I seem to want double cleansing. Wash me; wash me thoroughly; and when thou hast done that, cleanse me, for there are stains that washing will not get out. Try fire, Lord, if water will not do it; but somehow wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.»
Psalms 51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
It is thrown out on the surface. Health comes back when the disease manifests itself by an outward eruption. It is when you do not acknowledge it it is when it is not before you when you cannot perceive it will not confess your sin it is then that it is at the heart-strings killing you, murdering you. Confessed sin has the teeth taken out of it: but sin that is not felt and known, and still is there, breeds the canker of self-conceit and pride, and is deadly to the heart.
Psalms 51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
For, in sin, this is the essence of it that it is sin against God. You cannot get the worldly man to feel that. «I have done no hurt to my neighbour. I have not injured society.» But how different it is with the child of God. It is against God that he has sinned. What if he has never left his chamber if he has never done an action or said a word? Yet that proud heart of his that rebelled when he was full of pain that murmuring spirit that would not brook the Lord's will that is enough to lay him in the dust; and he mourns it and confesses it. «Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.»
Psalms 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me.
It is not merely that I sinned, but I am sin. I am a lump of sin a heap of iniquity by nature so. It is not merely in me, but it is me my very self. It is in my blood, my bones, my marrow. O God, canst thou cleanse me from this?
Psalms 51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
And sin is a lie, and sin is folly. God desires truth and wisdom. Can he give us both of these? Yes, and he will; only let us own the untruthfulness and confess the unwisdom, and put ourselves into his hands for his infinite grace to deal with us; and he will do it yet. «In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.»
Psalms 51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
«With hyssop.» Just as the priest took the bunch of herbs, and put it into the basin full of blood, and stirred it round and round till he soaked the hyssop in the crimson and then sprinkled it upon the penitent, oh Lord, apply the blood of Christ to my soul. Purge with me hyssop»-« And I shall be clean.» I shall not be clean any other way. This is the only cleansing-purgation by the sacrificial atonement. And thou alone must do it. Lord, do it now.
Psalms 51:8-9. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
I do not want to hear it unless thou make me to hear it. I would not.be comforted unless thou comfort me. Dread above everything, dear friends, false comfort false judgments of yourselves high notions about your own attainments grand ideas of your own standing in yourselves.
Psalms 51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
For there must not merely be a creation, but a daily renewal, or else what thou hast once created will soon be blotted and marred as thy first natural creation was. Go on from day to day to make and keep my heart pure within.
Psalms 51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Do not fling me away as a man pulls up a weed by the roots and throws it on a dunghill.
«Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.» Oh! how often will the child of God have to pray this prayer? The Holy Spirit is in him, and he knows it, but he grieves the Spirit; and when his heart is very tender this is his daily fear lest the Spirit of God should depart from him. «Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.»
Psalms 51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
I did know it once. What joy it is the joy of thy salvation. Give it me back, O Lord. I cannot live on the old mercy. The recollection does not satisfy. It only makes me hunger. «Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.»
Psalms 51:13. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Nobody ever teaches the mercy of God so well as he that tastes it. Sinner, do you know what a good God my Lord Jesus is? He has forgiven my innumerable sins, and therefore I love to speak of him, and to speak of him to such as you are, such as I am. «He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.» Dear friends, if you know the Saviour, be sure you tell all you know; or if you cannot tell it all, tell as much as you can, and as long as you have got breath left. And it may not be long. You may not have many mere opportunities, for sickness comes so suddenly, and puts the strong man aside so soon. Do use for God what time you have, and tell of his love while yet you are in the land where men can hear it, and where you can speak of it. Let this be your prayer: «Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.»
Psalms 51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
He said that he would, be a preacher; nay, he said that he would be a singer. God's people feel that they cannot do too much when they get a sense of pardoned sin. They will be both preacher and precentor. They will preach; they will sing. They will have all the irons in the fire. They will not be afraid of turning their faculties to too many accounts.
Psalms 51:15-17. O Lord open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
What a sweet verse that is! Have you got a broken heart tonight, dear friend, and do you feel almost ashamed to bring it, because it is in such a broken condition? It is in the best possible condition. I have read accounts of meetings of God's saints met by the ten days together, and talking all about great things that have been done for them and from the first to the last no indication of a broken heart or of a contrite spirit. I confess I could not understand it, and did not want to understand it. I would rather stand with the poor publican behind the door five minutes, and say, «God be merciful to me a sinner,» than sit ten days with perfect brethren to magnify and glorify God about what I thought he had done for me, because I am persuaded that in the latter case I should be always in danger of magnifying myself, rather than God; whereas in the former case I should be near the truth, and near where I ought to be. Oh! keep you to this, «The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.»
Psalms 51:18-19. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Notice this. David felt that he had done something to pull down the walls of Zion. His bad example would do mischief to the cause of God; and his prayer to be forgiven is not a selfish one, which deals only with his own particular blessing, or his own desire for mercy. He wants the church to prosper; he wants God's work to go on; and so he cannot close the prayer, even of a penitent and broken heart, without crying, «Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.» In proportion as we think less of ourselves we shall think more of the church of God, and more of the work of God in the land. To despise yourself is the way to honour God and his people. But when you honour yourself, you will first despise others, and it will go on by degrees to a dishonouring of God himself from which may the Lord save us!
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51:1. and Romans 7:7-25.