Although we may have been preserved by divine grace from any gross and open sin, yet let us read this Psalm in the spirit of penitence. I always feel afraid of myself if I cannot read this Psalm from my heart. Surely some pride must have entrusted my spirit, and taken away its humility and its tenderness, if I cannot join in David's penitential prayer. I think that all of us who have the Spirit of God within us will feel that these words are suited to us as well as to poor broken-hearted David.
Psalms 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God,
«I cannot do without mercy, though I am thy child; and thou must give me great mercy, or it will be no mercy to me, for little mercy will not serve my turn. ‘ Have mercy upon me, O God,' without stint, and without end.
Psalms 51:1. According to thy lovingkindness:
«If I must set thee a measure, let thine own nature be the measure of thy mercy; I would view thee in the tenderest, brightest light: according to thy kindness, ah, thy lovingkindness.» Surely, that is one of the sweetest words in our dear mother tongue, and no other language contains a sweeter one: «according to thy lovingkindness.»
Psalms 51:1. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
«Thou canst not blot out such multitudes of sins unless thou hast multitudes of mercies; but inasmuch as there is no counting of thy mercies any more than there is counting of my sins, let the bright drops of thy mercy be equal to the black drops of my transgression. When I view my sin in its blackness, then I cry for mercy according to thy lovingkindness; and when I view my transgressions in their multitude, then I cry for pardon ‘according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies.' «Is not this a blessed prayer? It could not have come from David if he had not felt the greatness of his sin; and it will not suit you, dear friends, unless you also are taught by the Spirit of God to know what a bitter thing sin is.
Psalms 51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
What a washing that is! The penitent desires to have it done thoroughly: «Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.» «Leave not a single spot, for one speck would be sufficient to shut me out of heaven; I must be spotless to be admitted there. ‘Wash me throughly.' Wash not only this outward stain, but this inward defilement. Wash me through and through, ‘throughly,' till there is no trace of my sin. So wash me till I am cleansed, and made perfectly clean.» There is none but the Lord himself who can wash us after this fashion. Each of us may say with Job, «If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me.» If we made the sea to be our bath, we should sooner crimson every wave with our iniquities than one single stain of guilt should be washed away by the waters of the ocean. It is a divine work to cleanse from sin; therefore say, dear friend, «Lord, thou must wash me if I am to be washed; but do it thoroughly: ‘Wash me throughly 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 a great mercy when it is so with us; for when our sins are before our face, God will put them behind his back. When we do not see our sin, then God sees it; but when we see it aright, then God will not see it, for he will put it away forever. As for you who think yourselves innocent, by that very fact you are proved to be naked, and poor, and blind, and miserable; but you who are in a spiritual sense poverty-stricken, you who confess your guilt, shall find pardon, for the plea of «Guilty, my Lord,» is that which God answers by a sentence of acquittal.
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.
David's great iniquity was a sin against many, but he had been brought to learn what few see, that the virus of sin lies in its being against God. Last Sabbath evening, our subject was that «sin is the transgression of the law,» and I tried to show that the very essence of its sinfulness lies in the fact that it is rebellion against the will of God. So, David here puts his finger on the great black blot, and shows that he knew where the chief mischief lay: «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.» Let God do what he will with us, he cannot treat us worse than we deserve. If we were banished from his presence into a hopeless eternity, we should not dare to complain. He is justified when he speaks, he is clear when he judges.
Psalms 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
«I am bad from the fountain-head of my being, and wrong all through. It is not only what I do that is wrong, but I myself am wrong; I am a double-dyed traitor, and of a traitress born.» I doubt not that David's mother was as good as any mother probably she was a true child of God; but, for all that, David and all of us have the old tendency to sin from the very fact of our descent from fallen parents. «Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.»
Psalms 51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Ah, friends, that is the troublesome part of the matter! We might be able to rectify the external wrong, and to reform our outward actions; but who can make his heart clean? You can prune the tree, you may cut it to almost any shape you like; but you cannot make the deadly tree bring forth healthy fruit, you cannot change the sap, or alter the nature of the tree's roots. What but a power divine can do this? «In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom;» but nobody else can.
Psalms 51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
I do think that this is grand faith, for a man, blinded by his tears, broken-hearted through his sin, to feel that God can make him clean. «Take thou the hyssop, as I have seen my father do on the Passover night, when the lamb was slain, and the blood of it caught in the basin. Have I not seen him dip the hyssop in the blood, and then sprinkle it on the lintel and the side posts of the door? Have I not seen the priest dip his bunch of hyssop into the sacrificial blood, and then sprinkle all the people, and so make them ceremonially clean? Lord, thou hast a better hyssop dipped in better blood. ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.' « Possibly you know, dear friends, that the verse may be read in the future tense: «Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.» This is grand faith. I do not know that the faith of Abraham, as a saint, when he offered up his son, was greater than the faith of David, as a sinner, when he believed that God could make even him whiter than snow.
Psalms 51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Beloved, it is a sweet thing when we come to close dealings with God like this. David wants cleansing, but he will not have it except from God; he wants peace and comfort, but he will look only to God for them: «Make me to hear joy and gladness.» If you go out into the streets when you are sad, you may hear sounds of joy and gladness, which will seem like a mockery of your sorrow. «As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.» But when God speaks in mercy, when he opens the ear to hear his melodious accents of pardon, then the very bones which have been broken begin to rejoice. Probably there is no more refined pleasure of a human kind than that which comes to a man who is getting convalescent, one who is gradually being restored after a very severe illness; so there is certainly nothing more sweet than that calm quiet happiness which comes of pardoned sin when the broken heart begins to be healed: «Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.»
Psalms 51:9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
It is not, «Let the evil be hushed up, let not my people hear about it,» but, «Hide thy face from my sins.» It is not, «Help me to forget that I have been a criminal.» No; but, «Hide thy face from my sins.» «And, Lord, when thou art blotting out mine iniquities, blot them all cut; those that have never come to such a public head as this great sin with Bathsheba. Lord, when thou dost begin blotting out my sins, make a clean sweep of them all. Draw thy pen right down the page of my guilt; strike out every item that ever has been recorded there: ‘Blot out all mine iniquities.' «
Psalms 51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Do you notice how David blends justification with sanctification? His prayer for pardon is always accompanied by a prayer for purity also. He does not want to have his sin blotted out, and then to continue sinful; but he cries «Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.» «I have marred it; so come, Lord, and renew it. Thy handwriting on my conscience has grown dim; come and write upon me in bolder characters which can never be effaced.»
Psalms 51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Are you praying these prayers, dear friends, as we are reading them? I am sure you are if you have ever enjoyed the presence of God, if the Holy Spirit is your daily companion. And if you have lost that heavenly company, if you have lost that comfortable presence, I know that you are crying to get it back again; and it will come back at your cry.
Psalms 51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
«Make me happy, O Lord, but oh, make me steadfast! In delivering me from my sin, deliver me from ever going into it again. Make me like a burnt child that keeps clear of the fire. O my God, come back to me!»
Psalms 51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Dear friends, there is nothing that helps us to preach so well as a sense that we are sinners, and that God has had mercy upon us. Come up fresh from the washing, dripping with the blood of cleansing, and every drop will seem to plead with sinners that they, too, would come and be washed. Live near to the cross, and there is no fear about your preaching so that sinners shall be converted unto God. Sometimes, we seem to get into a kind of spiritual rosewater; we appear to be so very superfine ourselves, that we have to condescend to poor sinners, and preach down to them from our supreme heights, and they never get a blessing that way; but when, by deep experience, we are put upon their level, and feel that, as Christ has saved us, so he can save them, then do we speak with power and unction.
Psalms 51:14-15. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
David is going to preach, and to sing, too; and he will do it all himself; just now he wants nobody to help him. He is so given up to the service of his Master that he will be preacher and preceptor, too. He will say, and he will sing, that God is a righteous God That was a singular theme for a blood-washed sinner: «My tongue shall sing aloud o! thy righteousness.» But, believe me, nobody understands the righteousness of God but the man who understands sin, and who also understands the wondrous mercy by which it is put away through the bleeding sacrifice of Christ. When we have reached that point, then can we, and then will we, show forth his righteousness.
Psalms 51:16-17. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
Bring these sacrifices, dearly beloved, bring them to God now. Bring your broken spirit, bring your troubled conscience, bring your bleeding heart, bring all your trembling on account of sin; bring it all to God's altar now.
Psalms 51:17-19. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 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. There must be great sacrifices of joy when great sin is put away by a great ransom: «Then shall they offer bullocks « not lambs, but bullocks,-«upon thine altar.» God help each of us henceforth to offer bullocks upon his altar, not the poor little things, such as we have previously brought; but some great consecrated offering let us bring unto the God who hath forgiven all our transgressions, and blotted out all our iniquities.