Psalms 51:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Behold, thou desirest truth, &c.— The common interpretation here is, that David makes mention of God's loving sincerity, in the inward parts, i.e. the mind and spirit, by way of aggravating his own guilt, for the shameful dissimulation that he had been guilty of with respect to Uriah. To which he adds, in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom; that wisdom, which through grace would have enabled him to have maintained his sincerity, had he followed the dictates of it. Dr. Chandler, not acquiescing in this interpretation, would render the words, Thou desirest or approvest truth, or constancy and firmness in the reins; i.e. chastity and continence; moderation in the indulgence of all the sensual appetites, and the strict regular government of all the animal propensities and affections; the reins being accounted by the Hebrews as the seat of the passions. The next clause is literally, according to the Hebrew, And by their being obstructed, thou teachest, or do thou teach me Wisdom 1 :e. "by their being restrained and kept within bounds may I learn to act a wiser and a better part for the future." In the 14th verse he prays that God would deliver him from the guilt of blood, which he had incurred by the murder of Uriah. In the verse before us, he acknowledges that his adulterous commerce with Bathsheba was contrary to that purity and self-government which were pleasing and acceptable to God, and prays that, notwithstanding any inordinate tendencies that he might derive in his constitution from being conceived by a sinful mother; yet that God would give him wisdom and grace to obstruct and lay them under such restraint, as would enable him to approve himself better to God for the time to come.