Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good morning!

We’re so glad you’re here, whether you are here in person or joining us online, thank you for joining us this morning.

If you have your Bible with you, please open up to Psalm 51 this morning.

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Introduction

Hand in the cookie jar - Kent Hughes

“My hand is in the cookie jar resisting temptation!”

The fact is, no one can resist temptation with his or her hand in the cookie jar.

We’re starting out a new series in the book of Psalms.

For the next several weeks we’ll be looking for Jesus in the Psalms.

We’ll be studying Psalm 51:1-12 this morning.

[pray]

You might look at this passage and say, “Pastor, where is Jesus in this psalm?”

Principle: Finding Jesus begins in our sorrow and in our repentance.

This psalm marks David’s lament, his sorrow, over his sin with Bathsheba and his repentance and return to God.

But what does that have to do with Jesus?

We all have sin in our lives, even if we are Christ-followers, we still sin and grieve the Spirit in our sin.

How do we, as believers in Jesus Christ follow the same path that David followed in recognizing his sin and return to God? That’s what we’ll be looking at this morning.

We’ll get back to Psalm 51, but I want start in Ephesians 5 and look at what the the life of a Christ-follower looks like.

I believe that the high standard of Christian living that is promoted in Ephesians 5 can be addressed by following the instructions found in Psalm 51.

Let’s start out by reading through this passage in Ephesians...

These two passages pair well together.

In fact, I believe that the psalm provides a path to clean living.

So we’ll be concentrating on Psalm 51 for the bulk of our study time this morning.

However, in order to do that, it makes sense for us to concentrate on the background of the Psalm, which is one of David’s songs of lament.

Background

Let’s start by reviewing the backstory in 2 Samuel 11.

2 Samuel 11:1-12 - David Committed Adultery With Bathsheba

2 Samuel 11:14-27 - David Arranges for Uriah’s Death & Takes Bathsheba as His Wife

2 Samuel 12:1-15 - Nathan’s Parable & David’s Repentance

You remember the shameful story.

King David saw Bathsheba bathing and lusted after her.

He sent for her so that he could fulfill his desires.

After he learned that she was pregnant with his child, David tried to cover up the story and later arranged for her husband, Uriah to be killed in battle.

He then married her and bore five sons.

Their second son, Solomon became the King of Israel at the end of King David’s reign.

Among the sins that King David committed in this instance were lust, adultery—possibly rape—lying, and murder.

And that’s not even beginning to consider his abuse of power and how he corrupted others by involving them in his plan.

We don’t really get a sense of Bathsheba’s participation in this.

The story is not told from her perspective.

Certainly David did not have a clean heart before God in this sequence of events.

The last sentence of chapter 11 says...

2 Samuel 11:27b CSB

However, the LORD considered what David had done to be evil.

Scripture is clear that David tried to hide what he had done.

He clearly knew that what he had done would be considered sinful.

But he could not hide his sin from God.

In chapter 12, the prophet Nathan confronts David and tells him a story...

David, not knowing that this story was intended as a parable, was angry exclaiming...

2 Samuel 12:5b-6 CSB

As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.

Nathan’s response was to tell David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7)

The prophet gave him God’s message that he had “despised the Lord’s command by doing what [he] consider[ed] evil.”

(2 Samuel 12:9)

Instead of trying to dodge or dissemble, David realized he had been caught in his sin and he openly confessed his sin and repented.

Though there were consequences to his sin and he did not avoid them, God did forgive him.

It is in this context that David wrote Psalm 51.

This psalm is a record of David’s confession, repentance and his prayer for restoration.

Psalm 51 - Prayer for Restoration

This psalm fully explores David’s confession.

In fact he uses four different words to describe his sin:

1. pesha - transgression (v1)

[פֶּשַׁע] breach of trust, rebellion - transgression:—

sense: doing evil; the violation of a law, duty, or moral principle

modern vernacular: crossing a line

2. avon - iniquity (v2a)

עָווֹן avon (730d); iniquity, guilt

sense: guilt, being in the state of having committed an offense

3. chattaah - sin (v2b)

חַטָּאָה chattaah sinful thing, sin

sense: the act of sin or a feeling that is forbidden or ignores something that is required by God’s law.

This could be a thought, a feeling, speech or action.

4. ra - evil (v4)

רַע ra - bad, evil

sense: evil behavior that is morally objectionable

I think when David used four different words to describe his sin it can clearly be said that he wasn’t trying to evade the issue.

He was done hiding.

He fully owned up to his sin and made it known, not only to the prophet and to God, but also to the entire nation of Israel and to us as well.

Can you imagine your sins being revealed to an entire nation that held you in the highest esteem?

Steps to Restoration

I see a pattern here in David’s psalm that might be helpful to us all, who are seeking forgiveness from sin and the restoration that God grants when we fully confess our sin...

1. Ask for God’s Grace - v1

So many of us walk around persistent in our sin.

Because we lack a time of reflection and self-examination, we tend to ignore our own sinful state and miss the grief that we are living in.

Either that or we refuse to forgive ourselves, however we also refuse to turn to God in repentance and accept his gracious gift.

God’s grace can be had for the asking.

2. Ask for God’s Cleansing - v2

David asked for God’s cleansing.

We can have the same when we accept God’s gracious gift of forgiveness, we can be cleansed of our sin.

3. Acknowledge Your Sin - v4a

Psalm 51:4a CSB

Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight

Part of our repentance is acknowledging our sin against God and against others.

Alcoholics Anonymous got this right from the beginning when they started as a Christ-centered organization.