Seeking His Forgiveness

Psalm 51

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Psalm 54:1–4 ESV

1 O God, save me by your name, and vindicate me by your might. 2 O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth. 4 Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

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Stand with us, Jerry come, lead us in worship!

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Good morning my friends, What a joy to get to be back with you this morning.

I appreciate Wes breaking the bread of life with you last week, speaking from the Word of God for you.…

I am incredibly thankful for Godly men who can share the Word of God and can do so without hesitation. They serve well and are a blessing to our church.

Now this morning I want us to return again to the Old Testament, and with it the Book of Psalms. Psalms are one of the most beautiful works under the Old Testament canon.

And one topic I want us to consider from the Psalms is the topic of forgiveness, and with it seeking His forgiveness. God’s forgiveness.

I would argue with you today that when we do wrong, when we find ourself in the wrong, our forgiveness begins with God himself and then extends to others.

So lets look at our text and then we will move forward this morning examining the text. Lets look at Ps 51 and verses 1-4 and 10-12 in particular, we will look at a few more but this is our main portion.

Psalm 51:1–4 ESV

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

So what could I share with you from this text today..… Well I think it is important for us to understand where this all began.. Man’s sin...

1 David’s Sin (is the) Problem of Sin.…

I know that sin isn’t a topic people like to talk about, namely because it reminds us of our own frailty, our own condition if you will...

We don’t like to talk about it because we dabble in sin, so our own sin, well we are ok with… But listen sin is the problem.

Sin is something each of us deals with, we come into the world dealing with it because we are born into sin.

It was sin that ruined man’s place in front of God then, and it is still the one thing that separates mankind from God today.

I think many of you know that this particular Psalm is one in response to a wayward life and the sinful actions that leads the King of Israel to his knees in brokenness.

And rightly so, sin should break our hearts when we allow it to invade and ruin our lives.

For Psalm 51, David’s lust and sin cost him a great deal for a moments of pleasure, a moment I bet he wished he could take back...but he could not.

Back in the Book of 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12 we have the story of David’s sin and all that it cost him.

I will summarize the events for you in case you may not be aware of it.

In the spring time of the year, when the kings go out to battle. David in his compliancy stayed home and one evening while upon his roof top, he caught sight of a young woman who was bathing..

And instead of averting his eyes, he watched, lusted and longed for her, and called for her to come to him. And of course he slept with her and she became pregnant.

Now there was an emergency… one sin has brought a consequence, so David calls for her husband to return from the battle front. He was thinking, he would sleep with his wife and his actions would help cover up her pregnancy.

But Uriah the Hittite, wouldn’t… he was far to noble… he said how could he rest and be comfortable when his men were sleeping on the ground and fighting for the nation. So finally David has him killed and he marries Bathsheba, and hopes it will all be right...

Oh he may have covered up his sin before man… but what of God?

God rebuked him for his sin, you can read it in 2 Samuel chapter 12. And there was consequences because of his sin. A man was dead, and God punished David and his family...

And David realized his sin, in 2 Samuel 12:13, David said to the prophet Nathan...13.....“I have sinned against the Lord.”

And then if you look at verse 4, what does David say in Psalm 51:4

Psalm 51:4 ESV

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

David recognized his sin was against God, and so my friends, we conclude man’s sin is first and foremost against God…

Why?

God is the creator of all life, He is the one who has founded and brought this world and us into life.

And with that, He is also the one who has given us the law and the covenant by which we are to live by… and thus sin breaks our relationship with Him. It drives a wedge between us and God… and sin leaves us guilty before God...

David knew, while his sin effected many people, his focus was God himself, I have sinned against you and you alone...

I remind you of this to bring back to light, we are responsible before God, and we are accountable before Him.

So we must take into account how we live in front of God. Now I know the past is something we cannot change, but we can repent like David did of our past mistakes and seek His forgiveness, and in doing so we also seek to restore our relationship and our fellowship with God.

But friends, this begins with understanding we are accountable before almighty God.

And this brings us to our second thought… Repent of our sin..

2 Repent of Sin...

Once we recognize in our heart that we are accountable to God for our life and actions, then what will we do?

We must repent of our sins. What is repentance?

Repentance is the renouncing of behavior and our actions that defys God. The word “repent” in the Hebrew means to turn, as if we are headed in one direction, then we turn and head in the opposite direction.

Lets go back to our text Psalm 51:1

Psalm 51:1 ESV

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

As we look at these texts we see David calling out to the Lord,: Have mercy on me O God… I love this word “mercy.” The word Mercy means ‘to show gracious kindness...”

In light of His sin, He turns from it and David calls out to God for help.

You see David is seeking God’s forgiveness… In light of his sin, his transgression and his iniquity, he is calling out for God to respond to his repentance based on God’s own mercy and steadfast love...

So he says blot out my transgressions.… Now that word transgressions literally means “my rebellions.” and rightly so. Is that what is really happening when we sin against God. We are acting in rebellion. People know what they do is wrong, but we do it anyway...

David got caught up in the moment, but he let his flesh get in the way… He knew who Bathsheba was and who her husband was.. But he didn’t care… he allowed his lust and desire to supersede his ability to do right... For David, he said… “it’s good to be the King...”

Then when she becomes pregnant, all of a sudden he is in trouble and he needs to make it right, but he cannot and the whole thing becomes a slippery slope. Until finally David commits murder....

And David tellls God in verse 3, Ps 51:3

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

I bet it was, I bet you Uriah blood cried out for justice every day and God who was the sole judge of the universe had executed judgment.

And David is owning up to his fault, his rebellion and sin.

David’s sin would bring heartache on many fronts, David couldn’t change it but he could seek God’s forgiveness, turn and repent of his sin and strive to walk uprightly in the future.

So David confesses his sin, and calls out in his contrite heart, have mercy on me.

For God to show mercy will mean for God to show Him favor once again, only God can choose to do this and only God can thereby then examine David’s heart and respond by two statements that David makes..

Blot out my sin… cover it up, make it unseen, as if it did not happen

And then to Wash me to wash is to purify, to make clean again, so that he is acceptable in the sight of God.

We cannot do this in our own strength or efforts, But God can choose to act toward a heart that is seeking forgiveness through repentance and restore them fully.

Which is God’s right to do… again it is based in his mercy and his steadfast love...

But now lets move forward to a different portion of story, we have addressed the problem, and we have look at repentance, but what of restoration.

3 Restoration...

Restoration is what happens when God acts favorably toward us.

Restoration is to be restored, to be brought and welcomed back into a right standing with someone, but here it is God himself.

Look at what David says in verses 7-10… Ps 51:7-11

Psalm 51:7–11 ESV

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

David says Purge me with hyssop… the word Purge means to purify, to make clean, free from disease… And with what? David says purge me with hyssop, - this is a plant that is used in purification, cleansing rituals around the Temple. It was a plant that was known to be absorbent in nature.

So think of this, this plant is one that takes what has plagued us, made us unclean, and draws that away from us. So symbolically, the very nature of the plant is to take away what has made us guilty… and it is an outward work that is showing us the picture of what God does for us.

God is the one who cleanses, to is able to take away our sin. And in the removal of sin, he takes us and makes us whiter than snow. Pure, clean and whole...

But he doesn’t stop there, David calls on God to “let him hear joy again...” What is he saying here?

David is picturing the isolation and the separation that is caused by sin. He is something that places us outside of the camp if you will.

It removes one from the presence of all that brings them joy. It is like death has come to him and death has separated him from the living.

And with you think of the cleansing again with Hyssop, that is one plant in particular that was used to cleanse someone who had come into contact with the dead.

But Davis is asking God to bring him back into the land of the living, back into the camp if you will. Let me be greeted with the sounds of welcome and festivity, and those bones that were once broken, Lord heal them that they might dance in your presence again...

But look at verses 10-12… David makes a call for God to make this work complete, how? By working with his own heart.

Psalm 51:10–12 ESV

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Did you see it? David calls on God to create in him a clean heart, now that is important… it is really a Wow moment, in the midst of his despair, he calls on God to do a miracle inside of his life. to create in him what only God can do...And please understand, it’s not that he is calling for salvation, he is calling for holiness.

And when you include the second part of verse 10, where he says… renew a right spirit within me… it is like David is calling on God to take his spirit, and place it in tune with God’s spirit.

3 Restoration...