Psalm 51
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Intro
Intro
KEY EMOTION: Guilt
Wash away my guilt (2). Indeed I was guilty when I was born (5). Blot out all my guilt (9). Save me from the guilt of bloodshed (14).
What is guilt? — Psychologically speaking
Psychologists put guilt in the category of ‘sad’ emotions.
Alongside agony, grief, and loneliness.
Sigmund Freud taught that guilt is a primary building block in our decision making.
Guilt allows us to feel how awful our awful desires really are.
ILL: When you ‘guilt’ someone into doing something.
From a cognitive point of view, guilt is an emotion that people experience because they’re convinced they’ve caused harm.
ILL: A sociopath is someone who commits socially inappropriate behaviors and doesn’t experience guilt.
Emotionally healthy people experience guilt whenever they do something that conflicts with their moral beliefs.
Sometimes our desires result in guilt even if we don’t do anything.
ILL: “I wish he would get hit by a bus.” — Then you feel guilty, because, what if he does get hit by a bus, then maybe on some cosmic level, I caused it!
People who suffer from chronic guilt usually suffer from this sort of guilt, where they didn’t really do anything, but they are afraid they may have made something happen.
It’s not as if you’ve done something wrong, just that you are wrong.
The most common type of guilt is the kind of guilt that comes from things you have actually done. You can see that in the words of the Psalmist. But you can also see that the Psalmist sees guilt as part of his identity, that there is something intrinsically wrong about his being. That is to say, he is guilty because of who he is as much as he is guilty because of what he has done.
Wash away my guilt. (v. 2)
Indeed I was guilty when I was born. (v. 5)
Blot out all my guilt. (v. 9)
Save me from the guilt of bloodshed. (v. 14)
Today we’re going to ask three questions about guilt that I think will give us a healthy view of our own guilt. The first is…
Today we’re going to ask three questions about guilt that I think will give us a healthy view of our own guilt. The first is…
Who’s Guilty? (The Reality of Sin)
Who’s Guilty? (The Reality of Sin)
There’s a trend in Christianity to focus more on the global and universal destruction caused by sin more so than our individual sin.
It’s true that there is a curse on the entire creation that causes societies to be self-destructive, ecology to decay, and life to fade.
But, we have to remember that at the root of this universal destructive pattern is individual sin.
The keyword in this part of the passage is, ‘My’ — The Psalmist is highly aware of his own, personal guilt for sin.
Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.
The Jews used on the day of atonement to remind the congregation of their individual guilt before God.
The Psalmist wrote about David to give an example of corporate repentance for each individual in the community (cf.
The promise of the Day of Atonement:
Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
Atonement means reconciliation to God.
Being at one with God (at-one-ment)
Finding favor with God
The basis of favor with God is recognizing your guilt before Him.
— Jesus told this story
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The principle is simple.
Tax collector and a Pharisee
No one is good enough for God.
Everyone is guilty.
But God has mercy for the guilty if they will recognize their sin.
The foundation of our favor with God is not our goodness, but our confession of sinfulness and our focus on the mercy of God.
EXPLORE: Is it always necesary to recognize your sin? What about after you are saved?
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
So, who is guilty? The answer is surely everyone. That’s the assumption of the Psalmist. The next question is…
Guilty Of What? (The Offense of Sin)
Guilty Of What? (The Offense of Sin)
…precisely.
Judgment is from God (pt 4) (vv. 3-4)
For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.
There’s a paradigm we see in scripture
: Jesus teaches that we love God by loving people.
Here: Opposite. To sin against man is ultimately to sin against God.
ILL: David, Bathsheba, Uriah — Nathan’s accusation
David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die.
., )
When Nathan called out David on his sin with Bathsheba and his sin against Uriah, his response was, “I have sinned against the LORD.” — His guilt was before God, more so than men.
We still sin against other people. EX
We still need to confess sin to reconcile relationships. EX
But, sin is ultimately always against God.
Sin is a theological category — it is defined by how God sees it
We couldn’t define sin against man if we didn’t have a theological category for it.
It would just be nature. (ex. adultery would be no different (no less natural) than a cheetah eating a gazelle).
In fact, there are adulterous and promiscuous animals in the animal kingdom and we never conclude that the animals sin; only for humankind.
For humans to sin against each other requires a theological category—it requires that we defy God’s moral standards.
So, then sin against fellow man is secondary, because sin is first and foremost against God.
Importance: Why bother with this discussion if it’s both?
Secret sin: It doesn’t hurt anyone
maybe, but Why does it still result in guilt? Is sin of the mind and heart even sin?
[ILL: Guilty conscience when you aren’t speeding.] — our guilt is with us even when we arent sinning
When we see sin as ultimately against God then we can even be free of guilt for sins of the mind and heart.
ILL: , Jesus says that to lust is to make you guilty of adultery in your heart
When you lust you feel guilt whether you commit adultery or not
You worry someone saw you take a second look
You begin to worry that you may say something inappropriate to someone
Your looking turns to fantasies of doing and you begin to experience not just guilt but, shame.
And properly speaking you should never experience shame for something you have not done, but you do, because your sin is not merely against man, but it is ultimately against God.
Deep down you know that He has seen your adultery and you are guilty and ashamed.
And it’s not just lust.
It’s greed and envy that shares a motive with theft.
It’s bitterness and anger that shares a motive with murder.
God sees the sin of the heart and you are feel guilt before him.
This is weird, because it doesn’t really make sense that we would feel guilty for something we didn’t actually do.
But, everyone knows we do.
So, Guilty of What? We are guilty of sin against God.
I think the next question further explains this issue…
Why Are We Guilty? (The Source of Sin)
Why Are We Guilty? (The Source of Sin)
The question is really Why do we sin?
The biblical answer is that we sin because we are sinners; we aren’t sinners because we sin.
Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Sinful by birth/conception
Created with an identity of sinner even before you have ever sinned.
Sinful by birth/conception
Part of the curse of Adam
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
Identity as a sinner means we have a propensity to sin and thus…
There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.
Is it unfair that God has made us individually in such a way?
Natural ordering of Adam’s children — Is it unfair that you inherited your mother’s eye color? Or is it just the way that it is?
ILL: Kingdom of the world
On guilt: Why do we feel guilty for things we didn’t even do?
(NOTE: We feel guilty for something we didn’t do, because our thought-lives are reflective of our nature not our behavior.)
Your first father sinned, and your mediators have rebelled against me.
Guilty because of identity (enemies of God) ()
; ; ; ; note
How did we become sinners? (, ) Did God make us that way?
, ) Did God make us that way?
You have never heard; you have never known; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew that you were very treacherous, and were known as a rebel from birth.
We feel guilty for something we didn’t do, because our thought-lives are reflective of our nature not just our behavior.
, ) Did God make us that way?
OIW, we fear judgment even if there is no behavior to judge because our very nature makes us guilty as enemies of God.
) Did God make us that way?
CONCLUSION: The Hope We Have in Christ
CONCLUSION: The Hope We Have in Christ
James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 201.
On confession prayers: individual sins and nature
My problem is not just the need of pardon for a particular wrong but deliverance from the predicament of my self.
Repentance is not so much a turning from particular behaviors, but a turning from our nature. Repentance is a redefinition of the self.
My problem is not just the need of pardon for a particular wrong but deliverance from the predicament of my self.
Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.
James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 201.
To pray, “Wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin,” (v. 2) is a plea for God to redefine your very nature and being. No longer sinner, but righteous (NT REF).
Thus confession of sin require requires redemption/renewal. (pt 6)
The Psalmist believes God can turn away from personal sins.
Redefinitions
He can also blot out our guilt. That means he can forgive us (not just for what we have done) but, for the way that we are — sinners.
You may say, “I’m not a sinner anymore because of Christ. He has counted me righteous.”
That is half true.
Christ has counted you righteous because of His own righteousness not your own.
Your guilt has been blotted out, but your nature is not yet changed.
In , the Apostle Paul says that the Spirit wars with the flesh to cause you not to do what the flesh wants you to do.
You aren’t free from your propensity to sin. But, you are empowered by the Spirit of God to overcome your sin.
So, in spite of sin, God forgives us, turns his face from our sin. And He even deals with our guilt that is our flesh.
God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm
“Create a clean heart” is not a plea to be with Jesus, but a plea to be like Jesus.
No longer, “Change me and I will praise you,” but, “Change me, I’m the problem.” (wash me is no longer a plea to be with Jesus, but a plea to make your heart like Jesus.)
New nature (vs. 10) — to forgive sin and leave the person a sinner would do nothing for the ultimate restoration of the creation. (ILL: Question: Can we sin in heaven?)
New nature — a real change to your desires that will ultimately, by the power of the Holy Spirit move you to be like Christ.
The focal-point of the biblical narrative is not the forgiveness of sins; it’s the changing of sinners into truly righteous people like Christ.
To forgive sin and leave the person a sinner would do nothing for the ultimate restoration of the creation.
Create a clean heart is a plea to take Christ’s attributed righteousness and make it actual righteousness. That’s the hope of eternity with Jesus—actual righteousness; a perfect righteous nature. — this is what we have to look forward to in eternity
(ILL: Question: Can we sin in heaven? Do pigs fly? — not their nature) — you won’t; its not your nature
Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
God is building a righteous Kingdom not well behaved individuals (vs. 18).
The Psalmist lives in this tension where he knows he is still a sinful human being even though the Spirit of God is in Him.
He knows he is in God’s presence.
And he knows the Spirit of God is with Him.
And yet, he’s fallen into patterns of sin so that guilt consumes him.
So, he prays this prayer of repentance and a prayer for God to restore him.
Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
He asks for the joy of salvation—not that He has lost his salvation and that needs restored. But, he has lost the joy of it.
Guilt robs our joy. — if you’re having a hard time finding joy in the Lord it might be that you’re in a pattern of unrepentant sin
Freedom from guilt is the pathway to restoration to the joy of your salvation.
He prays that he might be sustained by a willing spirit, that he might never fall prey to patterns of sin and guilt again.
I would also pray that for you and I, that we might be restored to the joy of our salvation and never fall prey to patterns of sin and guilt that rob our joy.
For we have great joy in Christ who has called us and restored us to God.
PRAY:
PRAY:
PRAY:
(CSB)
A PRAYER FOR RESTORATION
For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.
1 Be gracious to me, God,
according to your faithful love;
according to your abundant compassion,
blot out my rebellion.
2 Completely wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned
and done this evil in your sight.
So you are right when you pass sentence;
you are blameless when you judge.
5 Indeed, I was guilty when I was born;
I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire integrity in the inner self,
and you teach me wisdom deep within.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Turn your face away from my sins
and blot out all my guilt.
10 God, create a clean heart for me
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me,
and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God—
God of my salvation—
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it;
you are not pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.
You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.
18 In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.