Psalm 51

Big Idea:

Life is found thru repentance and faith in Jesus.

Intro:

Hi Everyone.

Today is a special day in our church history, because both Church Online and Church InPerson are watching the same thing. Right now, Janelle and I are off celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary. And I decided it’d be a good opportunity to let our church family experience what it is like to watch the sermon by video, but also experience all the other InPerson aspects (like worship and fellowship) as usual.

The reason I think this is important is because we believe God would have us one day start new churches. And one strategy is to have InPerson meetings in other towns, but use the video sermon. While many churches already use this method, I’d like to see how this works out within The River Church context, according to our vision, mission, and values.

With that, last week we started a new series titled, “Finding Life in the Psalms.” Over the next few months, we’ll be exploring the Psalms and allowing them to teach us on how to live for God. And today, we’ll discuss how to find LIFE when we’ve messed up. When we’ve ruined our lives because of poor choices. When we have actively and willingly sinned against God. Anyone struggled with that before?

Well, let’s read today’s Psalm and see what it says...

Psalm 51:1–19 ESV

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 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. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Exegesis:

This Psalm of David (who was king of Israel) is pretty intense. If this is your first time reading it, you may ask, “Whoa, what happened?”

The title given this Psalm 51 is, “A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.” And if you don’t know that story, let me briefly retell it...

There was a season when King David was not where he was supposed to be. It was a time of war and he should’ve been with his army. But for whatever reason, he stayed home. And when he did, he began an inappropriate with a woman named Bathsheba (the wife of one of his soldiers). Things really got bad because Bathsheba got pregnant. And to make a long story short, David’s plan to cover up this relationship didn’t work as planned and he ended up killing Bathsheba’s husband.

… Remember, David’s reputation was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:14). Doesn’t really sound like it. Especially since a year later… we find David just chillin in the palace like nothing happened.

That’s when the prophet Nathan steps in. Check out the story...

2 Samuel 11:27–12:9 NLT

When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done. So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” David was furious. “As surely as the Lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife.

And David’s response was...

2 Samuel 12:13 NLT

Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.

And it’s THIS STORY that inspires the intensity of Psalm 51. This is David’s personal response to God’s mercy. It’s a poetic summarization of how HE FOUND LIFE AFTER he had messed everything up.

And look at what verse 13 says...

Psalm 51:13 ESV

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

David’s not simply sharing the story of how God saved him, he’s being used by the Holy Spirit to teach. This psalm show us how to find LIFE when our bad decisions have ruined it. It gives us steps to making things right with God.

Like, when we mess our lives up, the first step is to...

Step 1: Repent

Repentance means to turn around and head in the opposite direction. And in the context of Scripture, it means turning from sin and walking towards God. That sounds like a pretty easy step.

Unfortunately, we don’t like simple - at least not spiritually. We like to make things complicated. Think about the times when you’ve messed up. Do any of the following complicated responses sound familiar?

We justify our sin or wrong-doing. We have these big mental court trials (with others or ourselves) arguing that:

Our sin isn’t that bad.

Everyone does it.

I’m the king - I’m allowed to; or...

God is love, right? That must mean he doesn’t care how I live. Doesn’t God love unconditionally? Jesus died for all sin, right?

Whatever it is, we spend massive amounts of mental energy weaving complex arguments justifying our wrong-living.

And over that year, I’m sure David did this too.

We also try and hide our sin. This doesn’t sound complicated, but anyone who’s tried to cover up their sin knows it ain’t easy. Plans never works out the way we intend it. And like David, we are forced to implement complex strategies to keep them hidden.

We’ll deny our sin. Also sounds simple, but somehow our sin keeps popping up in our mind. And we have to actively repress the thoughts to stay in denial. It’s even worse when people like Nathan dig up our past.

I’m tired just talking about that. Living with sin is complicated. And yet, the reality is - and what David discovered - was all God wants is repentance. To turn around and cry out to God...

Have mercy on me O God!

Cleanse me from my sin!

I messed up! Please help me.

So, how do we keep things simple, so we can respond with repentance?

One of the simplest things we can do is hear God’s word. The book of Hebrews says...

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God’s word has this supernatural ability to dig into our hearts and break us down. And godly brokenness leads to repentance. That’s what happened when Nathan spoke God’s word to David.

I wonder if David was avoiding Nathan for a year. Like every time Nathan came around, David was like, “Oh snap! Tell him I’m not here.”

...You know how difficult it would be to hide from a prophet of God? Nathan’s just like, “Lord, where is he?” God’s like, “Over there.” And for a year, David is playing the most intense, complicated game of hide and seek (How does he always find me?!?)… until Nathan finally catches us to him. But when he does, everything becomes simple. The simple Word produces repentance.

What about us? Do we run from God when we mess up?

Don’t make things difficult. Simply listen to God’s word. It’s as simple as showing up on Sunday, to Life Group, Church Online, committing to opening up the YouVersion Bible app each morning. Listen to God’s word. He’ll do the rest.

Another thing we can do is be humble. One way we can define humble is to see ourselves according to God’s truth. Before David repented, he wasn’t humble.

He thought his sin was justified because he was king.

His sin wasn’t a big deal. All the kings do it. It’s culturally acceptable! So, he just let it slide.

In his pride, he didn’t repent.

But look at how humility changes perspective...

Verse 4 says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight...” When David was humbled, he saw his sin was a big deal. He had personally sinned against God. And his sin wasn’t just a culturally acceptable action. It was evil.

Verse 11 says, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” The consequences of his sin had separated him from God! The ancient near East may have accepted it, but not God.

Verse 5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” God didn’t care if he was king. He was still a sinner.

Only in humility did David see his radical need for God to help him. Only in humility did he see himself according to God’s truth. The same is true for us. When our lives are messed up, we find life by being humble. Then we will view ourselves honestly according to God’s truth.

We wont try to pretend everything is perfect. We won’t try to make up for our wrong doings! Pride will lead us to try that too. Let me do a bunch of “good things” to make up for my sin. God doesn’t want that!

Psalm 51:16 ESV

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

What God wants is...

Psalm 51:17 ESV

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

He wants humility. Because humility leads to repentance. And repentance leads to grace.

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

And that brings us to our second step...

Step 2: Receive God’s grace by faith.

We don’t just need repentance. We need forgiveness. We need to be made right with God. We need God’s grace to save us, so we can be transformed into the person He created us to be!

David says...

Psalm 51:6 ESV

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Psalm 51:12 ESV

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:15 ESV

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

That’s the kind of person God desires us to be: truthful, wise, joyful, obedient worshipers. And we sinners need God’s grace for that radical transformation. Because without God, that kind of change is impossible!

What’s special about David is he had faith to believe God for the impossible. He didn’t always fully understand how God’s promises would happen.

He knew that in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, God made a promise to save the world by faith. God said...

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God was mysteriously saying, “One day I will send a Savior.”

The story of Noah receiving instructions to build an ark that would save his family from the judgment of God also mysteriously foreshadow of the future Savior.

God telling Abraham...

Genesis 12:3 ESV

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Same promise of a Savior, a little less mysterious.

Moses got a glimpse of God’s salvation during the Passover. When God said...

Exodus 12:13 ESV

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

…which spoke specifically to the circumstances of God saving Israel from Egypt, but also hinted to what God’s Savior would one day do perfectly for the world.

And God also promised David...

2 Samuel 7:12–13 ESV

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

… speaking of future Savior.

I mention all of these, because although God’s promise to save men from their sins (and transform them into who He created them to be) had been around from the beginning, David didn’t always know what that looked like and how that would happen. From Abel (Adam & Eve’s son) to David, the book of Hebrew says...

Hebrews 11:39 NLT

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.

No one understood how God would save them. How they would be transformed into restored children of God. But by faith, they believed God. In verse 1, we see David’s faith in a mysterious promise...

Psalm 51:1 ESV

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

David didn’t know how God would save him from his sins, how God would transform him, but by faith David trusted God. He simply received God’s grace (his undeserved favor, love, transformation, and salvation).

God’s promise to save and transform us was always about grace.

Adam and Eve didn’t deserve to be saved. They ruined the world with their sin. But God gave them a promise by grace.

Noah didn’t deserve to be saved. After God saved him from the flood, what did he do? He planted a vineyard, got drunk, and laid around naked (Gen 9:20-21). But God gave him grace.

Abraham didn’t deserve anything. His life was filled with bad choices. But God’s grace was upon him.

Moses was a murder with a bunch of mental health issues. But God’s grace shined upon him.

And David, as the king of God’s people (Israel), didn’t deserve anything messing up all God had done for him. But David understood God’s heart. He knew that path to new life was found thru repentance and receiving God’s grace.

That’s the point of this Psalm: If you’ve messed up, you can find NEW LIFE by repentance and receiving grace by faith.

Here’s the advantage we have today: We DO understand how God saves us by faith. It’s through Jesus. We know...

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

When David said… “blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Ps 51:1b-2) he didn’t know how that would happen...

But we know that on the cross, Jesus blotted out our sin...

Colossians 2:14 ESV

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

We know Jesus washes away our sin...

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We know the blood of Jesus cleanses us...

1 John 1:7–9 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We know Jesus transforms us into something new!

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Finally… the ending of this psalm is a little strange.

Psalm 51:18–19 ESV

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

It thematically seems out of place. But some Bible scholars believe it intentionally paints a picture of prosperity - a picture of life as it was designed to be, flourishing and thriving in the presence of God. With the point being: We find TRUE LIFE by REPENTANCE and RECEIVING GOD’S GRACE BY FAITH. That simple.

Response:

I’m going to call the worship team up...

Today, I trust the Holy Spirit is pointing out something in your life. A sin that needs to be dealt with. Like David before Nathan, God’s word declares, “You are that person!” It’s time to get right with the Lord. You’ve been running, hiding, and justifying the sin too long. And it’s not bringing you life.

But by God’s grace, he’s brought you here (in this moment - wherever you are) to FIND LIFE. All you need to do is repent and receive God’s grace by putting your faith in Jesus.

It’s time to return to God. You don’t need to run and hide. God wants us with Him. Nathan didn’t come to David because God wanted to throw his sin in his face. It’s because God wanted David back in His presence.

God loved David. God loves you. And He’s gone to great lengths to bring you back to Himself - Jesus, starting this church, putting you in front of this message. I want to tell you: You don’t need to run anymore. You have a home. You belong with God. All you need to do is walk thru the door. Jesus said, “I am the door.”

And this psalm isn’t just for those who have never put their trust in the the Savior. This is for everyone. Even you mature Christians. You never come to a point in your faith where you don’t need the gospel. We need God to save us everyday. You may be a royal child of God, made right by the blood of Jesus. You - like David - have a place before God. But like David, there are things in your life God wants to purge. He wants to make clean. Places that have not been fully surrendered. This message is for you too. It’s for me.

Father, today is about simplicity. I recognize I am a sinner. But there is a great Savior. His name is Jesus. And so today, I turn from my sin and put my faith in Jesus. I receive His grace. I receive life as it was meant to be. In Jesus name, amen.

[Personalize this!]

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