Reflections on the Psalms: Repentance [Psalm 51]

We continue our reflections on the Psalms series this morning with Psalm 51. This psalm is one of the most well-known, humbling, convicting, and encouraging psalms in all of scripture.

Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm, “Such a psalm may be wept over, absorbed into the soul, and exhaled again in devotion; but, commented on—ah! where is he who having attempted it can do other than blush at his defeat?”

So in commenting on it today—in preaching this text—I just want to walk us through it humbly and simply, pondering its meaning along the way and allowing its truth to penetrate our hearts.

In order to understand what this psalm is saying and how it applies to our lives, we need to start by reading the introduction to it. Before you even get to verse 1, it says, “To the choirmaster. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”

Some of you may be real familiar with this story others may not, but it is found in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and the first part of chapter 12. I’ll read the first 5 verses then summarize the rest.

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.””

So David, the king of Israel, was not where he was supposed to be, out to battle with his army, he was home saw this beautiful woman had an affair with her and got her pregnant… if that wasn’t bad enough, David then tried to cover it up.

Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, who was out to battle in David’s army, he was where he was supposed to be, David sent a messenger to send Uriah to the front lines and then retreat leaving him alone so he would be killed in battle. Then David would take Bathsheba as his wife and they’d live happily ever after.

But God sent Nathan the prophet to David and he told David a story about a rich man who had a very large flock and a poor man who only had one little lamb. A traveler came by and the rich man wasn’t willing to use one of his own flock to prepare for the man so the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the traveler. And David became very angry and asked who this man was in his kingdom that would do such a despicable thing and this man would pay back four fold what he took and of course Nathan said, “David you are the man.”

So David was told about great affliction that would befall him and it did, the child of Bathsheba would die and David’s family would be a mess after that. So in light of this story David prays... read Psalm 51.

Okay, let’s walk humbly and simply through this psalm, pondering its meaning and allowing its truth to penetrate our heart. I want us to see four simple truths that are very significant.

Sin is serious

First, sin is serious. Notice how David repeats over and over again three different words to describe his sin. You might circle or underline them. Verse 1, “Blot out my transgressions.” Verse 2, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” Verse 3, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Verse 4, “Against you, you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” Verse 5, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Verse 9, “Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

It is offensive

Sin, iniquity, transgression, evil … all different words that combine together to show the seriousness of what David did. Think about sin in this passage. It is offensive. David uses the word “transgression,” and the word means to rebel against divine law. We see the nature of sin here in two ways.

First, sin defies God. Verse 4 says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” Now obviously, David sinned against Bathsheba. And obviously, David sinned against Uriah. We may think that in our sin, the most serious consequence is the harm that we bring to someone else—a spouse, children, parents, friends, others. In our narcissistic age, we may even be tempted to think that the worst consequence of our sin is on ourselves. When you hurt yourself, that’s said to be the worst of all.

But that’s not biblical. The worst consequence of sin is the fact that you have defied the infinitely holy God of the universe. Your offense to him is the primary problem of sin. Just think about the transition that has come about in David at this point.

He has gone from asking, “How do I cover up my sin?” to “How could I do this to God?” This is the place we all need to come to … to see our sin for what it is—outright defiance of God himself. When you sin, you defy God. When I sin, I defy God. Now that’s obviously not all that it’s involved in sin.

Yes, sin defies God, but also—sin destroys man. The effect of David’s sin carried beyond David to the murder of a man, a wife losing her husband, and a child dying. Never underestimate the power of sin in your life to cause pain in others’ lives.

It is comprehensive

Not only is sin offensive, but it is comprehensive. David doesn’t say, “Oh, I messed up a few times.” No, he has a much more comprehensive understanding of sin. He knows sin goes back to the moment he was born. Verse 5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” That’s not a reference to an immoral relationship David’s mother had, or the specific circumstances surrounding his birth. It’s a reference to the reality that affects every single one of us in this world from the moment we are born.

We are born into sin. We are born with hearts that are prone to defy God and destroy others. You can see it in the nature of a little child that is as sweet and cute and cuddly as can be at one moment … and then as defiant and uncontrollable as can be in the next moment. And it’s all of us: we don’t just occasionally sin … we are comprehensive sinners, possessing a nature that is prone to disobey.

Sin is pervasive

Our sin is not just offensive and comprehensive. It is pervasive. David says in verse 3, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” It’s with me all the time … and it’s not just David here, it’s me. Even in my best deeds on my best days, when I am doing what would seem to be the most noble things, I am still prone to do those things for selfish reasons. Even in my clearest displays of Christ-like actions on the outside, I can harbor some of the most evil thoughts on the inside. I am a sinner, through and through.

Oh, see how pervasive sin was in David’s life! Sin appears so subtly. It all started with a walk outside … and a glance across the roof. It all started with a glance.

Sin appears so subtly and sin harms so deeply. A lustful look leads to adultery … adultery to lying … lying to murder … murder to the death of a child. And beyond this, realize how deep the harm as David’s oldest son, Amnon, repeats the same sin David did, only he rapes his half-sister. Sin harms so deeply.

Sin controls so quickly. We’re not reading the rest of the story in 2 Samuel, but David’s sin just controlled his household. Within two years, his son Absalom was murdering his brother Amnon and rebelling against his father. Sin spirals.

Sin devastates so painfully. David’s reign as king eventually ends with strife between the men of Judah in the south and the men of Israel in the north, strife that will one day lead to a divided kingdom. This whole picture started with one look on one day. David … and others … devastated by sin. What we perceive to be the slightest sin is infinitely serious before a holy God.

God is gracious

Then there’s the second truth. Oh, I am so glad Psalm 51 has a second truth … and a third and a fourth for that matter. Thank God Psalm 51 doesn’t leave us with the seriousness of sin. The second simple, significant truth is that God is gracious.

Just as David uses different words to describe his sin, he uses different words to describe God’s grace. You might circle these as well. In verse 1 he says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” Mercy … abundant mercy … steadfast love. Then he prays, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” Literally, what David is asking is that God would “un-sin” him … that God would remove his iniquity from him.

Talk about a bold request … to ask the holy God whom you have defied … to act as if you have not defied him … and David knows there is no basis in himself for this. What basis does David have to come before God?

None. David knows that he has committed two sins for which the law of Moses provided no forgiveness: adultery and murder. The penalty for these sins according to God’s law was death. David had nothing else to appeal to, so from the start of this psalm, his first words are a cry for mercy. Not according to what I have done or can do to make myself clean, David says, but according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. David is appealing to the grace of God.

His cleansing is costly

Now David knows that such grace, such mercy comes at a cost. David knows that his cleansing is costly. It involves sacrifice. Which leads to what James Boice called the four “most important” yet “least understood” words in Psalm 51:7—“Purge me with hyssop.”

“What is hyssop?” And the answer to that question is huge. The language David uses all throughout this psalm deals with purification and cleansing, which was the responsibility of the priest among God’s people.

Someone who was unclean, which we read about in Leviticus and Numbers, would come to the priest for cleansing. And hyssop was a small plant that, because of the way it was shaped and formed, could be used as a small brush. And so the priests would use hyssop to brush, or sprinkle, blood over a sacrifice or offering. So when we hear David pray, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,” David is referring to the process of sacrifice, and specifically the sprinkling of blood.

David knows that the penalty for his sin is death. And if he expects his sin to be removed from him, then the penalty for sin must be paid by something (or someone) besides him. God can’t just overlook sin as if it didn’t happen. There’s a penalty for sin that must be paid, and David knows that, which is why he uses the language of sacrifice here. This recalls us to Hebrews 9:22 “ without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

His forgiveness is free

In our sin, we can only approach God through the sacrifice of another in the place of our sin. And it is only because of God’s costly sacrifice that his forgiveness is free. To you and me. This is the wonder of God’s grace. We stand before God guilty in our sin. He is justified in his judgment of us. But in his mercy—in his abundant mercy—he makes a way for you and me to be cleansed of all our sin. Despite all our sin, God makes a way for you and me to be washed whiter than snow.

Confession is the connection

Which leads to the third truth: sin is serious, God is gracious, and confession is the connection between our sin and God’s grace. How can you and I be clean before God? How can your sins—in all of their comprehensive pervasiveness—be wiped completely away?

Confession is the connection. That’s what this whole psalm is about. It’s acknowledgement of sin alongside pleading for forgiveness. “Purge me with hyssop” and “wash me,” verse 7. “Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities,” verse 9.

Confession involves honesty

Now this kind of confession involves honesty. David is completely transparent before God here. He’s not trying to cover over his sin himself … he knows he can’t do that. He’s not trying to blame other people for his circumstances for his sin, though we so often do that.

Listen to what David says in verses 16–17 here: “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.”

Now David is not demeaning the sacrificial system—we’ve already talked about that. David knows sacrifice is important. But he also knows that sacrifice is an outward ritual that must reflect an inward reality.

David knows that in light of his sin, he can’t just offer a burnt offering on the outside, as if that would take care of everything. David knows something must happen on the inside … in his heart. And this is huge. If we are not careful, religion can become one of the biggest cover-ups for sin in your life and my life.

You and I can live in sin, particularly secret sin … sin that nobody else knows about, and gather together in a setting like this and convince ourselves that we’re okay. Participating in outward rituals while covering up in the inward reality of sin in our lives. Don’t do that. God, help us not to do that. God, help us not to sing songs and listen to a sermon while bypassing brokenness over sin that remains in us. The path to the grace of God is paved with honesty before God.

Confession involves humility

Confession involves honesty, and confession involves humility. Confession involves exactly what we’re seeing in David here … you and I coming to God and saying, simply, “I have sinned against you. I have defied you. My sin is ever before me … I can’t escape it. And I need you to take it away. O God, I need you to take it away. There’s nothing I can do; this is something only you can do.” Oh, this is the key, and it’s one of the realities that sets Christianity apart from other religions in the world.

Take note...There is no prescription for what must be done to make cleansing and forgiveness possible. There is no...

Pray this many times.

Read this many holy passages.

Recite this mantra this many times.

Spin this prayer wheel.

Fast, take this trip, go to this building, perform this ritual … none of that.

It’s honest, humble, “I can’t do it … I need you to make me clean, O God.”

And when we come before God like this—oh, non-Christian and Christian alike, when we come before him, either for the first time in our lives or on a daily basis in our lives, and we say, “I need you to cleanse me and forgive me,” then we find that God is gracious.

First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness.”

Oh, what good news … the greatest news in all the world. You can be made right with God! And it’s not by doing a list of good works to try to cover up the evil and uncleanness in your heart.

It’s by trusting in divine grace … by casting yourself before him in confession of your need for him. I invite you to do this...Confess your sin before him … daily … and receive his mercy as the gift it is, and it is new every single morning.

Restoration is the result

Which all leads to the last truth here: sin is serious, God is gracious, confession is the connection between the two, and restoration is the result. Oh, notice that David doesn’t just want a clean slate; he wants a clean heart. He wants a new start. And he knows he can’t make this happen on his own, so he prays, verse 10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Oh, see the emphasis on inner transformation here. David knows his heart is sinful, and he knows he needs God to create a change at the core of his being. He doesn’t need to try harder next time, which is how we often deal with sin. “Oh, I messed up … well, I’ll try to do better next time.” No, David knows he doesn’t need to try harder; he knows he needs a new heart. A radically new start. And this is exactly what God gives.

God re-creates our heart

In response to our confession, God doesn’t just wipe the slate clean, washing our sins away. No, it gets even better: God re-creates our heart. The word in verse 10 for “create” is the same word that’s used in Genesis 1 to describe how God creates the world. Just as God creates a sun and a moon, light and darkness, the earth and the seas, God has the power to create a new heart in you and me. And this is exactly what God does for us in Christ. He says in 2 Corinthians 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

God re-establishes our joy

God re-creates our heart and God re-establishes our joy. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation,” verse 12. Notice, again, that only God can do this. It’s God’s salvation, not David’s, and when God re-creates our heart, he re-establishes our joy. He brings shattered bones to rejoice (verse 8). Oh, see the way this works.

When we sin, when we defy God, we hinder fellowship with God, and the result, as we’ve seen, is offense against him and the devastating effects of sin in our lives … all of which steals our joy away.

But in confession, when we come honestly and humbly before God in our sin, he restores our relationship with him, and in the process he re-establishes our joy before him.

Oh, don’t miss this! Concealment of sin is the pathway to misery. But confession of sin is the pathway to joy. David had tried to conceal his sin, and that didn’t work. And mark it down, ladies and gentlemen, it will never work. Concealment of sin always leads to misery. But confession of sin always leads to joy … to joy in God.

Now obviously, I want to be careful here to note that this doesn’t mean all the consequences of sin go away. David’s sin had consequences, when we sin there are often consequences of sin. And the reality is that the effects of sin don’t just go away.

Praise God that the ultimate effect of sin (death) has been paid for by Christ, and we’re looking forward to the day in the future when Christ returns and all sin and its effects will be removed from the world, and we will dwell with him in a new heaven and a new earth. But until that day, past sin can cause present pain.

We walk with Him

And so, David says, when God re-creates our heart and re-establishes our joy, by his enabling, we walk with him. By his grace, despite our sinful tendencies, we are able to walk with him willingly. See how David goes here from cleansing from God to communion with God.

His sins are not just washed away; he is now willing to follow God wherever and however God leads, according to his Spirit that he has put in us. “This is what we need. This is what we most need in the world … a clean heart before God, and a steadfast spirit to walk with him today.”

We witness to Him

This is restoration: we now walk with God and we witness to God. Verse 13—“I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” David is compelled by God’s grace to proclaim God’s grace. If this is true, if God will make anyone who comes to him clean through confession and faith, then this is the greatest news in the world.

To people all across this city, state, country, and all across this world, “Christ alone can make you clean.” “Only Christ can make you clean.” And he will make you clean … if you will trust in him.

We worship Him

This is the result of confession: we walk with him, we witness to him, and we worship him. Verses 14–15: “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, 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.”

When you realize that you have sinned against God, and that in his grace, he has wiped away all your sins through the sacrifice of his Son on a cross, then worship overflows.

We sing … loud. We declare praise. And not just in each of our lives individually, but the psalm closes in verses 18–19 with a corporate cry for all the people of God. David wants the grace he has found in God to be applied across the entire community of Israel … that all of God’s people might worship him rightly, honestly, humbly, truly, as they rejoice in the good pleasure of God.