Unlike many of the other Penitential psalms, we want to spend the entire week focused on this one passage of Scripture. Psalm 51 contains some important truths for us to consider. This well-known passage is perhaps the most difficult to expound of all of these special psalms.
The Words of an Expositor
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the prince of expositors. He and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones could get more out of a passage of Scripture than anyone I have either heard or read. In the preface to the second part of his first large volume on the psalms, Spurgeon tells that he postponed working on Psalm 51 week after week. He concluded:
It is a bush burning with fire yet not consumed, and out of it a voice seemed to cry to me, “Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet.” The psalm is very human, its cries and sobs are of one born of woman; but it is freighted with an inspiration all divine, as if the Great Father were putting words into his child’s mouth. 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.
This is the fourth, and surely the greatest, of the penitential psalms.
Derek Kidner
Psalm 51
Psalm 51 provides the first of a series of Psalms that are credited to David. In the second book of the Psalter, all but four of the psalms are ascribed to David. Psalms 66, 67, and 68 are unnamed. Psalm 72 is credited to Solomon. Let’s talk for a moment about the sin that led to the writing of this psalm.
David was guilty of enormous sins. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and later, after discovering that she was pregnant, arranged to have her husband, Uriah, killed in battle. The sins color one of the darkest times in the life of Israel’s great king (see 2 Samuel 11 and 2 Samuel 12). We are unsure how to handle the difficulties of when a leader falls. But it was this very black darkness that led David to the light.
David’s Sins
Murdoch Cambpell writes,
The story of David’s sin and repentance is a story of transformation. Nowhere is the power of God’s word more strikingly evident than in the pages of David’s story.
David had committed two sins for which the Mosaic law provided no forgiveness. For deliberate murder and adultery death was the inevitable penalty. He knew that before God there was no forgiveness through any sacrifices which he might offer or any gifts which he might present. With Micah he could have asked the solemn question: “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” No! By such offerings God cannot be appeased. David might have said: “If I build him an house, a magnificent temple; if I plead my hitherto circumspect life and all my good deeds in his service, will these not compensate for my lapse, and restore me to his favor?” No! “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
David’s Words
The significant lesson to learn from David’s response to his sin. David becomes profoundly aware of his sin and its true nature. Not masked by pleasure and pursuit, he sees the sin for what it is. He uses three words in Psalm 51 to describe his own sin.
First, he uses the word “transgression.” The Hebrew word refers to crossing a forbidden boundary with the intent for serious rebellion. If you recall from the life of Julius Caesar, as long as he remained north of the river Rubicon, he was on peaceful terms with the Roman Senate. But once he crossed the Rubicon, he was at war with the legislative body. Civil war was the result.
The second word he uses is the word “iniquity.” It actually means “perversion” and is the word often used in connection with the original sin or our sinful natures.
The third word is simply the word “sin.” It means falling short or missing the mark. We miss God’s high mark of perfection. It is not that we get really close to the center of the target – it is that we fall short of even being close to the target.
Our Conclusions
It is only when we come face to face with our sin that we can begin to realize, understand, and appreciate our need to be cleansed from sin. In verse seven, David asks to be cleansed. It is such an interesting Hebrew word. It literally means “purge” and is based on the word “sin.” David is asking God to “de-sin” him.
In the first century, the material used upon which to write was called papyrus. It was scarce and valuable enough that if for some reason the writing was no longer needed, people would purge and clean the material “whiting out” the prior ink and words so the material could be used again. But because the cleansing was not perfect, shadows of the previous words were often still visible. When a new manuscript was written, they would turn the material sideways so the prior words could not be noticed. The material when used properly could be considered purged.
God wants to purge your heart of sin by writing a new story, a new covenant, a new life on a heart turned upside-down.