Psalm 51
Mercy from a Merciful God
There’s a striking scene in The Crown when Winston Churchill sees a painting of himself commissioned in his honour. He is stricken for the artist saw past all the bluster and legend and depicted him as he truly was.
This is a Psalm for us when we see ourselves as we truly are.
The great problem in our lives is our sin. We find ways of numbing that reality, distracting ourselves or explaining it away. But every so often, we see it as it truly is.
This is a Psalm for us, as it leads us not just into reality, or even just into confession, but into true and transforming grace.
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.7 Cleanse 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 you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Saviour,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Behind this Psalm is a story narrated in 2 Samuel 11-12. It is the tale of the King who succumbed to his base lusts. It chronicles how he sought to conceal his adultery with another man’s wife by having the husband put on the front line of the battle field where he would surrender his life in service of his King. It reports how the word of the prophet Nathan, God exposes not just David’s duplicity but also the depth of his sin.
David, convicted by God’s word, penned this Psalm in response. And he left it behind for the people to use when we confess our own sin before our holy and loving God.
Paul distinguishes between a worldly and a godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7.10). Worldly sorrow seeks to hide or alleviate our guilt through our own efforts. But it only leads to death. Godly sorrow is seen in repentance. We must remember that before repentance is seen in the correcting of our ways, it is first rejecting our self-reliance and instead collapsing on the grace of God.
Here we see true repentance from the first line. Because from the opening cry, it is a Godward prayer.
In the heart of the first half of the Psalm is a vital recognition we must all make when we repent. David acknowledges that his sin was ultimately against God. In v4, he is indulging in exaggeration, which is the prerogative of the Poet. He has indeed sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba. But here he plumbs a deep truth we must all grasp. Sin is ultimately against God. When committing adultery and plotting murder, David’s first sin was against the One who is the First and the Last. This is gravity of sin we must all know. When we sin, we sin against God first and foremost.
The word from Nathan has not just exposed this specific sin of David, or even against whom he has sinned but the pervasiveness of sin in his own life. It is ever before him (v3) and how it has always been present in his life (v5).
One sin exposed so often can be the catalyst for us seeing the true nature of our hearts.
It is crushing as we learn how far and often we have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23).
But it is also liberating.
Yes you read that right. It is freeing.
For we look to the One we forgot in our sin. And in him we find a grace deeper and wider than we could have ever imagined. As Richard Sibbes wrote, we find more mercy in Christ than sin in us. By far.
And so we walk with David to the foot of the cross. And we plead for God’s unfathomable mercy (v1). And we beseech God for his molten love which melts the hardest of hearts (v10). And we entreat our Sovereign Lord for his cleansing grace, which makes us spotless in his presence (vv2, 7).
There’s an urgency to this Psalm. But there’s no apprehension. For God is faithful. He will forgive and cleanse all who confess their sin to him (1 John 1.9). He saves us, not because of any good we have done but according solely and wholly to his mercy (Titus 3.5). For as David saw, it it God’s salvation alone (v12). And delights to give it to all seek him in faith. He does not despise the contrite in heart but warmly embraces us as beloved children. Like the Father who ran to receive the son who had once rejected him (Luke 15.20). Why? Because his heart was full of compassion (v1).
The promise of one forgiven is giving their lives in worship (13-19). For one who is forgiven much loves much (Luke 7.47).
Glory be to God the Father, who who is full of great compassion for the least deserving.
Glory be to God the Son, who bore our sin and was crushed for our iniquities.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who was given to us for our cleansing and renewal.
Ever three and ever One.