Psalm 51 English Standard Version Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 51 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 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. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge 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 that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. We know the author and the context of this psalm--it is a psalm of repentance after David had been confronted of his iniquity. He had committed adultery (possibly non-consensual) with the wife of one of his best soldiers while the man was away at war. He then tried to cover it up, and when he couldn't, he sent the man back with orders to the general that ordered the general to let the enemy kill the man. Though he died in war, the LORD saw Uriah's death as murder by proxy. David then covered all this up until the LORD sent Nathan the prophet to confront the king to tell him a story of a grave injustice that had been done. David was so outraged by the story that he said, "The man who did this must die," and Nathan said, "You are the man!" David's heart broke at these words. He realized that he was the one worthy of death, and while he was willing as king to order the execution of the wicked (and he often cries out for God to take vengeance against the wicked in his imprecatory psalms), his song literally changes when he is the one who stands condemned (don't we all?). There is much gospel language here in this psalm, and it is one of my favorite places to go to share the gospel with people from the Old Testament. First, David had to realized that he was a sinner and that he already stood condemned. None of the "good things" that he had done in his life mattered at this point. He had intentionally and willfully committed acts of violence that took away a woman's purity and a man's life. He had violated the tenth commandment (coveted a man's wife), the seventh commandment (committed adultery), the sixth commandment (committed murder), and the ninth commandment (lied about all of it). David realizes that he needs to be "born again" (he uses the phrase "made new" and asks for God to give him a new and clean heart, because nothing can be done to fix the old one). He pleads for mercy asking the LORD to choose to not hold his sins against him, to blot them out so that He cannot read the record, and to willfully forget them. That is part of what the gospel does for us because our sins are taken care of by being charged to another's account and "paid in full" so that that our ledger is purged of all the sin debt that we owed. David confesses that his conscience and guilt will not leave him alone--he always thinks about what he did. Yes, he committed sin against Bathsheba, Uriah, and even Joab and the entire army and the whole nation at that, but David realizes it was ultimately against the LORD and His Law that he had sinned. "Against You and You only have I sinned." Only by the LORD's verdict can David once again be righteous (in right standing) and blameless (not the same as innocent but meaning that no charge can be brought against him by anyone who has standing. Only the LORD has the right to "press charges" and as both prosecutor and judge, if He chooses to dismiss the charges, there is no one else who has standing to accuse us. That doesn't mean Satan won't try, but he will not be heard by the LORD). David then realizes that he sins because he was conceived as a sinner, meaning that he really was guilty before he was ever born. (This is hard for people to admit). He then cries out once again to be "born again." Only God could take the darkness and replace it with His Light and take the lies (David lied to get out of trouble quite often) and replace it with His Truth. Now we have some language related to Passover where David says, "Purge me with hyssop and I will be whiter than snow." Hyssop was used to apply the blood to the doorposts of the houses during Passover and it would stain them red with the blood of the Passover Lamb. Here is where we get the idea that David understands that a blood sacrifice needs to be made in his place (someone innocent has to die for him) and that blood be applied to his heart so that death and judgment might "pass over" him and he would be made innocent and blameless in the LORD's sight ("as white as snow" as he says here). We know that David sings about this very sacrifice in Psalm 22, and it would seem that he had saving faith that was based on trusting in the finished work of the Messiah to save His people from their sins. David again cries out that his joy may be restored, that his sins would be blotted out, and that his heart would be made new and clean. He asks the LORD not to look on his sins (to choose to not see them), to not excommunicate him (the lightest of just sentences for the crimes that David had committed) and to not take the Holy Spirit away from him (the Spirit did not permanently rest on people at this time, and David had already seen the Spirit taken away from Saul when he had committed egregious sin and become rebellious against the LORD). In a sense, David is asking that God not cause him to lose his eternal security (something we usually only think about as a New Testament teaching, but David is admitting that without the presence of the Spirit, he has no hope or guarantee of salvation, and the Spirit is the sign that the LORD has accepted him.) Why do I make the leap to say this has to do with salvation? Because David himself says so, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." (you'll hear these words from a different version in the Keith Green song embedded below). David then points out some more gospel truth. There is no "work" that he could do to cleans himself or make himself acceptable--there is no sacrifice he could make to atone for his willful, high-handed sins of rebellion. David can only cry out for mercy and if mercy is granted, there is nothing David can do to add to it. David says he will take this experience and share this truth with others to teach transgressors that they must turn to the LORD in repentance and cry out for forgiveness. It's not about the blood of bulls and goats, but about the substitutionary atonement which all those sacrifices point towards--The Great High Priest offers Himself as our Passover Lamb. David then promises that his lips will be filled with praise to the LORD that he will sing loudly to all the people to declare how great the LORD and His salvation are. All the LORD requires is a broken and contrite heart (a heart that recognizes that we stand guilty and condemned and are in need of salvation and mercy that only the LORD can provide). "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). That's a promise made to Christians about coming back to confess and be forgiven even after we have been saved, but it applies here as well as we see that is how David fulfills David's requests. When David cries out "Do good to Zion in your good pleasure," is it possible that he's looking forward to the cross? It is true that Jesus died for the good of the nation of Israel (and Mount Zion represented them much like was say "Washington, D.C." to represent all of the people of The United States, since that is where our government power is centralized. David is crying out for the LORD to remember His covenant with His people and to fulfill it even if His people are unfaithful That is what the gospel does for us--a better, unconditional covenant. Why do I think David is looking forward to the cross? Because he says that only after whatever he is speaking of will their sacrifices be make acceptable to the LORD. David realizes that the sacrifices they make mean nothing if there is not going to be a substitution where our iniquity is put on Christ and His righteousness is imputed to us. This indicates to me that he is looking forward to that better sacrifice that was the sacrifice that would put an end to all other sacrifices--the one all the "inferior" sacrifices pointed towards. We too join with David in realizing that we haven't just committed "oopsy-doopsy" sins where we unintentionally cross the line, but we are guilty of committing willful acts of rebellion for which we deserve to die and be sent to hell. Our only hope is to cry out to the LORD for mercy like David did. We too need to be made new and given a clean heart. We too cry out for our sin to be forgotten and for righteousness to be imparted to us. It is only by the blood of Jesus that any of this is accomplished. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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