Psalm 51:1-2 - June 4, 2009

Ps 51:1-2 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
"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." NIV

Psalm 51 is one of the best known psalms in the world. Consider the context of this prayer of repentance. David, the man after God’s own heart, has fallen into an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and has sought to cover up his sinful actions by arranging for the death of her husband Uriah in a premeditated act of murder by placing him at the front lines during a ferocious battle and having the other men abandon him. Here is David, carrying the weight of that transgression upon his conscience and seeking to restore his relationship to God. He knows that he is guilty. He is not covering up his actions with excuses and blame shifting, nor justifying them as somehow acceptable because of his position as king. He is simply crying out for mercy! This is the best approach to the living God when we have fallen into sin whether it is big or small in its sense of significance in regard to our hearts. But the question lingers, “how can someone who has committed such a serious offense dare to believe that God could forgive them?” This is the great wonder of relationship with the living God!
David has a revelation of who God is to him that transcends even the power of his greatest sins and failures. When David lifts his cry for mercy into the heavens he knows that he is calling out to the heart of a God whom he has come to know as the God of unfailing love and great compassion. Even though his sin is great he is confident that God’s loving compassion is greater still. David lived in the conscious knowledge that God was considerate of the fact that we are weak human vessels. In Ps 103:13-14 David the father heart of God towards his children “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” His understanding of God is that in the same way that an earthly father is considerate of the immaturity of his young children, extending great patience in regard to their weaknesses and failures, even so God is mindful of us. It is this revelation that is at the center of David’s cry. “I am loved by a merciful God!”
Equally important in this passage is David’s acceptance of responsibility. David not only approaches God with a cry for mercy. He comes seeking to be cleansed. He recognizes that his sinfulness has separated him from God and has left him defiled in God’s presence. Even though he has fallen greatly he is still conscious of what he has lost in regard to God’s presence and is not content to stay in his fallen state. These two verses are the introductory phrases of one of the greatest pleas for restoration and redemption that man has ever known. In these verses David cries out for his sins to be blotted away, their stain upon his heart to be removed and he appeals to be washed and cleansed. His appeal is two-fold in its nature. David’s desire is that the impact of his sins in God’s mind be forgiven and also that their stain upon his own heart be washed away. It is important to realize that our sins damage us on both levels. When we sin, our offenses before God become as a wedge between us and God, separating us from His presence, but they also mark our own hearts in such a way that we are damaged in our ability to have peace to live and confidence before God.
I Jn. 3:21 tells us that if our hearts do not condemn us then “we have confidence before God.” Therefore this passage also implies that if our hearts DO condemn us we do not have confidence before him. We suffer both in our relationship with our self through our conviction and towards God through a defiled conscience. The good news is that God loves us and is ready to forgive each man or woman who approaches him in genuine repentance, seeking forgiveness through the blood of His son Jesus Christ! We serve a God of love who knows our weaknesses and is infinitely patient as he seeks to draws us to Himself with cords of love and kindness.