Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and guiltAnd cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them;My sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinnedAnd done that which is evil in Your sight,So that You are justified when You speak [Your sentence]And faultless in Your judgment. I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness;In sin my mother conceived me [and from my beginning I, too, was sinful]. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,And in the hidden part [of my heart] You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness and be satisfied;Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sinsAnd blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a right and steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presenceAnd do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvationAnd sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,And sinners shall be converted and return to You. Rescue me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;Then my tongue will sing joyfully of Your righteousness and Your justice. O Lord, open my lips,That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it;You are not pleased with burnt offering. My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise. By Your favor do good to Zion;May You rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

Psalm 51

Irving Stone, in his historical novel in the life of Michelangelo, tell how the magnificent statue of David came into creation.

In the marble yard of Florence, Italy, Michelangelo discovered the Duccio block, seventeen feet long, with a serious gouge at its center. Other artists passed it by since any attempt to move the stone could split the block in two.

Michelangelo, however, moved the stone to his studio. He knew David lay within the Duccio block. Only a master artist could release David from the unformed stone.

The human David also had a serious flaw which could have doomed him had anyone other than the Master worked on him. Psalm 51 tells us about the sin which almost wrecked him and instructs us by example how to repent for our own wrongs.

George Wood

Psalm 51 begins by saying, “I need God’s help. David’s prayer of repentance opens with three requests:

First, he asks for mercy. Although none of us deserve the grace of God, He loves us dearly and deeply for us even when our hearts are far from Him. We may fail in our love for Him, but His will never fail toward us.

Second, he asks for deletion. The stain of sin leaves a indelible mark on our lives just as ink leaves it’s imprint on paper. Nothing can erase that stain but we can rely on the compassion of the Lord to blot out our sin from the book of His remembrance.

Third, David asks for cleansing. No one but God can wash away the stain and dirt of our sin. The impurity we acquired and it’s legacy of its memory are all gone and we can feel clean again.

Psalm 51 then calls us to admit we are wrong. David has come to the breaking point. He had grievously sinned, breaking the commandments to not lie, steal, covet his neighbor’s wife, murder, or commit adultery. This one sin broke five commandments. The cords of sin wrap together many strands of disobedience.

Thankfully in the life of a child of God, He forces the issue of repentance. He will not permit us to remain disobedient. Just as He came in the Garden searching for Adam and Eve, God sends Nathan to David since he would not own up to his sin on his own initiative.

Psalm 51 was written as David begins to take responsibility for his actions. We can only recover when we acknowledge our disobedience, spiritual progress, or maturity.

We are compelled to ask, “Why does David say that his sin had been against God alone?” In truth hadn’t his sin been against Uriah, Bathsheba, the baby who had died or the people who had paced their confidence in him? Is it not true that all sin is fundamentally a rebellion against God’s will for our lives, and until we treat it as such we will never find the cure?

The lie of sin says, “I have to take matters into my own hands. God is not looking out for me. I have unmet needs. I don’t care if God puts it off limits, I need it anyway.” While we are doing the sin we may not be conscious of transgressing against God because we are too busy justifying it and even trying to get God on our side through rationalizations. It is only in the last stages of sin that we finally recognize that we have been defiant against God Himself. If we would have obeyed God in the first place, we wouldn’t have ended up in the mess we’re in.

In Psalm 51, David acknowledges to God that He was right and David was wrong. He no longer underestimates the problem of sin for it’s ingrained in every human from birth. The seventh through the ninth verses records his renewed pleas for God to cleanse him and blot our his sins.

Finally Psalm 51 calls us to desire God’s future He has for us. Through repentance we are led away from our failures and into God’s plan for our tomorrow. Psalm 51 tells us that seven things come as we return to God.

First, we are given pure hearts. Only God can provide this personal work of repair for it lies outside any human effort. Our old hearts are too clogged with sin to ever function well.

Second, our spirits are renewed. When our conscience is clean, we can live energetically in the face of the constant pressures of life for God gives us a steadfast spirit.

Third, we are invited into the presence of the Lord. David had experienced the sting of banishment from the court of Saul and he wanted no exile from the courts of God.

Fourth, we can experience the infilling of God’s Spirit. The Spirit wrestles with us while we are in sin. He has not ceased His faithfulness in convicting us of sin and now, He comes to dwell within and empower us for His service.

Fifth, our joy is restored. When we are in sin, our joy vanishes, but when we repent, God puts life back into our hearts.

Sixth, we discover a readiness to please God. The truly forgiven person has no need of external compulsion to do good. Instead they possess a willing heart to serve God.

Seventh, we become useful to others. From our own experience of repentance, we look forward to the moment when we can “teach transgressors.” What shall we tell them? We say that God wants the inward heartfelt response beyond the outward motions of absolution and religious ritual: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Our flaw of sin will prove fatal unless we give the Lord permission to create His life in us. Like that block of marble that was in the quarry in Florence which had no ability to choose its artist, we have no choice but to ask the Lord to make a masterpiece of our lives- to chisel and polish and perfect His very own image into the flawed raw material of my being.

Only God can take flawed, broken sinners and transform them into the image of His own dear Son. But He can and He will if we will but come to Him in repentance. What are you waiting for?

Dr. John Thompson