If you’re any type of student of history, then the horrors of World War II are etched into your mind. Millions of civilians and soldiers killed. Whole countries decimated. Families torn apart, and we’re still feeling the effects today of decisions made then. One of the stories that came out of World War II was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Jews resisted the Nazi’s transportation to gas chambers. In the Polish Ghetto, ruffly 56,000 Jewish people died. But as the Nazi came in, the people fought back. It need up being the single largest Jewish revolt in WW II, and led the Polish resistance to begin supporting the Jewish people.
After the war in 1970, West German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, was in Warsaw to sign a border treaty with Poland. He visited the monument to the Ghetto Uprising, and laid a wreath. All of a sudden, he fell to his knees in silence. Afterwards he was asked why he did it and he said, “At the abyss of German history and under the weight of millions of murdered people, I did what humans do when speech fails them.” Brandt’s gesture was a sign of repentance for all that the German people had done to the world. That same year he was named Time’s Person of the Year, and a year later he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reconciling West Germany with it’s eastern neighbors.
And it’s this idea of the act of reconciliation that brings us back to our summer series, where we’ll be looking at David’s response to the prophet Nathan over the sin of Bathsheba and Uriah. Today, we’ll be focusing on Psalm 51. As we open up to Psalm 51, let’s look back at what got us here.
As we began section two of the Book of Second Samuel, we talked about how David was on top of the world. Everything God had promised, everything that we, as the reader, had been waiting for, finally happened. David was king, the people were at peace, and the surrounding nations had been subjugated.
However, it was at this moment that David let his guard completely down. This gave his sin an opportunity to begin the destruction of all that had been hard fought to achieve. David allowed his lustful desire for Bathsheba to lead to adultery, and then to murder. This sin, unbeknownst to David at the time, would eventually lead to major strife in his home, the death of his sons, the defilement of his daughter, and the destruction of his nation. As we walked away from that week, we talked about how, God is calling us away from all sin, with extreme language, so that we understand that sin is not something to play with.
Then, even though David tried to conceal his sin, God could see the whole thing. He sent the prophet Nathan to confront David over his sin. The prophet does this by telling David a parable, where the twist was, it was an allegory of David’s own insatiable thirst. David condemned himself by acknowledging that the rich man in the story must give recompense for his sins. It was then, that God revealed the judgment that was upon David, and the king finally realized what his sin was about to unleash. From this, we walked away with the understanding that, God will not allow sin in our lives to go unpunished, and will expose sin publicly if necessary. Instead, God calls us to live lives of confession, repentance, and cleansing.
But, to David’s credit, when he was called out by Nathan as the man who had sinned, David’s response was, “I have sinned against the Lord. ( 2 Sam. 15:13)” And from this initial confession, David writes Psalm 51. Let’s read it now.
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
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.
v.1-5 - As I read through David’s confession, repentance and seeking cleanings, I see three parts to it. In the first five verses, David is no longer hiding his sin. He fully accepts it. He opens by throwing himself upon the mercy of God. He’s crying out for the mercy and steadfast love of God to be poured out on him. David recognizes that only God can wash him from sin. That he couldn’t hide that sin. And here, in verse 3 we learn that even though David had tried to cover his sin up, even though he had tried to try to no longer remember it and trick himself into acknowledging it, he had been struggling with it. He tells God that, “… my sin is ever before me.” He couldn’t outrun it or hide it. The sin was there, it never went away, because the only person who can get rid of sin, is God. So all David’s hiding ended up failing.
Then David says something interesting, “Against you, you only, have I sinned …(v.4)” and we should shout at David, “No you sinned against yourself, your wives, your children, your people, against Bathsheba, Uriah, and the other soldiers.” David has sinned against so many people. But we must understand that David isn’t dodging here, he’s going before the judge who is the Convictor of sin. And this word that David uses, is the Hebrew word, bad (bahd) which combines both the physical sense of being separated from something, and a theological idea of being set apart. In the context of Psalm 51, David’s sin sits before God for judgement. God is the only one who judges clearly and without prejudice. So before God David’s sits in sin. It is only the God of Israel who can truly judge what the king of Israel has done. And because of this, God’s judgment is justified and blameless.
It is in verse 5 that David then says something interesting, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This has two interpretations: First, that David was born in an adulterous or an abusive sexual manner; this could be why David is left out of Jesse’s original presentation of his sons to Samuel, or why he is relegated to the fields. The second is that all people are sinners, therefore David is conceived in a world of sin, as we all are. However, the first interpretation fails because David is connected directly to Ruth through Jesse, and there is no other indication that he was adopted. So the second interpretation is the more likely one. Just like all of us, David’s life has been surrounded by sin from his conception to the day he embrace sin’s allure.
v.6-15 - It’s then, after his confession of sin in verses 1-5, that David turns his attention on God for cleansing. This is combined with David’s plea that his desires change as well. David tells God, that he knows the Lord delights in truth, so he wants that truth in his heart. To bring this truth in, he must be cleansed of falsities. So David calls on God to “Purge me with hyssop … (v.7),” which is a small plant that was used in cleansing rituals.
David realizes that in his present state, he is joyless and he is broken. He desires God to turn his face from David’s sin to blot them out so that a new heart and a right spirit might be placed in him. David doesn’t want to be cast away or have the Holy Spirit removed from him like it was removed from Saul. David seeks to have a restored and willing spirit within himself.
And when God does these things, David will teach others about the restoration of God’s mercy and he will sing about it to the world.
v.16-19 - David ends his Psalm with a focus on what God desires of his people. Not simply sacrifices of animals, but hearts that desire him. David recognizes that God isn’t after a bunch of animals going to the slaughter, but rather that his people would seek him with their hearts. Because when the people of God desire him with their hearts, the acts of sacrifice are then given meaning. Our sacrifices should flow, not to earn salvation, but in response to salvation being bestowed upon us.
And this is where David ends his Psalm, on a triumphal focus on bringing a great sacrifice to God that is propelled to do so by a restored heart.
Samuel once told Saul, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 Sam 15:22)”
It was Jesus who said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24)”
Paul would later write, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:1-2)”
Our heart condition is the first thing God is interested in. Sacrifices are only acceptable when the heart of a person worships the Lord in spirit and truth. When are hearts are being cleansed by his work, then the sacrifices of our lives become acceptable to him. Yet, while we are in rebellion, we cannot please God.
From Psalm 51, we can see what confession, repentance and seeking cleansing looks like. Confession is not holding back our sin, but recognizing that God is right in judging it. Repentance is crying out to God, not just saying sorry, but desiring a change in that area of sin. Seeking cleansing follows on the heals of repentance, because we are to no longer live in the state we were before. And so we seek God to cleanse us of all sin, not just the ones that get us into trouble.
The Lord is calling us to have a Psalm 51 attitude. That when sin is revealed in our lives, we do not hide, but lay it all out. We are to be people who accept God’s judgment of our sin, and we must be willing to have it cleansed from us. When we walk in this attitude, sin is put in its place. The believer lives in a place where they recognize sin only has the power we let it have. Because Jesus has full authority over us, sin has no power in the believer’s life.
My challenge then for you is to recite, not merely read, Psalm 51 this week. If in the midst of that recitation, God brings to mind sin that has not been confessed, then stop and confess that sin before moving on. Once it has been confessed, repented and cleansing sought, resume the recitation until all nineteen verses are said daily.
God is calling us to be confessors, repentant and seekers of cleansing. So let us take the example of David when it is the right example, and call out to God with a Psalm 51 attitude. Amen.
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