Saturday of the Third Week of Lent | Psalm 51

Have you ever done something so bad that you wish you could just forget about it, like it never happened? Or you pretend it never happened? Locking sin in the darkest recesses of our mind and heart is like putting sushi in your locker at school. It might seem okay at first, but eventually it's going to cause problems.

The title tells us David wrote this when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Let's go back to that moment and retrace David's steps from when he first spied on Bathsheba like a pervert, as she bathed on the roof. David had wives already, but he wanted Bathsheba so badly that he took her forcefully against her will then to cover his tracks, had her soldiering husband brought home to sleep with her to make it look like he got her pregnant. But her husband was such a man of honor that he slept outside Refusing the comforts of home while a soldier suffered on the battlefield without him. So David had him strategically placed on the battlefield Within the range of enemy archers and had his men pull back, leaving him exposed to a certain death. 

Well, nine months went by. David hides his sin and the entire time as his illegitimate child grows within Bathsheba's womb, so does his agony of suppressed guilt within his tortured soul, until Nathan the prophet confronts David and reminds him that he can fool people, but he can't fool God. Verse one is the prayer of David cornered, found out, defeated, and finally surrendered. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1). From the depths of David's soul come the only thing David can say, after nearly a year of silence, the only thing he can say after his crimes-  have mercy on me. And David appeals to God's unfailing love and great compassion because if you've ever been shocked at your own behavior or asked “Who am I? I don't even know anymore.” After something you did was so terrible, you know not to appeal to your own character. God's character is all David has left. His own character is in ruins, in tatters. But David knows God's character is merciful, loving, and compassionate. And David deserves none of it. That's why even after asking God to blot out his transgressions, He asks in verse 2, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2).Blot. Wash away. Cleanse. What does it mean to blot something out? In a day before erasers, blotting something out was covering it over with ink, but David needs more. There's something wrong with him, iniquity, disease, and filth of his sin. This isn't just something David did, it's something deep inside. David's not just praying, take it away from me, he's saying, take it out of me. As a haunted man, David continues his prayer of repentance in verse 3. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you're right in your verdict and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:3). David was silent for nine months, but he knew his transgression and, and a transgression is when you knew better, but you did it anyways. Thank God he forgives those two. That's why David says, against you, you only have I sinned. What a strange thing to say, David. You raped Bathsheba and killed the man she loved. But above it all was the sin against God. You are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. David knows what he deserves, and God would be right to punish him. That, by the way, is when we know repentance is genuine. When we come into agreement with God about our sin and the nature of it, we begin to believe what God actually says about the sin and about us. We stop fighting him, and we surrender to his judgment, and surrendering to his judgment is necessary before we can surrender to his forgiveness. Verse 5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place” (Psalm 51:5).  David's argument was, God, when I was born sinful, even then you loved me and put up with me. David clings to that ray of hope that God was with him then, and God may still teach him wisdom just as he did when David didn't know any better as a fetus. Verse seven, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). David's mind goes to the temple, the center point of the worship of God, where God meets with his people and inside of that temple, it's covered in blood. That is where his sin is blotted out. Not by ink, but by blood. He had tried to block his sin out of his mind. But it stayed there, and stained his mind. But in the temple, his sin is blotted out with the blood of innocent animals. Somebody else pays for David's crimes. And in the times where David goes there to symbolize the forgiveness of his sins, an animal would be slain as David, one hand on the animal's head, confesses his own sins, seemingly transferring it to the animal. And as he did so, the priest dipped a hyssop branch into the blood and sprinkled David with the scarlet blood seven times, the number of completion or perfection, showing that David was 100 percent cleared of his crimes. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. What price can you put on a clean conscience? The irony that blood that stains everything else represents what will wipe him clean, make him whiter than white. David longs for the time when his sin and guilt aren't all consuming, and he prays for that release in verse 8. “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:8).  It's as if David is saying, Don't even waste time with this old heart God. We've all seen what this heart does. Give me a new heart Lord, one that has a steadfast or faithful spirit in it. Without knowing what he's asking. David prays for what one day will be given to every believer in Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That's why in verse 11 he prays,“Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit didn't yet indwell believers. But the Holy Spirit did come upon them. That's what the anointing meant. David was anointed as the king. And as a warrior, the Spirit came upon him to accomplish great feats.

David hasn't felt that for a long time. David has been operating in his own strength, under the guilt of his sin, he's felt cast away. He hasn’t felt the power of the Holy Spirit on him the entire time he's locked up sin in his heart and not confessed it. Instead of looking back, David looks forward in verse 12. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O god, you who are God my savior and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips lord and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure and burn offerings. My sacrifice O God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:12-17). David wants to sing loud, sing proud of the Lord again. He lacks the joy of his salvation, that joy in knowing his sins are forgiven. But if he can just get back to God, know that he's forgiven, he says, I will teach transgressors your ways. He will turn sinners back to God. Sinners, like himself. David knows that God doesn't want him to try to earn forgiveness, offer more sacrifices, which don't really cost that much to a king. No, what God wants from David is the same thing he wants from us all. Our heart, a broken spirit, a repentant soul. Those are the acceptable sacrifices of God. And my friend, God will never cast you out. Never will I leave you. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. How do I know? Well, I've known God a long time and I'm still here. God has proven himself gracious to me for many years. And truth be told, I think as a young man, I must have read holes in the page of my Bible where Psalm 51 was. This Psalm was a lifeline to me. If God forgave David, I knew he could forgive me. I am one of those sinners that David taught God's ways to, to give hope. And like David, I found that coming to God with all of it, and just spilling out my soul before Him, not hiding, not bottling up, was a sacrifice that pleased God. 

You see, God already poured out the blood of His Son, Jesus, that I could be forgiven, that you could be forgiven. My friend, give him your heart, broken, contrite, as is, and he will receive it.