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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 51:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1-19 THE main grounds on which the Davidic authorship of this psalm is denied are four. First, it is alleged that its conceptions of sin and penitence are in advance of his stage of religious development; or, as Cheyene puts it, "David could not have had these ideas" ("Aids to Dev. Study of Crit.," 166). The impossibility depends on theory which is not yet so established as to be confidently used to settle questions of date. Again, the psalmist’s wail, "Against Thee only have I sinned," is said to be conclusive proof that the wrong done to Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah cannot be referred to. But is not God the correlative of sin, and may not the same act be qualified in one aspect as a crime and in another as a sin, bearing in the latter character exclusive relation to God? The prayer in Psalm 51:18 is the ground of a third objection to the Davidic authorship. Certainly it is hopeless to attempt to, explain "Build the walls of Jerusalem" as David’s prayer. But the opinion held by both advocates and opponents of David’s authorship, that Psalm 51:18-19 are a later liturgical addition, removes this difficulty. Another ground on which the psalm is brought down to a late date is the resemblances in it to Isaiah 40:1-31 ; Isaiah 41:1-29 ; Isaiah 42:1-25 ; Isaiah 43:1-28 ; Isaiah 44:1-28 ; Isaiah 45:1-25 ; Isaiah 46:1-13 , which are taken to be echoes of the prophetic words. The resemblances are undoubted; the assumption that. the psalmist is the copyist is not. The personified nation is supposed by most modern authorities to be the speaker; and the date is sometimes taken to be the Restoration period, before the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah (Cheyne, " Orig. of Psalt. ," 162); by others, the time of the Babylonish exile; and, as usual, by some, the Maccabean epoch. It puts considerable strain upon the theory of personification to believe that these confessions of personal sin, and longing cries for a clean heart, which so many generations have felt to fit their most secret experiences, were not the wailings of a soul which had learned the burden of individuality, by consciousness of sin, and by realisation of the awful solitude of its relation to God. There are also expressions in the psalm which seem to clog the supposition that the speaker is the nation with great difficulties- e.g., the reference to birth in Psalm 51:5 , the prayer for inward truth in Psalm 51:6 , and for a clean heart in Psalm 51:10 . Baethgen acknowledges that the two latter only receive their full meaning when applied to an individual. He quotes Olshausen, a defender of the national reference, who really admits the force of the objection to it, raised on the ground of these expressions, while he seeks to parry it by saying that "it is not unnatural that the poet, speaking in the singular, should, although he writes for the congregation, bring in occasional expressions here and there which do not fit the community so well as they do each individual in it." The acknowledgment is valuable; the attempt to turn its edge may be left to the reader’s judgment. In Psalm 51:1-9 the psalmist’s cry is chiefly for pardon; in Psalm 51:10-12 he prays chiefly for purity; in Psalm 51:13-17 he vows grateful service. Psalm 51:18-19 are probably a later addition. The psalm begins with at once grasping the character of God as the sole ground of hope. That character has been revealed in an infinite number of acts of love. The very number of the psalmist’s sins drove him to contemplate the yet greater number of God’s mercies. For where but in an infinite placableness and lovingkindness could he find pardon? If the Davidic authorship is adopted, this psalm followed Nathan’s assurance of forgiveness, and its petitions are the psalmist’s efforts to lay hold of that assurance. The revelation of God’s love precedes and causes true penitence. Our prayer for forgiveness is the appropriation of God’s promise of forgiveness. The assurance of pardon does not lead to a light estimate of sin, but drives it home to the conscience. The petitions of Psalm 51:1-2 teach us how the psalmist thought of sin. They are all substantially the same, and their repetition discloses the depth of longing in the suppliant. The language fluctuates between plural and singular nouns, designating the evil as "transgressions" and as "iniquity" and "sin." The psalmist regards it, first, as a multitude of separate acts, then as all gathered together into a grim unity. The single deeds of wrong doing pass before him. But these have a common root; and we must not only recognise acts, but that alienation of heart from which they come-not only sin as it comes out in the life, but as it is coiled round our hearts. Sins are the manifestations of sin. We note, too, how the psalmist realises his personal responsibility. He reiterates "my"-"my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin." He does not throw blame on circumstances, or talk about temperament or maxims of society or bodily organisation. All these had some share in impelling him to sin; but after all allowance made for them, the deed is the doer’s, and he must bear its burden. The same eloquent synonyms for evil deeds which are found in Psalm 32:1-11 occur again here. "Transgression" is literally rebellion; "iniquity," that which is twisted or bent; "sin," missing a mark. Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful authority-not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but opposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The definition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of God and opposition to His will. Not less profound is that other name, which regards sin as "iniquity" or distortion. Then there is a straight line to which men’s lives should run parallel. Our life’s paths should be like these conquering Roman roads, turning aside for nothing, but going straight to their aim over mountain and ravine, stream or desert. But this man’s passion had made for him a crooked path, where he found no end, "in wandering mazes lost." Sin is, further, missing an aim, the aim being either the Divine purpose for man, the true ideal of manhood, or the satisfaction proposed by the sinner to himself as the result of his sin. In both senses every sin misses the mark. These petitions show also how the psalmist thought of forgiveness. As the words for sin give a threefold view of it, so those for pardon set it forth in three aspects. "Blot out"; -that petition conceives of forgiveness as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript full of false and bad things. The melancholy theory of some thinkers is summed up in the despairing words, "What I have written, I have written." But the psalmist knew better than that; and we should know better than he did. Our souls may become palimpsests: and, as devotional meditations might be written by a saint on a parchment that had borne foul legends of false gods, the bad writing on them may be obliterated, and God’s law be written there. "Wash me thoroughly" needs no explanation. But the word employed is significant, in that it probably means washing by kneading or beating, not by simple rinsing. The psalmist is ready to submit to any painful discipline, if only he may be cleansed. "Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, do anything with me, if only these foul stains are melted from the texture of my soul." The psalmist had not heard of the alchemy by which men can "wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb"; but he held fast by God’s "lovingkindness," and knew the blackness of his own sin, and groaned under it; and therefore his cry was not in vain. An anticipation of the Christian teaching as to forgiveness lies in his last expression for pardon, "make me clean," which is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial purity, and for the other priestly act of making as well as declaring clean from the stains of leprosy. The suppliant thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted record or as a polluted robe, but as a fatal disease, the "firstborn of death," and as capable of being taken away only by the hand of the Priest laid on the feculent mass. We know who put out His hand and touched the leper, and said, "I will: be thou clean." The petitions for cleansing are, in Psalm 51:3 , urged on the ground of the psalmist’s consciousness of sin. Penitent confession is a condition of forgiveness. There is no need to take this verse as giving the reason why the psalmist offered his prayer, rather than as presenting a plea why it should be answered. Some commentators have adopted the former explanation, from a fear lest the other should give countenance to the notion that repentance is a meritorious cause of forgiveness; but that is unnecessary scrupulousness. "Sin is always sin, and deserving of punishment, whether it is confessed or not. Still, confession of sin is of importance on this account-that God will be gracious to none but to those who confess their sin" (Luther, quoted by Perowne). Psalm 51:4 sounds the depths in both its clauses. In the first the psalmist shuts out all other aspects of his guilt, and is absorbed in its solemnity as viewed in relation to God. It is asked, How could David have thought of his sin, which had in so many ways been "against" others, as having been "against Thee, Thee only"? As has been noted above, this confession has been taken to demonstrate conclusively the impossibility of the Davidic authorship. But surely it argues a strange ignorance of the language of a penitent soul, to suppose that such words as the psalmist’s could be spoken only in regard to sins which had no bearing at all on other men. David’s deed had been a crime against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against his family and his realm; but these were not its blackest characteristics. Every crime against man is sin against God. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done it unto Me" is the spirit of the Decalogue as well as the language of Jesus. And it is only when considered as having relation to God that crimes are darkened into sins. The psalmist is stating a strictly true and profound thought when he declares that he has sinned "against Thee only." Further, that thought has, for the time being, filled his whole horizon. Other aspects of his shameful deed will torture him enough in coming days, even when he has fully entered into the blessedness of forgiveness; but they are not present to his mind now, when the one awful thought of his perverted relation to God swallows up all others. A man who has never felt that all-engrossing sense of his sin as against God only has much to learn. The second clause of Psalm 51:4 opens the question whether "in order that" is always used in the Old Testament in its full meaning as expressing intention, or sometimes in the looser signification of "so that," expressing result. Several passages usually referred to on this point { e.g., Exodus 11:9 ; Isaiah 44:9 ; Hosea 8:4 } strongly favour the less stringent view, which is also in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew race, who were not metaphysicians. The other view, that the expression here means "in order that," insists on grammatical precision in the cries of a penitent heart, and clogs the words with difficulty. If their meaning is that the psalmist’s sin was intended to show forth God’s righteousness in judging, the intention must have been God’s, not the sinner’s; and such a thought not only ascribes man’s sin directly to God, but is quite irrelevant to the psalmist’s purpose in the words. For he is not palliating his transgression or throwing it on Divine predestination (as Cheyne takes him to be doing), but is submitting himself, in profoundest abasement of undivided guilt, to the just judgment of God. His prayer for forgiveness is accompanied with willingness to submit to chastisement, as all true desire for pardon is. He makes no excuses for his sin, but submits himself unconditionally to the just judgment of God. "Thou remainest the Holy One; I am the sinner; and therefore Thou mayest, with perfect justice, punish me and spurn me from Thy presence" (Stier). Psalm 51:5-6 are marked as closely related by the "Behold" at the beginning of each. The psalmist passes from penitent contemplation and confession of his acts of sin to acknowledge his sinful nature, derived from sinful parents. "Original sin" is theological terminology for the same facts which science gathers together under the name of "heredity." The psalmist is not responsible for later dogmatic developments of the idea, but he feels that he has to confess not only his acts but his nature. "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." The taint is transmitted. No fact is more plain than this, as all the more serious observers of human life and of their own characters have recognised. Only a superficial view of humanity or an inadequate conception of morality can jauntily say that "all children are born good." Theologians have exaggerated and elaborated, as is their wont, and so have made the thought repugnant; but the derived sinful bias of human nature is a fact, not a dogma, and those who know it and their own share of it best will be disposed to agree with Browning, in finding one great reason for believing in Biblical religion, that- "‘Tis the faith that launched point blank her dart At the head of a lie-taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Man’s Heart." The psalmist is not, strictly speaking, either extenuating or aggravating his sin by thus recognising his evil nature. He does not think that sin is the less his, because the tendency has been inherited. But he is spreading all his condition before God. In fact, he is not so much thinking of his criminality as of his desperate need. From a burden so heavy and so entwined with himself none but God can deliver him. He cannot cleanse himself, for self is infected. He cannot find cleansing among men, for they too have inherited the poison. And so he is driven to God, or else must sink into despair. He who once sees into the black depths of his own heart will give up thereafter all ideas of "every man his own redeemer." That the psalmist’s purpose was not to minimise his own guilt is clear, not only from the tone of the psalm, but from the antithesis presented by the Divine desire after inward truth in the next verse, which is out of place if this verse contains a palliation for sin. We can scarcely miss the bearing of this verse on the question of whether the psalm is the confession of an individual penitent or that of the nation. It strongly favours the former, view, though it does not make the latter absolutely impossible. The discovery of inherent and inherited sinfulness brings with it another discovery-that of the penetrating depth of the requirements of God’s law. He cannot be satisfied with outside conformity in deed. The more intensely conscience realises sin, the more solemnly rises before it the Divine ideal of man in its inwardness as well as in its sweep. Truth within - inward correspondence with His will, and absolute sincerity of soul are His desire. But I am "born in iniquity": a terrible antithesis, and hopeless but for one hope which dawns over the suppliant like morning on a troubled sea. If we cannot ask God to make us what He wishes us to be, these two discoveries of our nature and of His will are open doorways to despair; but he who apprehends them wisely will find in their conjoint operation a force impelling him to prayer, and therefore to confidence. Only God can enable such a Being as man to become such as He will delight in; and since He seeks for truth within, He thereby pledges Himself to give the truth and wisdom for which He seeks. Meditation on the sin which was ever before the psalmist, passes into renewed prayers for pardon, which partly reiterate those already offered in Psalm 51:1-2 . The petition in Psalm 51:7 for purging with hyssop alludes to sprinkling of lepers and unclean persons, and indicates both a consciousness of great impurity and a clear perception of the symbolic meaning of ritual cleansings. "Wash me" repeats a former petition; but now the psalmist can venture to dwell more on the thought of future purity than he could do then. The approaching answer begins to make its brightness visible through the gloom, and it seems possible to the suppliant that even his stained nature shall glisten like sunlit snow. Nor does that expectation exhaust his confidence. He hopes for "joy and gladness." His bones have been crushed- i.e. , his whole self has been, as it were, ground to powder by the weight of God’s hand; but restoration is possible. A penitent heart is not too bold when it asks for joy. There is no real well-founded gladness without the consciousness of Divine forgiveness. The psalmist closes his petitions for pardon ( Psalm 51:9 ) with asking God to "hide His face from his sins," so that they be, as it were, no more existent for Him, and, by a repetition of the initial petition in Psalm 51:1 , for the blotting out of "all mine iniquities." The second principal division begins with Psalm 51:10 , and is a prayer for purity, followed by vows of glad service. The prayer is contained in three verses ( Psalm 51:10-12 ), of which the first implores complete renewal of nature, the second beseeches that there may be no break between the suppliant and God, and the third asks for the joy and willingness to serve which would flow from the granting of the desires preceding. In each verse the second clause has "spirit" for its leading word, and the middle one of the three asks for "Thy holy spirit." The petitions themselves, and the order in which they occur, are deeply significant, and deserve much more elucidation than can be given here. The same profound consciousness of inward corruption which spoke in the former part of the psalm shapes the prayer for renewal. Nothing less than a new creation will make this man’s heart "clean." His past has taught him that. The word employed is always used of God’s creative act; and the psalmist feels that nothing less than the power which brooded over the face of primeval chaos, and evolved thence an ordered world, can deal with the confused ruin within himself. What he felt that he must have is what prophets promised { Jeremiah 24:7 ; Ezekiel 36:26 } and Christ has brought-a new creation, in which, while personality remains unaffected, and the components of character continue as before, a real new life is bestowed, which stamps new directions on affections, gives new aims, impulses, convictions, casts out inveterate evils, and gradually changes "all but the basis of the soul." A desire for pardon which does not unfold into such longing for deliverance from the misery of the old self is not the offspring of genuine penitence, but only of base fear. "A steadfast spirit" is needful in order to keep a cleansed heart clean; and, on the other hand, when, by cleanness of heart, a man is freed from the perturbations of rebellious desires and the weakening influences of sin, his spirit will be steadfast. The two characteristics sustain each other. Consciousness of corruption dictated the former desire; penitent recognition of weakness and fluctuation inspires the latter. It may be observed, too, that the triad of petitions having reference to "spirit" has for its central one a prayer for God’s Spirit, and that the other two may be regarded as dependent on that. Where God’s spirit dwells, the human spirit in which it abides will be firm with uncreated strength. His energy, being infused into a tremulous, changeful humanity, will make it stable. If we are to stand fast, we must be stayed on God. The group of petitions in Psalm 51:11 is negative. It deprecates a possible tragic separation from God, and that under two aspects. "Part me not from Thee; part not Thyself from me." The former prayer, "Cast me not out from Thy presence," is by some explained according to the analogy of other instances of the occurrence of the phrase, where it means expulsion from the land of Israel; and is claimed, thus interpreted, as a clear indication that the psalmist speaks in the name of the nation. But however certainly the expression is thus used elsewhere, it cannot, without introducing an alien thought, be so interpreted in its present connection, imbedded in petitions of the most spiritual and individual character: much rather, the psalmist is recoiling from what he knows only too well to be the consequence of an unclean heart-separation from God, whether in the sense of exclusion from the sanctuary, or in the profounder sense, which is not too deep for such a psalm, of conscious loss of the light of God’s face. He dreads being, Cain-like, shut out from that presence which is life; and he knows that, unless his previous prayer for a clean heart is answered, that dreary solitude of great darkness must be his lot. The sister petition, "Take not Thy holy spirit from me," contemplates the union between God and him from the other side. He regards himself as possessing that Divine spirit; for he knows that, notwithstanding his sin, God has not left him, else he would not have these movements of godly sorrow and yearnings for purity. There is no reason to commit the anachronism of supposing that the psalmist had any knowledge of New Testament teaching of a personal Divine Spirit. But if we may suppose that he is David, this prayer has special force. That anointing which designated and fitted him for kingly office symbolised the gift of a Divine influence accompanying a Divine call. If we further remember how it had fared with his predecessor, from whom, because of impenitence, "the Spirit of the Lord departed, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him," we understand how Saul’s successor, trembling as he remembers his fate, prays with peculiar emphasis, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." The last member of the triad, in Psalm 51:12 , looks back to former petitions, and asks for restoration of the "joy of Thy salvation," which had lain like dew on this man before he fell. In this connection the supplication for joy follows on the other two, because the joy which it desires is the result of their being granted. For what is "Thy salvation" but the gift of a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, the blessed consciousness of unbroken closeness of communion with God, in which the suppliant suns himself in the beams of God’s face, and receives an uninterrupted communication of His Spirit’s gifts? These are the sources of pure joy, lasting as God Himself, and victorious over all occasions for surface sorrow. The issue of all these gifts will be "a willing spirit," delighting to obey, eager to serve. If God’s Spirit dwells in us, obedience will be delight. To serve God because we must is not service. To serve Him because we had rather do His will than anything else is the service which delights Him and blesses us. The word rendered "willing" comes by a very natural process, to mean nobles. God’s servants are princes and lords of everything besides, themselves included. Such obedience is freedom. If desires flow with equable motion parallel to God’s will, there is no sense of restraint in keeping within limits beyond which we do not desire to go. "I will walk at liberty; for I keep Thy precepts." The last part of the psalm runs over with joyful vows-first, of magnifying God’s name ( Psalm 51:13-15 ), and then of offering true sacrifices. A man who has passed through such experiences as the psalmist’s and has received the blessings for which he prayed, cannot be silent. The instinct of hearts touched by God’s mercies is to speak of them to others. And no man who can say "I will tell what He has done for my soul" is without the most persuasive argument to bring to bear on others. A piece of autobiography will touch men who are unaffected by elaborate reasonings and deaf to polished eloquence. The impulse and the capacity to "teach transgressors Thy ways" are given in the experience of sin and forgiveness; and if anyone has not the former, it is questionable whether he has, in any real sense or large measure, received the latter. The prayer for deliverance from blood guiltiness in Psalm 51:14 breaks for a moment the flow of vows; but only for a moment. It indicates how amid them the psalmist preserved his sense of guilt, and how little he was disposed to think lightly of the sins of whose forgiveness he had prayed himself into the assurance. Its emergence here, like a black rock pushing its grimness up through a sparkling, sunny sea, in no sign of doubt whether his prayers had been answered; but it marks the abiding sense of sinfulness, which must ever accompany abiding gratitude for pardon and abiding holiness of heart. It seems hard to believe, as the advocates of a national reference in the psalm are obliged to do, that "blood guiltiness" has no special reference in the psalmist’s crime, but is employed simply as typical of sin in general. The mention of it finds a very obvious explanation on the hypothesis of Davidic authorship, and a rather constrained one on any other. Psalm 51:16 introduces the reason for the preceding vow of grateful praise, as is shown by the initial "For." The psalmist will bring the sacrifices of a grateful heart making his lips musical, because he has learned that these, and not ritual offerings, are acceptable. The same depreciation of external sacrifices is strongly expressed in Psalm 40:6 , and here, as there, is not to be taken as an absolute condemnation of these, but as setting them decisively below spiritual service. To suppose that prophets or psalmists waged a polemic against ritual observances per se misapprehends their position entirely. They do war against "the sacrifice of the wicked," against external acts which had no inward reality corresponding to them, against reliance on the outward and its undue exaltation. The authors of the later addition to this psalm had a true conception of its drift when they appended to it, not as a correction of a heretical tendency, but as a liturgical addition in full harmony with its spirit, the vow to "offer whole burnt offerings on" the restored "altar," when God should again build up Zion. The psalmist’s last words are immortal. "A heart broken and crushed, O God, Thou wilt not despise." But they derive still deeper beauty and pathos when it is observed that they are spoken after confession has been answered to his consciousness by pardon, and longing for purity by at least some bestowal of it. The "joy of Thy salvation," for which he had prayed has begun to flow into his heart. The "bones" which had been "crushed" are beginning to reknit, and thrills of gladness to steal through his frame; but still he feels that with all these happy experiences contrite consciousness of his sin must mingle. It does not rob his joy of one rapture, but it keeps it from becoming careless. He goes safely who goes humbly. The more sure a man is that God has put away the iniquity of his sin, the more should he remember it; for the remembrance will vivify gratitude and bind close to Him without whom there can be no steadfastness of spirit nor purity of life. The clean heart must continue contrite, if it is not to cease to be clean. The liturgical addition implies that Jerusalem is in ruins. It cannot be supposed without violence to come from David. It is not needed in order to form a completion to the psalm, which ends more impressively, and has an inner unity and coherence, if the deep words of Psalm 51:17 are taken as its close. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. Psalm 51 The fifty-first psalm F. W. Robertson, M. A. A darker guilt you will scarcely find — kingly power abused — worst passions yielded to. Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell; something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate: generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred, undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature. I. SCRIPTURE ESTIMATE OF SIN. 1. Personal accountability. "My sin." It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own. We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his. 2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it. Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry. Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. "Perhaps evil is not so bad after all — perhaps good — who knows?" Remember, therefore, in matters practical, conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this language of the Bible. 3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it, but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and God's will. This is the feeling of this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-nature! II. RESTORATION. 1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin in two feelings: one human. one divine. The feeling that there must be something surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism, and are even now found in common views of Christ's sacrifice. But men like David felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to God's will: that a man's best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice. Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you — yourself — your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the last and highest evidence of entire surrender. 2. Spirit of liberty. "Thy free spirit" — literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit, unconstrained — "the royal law of liberty." ( F. W. Robertson, M. A. ) The exceeding sinfulness of sin Canon Newbolt. I. THE NATURE OF SIN IN THE EYES OF ONE WHO SEES GOD. Just as one crime against the State can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it. II. WHERE INIQUITY DID ABOUND, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND. The penitent, having laid bare his sin, now asks for God's grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, "Mercy!" meant "Ransom!" — "Spare my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, "Mercy!" we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! "The soul that sinneth it shall die;" but He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace. But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to "blot them out," as we read elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer: "Wash me throughly" — more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry out. III. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH HE ASKS FOR PARDON. 1. There is the multitude of God's mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me; though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope, and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin. Let us hope. 2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing. 3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. "Behold, I was shapen in wickedness;" and therefore "the truth in the inward parts" can only be reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. ( Canon Newbolt. ) David's repentance J. S. Macintosh, D. D. I. THE CRY OF CONTRITION. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of God's righteous law. II. THE CRY FOR CLEANSING. This cry for cleansing is twofold — cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin — God's and David's. From each gazer these sins must be hidden — from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Maker's hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin! III. THE CRY OF CONSECRATION. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. ( J. S. Macintosh, D. D. ) The prayer of the penitent G. F. Pentecost, D. D. I. THE PRAYER. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates. 1. The general petition. "Have mercy upon me." He did not plead right or merit; he did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the mark of his need; 2. The specific petition.(1) "Blot out my transgressions." All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness ( Isaiah 43:25 ; Isaiah 44:22 ). 42) "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity." This is a prayer for justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence David's allusion to the ceremonial law (ver. 7). (Compare Leviticus 14:4, 9 ; Numbers 19:18 ; Hebrews 9:22 .) The allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel ( Isaiah 1:18 ), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus ( Revelation 1:5 ).(3) "Cleanse me from my sin." This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls. God's mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing ( Ephesians 5:25-27 ). II. THE CONFESSION. 1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. "I have sinned" — that is the long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve. 2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is cast behind God's back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our backs. 3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friend's wife, he most bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them. 4. Deep conviction. "Behold I was shapes in iniquity," etc. David is convinced that an inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil proceeds. Hence his further prayer, "Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts," etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin must be renewed inwardly. III. RENEWED PETITION. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after. bath in the cleansing tide. 1. Joy and gladness. 2. He prays for a new heart. 3. He prays for the restoration of salvation's joy. 4. A vow of consecration. ( G. F. Pentecost, D. D. ) A petition and an argument I. THE PETITION "Have mercy upon me," etc. 1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner. (1) It frees us from the greatest evil — sin. (2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness. (3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us. (4) It sweetens all other comforts. 2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular. 3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him. (1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages. (2) Prayer and seeking to God. (3) Forsaking it and turning from it. (4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins. II. THE ARGUMENT. "According to thy lovingkindness," etc. 1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a multitude of tender mercies.(1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace ( Psalm 116:5 ; Psalm 86:15 ; Psalm 145:9 ). Here is matter of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of information, that we may be able rightly to discern of God's love and affection to us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all; and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it, thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse. God's kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example.(2) Mercy or compassion.( a ) The tenderness of God's mercy is seen in —(i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person who sins against Him ( Psalm 103:13 ).(ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where, notwithstanding, there is ground for it ( Psalm 86:15 ; Joel 2:13 ; Jonah 4:2 ; Nahum 1:3 ).(iii.) The moderating of His corrections ( Jeremiah 30:11 ). Severity knows no limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself; and this also is in God ( Psalm 103:10 ; Ezra 9:13 ).(iv.) The seasonable removal; there's tenderness in that also ( Psalm 103:9 ).( b ) The greatness of it ( Psalm 57:10 ; Psalm 119:156 ). (i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving of great sins ( Isaiah 1:18 ; 1 Timothy 1:13 ). (ii.) For the freeness of it ( Romans 9:17 ; Isaiah 43:25 ). (iii.) For the duration ( Isaiah 54:7, 8 ; Psalm 103:17 ; Lamentations 3:22 ).( c ) The number and plurality. He has mercy for: (i.) Many persons. (ii.) Many offences. (iii.) Many times of offending ( Isaiah 55:7 ; James 2:13 ; Romans 5:20 ; Hosea 14:4 ; Psalm 103:3 ). 2. The inference.(1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage.(2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God.(3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them ( Thomas Horton, D. D. ) The psalmist's prayer for mercy T. Biddulph, M. A. I. TO WHOM THE PRAYER IS ADDRESSED. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One. II. THE OBJECT WHICH A PENITENT SINNER PROPOSES TO HIMSELF IN DRAWING NEAR TO GOD; AND THE SPIRIT OR FRAME OF MIND IN WHICH HE ADDRESSES HIM. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. "In Thy favour is life." Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away. III. THE MEASURE OR RULE, ACCORDING TO WHICH A PENITENT SINNER DESIRES TO BE DEALT WITH IN THE EXPECTED ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER, "According to Thy lovingkindness." How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, "the life of God in the soul of man." The term "lovingkindness" seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace — a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this "river of the water of life." ( T. Biddulph, M. A. ) The greatness of sin to a true penitent Monday Club Sermons. 1. The true penitent sees sin as against God. 2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity." 3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. "Thou desirest not sacrifice .... Thou delightest not in burnt offering." If religious acts, offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts. 4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power. 5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. "Build thou," he prays, "the walls of Jerusalem!" Every backslider's sin has this destroying power. 6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough. 7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin, separated from God. 8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, "If he ever repents he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his repentance." But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us. 9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin. 10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward cleansing. " Purge me with hyssop " refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due honour. ( Monday Club Sermons. ) The prayer of the Penitent David O. Mears. I. THE GUILT OF SIN. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place — "vice" as though it were merely an evil against self alone; "crime " or an offence against society. All such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God. You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God. II. THE DIVINE FORGIVENESS, Between blinding one's eyes against the guilt of sin and seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges. III. THE NEW HEART. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus. IV. THE FRUITS OF THE NEW LIFE. 1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own. 2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the followers in the service of God. "Then will I teach transgressors," etc. ( David O. Mears. ) The moan of a king J. Parker, D. D. The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling after a higher mode of being. "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. "I acknowledge my transgressions." Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns king's evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his crime. But David's is far other than these. "My sin is ever before me." The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume material manifestation. Covetousness — a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger. Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (ver. 4). "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every respect — hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth! What shall be our prayer in relation to it? "Wash me throughly," etc. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The penitent sinner Homilist. I. THE PENITENT'S PRAYER. 1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. God's way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy. 2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored. 3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition — (1) Of his perilous position; and (2) Of his personal accountability: "nay sin." II. THE PENITENT'S PLEA. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position, princely prowess; but the plenitude of God's mercy. A "multitude" of tender mercies! ( Homilist. ) Lessons S. Hieron. 1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress.(1) There is a commandment for it ( Psalm 50:15 ).(2) There is a promise of success ( Isaiah 65:24 ).(3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses ( Proverbs 18:8 ; Ephesians 3:20 ).(4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired ( Psalm 46:1 ; Micah 7:18 ; Psalm 145:18 ).(5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished them with the Spirit of prayer ( Galatians 4:6 ; Romans 8:26 ). 2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit. 3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on God's part of the guilt of sin ( Psalm 32:1, 2 ; Isaiah 44:22 ; Micah 7:18, 19 ; Jeremiah 31:34 ; Jeremiah 50:20 ). 4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of God's grace in making suit for the pardon of his sins ( Psalm 130:4 ; Ezra 9:6, 10, 15 ). ( S. Hieron. ) The prayer for mercy Andrew Murray. 1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence of God is a wonder. God's spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy. For there God is known as the Holy One. 2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace alone can be his hope. 3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries, that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy. 4. This longing is in full harmony with what God's Word teaches us on these points. The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy, partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it is called giving mercy, showing mercy. ( Andrew Murray. ) God's lovingkindness T. Alexander, M. A. God's kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called "loving." The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no kindness like His. All kind. hess but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it. The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a father or a mother — for that is the kindest that this world possesses — that, even that, has its limits. God's kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. ( T. Alexander, M. A. ) According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions God's mercy A. Symson. The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works, extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. ( A. Symson. ) God's-tender mercies T. Alexander, D. D. They are unbounded, and they are "tender." Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, "I forgive, but I do not forget." There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it "tender." But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all. He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. "Be of good. cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee." The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of the sea. God's mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless, endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. God's mercies, beginning with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life journey. ( T. Alexander, D. D. ) God's former dealings a plea for mercy Thomas Horton, D. D. These words, "According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies," may be taken not only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the advantage of God's children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives. The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; God's mercies are so linked and chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. ( Thomas Horton, D. D. ) "Blot out my trangressions Andrew Murray. The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, "According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." The law of God takes reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no intercourse with the holy and rights. cue God so long as this old guilt was not abolished, was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace. Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and therefore he prays, "Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions." ( Andrew Murray. ) Sin blotted out Campbell Morgan, D. D. A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, "I will blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions." And he said: "Mother, what does God mean when He says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I can't see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean — blot out?" The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, "Didn't I see, you yesterday writing on your slate?" "Yes," he said. "Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, "Where is what you wrote? Oh," he said, "I rubbed it out." "Well, where is it?" "Why, mother, I don't know." "But how could you put it away if it was really there?" "Oh, mother, I don't know. I know it was there, and it is gone." "Well," she said, "that is what God meant when He said, 'I will blot out thy transgressions.'" ( Campbell Morgan, D. D. ) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Psalm 51:2 David's cry for pardon A. Maclaren, D. D. I. How DAVID THOUGHT OF HIS SIN. The repetition of these petitions show his earnestness of soul. In like manner he asks for the gifts of God's Spirit. 1. He speaks of transgressions, the individual acts of sin; and then — 2. Of the iniquity which is the centre and root of them all. Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David's mind. It is my transgression, it is mine iniquity and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-called wise thinkers to-day, "I was tempted, and I could not help it." He does not talk about "circumstances," and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to himself. The three words which the psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. Transgression is not the same as iniquity,

51:1-6 David, being convinced of his sin, poured out his soul to God in prayer for mercy and grace. Whither should backsliding children return, but to the Lord their God, who alone can heal them? he drew up, by Divine teaching, an account of the workings of his heart toward God. Those that truly repent of their sins, will not be ashamed to own their repentance. Also, he instructs others what to do, and what to say. David had not only done much, but suffered much in the cause of God; yet he flees to God's infinite mercy, and depends upon that alone for pardon and peace. He begs the pardon of sin. The blood of Christ, sprinkled upon the conscience, blots out the transgression, and, having reconciled us to God, reconciles us to ourselves. The believer longs to have the whole debt of his sins blotted out, and every stain cleansed; he would be thoroughly washed from all his sins; but the hypocrite always has some secret reserve, and would have some favorite lust spared. David had such a deep sense of his sin, that he was continually thinking of it, with sorrow and shame. His sin was committed against God, whose truth we deny by wilful sin; with him we deal deceitfully. And the truly penitent will ever trace back the streams of actual sin to the fountain of original depravity. He confesses his original corruption. This is that foolishness which is bound in the heart of a child, that proneness to evil, and that backwardness to good, which is the burden of the regenerate, and the ruin of the unregenerate. He is encouraged, in his repentance, to hope that God would graciously accept him. Thou desirest truth in the inward part; to this God looks, in a returning sinner. Where there is truth, God will give wisdom. Those who sincerely endeavour to do their duty shall be taught their duty; but they will expect good only from Divine grace overcoming their corrupt nature. 51:7-15 Purge me with hyssop, with the blood of Christ applied to my soul by a lively faith, as the water of purification was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop. The blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling, Heb 12:24. If this blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, cleanse us from our sin, then we shall be clean indeed, Heb 10:2. He asks not to be comforted, till he is first cleansed; if sin, the bitter root of sorrow, be taken away, he can pray in faith, Let me have a well-grounded peace, of thy creating, so that the bones broken by convictions may rejoice, may be comforted. Hide thy face from my sins; blot out all mine iniquities out of thy book; blot them out, as a cloud is blotted out and dispelled by the beams of the sun. And the believer desires renewal to holiness as much as the joy of salvation. David now saw, more than ever, what an unclean heart he had, and sadly laments it; but he sees it is not in his own power to amend it, and therefore begs God would create in him a clean heart. When the sinner feels this change is necessary, and reads the promise of God to that purpose, he begins to ask it. He knew he had by his sin grieved the Holy Spirit, and provoked him to withdraw. This he dreads more than anything. He prays that Divine comforts may be restored to him. When we give ourselves cause to doubt our interest in salvation, how can we expect the joy of it? This had made him weak; he prays, I am ready to fall, either into sin or into despair, therefore uphold me with thy Spirit. Thy Spirit is a free Spirit, a free Agent himself, working freely. And the more cheerful we are in our duty, the more constant we shall be to it. What is this but the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free, which is contrasted with the yoke of bondage? Ga 5:1. It is the Spirit of adoption spoken to the heart. Those to whom God is the God of salvation, he will deliver from guilt; for the salvation he is the God of, is salvation from sin. We may therefore plead with him, Lord, thou art the God of my salvation, therefore deliver me from the dominion of sin. And when the lips are opened, what should they speak but the praises of God for his forgiving mercy? 51:16-19 Those who are thoroughly convinced of their misery and danger by sin, would spare no cost to obtain the remission of it. But as they cannot make satisfaction for sin, so God cannot take any satisfaction in them, otherwise than as expressing love and duty to him. The good work wrought in every true penitent, is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, and sorrow for sin. It is a heart that is tender, and pliable to God's word. Oh that there were such a heart in every one of us! God is graciously pleased to accept this; it is instead of all burnt-offering and sacrifice. The broken heart is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ; there is no true repentance without faith in him. Men despise that which is broken, but God will not. He will not overlook it, he will not refuse or reject it; though it makes God no satisfaction for the wrong done to him by sin. Those who have been in spiritual troubles, know how to pity and pray for others afflicted in like manner. David was afraid lest his sin should bring judgements upon the city and kingdom. No personal fears or troubles of conscience can make the soul, which has received grace, careless about the interests of the church of God. And let this be the continued joy of all the redeemed, that they have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.