“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:1-3 KJV).
Thus begins Psalm 51, perhaps the most beautiful and moving prayer for forgiveness ever uttered. Written by David, it appears after the worst failure in David’s life. We follow him as the young boy, tending his father’s sheep; the young musician, calming the growing agitation of King Saul with his lyre; as the young hero who faced down and killed the giant Goliath; and then as the suddenly wildly popular young hero on the run from the jealous wrath of King Saul. We watch him in the cave where he encounters the sleeping Saul, but instead of killing this man who is intent upon killing him, he merely cuts a strip from the hem of the King’s garment. We admire him as the people of Israel admired and grew to love him as they made him their king
And King David was a righteous and good king, “a man after my own heart” as God said of him. What then occasioned the deep remorse and contrition, the agony of spirit that drips from every line of the 51st Psalm? As with many leaders, David had succumbed to the seductiveness of power. He became, for a time, above the law, even God’s law. He saw the beautiful Bathsheba, wife of one of his generals, Uriah the Hittite, bathing on her roof and he desired her. We certainly can not hold Bathsheba innocent in the subsequent affair, for although it might be difficult to turn down the amorous advances of your king, David was no tyrant. He would have accepted a no. And indeed, what was she doing bathing on her rooftop in full view of the king’s palace in the first place? But her collusion aside, David initiated the affair that ended in her pregnancy and a huge problem for both of them. Uriah was off fighting. How could she pass the child off as his? Easily, David decided. He would reward Uriah for his valor by bringing him home to his wife for a short rest. But Uriah, the loyal and diligent soldier, refused the offer, insisting instead that he stay with his men. So David ordered him to be sent into the fiercest fighting to be killed by the children of Ammon. Then, after news of his death, David married Bathsheba and months later their baby was born.
But God would not let what this King of Israel had done stand. The baby soon died. And as the king was mourning the loss of his son, God sent the prophet Nathan to King David to force him to face up to his sin. D. S. Margoliouth explains this unique happening: “When David is rebuked for the crime, he yields the point without argument; he is told that he has done wrong, and he receives the prophet in a prophet’s name. When has this been done —before or since? Mary Queen of Scots would declare that she was above the law; Charles I would have thrown over Bathsheba; James II would have hired witnesses to swear away her character; Mohammed would have produced a revelation authorizing both crimes; Charles II would have publicly abrogated the seventh commandment; Queen Elizabeth would have suspended Nathan. Who has ever acknowledged an error of any magnitude, if it has been in his power to maintain that he was right? . . . Cain’s plan—that of silencing the accuser, and Adam’s plan—that of shifting the responsibility, seem to exhaust the range of human expedients when an error is brought home. He who escaped from both, though semustulatus (partially burnt, impure) was a ‘man after God’s own heart’” (Margoliouth, Lines of Defence of the Biblical Revelation qtd. by Everett F. Harrison, The Dallas Theological Seminary, in A Study of Psalm 51).
Even after Nathan proclaimed that God had in fact forgiven him, David, unable to forget what he had done, penned the words of this prayer.
Now, few among us, one hopes, has committed adultery and none of us has committed murder. Yet, the words of David’s psalm should resonate with us. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,” David confessed (v. 4 KJV). This is a profound thought. Often when we commit a sin, perhaps tell a convenient lie, repeat gossip that we know may not be true, treat someone unkindly, we feel sorry for what we have done and somewhat ashamed that we have wronged someone else. What we rarely feel, however, is the realization that far beyond the person to whom we lied or about whom we gossiped, we have sinned against God Himself. In fact, as David realized, it is against God ONLY that we have sinned, for the law that teaches us right and holy Christian conduct is the law of God and not of man. A recognition of that truth should send us to our knees to beg as David begged, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
David goes on to pray: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (v. 10-13 KJV). As with David, one sin often slides easily into another, until the whole tenor of our lives, our hearts, is subtly changed. It is not a change that we can correct ourselves, as David realized, but rather one that must be corrected by the Divine Hand of God. He must cleanse our hearts. He must renew that right spirit within us that leads us away from the little sins that daily besiege us. He it is who must renew in us the joy, the exuberance, the delight in our salvation that we felt when we first received Jesus as our Savior. And it is only then, as David concludes, that we can lead others to Christ through our godly words and actions.
How often have you heard someone excuse themselves from attending church because church is just “filled with a bunch of hypocrites!”? We know, of course, that hypocrites abound throughout the world, in churches and out, but the inescapable lesson here is that many non-Christians expect a level of perfection from Christians that is beyond human endeavor. We, the Bride of Christ, must be, like Caesar’s wife, above reproach. And yet, of course, we so often fall short of that goal, because we are, after all, human and prone to sin. Paul expressed it well when he said, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:14-15 NKJV). But Paul goes on to say, “So then those that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:8-9 NKJV). We cannot please God, we cannot avoid sinning, on our own. It is not in our nature. But the Spirit of God who dwells within us helps us to live as we should, convicting us of our daily sins, as the prophet Nathan convicted David, and leading us again and again to repentance.
The Christian life is a life of continual struggle but of bounteous rewards as God’s blessings are showered upon us. But when we stumble, as we cannot help but do, let us remember the prayer of David. Read the 51st Psalm. Let the words tumble from your heart as they tumbled from David’s. And let the Spirit of God renew in you the joy of God’s salvation!