Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Psalm 51

Psalm 51 is the sermon text for today. We ran a little low on handouts as people were coming into the service. There are more now on the tables as you come into the sanctuary, and there are some here. Maybe I could get a young man to grab these. And if anybody would like a handout, raise your hand. The only reason I’m doing this—some young man, come up please. Thank you very much.

Page two of the outline does have a structure for Psalm 51 that I think is significant. I mentioned last week that my study of Psalm 19 was assisted by a commentary that my pastor friend Jack Phelps, whose son Fred was with us last Sunday, gave me, and it was very helpful in terms of the structure of Psalm 51. And so that’s primarily what I’ve used here, and I wanted you to have that with you. And if you want to, you can read along as I read aloud from the handout, and it’ll sort of show you the bolder terms or the matching terms that form the sections.

It’s interesting that the version of Psalm 51 we just sang concludes with David telling of the grace of God to others, converting sinners. That’s not quite the way the psalm ends. So they’re kind of on a topical arrangement of that. But let’s try to attend to this psalm in its entirety. I know it’s a little long, but please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Psalm 51. I might say too that when it says “to the chief musician,” the word originally means “shining one.” And so last week, you remember this progression in Psalm 19—from conversion to knowing wisdom, rejoicing, and then finally being an overseer with enlightened eyes. And so it doesn’t really—people have argued about the translation “to the chief musician.” It just means “to the shining one” literally. So anyway, Psalm 51:

“To the chief musician, a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your 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 always before me.

“Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

“Hide your face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness, O Lord.

“Open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

“Then they shall offer bulls on your altar.”

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for this psalm. We thank you that it is both the depth of confession and yet also the height, the great promises in it of the world being converted to you. We thank you for the seventy bulls that were offered on your altar in your temple representing the nations of the world. And we thank you for the triumphant way this psalm moves from monstrous, grievous, horrific sins on the part of one of your dear saints to then his conversion, his growing wisdom, his joy, and his ability then to exercise dominion and to be part of the process of converting the world.

We thank you that this psalm speaks through the ages, Lord God, fulfilling David’s request that he might indeed instruct sinners that they may be turned back to you in joy. Thank you, Lord God, for our time to study this text today. Bless us, Father. Transform us by the power of your indwelling spirit. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, the reason we’re talking about Psalm 51, of course, is that we’re moving through the Canons of Dort and we’re in the Fifth Head of Doctrine, the Perseverance of the Saints, which really is also balanced with the idea that the perseverance of the saints is only possible through the preservation of God of them. So God preserves us that we might persevere.

And in the context of the perseverance of the saints, the Canons of Dort as well as the Westminster Confession of Faith talks about, in one translation, monstrous sins—the grievous sins that saints still may fall into even though they’re persevering in the long haul. Their lives demonstrate that still there are times of doubt. There are daily sins of weakness. Everything we do, the canon says, has some degree of sinfulness to it. And then on occasion, the best of God’s people—I mean, you know, David loved God with his whole heart and God loved David—and the best of God’s saints can fall into grievous sin.

And so we wanted to talk about that one week: this grievous sin. Having talked from Psalm 19 on secret sins and small sins and the means, right? The means of perseverance. We’re to attend to the means. You know, I think that what this text tells us is about another means of perseverance that isn’t given in the confessions and creeds, but I want to talk about today.

Before we get to that, on the outline, I’ve got—remember, I would encourage—I did this week with my daughter. I would encourage all the parents here to have discussions this week with your kids. You know, no big deal, but just as we were walking home from the store, Charity and I talked and I asked her about TULIP and does she know what that means? Or the TULIP—the Canons, the way they put it—what do the words mean? Very important things and the implications of them.

We’ve tried to draw that out. The implication of unconditional election is the death of our pride. The implication of limited atonement or particular redemption is that we don’t then engage in false atonement either by atoning for our own sins, attempting in a masochistic sort of way, or in a sadistic way, blaming others. Our culture is filled with false atonement, filled with pride, filled with people thinking that they’re better than the next guy because of something in them. So it’s very practical—the Canons are very practical.

Total depravity: if we understand that all of our being is affected by the fall, then we’re going to avoid the sort of attempts to create heaven on earth through moralism or through better educational programs, more culture, whatever it is. We recognize that there’s not any part of the human psyche or existence that isn’t tainted by the fall. Total doesn’t mean we’re as bad as we could be. It means there’s totality to our depravity.

And if we understand that as a congregation, then we’re not going to, you know, be swayed by the attempts of moralism, salvation via education. Rushdoony’s book, The Messianic Character of American Education, is all that’s based upon Arminianism and a failure to understand the totality of the fall in terms of man.

If we don’t understand irresistible grace—the fact that when God calls us, He’s loved us in eternity. He’s chosen us, elected us on the basis of that love, not conditioned on us, on what we will do, but rather on His love. And then he sent His son to die for our sins. And then he irresistibly calls us to Himself through the work of the Holy Spirit. If we don’t understand that, then we’re going to get into, you know, as Christians, Titanism is one way we could call it. We’re going to really work hard. And it’s up to us to get people into the kingdom.

Now, I want us working hard in evangelism, but I want us working in the context of the grace of the Holy Spirit that understands that God’s Spirit’s at work. Once you swing into Titanism for a while, the end result of that typically is people then forget—they just chuck evangelism altogether. And understanding that God moves in His spirit to call people into faith has tremendous implications for how we go about doing evangelism.

And perseverance of the saints is quite important, of course, because it gives us hope when we may, like David, fall into grievous, monstrous sins. And as well, the doctrine tells us about how God preserves us. So again, it’s not us—it’s God. And yet God uses secondary means as part of that process.

So do you remember these points that we’ve talked about and the implications of them? And then what I’ve tried to do is encourage families or individuals to remember certain scriptures. You can talk about this. If it’s true that evangelicalism is the problem today—and I think it is—and that by that I mean Arminianism—then we want to serve the brothers and sisters we have in Christ in these other churches by trying to talk about the implications of these doctrines to them, about God’s sovereignty in terms of salvation and its far-reaching effects.

And if we’re going to do that, we’re people of the book. We want to know some scriptures about it, right? So we want to know that for unconditional election, turn to Ephesians 1. We’d go to Isaiah 53 or John 10, where Jesus dies for the sheep, for limited atonement. We would go to the description of man in the opening chapters of Romans for a discussion of man’s total depravity, or Ephesians again. And we’d want to go to 1 Corinthians 1 as he talks about two different kinds of callings—a general call, then an effectual call—to be able to talk to people from that text.

And for perseverance of the saints, you know, I’ve got some texts here. We’ve talked about them before, but John 10:28 and 29: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” The eternal security of the believer—once called, always called. That once saved, always saved. But then we think we can live our lives whatever we want. No, we’re called to serve God. Once called, always called. We’re safe.

Philippians 1:6, “Being confident in this very thing that He has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” A good one because it talks about perseverance, but it’s part of an ongoing process of the saints persevering while God preserves them, right? Not just once saved, always saved, but He’ll complete the work. He’ll bring us to maturity.

1 John 5:18, “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.” We have an obligation to keep ourselves. Now, God’s keeping us in His hands securely. We have an obligation to devote ourselves to keeping ourselves as well and to attend to the secondary means. So these things are important.

And today I want to talk specifically about these grievous or monstrous sins. In Article Four of the Canons of Dort, it talks about how the saints can fall into these monstrous sins. We read that with the righteous permission of God, the saints are sometimes actually drawn away. The lamentable fall of David, which we’re talking about today, Peter and other saints described in Holy Scripture demonstrate this.

I might forget this later, so let me mention Peter. David in the second stanza of his Psalm 51 desires to instruct sinners in the ways of God—to teach them about God. He’s converted, you know, brought back to right relationship with God—to the end that he might serve God. And our Savior told Peter that he’d go through difficulties and trials, but that after he has been established by God and firmed up, then he’s supposed to strengthen others. So it’s the same thing—Old Testament, New Testament. The end result of monstrous sins and the grace of God is the strengthening of His people for being able to be more effective for work for Him, to humble them of their own pride. That’s our great problem. And to make us acceptable.

So this lamentable sin of David is what we want to talk about. Gross sins or monstrous sins is how they’re described in the Canons and the Fifth Head of Doctrine and also in the Westminster Confession.

Let’s talk about Psalm 51. First, a little bit about the setting—the canonical setting. Where is that in the canon? It’s important to remember this. On your handouts on the second page at the bottom, I’ve got a brief, very brief overview of Book Two of the Psalms. We know there are five books in the Psalms. This is in the second book. Psalms 42 to 72 are in the second book. And you may not know this, and we don’t want to take time to go over this, but essentially Book Two falls out into priestly psalms by the sons of Korah and then kingly psalms by David.

And in each case, the last psalm of each section is a little different. Psalm 50 is written by Asaph, the leader of the Levites, and Psalm 72 is for the son of the king—for Solomon. And so we have this kind of transition nature and capstone to both halves of this. And 51 is in this place in the Psalter.

And you know, the implications of that are this. First of all, it is the first of the kingly psalms in the second book. And so if you think about that, reign is based upon humility and being humbled by God and then being fit for office. Okay? And so the kingly psalms in Book Two start with confession of horrific sin and great confidence that God will restore him.

Additionally, if we think about it, you know, this section—the second book, the kingly section—begins at 51 and ends with 72. The great psalm we sing all the time, you know, about “God thy judgments give the king” and how the world will be transformed. It’s the great culmination of the second book, and it’s a wonderful confession psalm. The expansion of God’s kingdom is written for Solomon. And so we move from being humbled and forgiveness of sins to then the great blessings of worldwide conquest by his son.

Additionally, we could look at Psalm 71. Since 72 is a little separate, we could say also that 51 and 71 sort of go together as well. Psalm 71 is that great psalm where he says that, you know, in my youth you’ve blessed me, and now when I get old and gray-headed, help me to tell the next generation of your faithfulness.

In Psalm 71, he says in verse 18, “Also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come.” So wonderful verse for us guys that are getting older particularly. And you can remember it because it’s the bookend, so to speak, of David’s penitential psalm in Psalm 51.

There are other connections as well. In verse 15, for instance, of Psalm 71, he says, “My mouth shall tell of your righteousness, your salvation all the day,” et cetera. There’s connections between 51 and 71. And what that does, again, is the Lord God is instilling hope in us. One of the worst things about the grievous sins that men commit is that it can drive us to despair. And instead of that, by processing this correctly in terms of Psalm 51, it reminds us that the worst of our sins are forgivable by God.

David did a horrible thing—several horrible things actually. And yet, I mean, can you imagine? This is the theocratic king of Israel who, yeah, commits adultery for sure, tries to cover it up through deception and conspiracy, and then finally, through another conspiracy, kills her husband. Now, can you imagine if George Bush did that? I mean, imagine that. That’s what happened here. Horrific things occur. And would we want to forgive the president? Well, I suppose if he wrote something like Psalm 51, maybe we would.

Psalm 51 is an indication of the heart response of those who are called by God to eternal salvation and our elect, and it’s the proper response to the worst of our sins. And it’s a psalm that should be reminding us of the grace of God.

So that’s the setting in terms of the canon. And then there’s a historical setting. The cover of your orders of worship today has a nice picture that Angie, church secretary, found online. I just think it’s a great picture, and it sort of tells the story. You know, I know that many of us know that story, but probably a lot of us don’t, particularly the young people. And you know, it’s got those two bubbles. Nathan is clearly, you know, convicting David. He’s the guy with the crown on and head down. He’s been brought to repentance. And Nathan is pointing up to the representation—the idea of what actually happened in the past.

And you’ve got David with Bathsheba there. And you got somebody in the background. You notice that there’s somebody standing back there. Who is that? I don’t know. I don’t know the artist or what his conception was, but it’s a good reminder to us that God is watching over me—watching over me, comforting, but chilling through various mechanisms. We don’t know who this person was. We don’t know if David’s actions were observed. We don’t know how Nathan knew, how God instructed Nathan and what had gone on. But we do know that God knows, and a lot of people usually know our secret sins.

So it’s a reminder of what we talked about before. Our secret sins will be made manifest by God. And so David’s away with Bathsheba is pictured there. And then on the left panel is his the death of Uriah. And those are the two great sins that are alluded to at the head of this psalm in the inspired words of God. It refers to this sin of David when he went in to Bathsheba.

So it references this historical incident. The left panel, I think, shows the city walls. If you read in the text in 2 Samuel 11:12—actually, it seems like the arrows were coming over the walls, but then also in history begins with David’s sin in 2 Samuel 11. Turn to 2 Samuel 11, please. We’re going to do a very brief overview of this Bible story. I love to tell the story. Well, the Bible’s filled with stories that we should know because they’re all one perspective—gospel stories. They’re part of the story.

And look at verse one. Now, I said that we’re going to talk about a secondary means of perseverance that the Canons do not articulate. And verse one is part of the reason we’re doing that.

Verse one of 2 Samuel 11: “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah but David remained at Jerusalem.”

The beginning of this story—and this is significant, I think—we talked from Psalm 19 last week. Keep me from small sins because they’re going to get bigger. Keep me from hidden sins, secret sins that I don’t even know, because what happens is that if I don’t attend to those, then I’m going to fall into great transgressions against you. Well, that’s what happens here.

The beginning sin of David seems like a fairly minor matter. And yet, the way the story is written for us draws our attention to it. By the time we get to the end of this story, at the end of chapter 12, David is with his army at Rabbah and defeating God’s enemies. So the story is told in a way it has an arc to it. It has a beginning with David’s sin of not attending to his vocation, his kingly task. It’s the time when kings are supposed to go out with their armies and do battle. He’s staying at home.

And when he finally gets converted through what happens in the difficulties, the end result is service to God in doing what he didn’t do at the beginning of the story.

Now what I’m talking about here is that a secondary means of perseverance is attending to the tasks that we’re supposed to be doing. When we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, when we goof off or lounge around—now, you know, vacations are great. Rejoicing time is great. But if we’re not doing what God has called us to do, what is the old adage? You know, idle hands are the devil’s workshop, right? Well, this is that case.

A secondary means of perseverance is attending to the vocation, the calling that the Lord God has given you as a mother, as a father, as a man who’s involved in vocation or women if you’re involved in some kind of employment or vocation, or just women involved in raising their kids. And kids, you’re called to be students right now, learning from your parents, getting ready for your own families. We’re called to do things for Jesus.

You see, again, we get back to this—what I said before—that, you know, we’re the servant. David said in Psalm 19, “He was the servant of God.” God doesn’t place us here just to have a nice relationship with him and sit around. He puts us here to exercise dominion. That’s the arc of the story.

And we could say that God uses sin sinlessly. And God used the horrific things that will unfold in this story to the end that He brought David back—had brought David through repentance—to the task that God wanted him to do: to go out and wage war against God’s enemies. You see, so it’s very important that we understand that this story unfolds by telling us what David wasn’t doing. And it ends, at the end of chapter 12, as I said, with him at Rabbah—the same place name is given. And now he’s with them doing that.

But he doesn’t. He stays home. And the next thing that happens in chapter 11 is he sees a woman bathing. Let me just say there it doesn’t say she was naked. There’s no culpability to Bathsheba in this story. Not at all. It’s all David’s culpability. I know of no scripture that puts Bathsheba, you know, as the person that’s the problem here.

Now, she’s committing adultery, but she’s young. If you look at the chronologies of the people involved here, David is older. She’s young—a young bride. And he, through the lineage that’s given as he inquires into who she is, we find out that she actually was part of one of the royal families that would were part of the kind of the sphere of David’s royal influence. So he probably knew Bathsheba from a little girl, and she’s grown up now, but she’s, you know, she’s a young person according to the chronologies as we track them out. Probably not twenty yet.

And so, you know, she has culpability, but clearly here the culpability is David’s. He has sex with this woman. He brings her to his place and he has sex. And then the text tells us that she conceives and she tells David, “I am with child.”

Now by the end of the story that child’s going to die, and that child will be replaced by the birth of another child, which is Solomon. And so that’s how the story moves—again, is the death of one and then the secondborn supplants, and we have Adam and Jesus and that imagery coming on here. But in any event, so he commits adultery with Bathsheba, and then he tries to cover it up.

In verse 11, what happens is David sends for Uriah to come home and have a little R&R with his wife. And he’s trying to cover up the conception. He’s trying to, you know, she’s going to show. She’s going to have a baby. And so he wants to make sure that Uriah gets right in there and has sex with his wife so that people won’t wonder, “Well, who had this child?” Because he’s been off to war.

And you know, Uriah doesn’t sleep with his wife. And David says, you know, “Why didn’t you go down to your house instead? Instead of staying up here in my area?”

In verse 11, Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife?”

Ah, can you imagine the impact? Well, we don’t know. Maybe David was so calloused over. But as we read the text, we know what’s being said. We’re being reminded again that David’s sin to begin all of this is not being with his men, but being at home in ease at the palace—not even lying with his wife, but lying with somebody else’s wife.

So David attempts—we try to cover up our sins. But the Lord God in His providence, in His love and mercy toward us, really makes those attempts by us fail and uses those very things to drive home His message. He’s doing his heart work. He’s softening David for the blow that he’ll strike through Nathan.

Well, David doesn’t repent still. And what David does then in the next section of chapter 11 is he says, “Well, here’s what I want you to do, Joab.” Boy, every time you read Joab, watch out. Joab was a man of great ability and gifting, but always a reminder to men with great abilities and giftings that, you know, they can become twisted, and you are worse than if you never had any giftings and abilities. That’s who Joab was.

Joab’s the one that David finally told Solomon, at his deathbed, to kill—that guy. He clung to the horns of the altar, and Solomon said, “No way,” and executed him. Joab was a murderer. Joab was a conspirator. And David turns to him to set up the conspiracy to kill Uriah.

He says, “Well, you know, go do this battle by the walls. You know, the walls where you probably don’t want to be at most of the time as you’re fighting a battle because that’s where people are going to shoot at you and kill you.” And so, but here, go close to the walls and then everybody draw back and leave Uriah in the front.

So Joab does that. The end result is that Uriah is killed. So David now has committed adultery. Well, he’s failed to go out with his troops. As a result, he’s fallen into sexual temptation and given into it. And to cover up the conception of the child, his first conspiracy doesn’t work. The second one seems to work because Uriah is killed. But now he’s added murder to his sins. Absolute murder. No other way to put it.

And then he does even worse. He, in verse 18—well, Joab is describing to the messenger who’s going to go back to David what David’s going to say. And David’s going to say, “Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who struck Abimelech, the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of millstone?”

So we’re being shown David’s going to fake a concern for righteousness. Not only is he not going to—not only conspired to kill this guy—he’s going to pretend that he didn’t have anything to do with it, and he’s actually going to say, “Well, this was really stupid. Somebody else should pay for this sin.” So that’s David going deeper and deeper into this sin.

And that’s what happens in chapter 12. And so chapter 12 ends. And that’s David’s great sin. But the second part of the historical context here is God’s great mercy in 2 Samuel 12, the first part of the verse—the first part of the chapter.

“The Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him,” and he explains, gives him a parable or an analogy. And we don’t need to get into the details. No time. But the point is that a couple of things here. One, God sent a man. He didn’t expect David to read his Bible because David was calloused and hardened. God brings repentance to men frequently—normatively, I would say—through the voice of other people. God speaks through people.

And here he speaks through Nathan, a man, to bring David to repentance. And it looks like a heavy blow that he’s laying upon David. But I’ve got in the outline that it’s God’s mercy. Why? Because it’s merciful of God to strike us, to bring us to repentance. And that’s what Nathan does. He says, “You are the man, David. You’re the guy I’m talking about.”

And God in a wondrous way uses His word spoken through the words of another to rebuke David. And David then comes to repentance.

Oh, brothers and sisters, may we be those who go to one another when we see sins in evidence. And may we be the voice of God that will be the grace of God to them, bringing them to repentance. Can’t emphasize that enough.

So David is brought to repentance. Nathan tells him in verse 7, “You are the man.” And then down in verse 9, “Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?”

And so, you know, Nathan doesn’t just stop with beginning. He kind of drives home the point of David’s great sin. And then David, he’s told in verse 10, “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house.” There’s judgment to this as well.

And so God’s mercy is sending Nathan, a rebuker, to David to bring him to his senses. But God’s justice is also played out in this narrative. And in David’s Psalm 51, when we get to looking at that, that’s what we’ll see—is the two major stanzas are first of all about the mercy of God or the mercy and justice of God, and then David’s conversion in doing what’s right again.

So justice and mercy here are brought together in this story. He in mercy brings David the conviction of sin, but then he also talks about justice, and he tells him the child’s going to die. And I, again, I don’t have time to do this, but Nathan said the guy who should pay fourfold restitution. And if we look at the story of David’s children, you know, four of them at least fell in very grievous sinful sorts of ways and were killed that way. So not only does this first child die because of David’s sin, but also other children of his will die as well. There will be this fourfold restitution because David’s sin was high-handed and very deep and broad and wide.

So the son of David then dies. Going on in this, and the justice of God is seen—that death is required—and that happens. And so David’s son dies, and David at that point changes his clothes and then gets up and eats in confidence that he’s going to see his son after death. So David is moved through repentance in a consideration of the mercy and justice of God to confidence and to eating and drinking.

And that’s the same movement that we see in Psalm 51. It begins with the consideration of the attributes of God and confession based upon it, and David’s commitment to service, and it moves toward joy, resurrection joy, toward the end of the account.

And so it follows the same basic pattern of chapters 11 and 12. And then in chapter 12, we move on to David’s recovery in 12C. Solomon is born, as I said. So we have the replacement idea. And then Rabbah is captured in verse 26 and following.

So David’s recovery at the end of the story is doing the service and will of God again. And that’s the point. The point is not to have forgiveness just so our consciences are clean, just to have some kind of relationship with Christ. But the point of all this is to restore men to vocation—men and women to vocation or calling.

And so the Lord God uses monstrous sins to the end of bringing us back to a sense of vocation and commitment to Him. And that’s exactly how Psalm 51 moves as well.

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## David Consecrates Himself to Service Again

All right, let’s look briefly then at Psalm 51 itself. The text: the first stanza is God’s justice putting on the new man. So what I’ve used here is that in the first stanza, it focuses first on the mercy of God, and then at the center, the justice of God. This is David wanting to have put off the old man. He’s repenting of his sins. He’s begging for forgiveness from God.

And then the second stanza begins with “Create a clean heart in me.” New creation is what he needs. So he’s putting on the new man, the new recreated man. And that man, at the center of it, is the commitment to tell sinners about the ways of God. And so he moves—it’s the same basic idea of sanctification: putting off, putting on in stanzas one and two.

And then stanza three is a stanza of rejoining the corporate community in worship.

So it begins with a petition based on the consideration of God’s attributes. This is in verse one. “So have mercy upon me, O God.” And a more literal translation would be “grace me.” Grace me. So it begins with this word—grace, mercy, undeserved favor from God. Grace me, O God, according to your loving kindness. That word is hesed—covenantal faithfulness. So David’s plea is based in part, I think, upon his being part of the covenant people of God. He’s calling on God to covenantally be faithful to him in time by forgiving his sins.

“According to the multitude of your tender mercies.” Interesting word, “tender mercies.” I didn’t know this, but the commentators point out that this word is—what did they call it?—the absolute plural intensive form of the Hebrew word that means womb. Womb. God has a womb.

Well, you know, you remember when we talked about Anselm at Reformation Celebration? Anselm’s, I think, the only existing song we have from him is about looking at God as mother. And there’s several places in the Bible where that’s done. Jesus said, “I would have gathered you as a hen gathers its chicks.” And it’s really so dramatic that here we have—I should have mentioned that in the seven penitential psalms, this psalm is at the center of the penitential psalms. It’s the greatest, you know, it’s the most in-depth, you know, grieving confession of sin that we have.

And that awareness of great sin is coupled right in the first verse with attributes of God of being merciful, of being covenantally faithful, of loving kindness, and of being motherly in his tender mercies toward his people. The depth of David’s sin—it happens—an understanding of it happens in the context of knowing the greatness of God’s love, even the love of a mother.

So, you know, sorry if that bothers you, but that’s what the word is. It means womb. And Jesus refers to Himself as a mother of chicks. Well, tremendous love is paired here with a great awareness of sins.

So David’s plea begins with a consideration of the characteristics of God Himself—God’s graciousness, His faithfulness to the covenant, and His motherly love. We could say it’s a petition based on God’s attributes.

And secondly, it’s a petition based on confession of grievous sin. And this is verses 2 through 4a. And you notice here: “Blot my transgressions out, wash me thoroughly from iniquity, cleanse me from sin.” There’s three words used there by David—three petitions—and three separate words for sin. Words meaning to miss the mark, words meaning to twist, and another word meaning high-handed rebellious sins. So David gets into all perspectives of his sinfulness before God and in relationship to that asks God with three petitions to blot out his transgressions.

Notice by the way: “mea culpa, mea culpa”—but David does it five times. “Have mercy upon me, O God. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.” See, David understood mea culpa—mea maxima culpa—he’s blaming nobody else at as this psalm begins for his sins other than himself. Intensified use of those terms like that strung together. God wants us to see that, and he wants us to know that what our response to monstrous or grievous sins on our part is to be the same kind of mea culpa relationship to God. It’s a relying upon the character of God and a full knowledge that everything that’s happened—even though God is sovereign and using this to bring David to more usefulness for Him—even so, David recognizes it’s totally his fault.

And as I say, the center of this whole stanza is about the justice of God.

“Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.”

So it’s a petition based on a confession of grievous, monstrous sins before God and it’s amplified here.

“I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is always before me.”

Well, that’s good. It’s when the awareness of our sin is not before us that we’re in deep trouble. Guilt is the thing that is not good in and of itself. If left alone, it produces depression. It can produce other kinds of sinfulness. But without the forgiveness of God, our guilt is ever with us. But the implication of course is that David is going to the depth of his sinfulness. He’s referring to the great evil he’s done. But he’s doing it in a way to cleanse his conscience.

There was an excellent—well, I shouldn’t recommend it. There’s a movie called The Mechanic, and it’s an uncomfortable movie to watch because the actor lost a lot of weight, looked like somebody out of Auschwitz. But the movie is a very interesting, very intense—I’m not recommending it necessarily—but it’s an intense cinematic depiction of the effects of guilt on a human life. And I don’t want to give away the whole storyline, but that’s what it’s about: his guilt. And that’s what’s happening to David. He’s wasting away. His guilt is always with him. His petition is based upon a confession of his grievous sin and the complete need he has to get back to a sense of the removal of that guilt through confession and forgiveness.

Third, it’s a petition focused on the justice of God. I mentioned that already, but the center section, as I see the psalm being played out, is:

“That you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.”

Now, it doesn’t mean that this happened in order that God might be just. It meant that resulting from David’s sin and his petition and God’s cleansing, God’s justice will be demonstrated. So God’s justice—another character quality of God—is blended with His mercy here. And it’s the very center of David’s petition. He desires to see God’s justice upheld and made evident in the context of the world.

Fourth, it’s a petition that goes deeper than the presenting sin. Verses 5 and 6a.

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.”

So he’s talked about his specific sin with Bathsheba. But now after this center section, he talks about deeper issues. He’s not talking about sex being bad. He’s not talking about what his mom did. He’s saying that the human condition is one of sin. Since the fall of Adam, we all have a sin nature. We have the imputation of Adam’s guilt and sin to us. And the human condition is such that when I get together with all you wonderful people—and you are wonderful folks, and I love you all—but I’m getting together with sinners. Then I’m walking around in a world filled with sin. That’s the human condition.

So David isn’t content just to say, “Well, yeah, forgive me for this sin.” He wants to be as free as he possibly can from all the rest of those sins. He says that God desires truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. So David wants to go deeper. So often for ourselves, with people we counsel, we just go to the symptomatic problem instead of going deeper down to what’s driving and other sins involved in a person’s life. David isn’t like that. This wonderful psalm moves in terms of a deepening awareness of his own sinfulness. So it’s not just about the presenting problem that’s horrible and evil, but he knows that his problem really is much deeper than that.

So he says, and of course the match to this is just before the center:

“Against you, you only have I sinned.”

And we say, “Well, oh, wait a minute. Gosh, Bathsheba and Uriah might have something to say about that, as well as your dead baby.” But David knew that the heart of the matter of all of our sins is rebellion against God. We’re striking out at God when we strike out at His image bearers. We’re sinning against God. David knew that was the heart of all sin. And he knew that at the heart of our being, that’s our problem—is we’re born with this nature that hates God.

And so what are we going to do?

Well, he prays, you know, in terms of a deepening sense of his own sinfulness. But he also prays with great confidence. I mean, this is amazing stuff. It’s like the depths and the heights. Look at what he says:

“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.”

So now it’s moving toward a confidence. There’s a movement to this psalm. David begins by asking for all these things. But in verse 7, everything kind of starts to change. This is a petition that is confident, knowing this character of God that he began with.

In a literal translation, Young’s Literal Translation, verse 7 says this: “Lo, truth thou hast desired in the inward parts, in the hidden part wisdom thou causest me to know. Thou cleans me with hyssop. I’m clean. You wash me and wa—and then snow I am whiter. Thou causes me to hear joy and gladness. Thou makest joyful bones thou hast bruised.”

And so it correctly picks up the future, the confident mood. These are not past. These are not petitions. These are assertions of what God will do. And that translation picked it up. “You will make me know wisdom. You will purge me with hyssop. You’ll make me clean. You’ll wash me, and then I’ll be whiter than snow. You’ll make me hear joy and gladness.”

And the great culmination is:

“And the bones you have broken will rejoice.”

Broken bones dancing. That’s the word “rejoice” here would be maybe better translated to dance or to move in circles. The bones you’ve broken—you know, through my sinfulness and your justice—you now are going to heal. You cut me apart, and you’ve brought me back together. And he prays confidently knowing that his brokenness, the depth of his depression, will turn to the heights of joy. The broken bones will dance before God in gratefulness and thankfulness for what He has done.

So this is a very confident psalm. It’s a petition based upon confidence, and it’s a petition based on resurrection joy.

“Hide your face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create—”

And then he goes to the second part, the second stanza. So it’s a joyful resurrection that David petitions God for.

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## God’s Service and Putting On the New Man

And then the second stanza, much shorter, we’ll get through this. God’s service and putting on the new man. This begins with the petition for purity, perseverance, and preservation.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Create. He needs the creating work of God to recover him from his sin and to give him the clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit. Give me back, give me, Father, an even more steadfast spirit than I exhibited before. Help me persevere in the secondary means. Help me attend to my vocation. Help me know your word. Help me pray. Help me persevere. And it’s all based upon the fact that God is going to preserve him by creating in him, making him a new creation in the context of his forgiveness of sins that he grants David.

So this is a petition for purity, a clean heart, and it’s a petition for perseverance and preservation by God.

And then there’s this three-fold mention of spirit.

“Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.”

Well, how can we have a persevering spirit? Well, we can only have it through the Holy Spirit who indwells us. No doubt an allusion to Saul. And God’s taking his spirit from Saul. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me by your generous spirit. You can only persevere as the spirit of God preserves you and gives you perseverance. And it’s the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit that David is asking for in this part of the petition.

And it is an indwelling work that produces fruit. It’s the same thing as the whole movement of the psalm. The movement of the story is from sinfulness in terms of serving God to activeness in terms of serving God through sin and repentance.

And the same thing moves here. He says he wants a persevering spirit. The Holy Spirit is the source of that. And then the Holy Spirit—he’ll be upheld by God by His generous spirit. Generous here means goodwill, a spirit of goodwill, a spirit that serves, that moves to help other people. A spirit of volunteerism, a spirit of service. So David wants perseverance through the indwelling Holy Spirit to the end that he would be someone of good will towards others instead of killing and having adultery with him and a spirit of service to the living God.

That’s the whole movement of this psalm, and it’s captured here in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So he prays for that continuing work of the Holy Spirit—three-fold repetition of the term “spirit.” We can only have a persevering spirit through the indwelling spirit, and that spirit will always lead us as we persevere in service to others and in service to God.

Third, it’s a petition based on consecration to serve God.

Verse 13, the center of the second stanza.

“Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you.”

He didn’t know God’s ways. Now he knows God’s ways. Sinners shall be converted to you. So the heart of his movement—again—is this service that he’s going to display to God. We then have a petition for the proper sacrifices of penitence and praise.

“Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness, O Lord. Open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise.”

For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise.

Jesus Christ. Sometimes the reason for that is guilt. Your own sinfulness. Guilt produces a closed mouth. And forgiveness and a restoration of the spirit of persevering service opens our mouth and lets us fulfill the service of telling transgressors the ways of God. So David petitions God for a proper sacrifice on his part of penitence and praise.

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## Restored to Community

And that finally moves us to the last stanza, where he’s restored to community.

“Do good in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then they shall offer bulls on your altar.”

So we’ve had very personal stuff going on, moving toward a desire to serve God by telling sinners. And now the last stanza puts us back in the context of the worshiping community. The term “sacrifice” here refers to the peace offerings, sacrifices of righteousness. The burnt offering is the ascension offering, and the whole burnt offering—very unusual, not very, but it was only used a few times. It’s the word ascension, ola, and then the word for whole completely is connected to it. So it’s kind of odd. It’s the same sacrifice as the ascension offering, but the emphasis here is on total transformation of David’s being and total consecration to serve God.

So again, we rejoice at the Lord’s Supper to the end that God would send us out as transformed and wholly consecrated and dedicated to the purposes of God. David moves—sin breaks relationship to community. Forgiveness of sin and repentance restores to community. And specifically that restoration is described in terms of the worship that goes on at Mount Zion.

So this is a call to perseverance by use of a secondary means—of doing the task that God has called you to do. This psalm should be one of great hope to people and great encouragement to those who have hidden sins in their lives to confess them, to bring them out into the open, to pray David’s prayer, and to pray it for the same purpose as pleading the promises of God based on His character itself—mercy and loving kindness and grace and His justice.

Confidently knowing that the Lord God will give us His persevering spirit, will forgive us of our sins to the end—not that we’re just kind of made happy again—but to the end that we, like David, can go to our Rabbah, our cities that we’re to conquer, our work that we’re called to do tomorrow and on into the rest of our lives.

May the Lord God grant us the proper use of the secondary means of vocation, not idleness, focusing on the task that God has called us to do this week. And so prevent us from monstrous sins. And may He when we do engage in grievous sins against Him grant us the spirit that David exhibited in this psalm, and may we be those like Nathan who are used by God to help bring each other to repentance, healing, recreation, and service—victorious service to God.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for Psalm 51. We thank you for this wonderful account of the very depths of horrific sin against you and yet the heights of the assurance that the bulls on the altar, the seventy bulls that were given for the nations, will indeed be how history unfolds. We thank you, Lord God, for the confident assertions of this psalm as well as the pleadings and the awareness of sinfulness. May each of us, Father, as we come forward with our tribute offering, do so with a renewed sense of consecration to do what you’ve called us to do this week—to be diligent, single-minded in doing what you’ve called us to do.

May we persevere through the grace of your Holy Spirit who indwells us, and that same spirit is one of service to you and others. Bless us, Lord God, through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives this week. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.