Year 2, Day 196: Psalm 51

Psalm 51

Psalm 51 is an awesome psalm.  There is a reason that almost every line of this psalm sounds familiar – it is just that popular of a psalm from which lyrics are taken!  In fact, I hope you recognized the fact that “Create in Me a Clean Heart” is entirely lifted straight out of verses 10-12.  Again, this is one of the serious benefits of liturgies and praise songs both.  Anything that helps us to come upon scripture and say, “Oh, I know that!” is good in my book.

Let me give you a little background on this psalm.  As the title indicates, this is a psalm from a very profound time in David’s life.  I’m sure we’ve all heard about David’s affair (and subsequent marriage) with Bathsheba.  Before David marries her, Bathsheba becomes pregnant and the prophet Nathan comes before David to confront him with his sin.  Nathan tells David that the baby who has been conceived will not survive.  {See 2 Samuel 12}  It is sometime after this interaction between David and Nathan in which David composes this psalm.

As this psalm opens, we have one of the most beautiful and concise perspectives on our relationship with God.  Because of our irresolute nature, we need mercy; God provides to the repentant according to His steadfast love.  It is God who blots out our transgressions, not we who earn the blotting out of our transgressions.  It is God who washes us thoroughly, not we who wash ourselves.  It is God who cleanses us from our sin!

The following four verses talk about the innate nature of sin.  David speaks forth truth.  He was brought forth in sin.  When he was a tiny little baby – he was sinful.  He was no innocent little baby.  He was a human being, as self-centered then as ever.  As he has grown, his condition of having a tendency for sin has not improved all that much.  For the record, that’s not just true only about David.  In fact, so complete is David’s confession and realization of his human sinfulness that in this psalm he uses all three of the Hebrew words to speak about sin: hata (to miss the mark), pesa (to rebel or transgress), and awon (to have iniquity or guilt).

Then we move from sin to repentance.  David begins by asking God to create within him a clean and pure heart.  He needs a right spirit.  Think about the history of this passage once more.  David and Bathsheba clearly sinned.  David went through the whole act of figuring out how to have Bathsheba’s legitimate husband murdered.  He lived with the guilt of his action and for almost a year he was guilty of trying to cover it up.  But when Nathan came, he realized that it could not be covered up from God.  This is the realization that all of us must undergo.  Our spirits are not right.  We are always trying to cover up our failings and our sinfulness.  We need God to create a clean heart – or as Paul would say in the New Testament, transform us into something new and clean.  We need God to make our spirit right.  Our nature is flesh, and our flesh is corrupt.  We need God – the almighty force that is completely external to humanity – to come into us as change our very nature.

As we so often see in both the Old and New Testaments, this cleansing nature does absolutely come with a price.  What does David say?  If God cleanses him and gives him a new heart, then he is going to respond.  He isn’t going to earn the cleansing – he knows that it is far too late for that.  But he is going to respond to the cleansing.  David promises to teach sinners the ways of God’s truth.  David promises to bring God’s words of repentance, love, and forgiveness to a world that is in desperate need to hear it.  David promises to be active in helping sinners return to God.

As a bit of an aside, today I am preaching of Ephesians 1:3-14.  In that passage, twice Paul speaks to the fact that we are so richly blessed by God for the sake of His will.  He adopts us for the sake of His purposes.  We obtain an inheritance for the sake of His purposes.  I’m also going to look at Matthew 15:16.  In that single verse Jesus tells His disciples – ergo, us – that we did not choose Him.  Rather, He chose us so that we might bear fruit and our fruit would abide.  God interacts with us for the pursuit of His agenda.  His agenda is the only agenda that is pure, righteous, and genuinely good for humanity.  He desires that we come into a relationship with Him so that we can learn to pursue what is good for us: His agenda.

If we return to the psalm, we can see what makes this psalm such a beautiful witness to the faith.  In this psalm we have a great theology of sin.  We have an outpouring of the soul in deep confession.  We have a statement of repentance and an expression of sanctification.  We also have a reminder of the purpose for all of it.  We are God’s people.  Let us live like we are His.

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