Psalms 51:1

Have mercy upon me, O God,.... David, under a sense of sin, does not run away from God, but applies unto him, and casts himself at his feet, and upon his mercy; which shows the view he had of his

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Psalms 51 To the chief musician; to be sung by him and other sacred musicians publicly in the temple through all ages; that his repentance might be as manifest and public as his crime and scandal was. When Nathan the prophet came unto him: after his conscience was awakened by Nathan’ s words, 2 Samuel 12, and Nathan was gone, David falls very seriously upon the practice of sincere repentance, and digested his meditations into this Psalm. David prayeth to God for the remission of his original and actual sins, ,2, whereof he maketh a deep confession, ; and for the renovation of his Holy Spirit, to support himself and instruct others, ; promising him also unfeigned and sincere thankfulness, ; with a prayer for the good of the whole church, ,19. Have mercy upon me; pity, and help, and answer me, in the desires I am now spreading before thee. According to thy loving-kindness: I pretend to no merit, but humbly implore thy free grace and mercy. Thy mercies are infinite, and therefore sufficient for my relief, and such indeed do I need. Blot out; either, 1. Out of my conscience and soul, where it hath left a stain and filthy character. Or, 2. Out of thy book of remembrance and accounts, in which all men’ s sins are written, and out of Which all men shall be judged hereafter, ; which is spoken of God after the manner of men. See Poole ""; See Poole "".

Psalms 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.A Psalm of David] Who was not ashamed to do open penance here in a white sheet, as it were; so did Theodosius the emperor, at the reprehension of Ambrose, after the slaughter at Thessalonica; he spent eight months, saith Theodoret, in weeping and lamentation; he fell down on his face in the place of the penitents, and said, My soul is glued to the earth, &c. Henry IV (then king of Navarre only, afterwards of France also), having abused the daughter of a gentleman in Rochel, by whom he had a son, was persuaded by Monsieur Du-Plessis to make a public acknowledgment of his fault in the church, which also he did before all the nobility of his army. This counsel being thought by some to be too rigorous, Du-Plessis made this answer, That as a man could not be too courageous before men, so he could not be too humble in the presence of God (Life of Phil. de Morn., by Mr Clark). When Nathan the prophet came unto him] Rousing him out of a long lethargy, into which sin and Satan had cast him. See here the necessity of a faithful ministry, to be to us as the pilot was to Jonah, as the cock to Peter, &c.; as also of a friendly admonitor, such as David had prayed for, Psalms 141:5, and here he is answered. David had lain long in sin without repentance to any purpose; some remorse he had felt, Psalms 32:3, but it amounted not to a godly sorrow, till Nathan came; and in private, dealing plainly with him, more prevailed than all the lectures of the law or other means had done all that while. After he had gone in to Bathsheba] This was the devil’ s nest-egg that caused many sins to be laid, one to and upon another. See the woeful chain of David’ s lust, 2 Samuel 11:1-27; 2 Samuel 12:1-25, and beware. Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] It was wont to be, O my God, but David had now sinned away his assurance, wiped off his comfortables; he dares not plead propriety in God, nor relation to him, as having forfeited both. At another time, when he had greatly offended God by numbering the people, God counted him but plain David, "Go and say to David," 2 Samuel 24:12, whereas before, when he purposed to build God a temple, then it was, "Go tell my servant David," 2 Samuel 7:5. Sin doth much impair and weaken our assurance of God’ s favour; like as a drop of water falling on a burning candle dimmeth the light thereof.

(1) Blot out.—The figure is most probably, as in Exodus 32:32-33, taken from the custom of erasing a written record (comp. Numbers 5:23; Psalms 69:28). So LXX. and Vulg. Isaiah, however (Isaiah 44:22) uses the same word in a different connection, “I will blot out thy sins as a cloud.” A fine thought that the error and guilt that cloud the mind and conscience can be cleared off like a mist by a breath from heaven. Transgressions.—See Psalms 32:1. The word seems to imply a wilful throwing off of authority or restraint, perhaps here the breach of the covenant-relation irrespective of any particular sin by which the breach was brought about. Whether it is an individual or the community that speaks, the prayer is that Jehovah would act according to His chesed or covenant-favour towards the suppliant, and wipe out from His records whatever has intervened between the covenant parties.

PSALM LI The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for remission of sins, 1-4; which he confesses, and deeply deplores, 5-14; states his willingness to offer sacrifice, but is convinced that God prefers a broken heart to all kinds of oblations, 15-17; prays for the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem, and promises that then the Lord's sacrifice shall be properly performed, 18, 19. NOTES ON PSALM LI The title is long: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba." The propriety of this title has been greatly suspected, says Bishop Horsley: "That this Psalm was not written on the occasion to which the title refers, is evident from the 4th and 18th verses. The 4th verse Psalms 51:4 ill suits the case of David, who laid a successful plot against Uriah's life, after he had defiled his bed: and the 18th Psalms 51:18 verse refers the Psalm to the time of the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins." Dr. Kennicott is of the same mind. He says: "The title is misplaced; that it was written during the captivity, and the cessation of the temple worship; the author under great depression of mind, arising from the guilt of some crime, probably some compliance with heathen idolatry, not murder nor adultery; is plain from the 4th verse, "Against THEE ONLY have I sinned." The crime mentioned in the title was not only against God, but against the whole order of civil society; against the life of the noble and valiant captain whose wife Bath-sheba was, and against every thing sacred in friendship and hospitality. It was a congeries of sins against God and society. Were it not for the 4th, 18th, and 19th verses, the rest of the Psalm would accord well enough with the title, and the deep penitence it expresses would be suitable enough to David's state. But see on Psalms 51:4; Psalms 51:18-19. Verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] Without mercy I am totally, finally ruined and undone. According to thy loving-kindness] Mark the gradation in the sense of these three words, Have MERCY on me, חנני chonneni; thy LOVING-KINDNESS, חסדך chasdecha; - thy TENDER MERCIES, רחמיך rachameycha, here used to express the Divine compassion. The propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation. The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they respectively make over them. The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former.

1–4. Prayer for forgiveness and cleansing: its ground, God’s grace; its condition, man’s repentance.

Have mercy opon me, O God - This is the utterance of a full heart; a heart crushed and broken by the consciousness of sin. The psalmist had been made to see his great guilt; and his first act is to cry out for mercy.

1. Have mercy upon me—Psalms 51:1-2, are a simple, earnest plea for mercy. In the greatness of David’s guilt the compassion of God afforded the only ray of hope.