Psalms 51

Psalms 51:1-6

In this psalm, 1. He confesseth his sin, ver. 3-6. 2. He prays wrongly for the pardon of it, ver. 1, 2, 7, 8. 3. For prays of conscience, ver. 8-12. 4. For grace to go and sin to more, ver. 10, 11, 14. 5. For liberty of amity to God, ver. 12. 6. He premiseth to do what he could for the good of the souls of others, ver. 13, and for the glory of God, ver. 16, 17, 19. And lastly, consider with a prayer for Sion and Jerusalem, ver. 18. Let these whole consciences by sin are scunded, yea, though they have been guilty of adultery and murder, or the like enormous crimes, apply to Jesus in the sentiments of this psalm, and they will find that the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot bear.

To the chief musician, A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1. HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, ‘blot out my transgressions. 2. ‘Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4. ‘Against thee, thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy sight: ’that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judge. 5. Behold, ‘I was tharpen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother’s conceive me. 6. Behold, ’thou defierest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Mournful was the occasion of this penitential psalm. The matter of Uriah was the great blemish in the character of the man after God’s own heart; and scarce a more compli-

cated scene of guilt can be conceived; adultery and murder, aggravated with every circumstance of ingratitude, baseness, hypocrisy, injustice, treachery; and this to one whose fidelity deserved the most honourable and distinguished regard: and all this rendered more desperately wicked, scandalous, and offensive to God and man, when we consider the person, his station, character, religious profession, and the unspeakable mercies, temporal and spiritual, he had received at the hands of God. Yet what cannot sovereign grace effect? Behold this miserable sinner sought by divine mercy, when infernities and hardened; awakened, convinced, humbled, pardoned. The effusions of his broken heart on this occasion are here recorded: [1.] For our admonition, that we may know how bitter and evil a thing sin is, however pleasing in the enjoyment. [2.] To awaken our jealousy and fear, left we also being tempted, fall from our throthestness. [3.] To declare the stupendous patience and inestimable rich grace of God towards his people, who, in their most desperate estate, never leaves or forsakes them. [4.] To engage us, after our most unhappy falls, not to be driven from God in despair, but to return to him with a broken heart, and trust on the blood that cleanseth from all sin. [5.] To set us an example of the duty of penitence, to take public shame, where they have given public offence, and count on abasement too great, to testify their remorse and anguish for the dishonour done to God, as well as for the injury done to men.

1. He cries for mercy to a pardoning God. As a perishing sinner he makes but one plus, Mercy, dear Lord, mercy I crave. All he had done and suffered for God and his cause comes not into his mouth or mind: were it not for the loving-kindness of God, his pure, firm, unmerited, sovereign mercy, his state was desperate; but he saw in God not only tender mercies, but a multitude of tender mercies, great and extensive as his nudge-hells iniquities; therefore he ardently prays, Blot out my transgressions; and, as one sin peculiarly heavy lay upon his conscience, from this especially he begs to be cleansed. Nate, (1.) If our sins be not blotted out by the blood of a Redeemer, and our debt paid by our Surety’s sufferings, nothing can rescue us from the arrest of judgment, or deliver us from being cast into the prison of hell. (2.) They who feel the burden of sin cannot but cry importunately for mercy at God’s hands. (3.) The hope and promise of pardon is the great inducement for sinners always to pray, and not faint.

2. He deeply acknowledges his transgressions manifold and great, and his sin, his peculiarity provoking sin, was ever before him. It haunted his imagination like a terrible idealism; every thing around him served to awaken some circumstance of his guilt; and, using up, and lying down, his conscience, wounded with the bitter remembrance, groaned being burdened. Against thee, thee only have I sinned: he had sinned against others, against Uriah, his wife, against his own soul, and all God’s people; but that which was the deepest thing of guilt, was the offence against God: and done this evil in thy sight; daringly, as if defying his power to punish; and openly, for though hid from men, what darkness, or shadow of death, could exclude his piercing eye? Just therefore were all the threatening of God, a Sum. xii. 10. against him; yea, less than his iniquity deserved; for not in this instance only he stood convicted: sin, traced to its fountain-head, laid open a scene of deep and desperate apot-tary within, that added aggravation to all his crimes. Behold, I was tharpen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me: no outward fruit had been produced, but what was the genuine produce of a nature altogether corrupt, and utterly defiled within. Nate, (1.) A heart truly broken under a sense of sin, never seeks exculpation, but desires to take all shame and confusion to itself. (2.) The exceeding sinfulness of sin lies in its opposition to God’s nature and law. (3.) True penitents ever justify God in his judgment, however heavy upon them. (4.) No person was ever really humbled for any sin, till they were brought acquainted with their fallen nature, and saw there the essence of all iniquity.

3. What God required, David desired to offer, truth in the inward parts; for from deep heart-felt sorrow for sin he poured out his humbling confession, and, vile as his past conduct had been, now he in simplicity desired to please God, and he trusted God would teach and guide him. In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom, the wisdom that maketh wife unto salvation, the knowledge of sin, and of God’s pardoning love in Jesus Christ, producing all holy conversation and godliness. Nate, (1.) It is not the outward term, but the inward affection, God requires. (2.) He who commands, Give me thy heart, can alone work in us the will or ability in simplicity to surrender up ourselves to him.

4. Purge me with hystops, and I shall be clean: I wish me, and I shall be ‘whiter than snow. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness: that the bones which thou hast broken, may replace. 9. Hide thy face from my sins, and ‘blot out all mine iniquities. 10. ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me. ‘11. Cast me not away from thy

5. On the 1st day of the year, the presence of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people, and the people of the people.

Psalms 51:7-13

In hope of mercy from the father of mercies, the psalmist continues his prayer.

1. For the pardon of his sins, v. 7—9. Purge me with his hope, and I shall be clean, with me, and I shall be whore than fear; alluding to the purifying the leper, and the unclean perish under the law, Rev. xiv. 4—8. Numb. xix. 6—19. The blood which was sprinkled with the bunch of hystops, represented the blood of Jesus; and the water, that fountain which was opened in his fate for sin and for uncleanness. If our confidences are sprinkled with this cleansing blood, and our fouls washed in their healing dreams, every stain of guilt will be done away, and we shall be whiter than snow. All our sins will then be blotted out, as the cloud before the rising sun, sfa. xiv. 22. and God’s pure eyes behold no spot nor blomish in us.

2. For the restoration of his joys. Sin had spread a deadly gloom over all his comforts, and the wounds of his soul occasioned bitter anguish, than the grating of broken bones. But if his iniquity, the cause of his grief, were removed, then he hoped God would again lift up the light of his countermeasures, put gladness into his heart, and restore him again to the joys of his phantoms, v. 12. Note, (1.) They who have felt a broken heart, have known an anguish that the pains of broken bones can but imperfectly represent. (2.) A backfinding soul, who hath fled to God in Jesus Christ, may humbly hope, not only that he shall not perish, but be restored again to his former joys. (3.) He who gives the pardon, must give the comfort of it also.

3. For a new heart, v. 10. A soul sensible of the evil of sin, desires as much to be delivered from the power as the punishment of it. Create in me a clean heart; clean from the allowed indulgence of sin; create, because the new creation in Christ Jesus is the work of almighty power and grace alone; and renew a right spirit within me; prepared, or firm, as the word may signify: right, as recovered from its grievous backfinding; prepared for all God’s work and service; firm, never again thus to depart from God.

4. For the continual tenies of God’s gracious presence, and the support of his Spirit. Call me not away, as one abominable and reprobate, from the presence, as if abhorring the light of me; but look upon me with thy wonted favour and regard, and take not thy holy Spirit from me; though grieved by my pervenerance, yet take it not utterly away, but, as a spirit of holiness, let me find his blessed agency upon my soul, and uphold me amidst all the dangers that surround me, that I may never fall; and this with thy free Spirit, whose operations are all gracious and free, and the effects of them, liberty, and readiness to serve the blessed God. Now, They who are renewed in true holiness, count God’s service perfect freedom.

5. In return for such inestimable mercies, he will declare the riches of the grace he hath tailed, and by experience teach transgressors God’s ways; how he may be found in humble prayers, and how ready he is to receive the miserable soul that flies to him, even after its deepest falls; and thus sinners shall be converted unto thee; rescued from despair, and encouraged to return, because God will yet have mercy, yea, he will abundantly pardon. Note, (1.) If we have found mercy and generous redemption, we cannot but declare what great things God hath done for us, and invite others to come and taile that the Lord is gracious. (2.) They who have themselves known the pangs of a broken heart, are the fittest comforters for others in the like afflicted case. (3.) It is a great encouragement to the sinner ready to despair, when he hears, not only that there are promises of pardon, but that others, as guilty as himself, have actually obtained mercy.

6. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15. O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16. For thou defierst not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-offering. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19. Then shall thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Psalms 51:14-19

Particular sins lying heavy upon the conscience, will lift up particular mention of them.

1. David prays to be delivered from blood-guiltiness, and a heavy load is this. The blood of Urish, and those who fell with him, 2 Sam. xi. 15—17. witnessed against him. He

owns and trembles under the guilty and grievous charge; yet, O God, thou art able to save, however deep the stain of my sin: thou God of my salvation, in whom I am encouraged to trust, that thou wilt have, and then my grateful heart and tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness: for in every pardon granted to the sinner, it is not his misery or penitence which God regards, nor doth his salvation come from God’s mercy abominately considered, but regard is therein ever had to the sufferings of Jesus, the sinner’s heresy; whence it becomes an act of God’s righteousness to pardon, forarhouth as the Redeemer hath born our sins; and when we plead his vicarious obedience and sufferings, then God is just in justifying the ungodly.

2. He begs that his lips might be opened, v. 15. which guilt had scaled up; for how could he pray to, or praise God, whilst lying under such abominations? Yes, though he had begun to mourn in his prayer, yet, till the joys of God’s salvation were restored, he could not rejoice with a song.

3. He offers up that best sacrifice, a broken heart. Thou defierst not sacrifice, no sacrifice being appointed under the law for murder, adultery, or any wilful transgression: had it been, tho’ never so expensive, I would have given it. Thou delightest not in burnt-offering: even in the sacrifices of divine appointment, God delighted not in the heaths that were offered, but designed in these to point them to the one great sacrifice of Jesus, in whom alone he could be well-pleased. In him having found acceptance, and on him, the altar, perfecting thy paralysis of a broken spirit and contrite heart, God doth not despise the offering; it is accepted in the beloved, and regarded as a sweet-smelling favour.

4. Having found grace for himself, he becomes an advocate for Zion. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. For his own kingdom and people he prays, that his sins might not bring judgments upon them; but that they might experience God’s goodness, and he strengthened by his might: or more generally for the spiritual Zion, that increasing converts might be added, and, in numbers and strength, the gospel church be established.

5. Peace being made between God and them, then shall thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering. Their perish being accepted, their services would be pleasing; and gratitude for their mercies would make their sacrifices liberal and cheerful; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Note, Since the shadows are fled in the offering, of the body of Jesus come for all, it remains now that through him we offer up ourselves to God, our bodies, souls, and spirits, to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service; and this shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath born and built, Psal. lxxx. 31.