THE BOOK OF PSALMS

Prayer of Confession and Vows of Repentance

Psalm 51

INTRODUCTION

Most conservative OT scholars for 2 reasons link this psalm with the episode of David and Bathsheba. First, the title introducing this psalm (found in ancient Hebrew manuscripts) claims that David wrote this psalm after Nathan the prophet visited him after he in turn had visited Bathsheba, that is, after he had had sexual relationship with her. Second, the contents of the psalm harmonize with the story of David seeking for forgiveness after he had sinned. After studying the psalm, you can easily see how David could have written such a piece after his sin had been discovered. Although it is interesting to study the psalm in its historical context, the truth is that no matter the context, Ps. 51 is a great psalm. It expresses the heart of one who truly seeks to turn away from his sin and to turn to God. We should probably gauge all true repentance in light of this psalm. If our repentance echoes this psalm, then we have truly repented. If not, our repentance is probably shallow and false.

One note of interest before we study this psalm. The introduction to this psalm expresses a great theological belief on the part of the one who introduced this psalm:
      Nathan the prophet visited David
      After he had visited Bathsheba.
Many times we see so much injustice operating in the world that we wonder if justice will ever prevail. We have people in our lives who misuse us and mistreat us; and then they appear to get off scot-free. I was speaking with a friend the other day who has been royally ripped off by a builder in Dallas. Basically, the builder swindled her out of several thousands of dollars. She has really been hurt by what happened. When we talked though, by appealing to this psalm I assured her that God would deal with this builder. Jesus claims that we are judged with the judgment with which we judge others. The way we treat others determines the kind of treatment God will one day send our way. David’s illicit visit to Bathsheba resulted in him getting a visit from God. You and I need to be so careful in what we say about other people, about the way we treat other people. Although they may be the most unlovely of people, God still loves them and expects us to do likewise. Yes, He wants us to love wisely—there are some people I will love but never entrust my children to; however, we are under God’s command to love. Period.

One final remark before we leave the introduction. David was so fortunate to have Nathan confront him concerning his sin. His sin had distanced him so far from God that it took a drastic encounter with Nathan in order to bring him to his senses. Unfortunately for most of us, we do not have Nathans confronting us; God, however, uses other methods: loss of health, loss of relationship, financial loss, the rebuke of a friend, the admonition of the Bible, etc. All these do not necessarily mean that I am in sin; however, when dire circumstances come into my life, I need to seek God in order to determine if He is trying to wake me up from the slumber of sin I’ve fallen into.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION (51:1-10)

Most OT scholars divide Ps. 51 into at least 2 parts. The first part, (51:1-10) concerns David’s prayer of confession. Whereas some would probably like to work through this section verse by verse, I would rather work through it theme by theme because David rambles in the psalm which makes it hard to study the chapter verse by verse.

The first impression we get from this psalm is that David feels great remorse for his sin:
       “For I know my transgression,
      And my sin is ever before me
      Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
      And in sin my mother conceived me.
David simply cannot escape from the fact that he has sinned. All he can think about day and night is how he has wronged God. The sight of a beautiful woman triggers some lust which reminds him of how he had lusted after Bathsheba and committed this terrible crime. Maybe someone makes an off-the -cuff remark which David interprets as being critical of him and his actions. He looks back at his life. He doesn’t remember the time God used him to slay Goliath or the time when he wrote Ps. 23. All he can see are the bad times in his life, when maybe he said unkind words or thought evil thoughts. As far as he is concerned now, his whole life has been one of sin. This crime against God has brought him this low.

Next we see that David is definitely NOT in denial over what he has done. He uses 3 different words to describe how terrible his actions were:
       “Blot out my transgressions
      Wash me thoroughly from my sins
      cleanse me from my iniquity."
All three words for sin in this psalm have the connotation of rebellion. “Blot out my transgressions” has the idea of a crime that I have willfully committed, a crime that has been recorded in a ledger. It has the idea of God keeping a record of my sins so that He can determine what treatment I deserve from Him. Verses like this begin the belief that God has books in heaven in which are recorded of the deeds of all people (see Rev. 20:12). David asks God to blot out that entry! Erase it! Act as if he had never sinned. “Wash me thoroughly from my sins” has the idea of the woman using a washboard in order to get a stain out of a piece of laundry. This stain is so deep inside the garment that mere soaking will not remove the stain. Only serious scrubbing will remove that ground-in stain. “Cleanse me from my iniquity” has the idea of removing the most loathsome of all scourges—leprosy. How serious was leprosy? It was the AIDS of that day. Our sins are not trifles; they are as serious as the plague of leprosy, AIDS.

Notice that David admits that he committed these sins even though he knew he was doing wrong:
      "Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Thy sight."
David knew exactly what he was doing and he knew that God knew what he was doing. The sad thing is that in one weak moment in his life, he didn’t give a rip what God thought. All he cared about was satisfying his own lust. This does not sound like the David whom the OT describes as being a man after God’s own heart. The sad truth to this is that any and every person, if not careful, is capable of committing the most atrocious offense against God. We all have sinful natures, and we all have certain issues in our lives which need tending to: desire for affirmation (fame), security (controlled by money), intimacy (unbridled lust), and self-control (controlling nature). If these are not dealt with, they most likely will one day control us and maybe even destroy us spiritually.

In order for us to restore our relationship with God, we need to be like David and be honest about our sins. They are transgressions, sins, and iniquities. We tend to find every excuse in the world in order to excuse our behavior. We blame our sins upon our environment, our parents, our socio-economic background, our race, the treatment of our race by people who lived over 100 years ago, etc. We blame everybody but ourselves. We don’t get any peace by doing this; however, we are resolute in making sure that we do not condemn ourselves. One of the most liberating things I’ve experienced is taking responsibility for my own actions. No one and nothing can make me sin; I determine that. Yes, people may hurt my feelings, and people make affect the way I feel; however, no one can determine what I say or what I do. Until we recognize that, we will never enjoy the life God has in store for us. We will continue to live in our sins and justify those actions. God has commanded us to love one another, and He does not want to hear any excuses for any other behavior.

Third, notice that David appeals to God’s lovingkindness and compassion when seeking for forgiveness. He does not present to God all the merits he achieved in the past as the basis for forgiveness: “forgive me because I slew Goliath”; forgive me because I was gracious to Saul even though he tried to kill me”; “forgive me because I did write Ps. 23”; etc. David did not have a leg to stand on. He was guilty, and nothing he had done in the past or could even do in the future could make restitution for his sin. It is purely God’s grace which provides for my forgiveness and your forgiveness.

In this passage, we once more see the seed for Paul’s teaching on grace. Paul’s opponents insisted that a person had to perform certain works in order to be right with God. Well, what works could Paul perform in order to wipe away the sin of murdering God’s people, Christians? The NT tells us that Paul spent 14 years in Tarsus in solitude reflecting on God’s Word. God probably used this passage and others like it to teach him about His grace. What good deeds could David perform in order to make up for murdering Uriah and committing adultery with Uriah’s wife? Absolutely nothing. If David (like Paul) was going to receive forgiveness, God out of unmerited grace would have to bestow it upon David.

Fourth, note that David realizes that he cannot purify himself or bring himself into a right relationship with God. Forgiveness (salvation) is totally the work of God:
       “Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean;
      Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
      Make me to hear joy and gladness.
      Let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice.
      Create in me a clean heart, O God,
      And renew a steadfast spirit within me . . .
      Restore to me . . . "
In each of these verbs, the subject is God: “God, You purify me . . . God, You wash me . . . God, You create me in me,” etc. If God does not act, then David is completely lost.

One of my favorite books is C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. In book 3, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we meet a young boy by the name of Eustace. Now Eustace is the kind of child we would call “most obnoxious.” Such a whiner and complainer. He’s never happy; plus he tries to make sure that nobody else is ever happy too. Well, one day while he is separated from the rest of the crew, he happens upon some treasure: gold rings, sparkling tiaras, etc. His heart is filled with so much greed for the treasure. It is his, and he’s definitely not going to share it with anybody else. In Narnia lived dragons. Dragons are greedy creatures who always want treasure. They will kill for treasure. Well, since Eustace is so greedy like a dragon, he wakes up the next day to discover that he is a dragon. Oh how miserable he is. He doesn’t want to be a dragon. He wants to be a little boy like before. So he takes his dragon claws and scrapes away at the dragon scales covering his body. He thinks that if he scrapes away the dragon scales, he will bring out the little boy in him again; however, after he removes a layer of dragon scales, to his horror he discovers another layer of dragon scales lying beneath that layer. No matter how hard he tries, he is still a dragon.

Later that day after Eustace had given up, he sees a large lion approaching him. [In Narnia this lion represents Jesus.] The lion asks Eustace if he would like him to change him back into a little boy. After much deliberation, Eustace finally agrees—only because he has come to realize that he can never transform himself back into a little boy. The lion approached him and with his large claws began scraping away at the scales. Pain shot right through Eustace; however, he endured the pain because he saw the scales come flying off him.

Finally when the lion was finished, Eustace looked into a pool of water and discovered that he was once more a little boy. Never would he be like the old Eustace again. The lion had changed him, and changed he would remain.

The same applies to you and me. Some of us are still dragons. Oh, we're educated, sophisticated, and in good shape physically; however, we’re just educated, sophisticated, and in-good-shape dragons. We can never change ourselves. Unless the Lion changes us, we will never change.

VOWS OF REPENTANCE (51:11-19)

Before making certain vows before the Lord, David first pleads for God not to abandon him.
      "Do not cast me away from Thy presence,
      And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me."
The request is the most serious evidence that David has repented. When some of us sin, we ask God not to take away our careers, our families, our health, or our lives. This, though, is the only fear that David expresses in the entire psalm. He does not mention fear of losing his son, Bathsheba, wealth, his kingdom, or anything else. The only thing he fears is losing God. No matter what else God does, David just asks that God not leave him.

To me, Titanic is one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. The first time I watched it, it did not affect me that much. The second time I watched it, I was just devastated. The scene in which Jack is standing on the deck and Rose is being lowered in the life boat saddened me because I know that this scene portends the final scene in which they will be physically parted forever. They had such an intense love for each other that their parting was heart-breaking. In that movie, the parting was legitimately heart-breaking because of what a wonderful person he had been to her. Watching that movie saddens me because it taps into the hurt I feel when I think about the loved ones I’ve lost in my life. Maybe they were not the most precious people in the world to other people; but they were to me. Losing them left such a sense of loss in my life.

In the movie, Jack Dawson was a wonderful person. In my own life, those I lost were wonderful too. I will probably always miss them until I meet them in glory. As wonderful as they were though, they don’t compare with Jesus. As terrible as losing them was, losing Him would be devastating beyond words. A Christian cannot lose his or her salvation; however, when a Christian sins and persists in that sin, God does take away His presence from that Christian. This I could not handle. More than anything else, the wonder of His presence motivates me to run from sin. Losing Him is something I never want to experience. David will do just about anything to keep that from happening; that needs to be our attitude too.

Although there is nothing David can do to get God to forgive him, there are numerous things he will do after God has forgiven him. Although on the surface it may appear that David is bargaining with God, the truth is that forgiveness is going to lead to a changed life. Once a person has experienced God’s forgiveness, he is a different person. That is the way you can tell whether or not a person has only truly repented. Some people demand that you just take them at their word that they have repented. They are incensed if you even quiz them about evidence of their repentance. You don’t have to quiz a person, though, who has repented. His or her life will demonstrate beyond doubt that repentance has occurred. The fact you have to ask is proof positive that genuine repentance has not occurred.

The truth is that genuine repentance does lead to a changed life, especially in the way a person treats other people. God is not interested in you becoming “holy” for the sake of holiness. He wants you to be holy in your relationship to other people. The next time you see a person broken by God’s Spirit, you will see a person who is so tender in his or her relationship with other people—the way they talk to them, the way they respond to them. Look at the teachings of Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul. Nearly all their teachings focus on the way we treat others. What did Jesus tell Simon Peter to do once Peter claimed that he had repented? “Feed My Sheep.” “Take care of My people.”

What actions will David take in response to being forgiven?
      "Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways!
      And sinners will be converted to Thee."
Basically, David is promising to lead the lost to salvation and to lead God’s people back to Him if they have gone astray. There will be praise: “Open my lips that I may declare Thy praise!”

David then cautions the reader about he misuse of sacrifice. Many treat external sacrifices as ways to restore us to God. I’ve heard of people making substantial gifts to a local church because they or one of their loved ones committed a heinous offense, as if a gift would right them with God. (The people in the church were impressed, but I am not sure God was.) Others seem to be more faithful in church attendance. These are the one who, when they’ve sinned, make sure that they sit on the front pew during the morning worship service. You’ll never see them on the back pew! In worship, their hands are clasped more tightly than other others. They’re the first to weep during worship. God doesn’t give one whit about such sacrifices.
      "For Thou doest not delight in sacrifice;
      Otherwise, I would give it."

God doesn’t care about these kinds of sacrifices. The penitent may weep; however, his repentance does not consist solely of weeping or sitting on the front pew. God cares about his heart.
       “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
      A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”
Our hearts can be so far from God and yet offer up the sacrifices just mentioned; however, when our heart is right with God, we will automatically offer up the right kind of sacrifice. God ultimately wants brokenness in His people. The first beatitude which introduces the Message of the Kingdom states: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When we’re broken, we’re not going to visit our Bathsheba’s. When we’re broken, we’re not going to rebel against God.