Sunday Morning Service (Psalm 51)

Psalm 51

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"The Road Map Home"  •  1.03.16  •  Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro

- The superscription at the top of the Psalm tells us that this was written when "Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba."

- If Psalm 32 describes the year leading up to Nathan's famous "You are the man!" statement, then Psalm 51 captures the immediate thoughts and prayers of the King.

- Of the seven "Penitential" Psalms, this is certainly the most famous and most loved of them all, more than likely, because of the raw vulnerability displayed.

- If you ever wanted to know what it means to be broken over your own sin and to find God's way back from it, this is the chapter that will be the most instructive.

- In this chapter, David works around three themes that provide the framework for dealing with our sin. If we are to have victory over sin, we must follow this pattern.

I. Resign The Conflict (v.1-6)

II. Restore The Conscience (v.7-11)

III. Resolve To Cooperate (v.12-19)

Text

I. Resign The Conflict (v.1-6)

• Psalm 51:1 : "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." : David begins with a plea to God for mercy.  There is always a vital distinction to be made when discussing mercy and grace.

- Grace is getting what you do not deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. A plea then for mercy carries with it the knowledge of guilt and the rightful, deserved retribution of God.

- If a person is ever to receive grace, he must first understand that he requires God to have mercy upon him. Have mercy on me according to your lovingkindness.

- That word refers to God's covenant love. David has not lived up to the covenant that God had made with him, but still begs the Lord to be faithful to His part of the covenant.

- Certainly, this is his only hope, for if God were to deal with him on the basis of justice or righteousness or law, David would have been obliterated!

- David knows the futility of his situation apart from God and begs God to deal with him according to the abundance of His own mercies.

- God's merciful storehouse is abundant and within, there is a multitude of "tender mercies."

- I often echo Jeremiah's words in Lamentations 3:23 when I pray. As Jeremiah viewed the ruins of Israel, he noted that the remnant of Israel had not been destroyed, God's mercies being new.

- Essentially, these are the compassionate choices of the Lord. When used elsewhere, the word refers to the tenderness of an expectant Mother toward her child.

- Long before a child enters the world, the Mother has already tenderly concerned herself with the child's well being.

- With that tenderness in mind, David requests that the Lord "blot out" or wipe away and erase the transgressions. David's humble position prayerfully speaks volumes to you and I.

- There is no attempt to hide or to explain away his sin. There is a plea for mercy.

• Psalm 51:2-4 : "Wash me thoroughly from my 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." : When we covered Psalm 32, we noted the difference between the technical words for evil.

- David applies each one to himself. His iniquity. His sin. His transgression. Whatever definition there was, David owned it all and was filthy before the Lord.

- He had been a rebel against God's law. He had missed the mark of the standard laid out before him and he had given into the crooked bent of his lust. Spiritually, he had soiled himself!

- In the darkness of sinful company, one might not even notice, but the light of God's presence exposes a filth that is comprehensive. The King rightly asks God to wash him thoroughly, completely.

- The words describe a process used with soiled clothes by launderers, who virtually beat out a person's clothing by stomping on them. The clothing was trampled until clean and soft again.

- Essentially, David wants to feel like new again before the Lord and only God can do this!

- David recognized and confessed his rebellion and he thought of his sin constantly. The NLT says "it haunts me day and night!" How true that is!

- The knowledge of it never leaves a Christian when unconfessed because the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing it to the forefront, making us confront our sinfulness.

- By the way, after we confess our sin and God brings His forgiveness, the enemy of our souls condemns us and uses our sin to beat us down, reminding us of who we have wronged.

- This is why David notes that God alone had been offended! What David had done was wicked in God's sight! Others will be affected but this is who we have offended.

- God's law has been transgressed and sinned against! You can run and hide from a person, but that can't happen with God! The King plainly says that he had done evil in God's sight.

- David has no other claim. He knows that his confession proves that God was right and he was wrong! In this, David accepts any judgment that God would mete out!

- For one who truly understands who they have sinned against, there isn't even a question!

• Psalm 51:5,6 : "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." : David's season of sin was not due to a moment of weakness or a series of bad decisions, though both are expressions of the disease.

- As the King thinks about it, he realizes that he was shaped in the womb with a crooked sinful bent! While he was developing inside of his mother, David was developing into a little sinner!

- David was not an illegitimate son. Rather, this refers to the bent that he came into the world with. Every baby that is born has been born with the same sinful nature as David, including you and I!

- This is why the virgin birth matters. The sin nature travels through the Dad! Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit according to scripture. Neither we nor David have that testimony.

- Why is this an important statement? You and I need to reconcile ourselves with the biblical fact that we are sinners by nature. Sin which emanates from our being should be considered natural.

- This isn't to say that we should simply accept that reality. Notice what David says next.

- "Behold, I was born in sin. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts." Even from a born sinner, God delights in a person who doesn't bow to their sin, but who honors truth in godly integrity.

- This is where God's work is to begin in your life! When we submit to Him, in the deepest part of our being, He makes us to know His wisdom!

- That is, He teaches us to walk wisely, according to His Word, resisting what we would naturally do and following after what He deems appropriate.

II. Restore The Conscience (v.7-11)

• Psalm 51:7-9 : "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 my iniquities." : Hyssop was a shrub that was often used by the priests to ceremonially cleanse an individual. They would dip the plant in the sacrificial blood and sprinkle the altar with it.

- In the book of Leviticus, there are two chapters which deal with the examination of and the offering for a cleansed leper, something that was unheard of before Jesus did it.

- In chapter 14, two birds are collected. One bird is sacrificed and the other is set free after having the blood of the dead bird applied by hyssop.

- Is it possible that he is comparing himself to the leper, whose white spots revealed a deeper condition and whose cure involved a miraculous intercession by God?

- It makes sense, for if God will wash him, he will be thoroughly cleansed, made even whiter than snow. David longed to feel new again in his conscience. Notice the effect of the inner man.

- For a time all he heard was the groaning of his own soul and the sadness that covered him during his time in sin.

- As God washed him, he desired to hear something different sing out from his soul! Instead of mourning and sadness, he wanted to hear joy and gladness!

- He wanted the bones that had been crushed to stand whole again to rejoice! He wants to look into the eyes of God and see joy, not the disfavor which his sin brought.

- "Oh Lord, erase all the record of my iniquities!"

• Psalm 51:10,11 : "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." : The word "create" is the same word that Moses uses to begin the Bible!

- We have understood that this refers to bringing something into existence without pre-existing material. David uses it here for that very reason!

- David doesn't believe that he has anything pre-existing to offer to the Lord. "God, here is my twisted heart that simply needs reforming and reshaping."

- David instead asks God to bring something into existence that has no basis in himself!

- Create in me a clean, unalloyed, unadulterated, pure, whole heart. Not a divided heart, loyal one day to sin and one day to the Lord! The King wants a singular heart that only God can affect!

- Such a heart would produce or rebuild a steadfast, determined and fixated spirit within him. - David asks God to laser point him in a direction toward Himself! Here is an interesting moment in scripture for those involving themselves in the sovereignty versus free will debate.

- David in a sense, surrenders his free will in asking the Lord to manufacture a heart that will ever be moved in His direction! I would rather be God's slave than a free moral agent!

- What David wanted to be close to the Lord, but his heart and spirit and actions had not held to that resolve.

- He implores the Lord not to cast him aside. From the Kingdom? From Israel? From his job as King? No. None of that mattered. What mattered was the Lord presence!

- Don't kick me out of your presence and don't take away Your Holy Spirit! This is the first time He is referred to by this name in scripture! What a prayer to consider!

- Remember that in the Old Testament, believers were endowed with strength by the Holy Spirit, but this was not a permanent condition for them.

- There were two men in particular who David knew had experienced this. We know that he watched Saul become a raving lunatic and he had certainly read about the story of Samson.

- Obedience and living in the will of God assured the Old Testament believer of God's presence by His Spirit. David did not want to be without Him!

- The King's greatest fear was that he would minister without God's power! I pray that this might be your fear as well! Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit with our actions.

- But as David shows us here, we know that our actions come from a place where our conscience of sin is seared, so Lord, create in us a clean heart!

III. Resolve To Cooperate (v.12-19)

• Psalm 51:12,13 : "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." : David asks God to turning back the clock. I thought of the word "rewind."

"Take me back to a time when my experience of Your salvation was fresh within me!"

- It will be a difficult journey, so he asks the Lord to support and hold him up by His generous, His free and willing Spirit. Toward what end? That he might cooperate with the Lord in service!

- When you restore joy to me and when you support me to stand, then I will teach people like myself your ways and sinners will be turned back toward you!

- David doesn't simply want to return to the Lord for the sake of having His presence. He wants to be useful to the Lord!  He wants other sinners to know his God's goodness.

- It's a great testimony to the depth of the work of grace when we are in such a place!

- This is the pinnacle. This is the true victory, when God not only claims and cleanses a sinner, but when he also ordains an ambassador to service!

• Psalm 51:14-17 : "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 offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise." : The mental affects of David's conspiracy against Uriah moved deeply against him as he considered the guilt that continued long after the crime.

- He pictures himself as a prisoner, a captive to his own sinful guilt. He cannot escape the reality that his actions had produced alone.

- Over and over again in this Psalm, he asks for God to remit and to cleanse him from the reality and depth of his sin. Here he begs him to clear his conscience as he ministers!

- Don't you see that happening? The warfare that comes with committing yourself to God's program of converting other sinners is deadly!

- The enemy will use every advantage, including your past! When he had been in sin, his praise and worship had been silenced. If God would lift it, he would open his mouth wide!

- How true that is! When we have experienced God's cleansing work and have seen him deal even in the deep valley of our regrets, our hearts scream out in praise!

- David celebrates this in spite of the hopeless nature of his crime. There wasn't a sacrifice that could cover his sin. No adulterer or murderer could be covered in such a way.

- But the sacrifice that God does accept is that which reflects a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. "Broken" refers to that which is crushed, wrecked or shattered to pieces.

- God will never reject a person who comes to him with this kind of heart. He won't despise that person or that confession.

- This leads us to consider that a hard hearted, prideful confession would never receive His recognition. Such a person who would come to God with that attitude would find Him quite different!

• Psalm 51:18,19 : "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." : David's sin had been against the Lord directly. It has affected him scores of people indirectly. It has weighed upon him emotionally and this seems to indicate that it affected Israel nationally!

- David had not taken his role in the nation into account. He was the leader of God's nation! As such, he compromised their safety and position in their area.

- There are times in scripture when God judged sin by allowing plague or withholding rain from the nation. One time, God closed the wombs of an entire King's house!

- Had David's sin affected Israel in some tangible way? In essence, I believe that David is asking God to turn all of His good intentions back on toward Jerusalem.

- These verses speak of revival and God's pleasure over the people that would be converted, not to a religious system, but to a righteous God!

- Imagine how many had offered sacrifice without a broken and contrite heart over their sin. Imagine the testimony of the King, as this became increasingly public.

- Certainly, as their hearts were instructed, their sacrifices would begin to take on their intended meaning.

Conclusion

- As, we close, if you or anyone you know is to find their way back from sin, take note of David's themes found here.

- First, resign the conflict. God calls it sin. You have sinned. You require His mercy and grace, without which you rightly deserve any punishment that God deems to mete out.

- Second, pray that He restores your conscience. Sin is not just about an action.

- It's a wayward heart and a lack of sensitivity in your inner being. Ask God to restore your sensitivity to holiness, creating in you a clean heart that is focused on Him.

- Third, resolve to cooperate. Intend to be useful. Let whatever you have learned about God in your seasons of sin, be the fuel of how you minister for Him!