Psalm 51 is most powerfully prayed when you truly seek the forgiveness of God. King David wrote it after the prophet Nathan told him that God knew about his joint sins of adultery with Bathsheba, now pregnant with his child, and the grievous murder of her faithful husband, Uriah. David did so in order to take Bathsheba as yet another wife. The psalm is David’s confession, taking full responsibility for his actions, and seeking forgiveness and restoration.
While very few of us will ever sin against God’s commandments to the extent of David, the psalm nevertheless has a universal message. All sin is against God, since “sin” comes from archery and literally means to miss the mark God sets before us on how to live right with God.
David admits his responsibility and throws himself on the mercy of God. In seeking forgiveness, he also seeks to go back to how things were between God and him before his grave sins. And these verses will speak to us as well, especially when we are in the throes of the dire consequences of disobedience of whatever sort. What David seeks is precisely what God’s forgiveness can do:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you” (vss. 10-13).
At one time or another in our lives, most of us will struggle with the weight of guilt, together with the felt need to confess our sins to another, such as a priest or pastor, which we are actually commanded to do (Jas 5:16; 1 John 1:8-10). That is why we have Confession, and why Christ Himself gave the church the authority to forgive sins (Matt 18:18: John 20:23).
At the close of the psalm, David realizes what is acceptable to God:
“For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (vss.16-17).
This raises an important question: where does God abide? As if in answer, God says, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15).
And Jesus said, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).
Sometimes it takes being broken, like David, in order to humbly beg for and be open to receive, God’s reviving forgiveness.
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