Psalms 51:1 - Meaning and Application

The title points back to a very sad story, David’s fall. Yet though he fell, he was not completely ruined, because God graciously held him up and raised him again. The sin he mourns in this psalm was the wickedness he committed with his neighbor’s wife, Bathsheba, a sin so shameful it should stir detestation whenever it is remembered. That sin opened the door to many others, like water breaking out from a damaged place. David’s sin is recorded as a warning, so that anyone who thinks he stands should be careful not to fall.

The repentance he expresses here came after Nathan, the prophet sent by God, confronted him with his sin. David had gone more than nine months, as far as we can tell, without any clear sign of sorrow for it. Yet though God may allow his people to fall into sin and remain in it for a time, he will still find a way to bring them to repentance and restore them to their right minds. Usually he does this through the ministry of the word, though he is not limited to that means. Anyone caught in a fault should count a faithful rebuke a great kindness and a wise reprover their best friend.

David, once convinced of his sin, poured out his heart to God in prayer for mercy and grace. Where should wandering children return except to the Lord their God, the one they have turned from and the only one who can heal their turning away? He also shaped the feelings of his heart into a psalm by divine inspiration, so it could be repeated often and remembered for a long time. He gave it to the chief musician to be sung in the public worship of the church. This was, first, a public confession of his repentance. Since his sin had been widely known, he wanted the remedy to be as wide as the wound. People who truly repent are not ashamed to admit their repentance. Once they have lost the honor of being innocent, they are glad to have the honor of being penitent.

Second, this psalm became a pattern for others, both to draw them to repentance by his example and to teach them what to do and say when they repent. Having been restored himself, he could strengthen his brothers (Luke 22:32). For this reason he had received mercy (1 Timothy 1:16). In these opening words we see David’s humble request in Psalm 51:1-2. It is much like the prayer Jesus puts in the mouth of the repentant tax collector in the parable, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

David was a man of great worth in many ways. He had done much, and suffered much, for God’s cause. Yet when his sin is made clear, he does not try to balance his evil with his good. He does not think his service can make up for his offense. He runs to God’s boundless mercy and depends on that alone for pardon and peace: “Have mercy on me, O God.” He knows he stands guilty before God’s justice, so he throws himself on God’s mercy. In truth, the best person in the world would be lost if God were not merciful.

His plea is not based on his birth, his public service, or his royal rank. He does not say, “Remember David and all his troubles,” or “Remember how I vowed to build a place for the ark” (Psalm 132:1-2). A true penitent does not argue from personal merit. He simply asks for mercy because God is merciful. He appeals to the free kindness of God, his lovingkindness, that is, his gracious goodness toward the miserable. He also appeals to the fullness of that mercy, because God has abundant tender mercies, enough for many sinners and many sins, with pardon to match our many transgressions.

The specific mercy David asks for is the pardon of sin. “Blot out my transgressions,” he says, like a debt erased from a record when it has been paid or forgiven. He wants them wiped away so they will no longer stand against him in judgment or stare him down in shame and fear. The blood of Christ, when applied to the conscience, cleanses and quiets it. In that way it blots out sin, brings us back into peace with God, and also restores peace within ourselves (Psalm 51:2).

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,” he says. He wants his soul washed from both the guilt and stain of sin by God’s mercy and grace. The imagery suggests a deep stain that has soaked in, so it will not come out easily. He asks to be washed well and often, because the defilement is deep. “Cleanse me from my sin.” Sin makes us unclean, hateful in the sight of the holy God, and uncomfortable to ourselves. It also makes us unfit for fellowship with God, whether in grace now or in glory later. When God forgives sin, he also cleanses from it, so that we become acceptable to him, at peace within ourselves, and welcome in his presence.

Nathan had already assured David, when he first showed repentance, that his sin was pardoned: “The Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13). Even so, David still prays, “Wash me, cleanse me, blot out my transgressions.” God’s promises should still be sought in prayer. And those whose sins are forgiven should ask that their pardon be made clearer and fuller to them. God had forgiven David, but David could not forgive himself. So he presses hard for pardon, knowing he is unworthy of it and knowing how precious it is.

David then makes his penitent confession in Psalm 51:3-5. He is completely open before God: “I acknowledge my transgressions.” This had been the only thing that ever eased his conscience before (Psalm 32:4-5). When Nathan said, “You are the man,” David answered in effect, “I am. I have sinned.” He felt his sin so deeply that he kept thinking about it with sorrow and shame. His grief was not a brief emotion that passed quickly. It stayed with him.

“My sin is ever before me,” he says. It is always there to humble him, break his pride, and make him blush and tremble. Some understand him to mean, “It is always against me,” as an accuser and threat. David was often brought back to his sin by ordinary things, and he was willing to be reminded of it so that he might stay low before God. He could never walk on the roof of his house without remembering that unhappy walk when he saw Bathsheba there. He could never lie down to sleep without thinking sadly of the bed of his uncleanness, or sit down to eat, or send a servant, or take up his pen, without remembering how he made Uriah drunk, sent the treacherous message by him, and wrote and signed the fatal order for his death.

We should often return to repentance, even for the same sin. It does us good to keep our sins in view. Their memory helps keep us humble, guards us against temptation, stirs us to duty, and makes us patient under trouble.

David first confesses his actual sin, as in Psalm 51:4, "Against you, you only, have I sinned." He was a great man, yet when he had done wrong, he accepted the discipline of a penitent person. His royal rank did not excuse him. The rich and poor stand on the same ground here, since there is one rule of repentance for all. The greatest must soon be judged, so they should judge themselves now.

David was also a very good man, yet when he sinned, he willingly took the place of one who mourns over sin. The best people, if they fall, should give the best example of repentance. His confession was specific: "I have done this evil," the very thing he was being corrected for and his own conscience was accusing him of. It is good to name our sins clearly when we confess them, so we can ask for pardon more plainly and enjoy more comfort in it. We should think carefully about the details of our smaller failings and the circumstances of our serious sins.

He also makes his sin seem even worse by laying the blame on himself: "Against you, and in your sight." Our Lord seems to draw from this when he gives the returning prodigal these words: "I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18). David laments two things here. First, the sin was against God. God was the one insulted and wronged. By willful sin we deny his truth, reject his ways, disobey his command, distrust his promise, dishonor his name, and deal falsely with him. Joseph used this same thought to resist sin, saying, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9).

Some take "against you only" to mean that, as king, David answered to no one but God. But it fits his humble spirit better to read it as deep sorrow over his sin. He had indeed sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, his own soul, body, and family, his kingdom, and the church of God. Yet none of these were offended as God was, and so he puts the heaviest weight on that. Second, the sin was committed in God's sight. That makes it more serious, because it shows either disbelief in God's all-seeing eye or contempt for his justice. This should humble us deeply, since all our sins have been done before God.

David also justifies God in the sentence spoken against him, that the sword would never leave his house (2 Samuel 12:10-11). He is quick to own his sin and make it heavier, not only so he may be forgiven, but so he may honor God by his confession. He wants God to be proved right in the warnings spoken through Nathan. In effect, he says, "Lord, I have nothing to say against your justice. I deserve what you threatened, and much worse." Eli spoke in the same spirit when he said, "It is the Lord" (1 Samuel 3:18). Hezekiah did the same, saying, "The word of the Lord ... is good" (2 Kings 20:19).

David also wants God to be shown righteous when he carries out those warnings. He makes his confession public so that, if trouble comes later, no one can say God treated him unjustly. He admits the Lord is righteous. In this way, all true repenters justify God by condemning themselves: "You are just in all that has come upon us."

Then David confesses his original corruption, his sinful nature, in Psalm 51:5: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity." He is not asking God to look at it. He is telling his own soul to look back to the root from which he came. If he had thought on this earlier, he says, he would not have played so lightly with temptation or walked so close to danger with such a weak heart. Then the sin might have been avoided. Now he uses the truth as a deeper reason to hate his sin. He is not excusing himself by saying, "I could not help it." A true penitent does not use that defense. Instead, he says, "I have not only committed adultery and murder, but I have an adulterous and murderous nature. Therefore I abhor myself."

David elsewhere speaks with wonder about the making of his body, saying it was "curiously wrought" (Psalm 139:14-15). Yet here he says he was shaped in iniquity, because sin was mixed in with his nature. He means not as God made him, but as he came through human birth. He also speaks elsewhere of his mother’s piety, calling her God’s handmaid and claiming that relation (Psalm 116:16; Psalm 86:16). Yet here he says she conceived him in sin, because even a godly mother was still, by nature, a child of Eve. No one is excepted from that common condition.

This is a sad truth for all of us. We brought a corrupt nature into the world with us, sadly fallen from its first purity and rightness. From birth, we carry sin’s traps in our bodies, sin’s seeds in our souls, and sin’s stain on both. This is what we call original sin, because it is as old as our beginning and because it is the source of all our actual sins. It is that foolishness bound up in a child’s heart, that bent toward evil and slowness toward good, which burdens the renewed and ruins the unrenewed. It is a leaning away from God.

David then acknowledges God’s grace in Psalm 51:6. He speaks both of God’s desire for us, that "you desire truth in the inward parts," meaning God wants honesty and sincerity, and faithfulness to our profession. He also speaks of God’s work in us: "In the hidden part you have made, or will make, me to know wisdom." Truth and wisdom go a long way toward making a person good. A clear mind and a sincere heart, prudence and honesty, mark the person of God. And what God asks of us, he himself works in us. He does it in the right order, by first giving light to the mind and then winning the will.

But how does this fit here?

First, it clears God from any blame. David is saying, “Lord, you were not the cause of my sin. No blame belongs to you. I alone must bear it, because you warned me many times to be sincere, and you taught me what should have kept me from falling. If I had used the grace you gave me properly, I would have kept my integrity.”

Second, it makes the sin look worse. David is saying, “Lord, you desire truth, but where was that when I lied to Uriah? You made me know wisdom, but I did not live according to what I knew.” The more light a person has, the greater the sin when he ignores it.

Third, it encourages David in repentance, because it gives him hope that God will kindly receive him. God had made him sincere in his resolve never to return to folly. God looks for truth in the inward parts, meaning a genuine heart, in the person who turns back to him. David knew his heart was honestly turned toward God, so he did not doubt that God would accept him (Psalm 32:2).

He also hoped that God would help him keep those good resolutions. In the hidden part, in the new self, called the hidden person of the heart (1 Peter 3:4), God would make him know wisdom, so he could recognize and avoid the tempter’s schemes next time. Some take this as a prayer: “Lord, I have acted foolishly in this matter; for the future, teach me wisdom.” Where there is truth, God gives wisdom. Those who sincerely try to do their duty will be taught what their duty is.