Psalm 51

I find it interesting that the previous Psalm was about God as Judge.....who will not overlook sin, nor keep silent about it.........

King David.  The mighty warrior king of Israel, and at the same time the Sweet Psalmist of Israel.....has fallen.  In a lapse of personal discipline (he didn't go out to fight with the army), he found himself tempted and didn't flee from it.  He has not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, but he has murdered her husband.  And he covered it all up.....hid it in his soul.....and perhaps thought he'd gotten away with it.

Ah......but God will not overlook sin or keep silent.

Along comes Nathan the prophet with a message from God, a story for the king.  A rich man with large herds of sheep has a guest.  He wants to feed the guest well, but instead of sacrificing one of his own animals for the meal, he steals the one pet ewe lamb of his very poor neighbor.....the family pet, and slaughters it for his guest.  

David is incensed!  How horrible! He will not allow this behavior in his kingdom!  In his anger he declares that man will pay back the loss of the lam 4 fold, and he deserves to die.

Can you imagine his look, the painful stab in his heart, the intense shame in his soul, when Nathan says, "you are that man!"           He then speaks God's judgement on David for his sin....the sword will never depart from his house, and indeed evil will rise up from within his house, doing to his own wives in the open for all to see what he did in secret.

David confesses.  God forgives.  But the consequences remain.

And we have Psalm 51, David's song of penitence after his rebuke.

He acknowledges God as Judge first and foremost.  He knows God's steadfast love and pleads for mercy.  God is just and blameless in His judgements, and David will submit.

He acknowledges his sin.  No excuses.  No blame.  No defense.  No covering it up. He claims no goodness in and of himself.....born a sinful creature. But God has written His law on David's heart. Verse 6 basically means, "I knew better."  He owns his sin, and grieves over it, knowing that the hideousness of it is that it grieves God's heart.

The cleansing from God alone can make one truly clean.  Only He can give us a clean heart and renew our spirits to be right.....steadfast and unwavering.

Replace the grief over my sin with joy and gladness!

Please don't treat me as I deserve!  Don't forsake me!

Restore my Joy

Help me.

With a humble, transparent heart, David declares himself to be the example to others.  God will restore him, and he will open his mouth wide and teach others about the nature of sin, and of God.
He asks God to deliver him from bloodguiltness.  It is not mentioned in study notes, but I wondered if he is asking God to releive him of the consequences of his sin, pronounced by Nathan. We know that he is forgiven, but we also know from the historical books that the consequences remained.

Nonetheless, God will be praised!  As in Psalm 50, God delights in the thanksgiving born from a heart that is broken because it has hurt God, and desired healing.

Verse 18 and 19 seem out of place.....not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the Psalm.
Without reading the study notes, I wondered if he is asking God to not hold his sin against the nation.  Or perhaps he is asking that his example (of confession and submission, praise and thanksgiving) might spur the nation to a right attitude in worship.
NKJV study notes state that "the restoration of the king leads to blessing for the people."
RSB study notes: " David recognizes that his sin has injured not only himself, but his city and nation as well. He asks God to deal with those broader damages."

I love the examples God has laid out in His word for us of godly men and women who sinned.  But I am glad that the example doesn't stop there.  We see open, honest confession, transparency, and broken and contrite hearts, broken over the knowledge of their sin.  And we see the love of God, not only in confronting the sin in us, but in forgiving and restoring.