Latest / Reformed Thinking / A Broken Heart God Will Not Despise (Psalm 51) | Charles Spurgeon

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A Broken Heart God Will Not Despise (Psalm 51) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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  take complex source material and distill it into genuine
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  understanding, giving you that shortcut to being thoroughly
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  informed. Today we're doing something a
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  little different. We're undertaking, well, a
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  pretty monumental task, a deep dive into a single piece of
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  scripture, guided by the immense knowledge of Charles Spurgeon as
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  we find it in his work The Treasury of David.
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  And the focus is entirely on Psalm 51.
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  Exactly. And the context, the moment of
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  composition here, is just everything.
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  This is David's raw, agonizing confession.
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  Penned right after the prophet Nathan brought the judgement of
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  God crashing down on him. Following the sins with
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  Bathsheba and of course, the murderer of Uriah.
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  So our mission today isn't just to read a commentary.
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  It's to extract the sharpest insights into what genuine
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  repentance really looks like. What the true nature of sin
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  means for the soul and justice. How overwhelming the scope of
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  God's grace has to be to cover such a crime.
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  All through Spurgeon's precise theological lens, it really is
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  the ultimate case study in spiritual recovery, you know?
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  Commentators, sensing its intensity, often call Psalm 51
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  the Sinner's Guide. That's a powerful title.
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  It is. It just stands as an expression
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  of penitence that is really unmatched in its concentration
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  and its honesty. And it's so critical to grasp
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  the time frame. As Spurgeon emphasizes, David
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  wrote this after his spiritual nature was awakened.
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  This is the sound of a returning St.
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  Not, you know, self pitting Sinner still enjoying his
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  transgression. That distinction is just
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  crucial, isn't it? It is.
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  It means he is already under conviction.
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  He's feeling the full weight of God's displeasure.
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  He's not trying to bargain. No, he's confessing and the
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  Psalm follows this logical spiritual path.
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  The 1st 12 verses, they contain the core of the confession and
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  this fervent plea for pardon and renewal.
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  And then it shifts. It shifts entirely.
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  The final seven verses move into this anticipatory gratitude, the
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  resolutions he makes, the promises he claims, once that
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  restored spiritual life begins to flow again.
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  So it's a movement. It's a movement from the
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  absolute lowest point of human failure to the highest
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  expression of redemptive hope. OK, let's get into it.
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  Let's unpack this. The moment David opens his mouth
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  in verse one, he doesn't start with what he did.
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  No, he starts with God's character.
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  I mean, this is the essential move, isn't it?
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  He flies immediately to the strongest possible ground for
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  hope. Have mercy upon me, oh God.
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  It's the only rational starting point for a person in his
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  situation. His entire plea is fundamentally
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  anti merit. He has no merit.
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  He has none. David knows he deserves death,
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  not pardon, so he grounds his request purely on the nature of
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  the judge. He appeals to thy loving
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  kindness. And that word loving kindness,
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  it's so packed with meaning. Spurgeon describes it as a rare
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  compound of precious things, love and kindness sweetly
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  blended in one. That's the Hebrew has said.
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  Right. It's that faithful covenant
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  keeping love. So David is basically saying God
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  act according to the nature you've revealed to me.
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  Act like the covenant, keeping God I know you to be.
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  Exactly, and the appeal isn't just to the existence of mercy,
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  it's to the scale of it. Look at the language he uses.
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  According to. He asks for mercy according to
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  that loving kindness, and then he appeals to the a multitude of
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  thy tender mercies. That's a dramatic escalation.
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  It's not just a drop of mercy he needs.
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  No, it's a vast ocean of compassion.
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  He's asking God to make his case, an illustration of the
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  full scope of God's gentleness. An epitome of all thy tender
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  mercies, as Spurgeon says, Yes. David is encouraging himself by
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  recounting every previous act of grace God has shown to others
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  throughout history. It's as if he's praying.
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  Let me add another, and maybe a yet greater one in my own person
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  to the long list of your compassions.
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  That shows a desperate faith. A desperate yet very informed
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  faith in the limitless nature of God's forgiveness.
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  And once he's established that foundation, that boundless
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  divine character, then he presents the specific petition.
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  Then he asks. Blot out my transgressions and
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  this is such visceral language for forgiveness.
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  It is. Spurgeon really focuses on this
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  imagery of total erasure. I mean, imagine the sins being
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  recorded in a heavenly register, written down, written down,
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  maybe even carved, engraven in the rock forever.
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  When David prays Blot out, he's asking for that record to be
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  utterly obliterated. Well, it's not just a part of
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  it. It's an erasure.
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  Like taking a heavy pen and just drawing through every line of
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  the charge sheet until you can't even read the original text
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  anymore. It's even more than that.
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  The Hebrew term suggests wiping out or utterly extirpating the
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  sin, leaving no remembrance of it forever.
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  And this covers the transgressions, the willful
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  revolts, the acts of stepping over the line.
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  He's confessing his excesses. And begging for the permanent
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  obliteration of the legal record against him.
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  So verse one deals with that legal record, the blotting out
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  of the transgression. But David immediately recognizes
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  in verse 2 that a clean record isn't enough.
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  He needs a clean soul. Yes.
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  Wash me throughly from my iniquity.
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  This is the move from what justification to sanctification.
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  Exactly. Pardon for the deed and then
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  purification of the person. David understands that even if
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  the sin is erased from the Ledger, the stain is still on
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  him. He knows he's defiled and only
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  God can purify him. And that word throughly here
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  seems to imply such an incredible depth of defilement.
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  Oh, it does. Spurgeon notes that the Hebrew
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  literally suggests multiply to wash me.
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  Wow. This sin isn't superficial,
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  Bert. It's It's an ingrained dye, a
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  Crimson stain that has soaked into his very being.
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  So he's crying out. Wash me again and again until
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  the last bit of defilement is gone.
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  He knows it needs divine, repeated, intensive action.
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  He does, and that intensity really shows his sincerity.
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  It's the difference between the outward and the inward.
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  The hypocrite, as Spurgeon suggests, is only concerned if
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  his public garments are clean. He wants to look pious.
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  But the true suppliant. The true suppliant cries wash
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  me. He wants a real practical
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  purification of his interior life, that single visible sin of
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  adultery and murder. It served to awaken him to the
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  whole mountain of his iniquity. That one fall deed was just a
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  stone that fell, but it revealed this massive rotten foundation
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  underneath. Exactly.
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  Which means David is not simply afraid of the consequences.
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  He's not just worried about losing his Kingdom or being
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  punished. He's sickened by the sin itself.
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  That is the cornerstone of genuine Reformed repentance.
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  He is crying out against the evil of the transgression, not
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  just its painful consequences. He hates what God hates.
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  He sees his corruption as this one great pollution, A
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  constitutional disease. Yes, that renders his entire
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  person susceptible to God's wrath.
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  He refers to it as mine iniquity, as if it's his most
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  defining awful possession. And only when we hate the sin,
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  the offense against God, can we be sure that God deals gently
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  with the Sinner. That's a challenging standard.
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  It is because it suggests that just feeling remorse over the
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  consequence is not repentance. Repentance is hating the offense
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  against a holy judge. It is, and this need for total
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  internal cleansing immediately sets the stage for the next
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  difficult realization. Owning the.
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  The transition in verse 3 is immediate.
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  It's explicit. David accepts full
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  responsibility for I. Acknowledge my transgressions,
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  and my sin is ever before me. No blaming Bathsheba, no blaming
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  the circumstance, no blaming the weakness of the flesh.
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  It's I might. He just owns it.
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  He's standing naked before the judge.
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  Commentators note this relentless use of personal
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  pronouns. He is pleading guilty without
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  any reservation. And notice this acknowledgement
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  is not leverage for forgiveness. Right.
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  He's not saying because I confessed.
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  Now you have to forgive me. No.
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  Rather, it's evidence that he needs mercy.
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  The confession proves that he has utterly failed and has no
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  other place to go for help. He's pleading guilty, which bars
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  him from making any appeal against the sentence.
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  And that pain is permanent for the truly awakened soul, he
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  says. His sin is ever before me.
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  And Spurgeon points out that a truly sensitive conscience
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  doesn't see the pain of sin as something transient or
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  occasional. It's intense and it is
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  permanent. David can't forget what he's
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  done. But this intensity of pain, this
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  constant self reproach, you're saying it's described as a good
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  sign? Such a preface of a bounding
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  favor. It's the necessary conviction,
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  the knowledge of sin, the cognito piccati, as the
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  theologians would say, the realization of the offense that
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  has to come before the full confession, the ignatio.
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  You have to know how deep the pit is before you can appreciate
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  the latter out of it. Exactly.
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  And it's that intense pain that plimes the soul for the
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  reception of grace. David isn't focused on his
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  future, he's focused on his past failure, which ironically, is
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  what guarantees his future forgiveness.
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  Now we arrive at verse 4, which is, I mean, it's maybe the most
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  difficult theological statement in the whole Psalm, and it's
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  certainly one that confuses a modern reader.
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  Yeah, against thee the only. Have I sinned and done this evil
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  in thy sight? Yes.
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  How can he say only against thee?
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  He directly caused the death of Uriah.
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  He destroyed his family. He brought scandal on the people
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  of God. This is where we need to spend
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  some time, because if we misunderstand this, we
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  misunderstand the Reformed definition of sin completely.
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  Luther recognized the difficulty, but Spurgeon,
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  drawing on earlier commentators, clarifies the central point,
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  which is David is not minimizing the injury to Uriah.
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  He is elevating the offense against God above all others.
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  So it's a scale of priority. It's not a denial of the human
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  injury. Absolutely.
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  Sin, fundamentally is the transgression of God's law.
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  Injuring other people is sin primarily because it violates
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  God's divine decree. As one writer put it, all
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  wrongdoing centers and culminates at the foot of the
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  divine throne. So his sense of offending a
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  holy, just and loving God was so total and overwhelming that all
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  the other aspects of his confession.
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  They were swallowed up. The harm to Bathsheba, the
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  murder of Uriah, all of it was swallowed up in this greater
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  offense. It's like a treason analogy.
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  If a man commits fraud against a small business, sure he's
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  injured the owner. But if that man is a diplomat
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  and the fraud violates international treaties and
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  national law. The small business owner's
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  injury is overshadowed by the higher treason against the state
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  and the Crown. The greater offence contains the
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  lesser. That's an excellent analogy.
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  David felt he had committed treason in the very court of the
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  King of Kings. His primary relationship was
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  severed, and that severance made all his subsequent earthly
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  actions corrupt. And Spurgeon adds another layer.
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  He does. He notes that David might be
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  speaking not just as an adulterer, but in the person of
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  all the Saints. He realized that his fall, those
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  specific, brought him to the knowledge that his whole life,
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  when viewed by God's perfect standard, was nothing but a
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  constant stream of failing the divine will.
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  A state of evil continual. Yes, and the aggravation of it
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  all is that he did it in thy sight.
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  He knew God was watching. That's what makes it so
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  impudent. David, the man who wrote these
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  beautiful Psalms about God's omnipresence, chose to commit
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  this trespass, knowing Jehovah himself was watching every part
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  of it. For the true believer, this
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  awareness of God's gaze adds a fearful guilt to every evil act.
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  The unregenerate person doesn't care that God is watching.
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  But the penitent finds that presence agonizing.
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  And this leads directly to the core theological conclusion of
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  the verse. That thou mightest be justified
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  when thou speakest, and be clear when that judges.
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  He's saying I am so guilty that even if you kill me, God, you
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  are righteous. It's total surrender to divine
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  justice. He cannot and will not present
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  any argument against God's verdict.
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  No, his complete, honest, and thorough confession ensures that
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  the course of justice is clear and beyond all controversy.
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  He establishes the righteousness of God's verdict before God even
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  delivers the pardon. So he's acknowledging that God
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  can't lay a punishment on him that he hasn't fully deserved.
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  It's like he's handing God the full legal right to execute
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  judgment, believing that even in that execution, God would be
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  proven just. That is terrifying honesty.
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  It is, and it's the necessary preparation for receiving mercy.
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  We can't truly appreciate God's grace until we first agree with
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  God that we deserve his condemnation.
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  David's confession is the sound of a man agreeing with God's
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  holiness over his own existence. So after confessing the action
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  and the overwhelming offense against God, David goes deeper
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  still. In verse 5, he addresses the
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  source of the problem. Yes, and this is the cornerstone
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  for understanding the doctrine of inherited corruption or
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  original sin. Behold, I was shapen in
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  iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
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  This must have been a devastating realization for
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  David, a thunderstruck moment. It was.
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  And this is not an excuse. David isn't saying, oh, it's my
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  mother's fault. No, he's acknowledging the deep
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  taproots of his sin. He's completing his confession
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  by tracing the stream back to the polluted fountainhead.
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  He's saying my sin wasn't just a mistake I made, it's who I am
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  from the very beginning. Precisely.
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  He recognizes that he was not a Sinner by accidental bad
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  choices, but by a deep seated depravity that extends to the
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  innermost parts of his soul. Spurgeon emphasizes that this
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  passage, while it unequivocally teaches original sin and natural
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  depravity. Even David, the man after God's
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  own heart, realized his nature was fundamentally as fallen as
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  any other son of Adam. He did.
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  All that was needed was the occasion, the temptation, the
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  opportunity for that inherent corruption to manifest itself in
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  a spectacular and awful way. So the fall with Bathsheba
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  didn't create the sin. It merely exposed what was
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  already dwelling within. He views this iniquity as a
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  constitutional disease, a contamination of the entire
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  being, making his very person subject to divine wrath.
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  He's saying the water is filthy at the pool, but the whole river
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  is polluted right up to its source.
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  Exactly, and that level of self knowledge is agonizing, but it's
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  essential. We tend to focus on individual
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  bad deeds, but Spurgeon compels us to recognize the underlying
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  state of depravity. And that realization sets the
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  stage for the equally astonishing demand from God in
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  verse 6. Yes, he sets his internal
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  corruption against the divine standard with the second Behold.
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  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.
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  This is that great gulf we mentioned earlier.
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  David is astonished by both the extent of his ruin and the
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  height of God's expectation. God doesn't want mere outward
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  show, public virtue or ritual. No, he demands reality,
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  sincerity, true holiness, and heart fidelity.
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  Spurgeon constantly brings us back to motive.
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  God rightly judges the character of an action by the motive of
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  the person who performs. It so if the heart, the rudder
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  of the soul, isn't controlled by the Lord, we will inevitably
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  steer a foul way. God requires a clean motive and
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  honest intent, A sincere reality behind the outward behavior.
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  And since his inner parts are polluted, this is an impossible
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  standard for him to meet on his own.
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  Which is why the verse does not end with a crushing demand.
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  It ends with a gracious provision.
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  And in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
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  The penitent realizes that God is the one who must teach him
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  the truth about his fallen nature and then provide the
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  remedy. So the realization of the
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  problem is coupled with the promise of the solution right
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  there in the same breath. It is this hidden wisdom is the
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  spiritual teaching wrought by the Holy Spirit.
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  The Spirit must write the law on the heart, making that practical
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  wisdom attainable. Spurgeon interprets this as the
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  Lord promising to teach the love of the heart, the mystery of its
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  fall, and the way of its purification.
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  So David is realizing what I desperately want.
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  Truth in the inward parts God has already promised to give me.
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  Yes, and that correspondence between the desire and the
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  divine promise must be intensely reassuring for the struggling
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  soul. It means even our deepest, most
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  honest desire for righteousness is a gift from God, signaling
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  that He is already at work. It shows that even souls as
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  disarranged as David's which have fallen into chaos.
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  Shall yet be ordered a right, and truth and wisdom shall reign
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  within us. The confession of the root
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  corruption leads directly into the hope of divine education and
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  renewal. The Confession has reached its
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  deepest point, and now the petition pivots from
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  acknowledgement to active divine purification in verse 7.
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  Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
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  Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
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  The Hyssop reference that grounds this desperate spiritual
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  plea firmly in the Old Covenant rituals, doesn't it?
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  It does. Hyssop was used specifically in
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  the ceremony for cleansing lepers and in the sprinkling of
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  atoning blood. So David is asking for the
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  spiritual reality that was symbolized by the legal
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  ceremony. He's saying Lord, perform the
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  spiritual sprinkling that these rituals only pointed toward.
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  Precisely, he recognizes that nothing, that the spiritual
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  application of blood, a propitiation, can truly remove
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  his blood stains. And this plea demonstrates
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  immense faith. Spurgeon calls it a glorious
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  faith. Because he believes in the
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  efficacy of this divine propitiation to the degree that
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  he proclaims his sin will vanish quite a way.
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  And that he shall be made whiter than snow.
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  That is out doing nature itself. Snow is clean, but he asks for
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  something whiter. It's the difference between mere
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  innocence and redeemed holiness. It's a confidence that God can
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  take the foulest Sinner, one who confessed his constitutional
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  depravity, and raise him to a state of enduring purity.
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  So he's seeking both pardon the purging, and sanctification, the
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  washing. He wants the guilt removed and
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  the pollution cleanse. After addressing the stain, he
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  immediately seeks the restoration of spiritual delight
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  in verse 8. Make me to hear joy and
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  gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
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  And notice the order again. First sin dealt with, then
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  pardon sought, and only then joy requested.
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  That's the right order for the penitent heart.
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  It is. He's not seeking worldly
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  comfort. He seeks comfort from the
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  Source, God's voice, speaking peace.
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  That, for David, is the sweetest music.
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  And the imagery of broken bones tells us everything we need to
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  know about the agonizing state he was in.
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  It's the deepest possible expression of spiritual agony.
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  He describes himself as a poor Wretch who has been crushed by
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  omnipotence itself. It refers to the profound
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  anguish of the soul for sin, where your strength and morale
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  are just completely shattered. Yes, the pain of the Lord's
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  displeasure felt like physical mangling destruction.
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  And the restoration has to be as intense as the agony.
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  If God cures, every wound would become a new mouth for song.
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  A double blooming joy, a joy so loud it sings with exultation,
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  completely overcoming the previous voice of shame and sin.
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  This requests joy for a sinful heart, and music for crushed
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  bones would be utterly preposterous if it were offered
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  anywhere but at the cross where God's justice and mercy meet.
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  So David is asking for his faculties, previously dulled by
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  sin, to be sanctified and opened up for the hearing of true joy.
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  Yes. Now in verse 9 he returns to the
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  idea of blotting out the sin. Hide thy face from my sins and
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  blot out all mine iniquities. Why the repetition here?
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  It seems like a reiteration born out of his fear and his anxiety.
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  He asks God to actively refuse to look at his sins, lest God's
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  anger burn. He emphasizes all mine
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  iniquities, recognizing the massive weight of his
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  transgression. So it demonstrates the depth of
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  his anxiety. Repetition in ancient prayer
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  often shows intensity and sincerity.
• 19:28
  It does, but it also links back narratively to verse 3, where
• 19:32
  David said his sin was ever before him.
• 19:35
  The rule here, as commentators like Cowper noted, is a kind of
• 19:38
  spiritual law. If we keep our sins before us to
• 19:41
  mourn them, God will cast them behind his back to pardon them.
• 19:45
  So David, having confessed the sin and kept it continually in
• 19:48
  his sight for repentance, now begs the Lord to do what he
• 19:51
  himself cannot. Exactly.
• 19:53
  Put it out of sight forever, so that the divine mind is purged
• 19:57
  of the remembrance of the offense.
• 19:58
  This sets us up perfectly for verse 10, which is the climax of
• 20:02
  his personal requests. Create in me a clean heart, O
• 20:06
  God, and renew a right spirit within me.
• 20:08
  The use of the word create is just immense, isn't it?
• 20:11
  This is the Hebrew Bara. A term reserved exclusively for
• 20:14
  the work of God. It signifies creation Snehal out
• 20:17
  of nothing. This is the definitive
• 20:19
  theological statement on the necessity of regeneration?
• 20:22
  Spurgeon asked. The essential question has since
• 20:25
  so destroyed us that the Creator must be called in again.
• 20:27
  And the answer is yes, it has. Davidde experience of failure
• 20:32
  confirms the depth of human ruin.
• 20:34
  He doesn't ask God to clean up his old heart or to just patch
• 20:37
  it up. He realizes the old nature is
• 20:40
  hopelessly corrupt. It demands a new creation.
• 20:43
  This speaks directly to the Reformed doctrine of salvation.
• 20:46
  Salvation is not an amendment, it is a miracle of supreme
• 20:49
  creative power. The old man must be put off, and
• 20:53
  the new man must be put on, created in Christ Jesus.
• 20:56
  The change can only be robbed by God making the work a display of
• 21:00
  omnipotence. It's not a mere strengthening of
• 21:02
  the will, it's the substitution of a new spiritual principle for
• 21:06
  the old fallen nature. And the request is so
• 21:08
  comprehensive. Create what is not there at all,
• 21:11
  a clean heart, and renew that which is there, but in a feeble
• 21:15
  state, a right spirit. A right spirit means a mind that
• 21:18
  is steady and following the path of duty, whose affections have
• 21:21
  been rectified and made firm. David is asking for internal
• 21:25
  moral renovation that makes him stable and consistent, unlike
• 21:28
  his recent catastrophic inconsistency.
• 21:30
  But immediately following that immense request for creation,
• 21:33
  verse 11 reveals this profound spiritual fear.
• 21:36
  Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy
• 21:39
  Spirit from me. This fear is so natural for a
• 21:42
  penitent who has just realized the depth of his own weakness.
• 21:46
  He fears being banished. Like Cain, who is cursed to
• 21:49
  wander, we're like Saul, from whom the Spirit departed
• 21:52
  entirely. David knows the Spirit is his
• 21:55
  wisdom, his strength, and his only hope for union with God.
• 21:59
  The withdrawal of the Spirit's comforts and quickenings would
• 22:01
  mean spiritual death. The knowledge of his
• 22:04
  transgression makes him fear that God will simply abandoned
• 22:07
  him to his own folly. Yet there's a crucial
• 22:09
  theological nuance here that Calvin points out right
• 22:12
  addressing the doctrine of preservation.
• 22:14
  Indeed, while David fears the complete withdrawal, the spirit
• 22:17
  had not been entirely taken away.
• 22:19
  Otherwise he wouldn't even be able to offer this prayer.
• 22:21
  He wouldn't or have been aroused by Nathan's rebuke.
• 22:24
  It reflects the truth that grace is the incorruptible seed of God
• 22:28
  in the elect. Though sin obscures the gifts
• 22:30
  and removes the comfort, the latent spark of godliness must
• 22:33
  remain. So the Saint, having done
• 22:35
  everything possible to extinguish grace, naturally
• 22:38
  feels anxiety, but must hold fast to the preserving truth of
• 22:41
  God's character. The fear itself is evidence that
• 22:44
  the Spirit has not departed. The unregenerate man doesn't
• 22:47
  fear losing the Spirit. It's a fantastic point.
• 22:50
  His very anguish testifies to the life that remains hidden
• 22:54
  beneath the rubble of his sin. And verse 12 then wraps up the
• 22:58
  restoration plea. Restore unto me the joy of Thy
• 23:01
  salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit.
• 23:04
  David had known this joy, and he lost it in his time of secret
• 23:08
  sin. And Spurgeon emphasizes that
• 23:10
  this joy has to follow a pardon and purity.
• 23:12
  Otherwise it's just vain presumption.
• 23:14
  Exactly. The heart must be clean before
• 23:16
  the joy is safe. Joy is the fruit of holiness,
• 23:19
  not the precursor. And the request for upholding
• 23:22
  speaks again to his profound self knowledge of weakness.
• 23:25
  He fell spectacularly. He needs divine strengths to
• 23:28
  keep him on his feet now. He seeks to be kept by a
• 23:31
  superior power. The free spirit is often
• 23:33
  interpreted as the royal spirit, the influence that emancipates
• 23:37
  us, making holiness feel like liberty rather than a burden.
• 23:40
  So he's praying as some suggest, that the free Spirit sustain me,
• 23:44
  meaning let me not be enslaved as I have been by my sinful
• 23:48
  passions. Joy and upholding are
• 23:50
  intrinsically linked. Joy is a powerful tool for
• 23:54
  holiness, and holiness guards joy.
• 23:57
  So the restored man doesn't just settle into comfortable
• 23:59
  gratitude, he immediately turns outward in verse 13.
• 24:02
  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
• 24:06
  converted unto thee. This is the immediate, essential
• 24:09
  reflex of the pardoned heart, isn't?
• 24:10
  It it is, Spurgeon suggests, that the best teachers are those
• 24:13
  experimentally thought of God themselves.
• 24:16
  Reclaimed individuals often make the most effective guys because
• 24:19
  they speak sympathetically, having felt the weight of the
• 24:22
  very sin they are warning others against.
• 24:24
  That makes perfect sense. David is choosing to instruct
• 24:27
  transgressors like himself. He has a fellow feeling he can
• 24:31
  speak in the depths of sin and the heights of grace with an
• 24:34
  authenticity that an unfallen person could never manage.
• 24:38
  So his terrible fall, paradoxically now becomes a
• 24:41
  vehicle for the restoration of others.
• 24:43
  He believes that his pathetic testimony, this Psalm itself,
• 24:47
  would be blessed by God to the recovery of many.
• 24:50
  His sin revealed the severity of God's justice and the
• 24:53
  boundlessness of his mercy in a way nothing else could.
• 24:56
  For the truly penitent, their biggest failure becomes their
• 24:59
  most compelling sermon. But before he teaches, he has to
• 25:02
  deal with the specific horror of his past.
• 25:05
  Verse 14 is a sharp return to the gravest consequence.
• 25:08
  Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, Thou God of
• 25:11
  my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy
• 25:14
  righteousness. He openly confesses his role in
• 25:17
  Uriah's death. The term blood guiltiness
• 25:20
  denotes a capital crime. He's placing himself among those
• 25:23
  worthy to die. Honest penitence, as Spurgeon
• 25:25
  says, call a spade a spade, and make a clean breast of all.
• 25:28
  And notice the confidence surge here in the face of his worst
• 25:31
  crime. His faith grows.
• 25:32
  It does. He moves from simply, O God, to
• 25:35
  the immensely confident address, thou God, of my salvation.
• 25:39
  Faith grows by the exorcis of prayer.
• 25:41
  The more plainly he confesses the sin, the more confidently he
• 25:45
  deals with God claiming him as his Redeemer.
• 25:47
  And the chosen theme, his praise, is still surprising.
• 25:50
  He vows to sing aloud of God's righteousness.
• 25:53
  We'd expect mercy, not justice, after a crime like this.
• 25:56
  This is the heart of justification.
• 25:58
  David is singing of that righteousness of God which Paul
• 26:01
  afterwards spoke of, by which the ungodly are justified.
• 26:04
  He's singing of the righteous way God established mercy, the
• 26:08
  way where God remains holy and just while declaring the Sinner
• 26:11
  innocent. The righteousness of God is what
• 26:13
  makes the mercy the greatest wonder.
• 26:15
  A great Sinner pardoned makes the greatest singer, whose
• 26:18
  thankfulness must be as loud as his previous sin was heinous.
• 26:22
  He then addresses his shame silence mouth in verse 15.
• 26:25
  O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy
• 26:29
  praise. He admits he's stammering under
• 26:31
  the weight of his shame. He needs God to physically
• 26:33
  enable the act of praise. If God opens the wicked of His
• 26:37
  mouth, then grace, mercy, peace, and all the graces come forth in
• 26:41
  tuneful vances. God guarantees the fruit when He
• 26:44
  opens the mouth for praise. And this leads us to verses 16
• 26:47
  and 17, which offer a spiritual climax, establishing the
• 26:51
  absolute priority of internal change over external ritual.
• 26:55
  Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it.
• 26:58
  Thou delightest not in burnt offering.
• 27:00
  David understood the ceremonial law deeply, but he recognizes
• 27:03
  its limitations. He looks far beyond the symbolic
• 27:06
  ritual to the spiritual reality. The law explicitly provided no
• 27:10
  expiation for murder and adultery.
• 27:12
  Death was required. Death was required.
• 27:15
  David realizes that no amount of bullocks or 10s of thousands of
• 27:18
  victims could meet his capital case.
• 27:21
  He understood that God was looking for something deeper
• 27:23
  than blood spilled on an altar. Which brings us to the true
• 27:26
  offering in verse 17, maybe the most beloved couplet in the
• 27:29
  Psalm. The sacrifices of God are a
• 27:30
  broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.
• 27:33
  O God, thou wilt not despise. The broken heart applies deep
• 27:36
  sorrow, all but killing anguish. David realizes the heart is
• 27:41
  never at its best until it is broken, shattered by the
• 27:43
  realization of sins. Magnitude.
• 27:45
  This humble, tender, shattered heart is more valuable to God
• 27:50
  than all the elaborate sacrifices and varied offerings
• 27:53
  of the Jewish sanctuary. God values what men often
• 27:56
  overlook, the quiet, weeping, penitent.
• 28:00
  God never yet has spurned A lowly, contrite heart.
• 28:04
  This is the only acceptable sacrifice a fallen yet returning
• 28:07
  soul can bring. And the Psalm concludes by
• 28:10
  expanding David's concern from his personal spiritual state to
• 28:14
  the well-being of the whole community.
• 28:15
  Verses 18 and 19. Do good and thy good pleasure
• 28:18
  unto Zion. Build thou the walls of
• 28:21
  Jerusalem. This demonstrates that his
• 28:23
  spiritual concerns are genuine. His ruling passion for Zion
• 28:26
  remains strong even after his fall.
• 28:29
  He felt his sin had potentially hindered the entire project of
• 28:32
  honoring the Lord there. He's praying, Lord, undo the
• 28:35
  public evil my private transgression caused.
• 28:38
  Establish and protect your church.
• 28:39
  So the prayer to build the walls refers both to the literal
• 28:43
  security of the city and the spiritual prosperity of the
• 28:45
  Lord's cause. Building the walls of separation
• 28:47
  that divide the church from the world, and building the walls
• 28:50
  that unite his people internally.
• 28:52
  And verse 19 shows the result of that acceptance when the saved
• 28:56
  soul sees its prayers answered in a revived church, when God's
• 29:00
  acceptance is plain. Then shall they offer bullocks
• 29:02
  upon thine altar. The outward ritual can return,
• 29:07
  but only after the inward reality is secured.
• 29:09
  Since we no longer bring animal sacrifices for sin, what are
• 29:13
  these bullocks? Today they are the spiritual
• 29:16
  thank offerings, our solemn praises, and our vote of gifts
• 29:19
  acceptable through Christ. We are priests unto God.
• 29:22
  We don't bring the Lord our least possessions.
• 29:24
  We present Him with our best, our bullocks, which represent
• 29:27
  the richest and holiest spiritual acts of devotion.
• 29:31
  And God is pleased because these sacrifices come from a redeemed
• 29:33
  heart and our in the name of the Redeemer.
• 29:36
  The penitence entire life becomes a sacrifice of
• 29:39
  gratitude. We have rigorously followed the
• 29:41
  sequence of true penitence as it's laid out through David's
• 29:44
  words and distilled by Spurgeon. It begins with the absolute
• 29:47
  appeal to God's character. His boundless.
• 29:49
  Mercy, and it progresses through the radical, painful
• 29:52
  acknowledgement of total internal corruption, realizing
• 29:55
  that sin is a constitutional disease.
• 29:57
  Which necessitates a request for creation, not just repair.
• 30:01
  Culminating in a dedication to teaching others, rooted in
• 30:04
  restored spiritual joy. The knowledge we extract here is
• 30:07
  just fundamental to the reformed understanding of man.
• 30:11
  True self knowledge begins with the recognition of sin source in
• 30:14
  our fallen nature. Which leads necessarily to a
• 30:16
  grasp of God's sovereign creative grace.
• 30:19
  David realized that genuine repentance is not a transaction
• 30:22
  where his confession earns him pardon.
• 30:24
  It is a full, desperate casting of oneself upon the sheer
• 30:28
  goodness of God's character, asking him to do what only he
• 30:31
  can, destroy the old and create the.
• 30:34
  And the core spiritual dynamic of Psalm 51 is that vital link
• 30:38
  between inward purity and outward service.
• 30:40
  He prays for a clean heart in verse 10.
• 30:42
  Before he vows to teach transgressors in verse 13.
• 30:45
  His focus, immediately upon restoration shifts entirely
• 30:48
  outward. So if David, after committing
• 30:50
  capital sin, adultery, and murder, could still look forward
• 30:53
  to teaching others and singing aloud of God's justifying
• 30:56
  righteousness, what does your own sense of forgiveness demand
• 30:59
  of your spiritual service today? The truly penitent heart never
• 31:02
  remains stuck focusing on its own guilt, but always
• 31:05
  immediately looks outward to proclaim the glory of the
• 31:08
  pardoning God to a world in need of that very same grace.
• 31:12
  That is the final challenge of Psalm 51.