GLEANINGS IN THE PSALMS

(Psalm 51 part 1)

Title – “A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.” When the divine message had aroused David's dormant conscience and made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this psalm. He had forgotten his psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of sighs and tears.

C. H. Spurgeon

Verse 1 “Have mercy upon me, O God …” William Carey, during a time of severe illness, was asked, “If this illness should prove fatal, what passage would you select for your funeral sermon?” “Oh,” he replied, “I feel that such a poor sinful creature as I, is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon should be preached let it be from the fifty-first psalm, the first verse: &8216;Have mercy upon me, O God …&8217;”

Verse 1 “… blot out my transgressions.” There is reference here to an indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him. And this, only the mercy, lovingkindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.

Adam Clarke

Verse 3 “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” “My sin,” says David; he owns it, and confesses it to be his own. Here is man's natural wealth, for what can we call our own apart from our sin? Our food and raiment, and all the necessities of life, are only borrowed. We came hungry and naked into the world, we brought none of these with us, and we deserved none of them here. But our sin came with us, as David later confesses: – “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity …”

Samuel Page

Verse 4. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned …” This is that Godly sorrow which leads a man to eternal life; and this sorrow is wrought in a man by the Holy Spirit of God, so that he mourns for sin because it has displeased God. And suppose that man had neither a heaven to lose, nor a hell to gain; yet he is sorrowful and sad of heart because he has grieved God.

John Welch

Verse 4 “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned …” “Here, here am I that did it,” says David; “whose sheep-hook thou hast changed for a sceptre, whose sheep for thine own people Israel, upon whose head Thou hast set a crown of gold; I to whom God committed the care of others' souls, to guide them by His word, to direct them by good counsel, to allure them by His gracious promises, and terrify them by His threatening; I, who both as prophet and king should have been an example of holiness and righteousness to all Israel; to me, Nathan has said, &8216;Thou art the man&8217; in just accusation and now I must reply, &8216;I am the man&8217; in humble confession.”

Adapted from Samuel Page

Verse 5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity …” It is not enough for him to confess that the water is filthy at the pool; he goes back to the source, and confesses that the whole river is polluted up to its head. The source is unclean; the very spring pours forth foul waters.

Thomas Alexander

Verse 6 “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts …” It is one thing to be wise-headed and wise-tongued, but another to be wise-hearted. Foolish men are like Ephraim, “a silly dove without heart.” They have head enough, but not heart enough. A new head and an old heart, a full head and an empty heart, an illuminated head and a dark heart; he that trusts in such a condition is a fool and a double fool.

John Murcot

Verse 7 “Purge me with hyssop …” The psalmist alludes to the purification from leprosy (Lev. 14:52), or from the touch of a dead body (Num 19:19). Both of these purifications were to be done by the sprinkling of water and hyssop.

Samuel Chandler

Verse 7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense of the psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood all-sufficient merit to entirely purge it away. O that some reader may now take heart, even now while smarting under sin, to rely thus confidently on the finished work of Calvary, and the infinite mercy there revealed.

C. H. Spurgeon