Verse 9 “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.” David repeats the prayer which he offered in the first verse, “Blot out my transgressions,” but here he enlarges the prayer with the word “all”. All “repetitions,” then, are not vain repetitions. Souls in agony have no space to find variety of language: pain has to content itself with monotones. David's face was ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove it from his memory, so he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he himself could not do. If God hide not His face from our sin, He must hide it from us for ever. If He blot not out our sins, He must blot our names out of the book of life.
C. H. Spurgeon
Verse 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” David prays the Lord to “create in him a new heart,” and not to correct his old heart. His heart was like an old garment so rotten and tattered that he could make no good of it by patching or piecing, but even must cut it off and receive a new one. Therefore Paul says, “Cast off the old man.” Don't pick him up and wash him until he is clean, but cast him off, and begin anew.
Henry Smith
Verse 10 “Create in me a clean heart ” David uses the word “create” (Hebrew – bara) a word only used to speak of the work of God. The change in David, therefore, could only be wrought by God alone.
Christopher Wordsworth
Verse 11 “Cast me not away from thy presence ” One of the punishments of sin is that it casts man out from the face of God, and it may let us see how dear bought are the pleasures of sin when a man, in order to enjoy the pleasures of sin deprives himself of the comforting presence of God. David here, for the carnal love of the face of Bathsheba, puts himself in danger of being cast out from before the face of his God. If a man could remember this in all of the devil's temptations, he would be loth to buy the pleasures of sin at such a price.
William Cowper
Verse 11 “ and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” The words of this verse imply that the Spirit had not altogether been taken away from David, however much His gifts had been temporarily obscured. Upon one point he had fallen into a deadly lethargy, but he was not given over to “a reprobate mind.” It is scarcely conceivable that the rebuke of Nathan the prophet should have operated so easily and so suddenly in arousing him had there been no latent spark of Godliness still remaining. The truth on which we are insisting is an important one, as many learned men have been drawn into the opinion that the Elect, by falling into mortal sin, may lose the Spirit altogether, and be alienated from God. The contrary is clearly declared by Peter, who tells us that the word by which we are born again is an incorruptible seed (1st Peter chapter 1 verse 23); and John is equally explicit in informing us that the Elect are preserved from falling away altogether.
John Calvin
Verse 12 “ uphold me ” I am tempted to think that now I am an established Christian, and have overcome this or that temptation, I may now venture very near the temptation – nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. I may as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit a power to resist fire, so as not to catch the spark. As long as powder is wet it resists the spark, but when it becomes dry it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in me richly, He deadens me to sin, so that if I am lawfully called to pass through temptation I may reckon upon God to carry me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh, for a sense of this!
Robert Murray McCheyne
Verse 13 “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways ” Every talent received from God should be put to profit, but especially the talent of mercy. Seeing we are vessels of mercy, should not the scent and sweet odour of mercy go from us to others? If two men walking by the way should both fall into one pit, and the one, being escaped out of it, should go his way and forget his neighbour, might it not justly be called a barbarous and inhuman cruelty? We have all fallen into one and same mire of iniquity; since the Lord hath put out His merciful hand to draw us out of this prison of sin, should we refuse to put out our hand to see if possibly we may draw up our brethren with us?
Bishop Cowper
Verse 17
Metrical Psalms
This Page Title – Gleanings in the Psalms (Psalm 51 Completed) The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 93 – placed on line November 2011 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |