Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 51:1 - 51:19

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Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 51:1 - 51:19


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This is a portion of Scripture, which can never be read too often. If any among us have never found mercy, let them use this Psalm as their own personal prayer; while those who have found mercy can read between the lines, and read the sweetness of pardon into the bitterness of sorrow for sin. This Psalm was written by David when Nathan came to him after his great sin with Bathsheba. He needed Nathan to come to him to rebuke him. If David had not been in a very sad state of heart, he would not have fallen into the sin; and it was that state of heart which left him so hardened, so obdurate, that he needed Nathan pointedly to say to him, “Thou art the man.” After that, he wrote and prayed this truly penitential Psalm.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness

He used to talk about being God’s servant; but he says nothing about that now. He used to speak of God’s great love to him; but he cannot realize that now. Yet he appeals to God for mercy: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness.”

Psa_51:1. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

“There they are, they stare me in the face; nobody but thyself can blot them out; do it, Lord, for thy sweet mercy’s sake. Blot them out of existence, and out of memory; and when thou hast blotted them from thy book of remembrance, then blot them from me, too.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

“If washing will not do, use fire, use blood, use anything; but cleanse me from my sin.”

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my, transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

“Lord, do help me. There is my sin; I cannot shut my eyes to it. I dare not deny it, or excuse it; I make a clean breast of it. I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.”

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight

“I have sinned against others; but this is the foulness of the blot, the venom of the sting, that I have sinned against my God.”

Psa_51:4-5. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was sharpen in iniquity and in sin did my not mother conceive me.

“’Behold,’ for this is a wonder, and I look at it, and I mourn over it; behold, before I had a shape, I was out of shape. Before I saw anything, still there was sin antecedent to my very existence.”

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

“But, alas! Lord, what thou desirest, is not there. In my inward part, I find falsehood; in my hidden part, I find folly. Lord, what thou desirest thou must also bestow, or else I shall never have it. Oh, hear thy servant’s supplication now!”

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

This is delightful pleading on David’s part. He had seen the priest take the sprigs of hyssop, and dip them in the blood, and then sprinkle the leper therewith; so his prayer is, “Lord, give me purification through the atonement. ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.’ “ It requires strong faith, when under a deep sense of sin, to be quite sure that God can put the sin away. It is a grand thing to be able to say, “Wash me, foul as I am wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness;

“Lord, I have heard nothing but groans lately, and I have made no sound but sighs; ‘Make me to hear joy and gladness’

Psa_51:8. That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

When God makes us feel the weight of sin, it is a bone-breaking operation, he seems to strike as though he would kill; and only he that thus strikes can afterwards heal. Then he makes each fragment of the bone to sing and praise him.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

You see that the psalmist has many names for sin, for evil, like a great rogue, has many aliases. So it is sometimes sin; sometimes it is transgression, passing over the line of right; and sometimes it is in-equity, or a departure from perfect equity. “Call it by whatever name it may be called, Lord, let me be rid of it. ‘Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.’”

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

“My Creator, I am spoiled; come and make me over again. My heart has grown foul. Thou who didst make me, clean me.” The watchmaker best cleans the watch that he made. “Create in me a clean heart, O my Creator, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence;

“I have acted as if you were not present, but, oh, do not fling me away!

Do not take away thy presence from me.”

Psa_51:11-12. And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

“I was so happy once. Oh, give me back my joy!”

Psa_51:12. And uphold me with thy free spirit.

“I have fallen foully; let me not fall again. Henceforth, I cannot trust myself; do thou uphold me. I have made free to sin. Lord, send me a freer spirit, that I may be free to follow after righteousness.”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;

He would turn preacher if God would but bless him. He would tell others what great things God had done for him.

Psa_51:13. And sinners shall be converted unto thee.

He felt sure that, if he once told his tale of love, others would he melted, and would turn to God; and no doubt it was the case.

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

Oh cleanse me from my sin, and I will sing thy praises forever; and I will sing earnestly, too: ‘My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.’”

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips;

He felt as if he was going too fast when he promised to speak and to sing, so he prayed: “O Lord, open thou my lips”-

Psa_51:15. And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

When good men have had a fall, they walk very tenderly afterwards. Put them on their legs, and they are very careful how they move. They are afraid to speak except as God opens their lips.

Psa_51:16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it

David remembered that, under the law, there was no sacrifice appointed for the expiation of adultery. There were some sins that were left out of the catalogue, and this was one of them.

Psa_51:16-17. Thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Even for the man who has committed the most atrocious crimes, there is still acceptance if he brings to God the sacrifice of a broken spirit.

Psa_51:17-18. A broken and a contrite heart, O God thou will not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Now that he feels himself forgiven, be begins to pray for the good estate of the Church of God and the Lord’s people everywhere. We cannot do that when sin is breaking our bones; but when we get peace and rest, then the first instinct of the newborn life is to pray for God’s kingdom “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.”

Psa_51:19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.



Although we may have been preserved by divine grace from any gross and open sin, yet let us read this Psalm in the spirit of penitence. I always feel afraid of myself if I cannot read this Psalm from my heart. Surely some pride must have entrusted my spirit, and taken away its humility and its tenderness, if I cannot join in David’s penitential prayer. I think that all of us who have the Spirit of God within us will feel that these words are suited to us as well as to poor broken-hearted David.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God,

“I cannot do without mercy, though I am thy child; and thou must give me great mercy, or it will be no mercy to me, for little mercy will not serve my turn. ‘ Have mercy upon me, O God,’ without stint, and without end.

Psa_51:1. According to thy lovingkindness:

“If I must set thee a measure, let thine own nature be the measure of thy mercy; I would view thee in the tenderest, brightest light: according to thy kindness, — ah, thy lovingkindness.” Surely, that is one of the sweetest words in our dear mother tongue, and no other language contains a sweeter one: “according to thy lovingkindness.”

Psa_51:1. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

“Thou canst not blot out such multitudes of sins unless thou hast multitudes of mercies; but inasmuch as there is no counting of thy mercies any more than there is counting of my sins, let the bright drops of thy mercy be equal to the black drops of my transgression. When I view my sin in its blackness, then I cry for mercy according to thy lovingkindness; and when I view my transgressions in their multitude, then I cry for pardon ‘according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies.’ “Is not this a blessed prayer? It could not have come from David if he had not felt the greatness of his sin; and it will not suit you, dear friends, unless you also are taught by the Spirit of God to know what a bitter thing sin is.

Psa_51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

What a washing that is! The penitent desires to have it done thoroughly: “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.” “Leave not a single spot, for one speck would be sufficient to shut me out of heaven; I must be spotless to be admitted there. ‘Wash me throughly.’ Wash not only this outward stain, but this inward defilement. Wash me through and through, — ‘throughly,’ — till there is no trace of my sin. So wash me till I am cleansed, and made perfectly clean.” There is none but the Lord himself who can wash us after this fashion. Each of us may say with Job, “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” If we made the sea to be our bath, we should sooner crimson every wave with our iniquities than one single stain of guilt should be washed away by the waters of the ocean. It is a divine work to cleanse from sin; therefore say, dear friend, “Lord, thou must wash me if I am to be washed; but do it thoroughly: ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.’”

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

It is a great mercy when it is so with us; for when our sins are before our face, God will put them behind his back. When we do not see our sin, then God sees it; but when we see it aright, then God will not see it, for he will put it away forever. As for you who think yourselves innocent, by that very fact you are proved to be naked, and poor, and blind, and miserable; but you who are in a spiritual sense poverty-stricken, you who confess your guilt, shall find pardon, for the plea of “Guilty, my Lord,” is that which God answers by a sentence of acquittal.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

David’s great iniquity was a sin against many, but he had been brought to learn what few see, that the virus of sin lies in its being against God. Last Sabbath evening, our subject was that “sin is the transgression of the law,” and I tried to show that the very essence of its sinfulness lies in the fact that it is rebellion against the will of God. So, David here puts his finger on the great black blot, and shows that he knew where the chief mischief lay: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” Let God do what he will with us, he cannot treat us worse than we deserve. If we were banished from his presence into a hopeless eternity, we should not dare to complain. He is justified when he speaks, he is clear when he judges.

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

“I am bad from the fountain-head of my being, and wrong all through. It is not only what I do that is wrong, but I myself am wrong; I am a double-dyed traitor, and of a traitress born.” I doubt not that David’s mother was as good as any mother probably she was a true child of God; but, for all that, David and all of us have the old tendency to sin from the very fact of our descent from fallen parents. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.”

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Ah, friends, that is the troublesome part of the matter! We might be able to rectify the external wrong, and to reform our outward actions; but who can make his heart clean? You can prune the tree, you may cut it to almost any shape you like; but you cannot make the deadly tree bring forth healthy fruit, you cannot change the sap, or alter the nature of the tree’s roots. What but a power divine can do this? “In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom;” but nobody else can.

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

I do think that this is grand faith, for a man, blinded by his tears, broken-hearted through his sin, to feel that God can make him clean. “Take thou the hyssop, as I have seen my father do on the Passover night, when the lamb was slain, and the blood of it caught in the basin. Have I not seen him dip the hyssop in the blood, and then sprinkle it on the lintel and the side posts of the door? Have I not seen the priest dip his bunch of hyssop into the sacrificial blood, and then sprinkle all the people, and so make them ceremonially clean? Lord, thou hast a better hyssop dipped in better blood. ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ “ Possibly you know, dear friends, that the verse may be read in the future tense: “Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” This is grand faith. I do not know that the faith of Abraham, as a saint, when he offered up his son, was greater than the faith of David, as a sinner, when he believed that God could make even him whiter than snow.

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Beloved, it is a sweet thing when we come to close dealings with God like this. David wants cleansing, but he will not have it except from God; he wants peace and comfort, but he will look only to God for them: “Make me to hear joy and gladness.” If you go out into the streets when you are sad, you may hear sounds of joy and gladness, which will seem like a mockery of your sorrow. “As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.” But when God speaks in mercy, when he opens the ear to hear his melodious accents of pardon, then the very bones which have been broken begin to rejoice. Probably there is no more refined pleasure of a human kind than that which comes to a man who is getting convalescent, one who is gradually being restored after a very severe illness; so there is certainly nothing more sweet than that calm quiet happiness which comes of pardoned sin when the broken heart begins to be healed: “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

It is not, “Let the evil be hushed up, let not my people hear about it,” but, “Hide thy face from my sins.” It is not, “Help me to forget that I have been a criminal.” No; but, “Hide thy face from my sins.” “And, Lord, when thou art blotting out mine iniquities, blot them all cut; those that have never come to such a public head as this great sin with Bathsheba. Lord, when thou dost begin blotting out my sins, make a clean sweep of them all. Draw thy pen right down the page of my guilt; strike out every item that ever has been recorded there: ‘Blot out all mine iniquities.’ “

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Do you notice how David blends justification with sanctification? His prayer for pardon is always accompanied by a prayer for purity also. He does not want to have his sin blotted out, and then to continue sinful; but he cries “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” “I have marred it; so come, Lord, and renew it. Thy handwriting on my conscience has grown dim; come and write upon me in bolder characters which can never be effaced.”

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Are you praying these prayers, dear friends, as we are reading them? I am sure you are if you have ever enjoyed the presence of God, if the Holy Spirit is your daily companion. And if you have lost that heavenly company, if you have lost that comfortable presence, I know that you are crying to get it back again; and it will come back at your cry.

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

“Make me happy, O Lord, but oh, make me steadfast! In delivering me from my sin, deliver me from ever going into it again. Make me like a burnt child that keeps clear of the fire. O my God, come back to me!”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Dear friends, there is nothing that helps us to preach so well as a sense that we are sinners, and that God has had mercy upon us. Come up fresh from the washing, dripping with the blood of cleansing, and every drop will seem to plead with sinners that they, too, would come and be washed. Live near to the cross, and there is no fear about your preaching so that sinners shall be converted unto God. Sometimes, we seem to get into a kind of spiritual rosewater; we appear to be so very superfine ourselves, that we have to condescend to poor sinners, and preach down to them from our supreme heights, and they never get a blessing that way; but when, by deep experience, we are put upon their level, and feel that, as Christ has saved us, so he can save them, then do we speak with power and unction.

Psa_51:14-15. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

David is going to preach, and to sing, too; and he will do it all himself; just now he wants nobody to help him. He is so given up to the service of his Master that he will be preacher and preceptor, too. He will say, and he will sing, that God is a righteous God That was a singular theme for a blood-washed sinner: “My tongue shall sing aloud o! thy righteousness.” But, believe me, nobody understands the righteousness of God but the man who understands sin, and who also understands the wondrous mercy by which it is put away through the bleeding sacrifice of Christ. When we have reached that point, then can we, and then will we, show forth his righteousness.

Psa_51:16-17. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:

Bring these sacrifices, dearly beloved, bring them to God now. Bring your broken spirit, bring your troubled conscience, bring your bleeding heart, bring all your trembling on account of sin; bring it all to God’s altar now.

Psa_51:17-19. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. There must be great sacrifices of joy when great sin is put away by a great ransom: “Then shall they offer bullocks “ — not lambs, but bullocks,-“upon thine altar.” God help each of us henceforth to offer bullocks upon his altar, not the poor little things, such as we have previously brought; but some great consecrated offering let us bring unto the God who hath forgiven all our transgressions, and blotted out all our iniquities.



A Psalm of David, after Nathan had rebuked him, and he had been convinced of his great guilt in having sinned with Bathsheba. The music to which this Psalm can be sung must be composed of sighs, and groans, and sobs, and cries. I believe that many of us here present have prayed this prayer of David many times; and he who has never prayed it has need to begin to do so at once. That is an old proverb, but a true one: “There is no road to Heaven except by Weeping Cross.” He that has never repented will have to repent if he is ever to enter into life eternal. Hear, then, the prayer of David.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, —

“Nothing but mercy will meet my case. Thy justice frowns upon me; thine anger frightens me. ‘Have mercy upon me,’ — great mercy, unmeasured mercy, undeserved mercy, — ‘Have mercy upon me, O God,’” —

Psa_51:1. According to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

David cannot bear himself while he reads the black record, so he prays, “Lord, blot it out! Blot it out from the sight of my eyes; but, chiefly, blot it out from thine eyes. Let not the record stand against me in thy Book of Remembrance. I cannot blot it out; — not even with my blood, much less with my tears; but thou canst blot it out with a Saviour’s blood. Lord, blot it out, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

You see, the psalmist multiplies the expressions he uses because he sees the indelible character of sin apart from a miracle of mercy. “Wash me, O Lord! Water must be used; but if that will not cleanse me, then use fire; use anything; only do cleanse me. First, blot my sin out of thy book, and then blot it out of my nature. Take my sin away, O God! What can I do unless thou dost wash me and cleanse me?”

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions:

That is the great point; there can be no cleansing, no washing, no blotting out of our guilt till there is a fair and square acknowledgment of it. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Psa_51:3. And my sin is ever before me.

“Wherever I go, I see it, as though it were painted on the very ball of my eye. I cannot see anything without seeing my sin. It stares me in the face: it is ever before me.”

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:

Oh, what an awful thing, to commit adultery in the sight of God! It is horrible; but what must it be to commit any sin in the sight of God? Will a rebel talk treason in the presence of his king? Most men court the darkness that they may not be seen to do evil; but it is the venom of our sin that we commit it when God is present, and looking on. Ah, me!

Psa_51:4. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Another judge has to decide by the evidence that is brought before him; but this Judge has seen the evil for himself. It was done before his very eyes, and therefore he is clear when he judges.

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

“If I had not been bad, I should not have acted so badly. The streams betray the fountain. If I had not been wicked at the core, I should not have acted so wickedly; but the evil tree has brought forth evil fruit.” It is well when actual sin leads us to feel the depth of our original and natural sin.

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

The outward part is very important, but the inward part is much more so, because the outward springs from the inward, and a man would not be outwardly guilty if he were not first inwardly evil. Hence, David cries for cleansing and truth and wisdom in the inward parts.

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

“Take the bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood of the lamb, and then purge me with it, and I shall be clean.” What a wonderful faith this is! “I who am so black, I who am black as hell; yet, if thou dost but purge me with the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ, I shall be clean.”

Psa_51:7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Again, I say, what grand faith this is! The faith which believes that another can be cleansed, is very easy. The faith which, in times of joy, believes that the soul can be cleansed, is very simple; but when guilt lies heavy on you, and the hand of God seems to break you into pieces in his wrath, it is grand faith to be able then to say, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” May God give every sinner here thus blessed faith!

Psa_51:8-9. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

“Do not look at my sins, Lord. Forget them; turn thy back upon them; and blot out all mine iniquities.” David comes back to his first prayer. “End my sins, Lord; blot them out, as when an account stands against a debtor, and the creditor erases it from the book. Do just so with my sin.”

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean, heart, O God; —

Yes, we need our Creator to come, and deal with us again. None but God can save us. The omnipotence that made the heavens and the earth must be put forth to make us anew.

Psa_51:10. And renew a right spirit within me.

Are you praying this prayer, dear friend? Is your heart praying it while we read it?

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; —

“Dismiss me not thy service, Lord.” “Chase me not out of doors; banish me not from where thy face may be seen: ‘Cast me not away from thy presence.’”

Psa_51:11. And take not thy holy spirit from me.

“For, if thou do so, I am utterly undone. I shall go from bad to worse;

I shall never repent; I shall never believe. I am as good as damned already if thou take thy Holy Spirit from me; therefore, O Lord, take not thy Spirit away from me.”

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; —

“I had it once, Lord; restore it to me, bring it back.”

Psa_51:12. And uphold me with thy free spirit.

“That I shall not turn aside again. O lift me up, and keep me up, and help me to rise higher and higher!”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Pardoned sinners make fine preachers. The man who has never felt the burden of sin is not fit to preach to burdened souls. Oh, but when that burden is taken off our backs, and our hearts, we are ready to leap for joy! Then we cry, —

Now will I tell to sinners round

What a dear Saviour I have found;

I’ll point to thy redeeming blood,

And say, ‘Behold the way to God.’”

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, —

It took David a long time to come to that point, and to call his sin by its right name. He had really been the murderer of Uriah, and he tried to cover his guilt by saying, “The sword devoureth one as well as another.” But now he tells the whole truth: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,”—

Psa_51:14. Thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

“Once let me get rid of my great sin, and I will give thee great praise. Wash my bloodguiltiness away with the blood of Jesus, and then I will never leave off proclaiming the glory of thy grace.”

Psa_51:15-16. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:

“Bullocks, rams, lambs, — thou carest not for these?

Psa_51:16-17. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Come, poor souls, you that are heavy with guilt, you that lie at death’s dark door, condemned by reason of a whole life of sin, offer to God this sacrifice that he will not despise. The Jews brought their bullocks; come you and bring your broken hearts and contrite spirits. They presented to God the fat of fed beasts; come and bring your broken-hearted groanings, for God will not despise them.

Psa_51:18-19. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering, and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

If sin is pardoned, we may offer to God anything that we can, and he will accept it; but first of all we must get pardon, — pardon through Jesus Christ, — or else our offerings are a vain oblation. God bless the reading of this Psalm to every one beneath this dome, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.



Psa_51:1-5. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

“It is not merely that I have sinned in practice, but I am a sinner by nature. Sin would not have come out of me if it had not first been in me. I am a mass of sin, and must therefore be loathsome in thy sight”

Psa_51:6-7. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, —

Take the bunch of hyssop as the priests did, dip it into the basin filled with sacrificial blood: “Purge me with hyssop.” Apply the precious blood of Jesus to me, —

Psa_51:7-8. And I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

He feels like a man whose bones are broken, and he asks the Lord, by putting away his sin, to bind up those broken bones till every one of them should sing a song of gratitude to the Divine Healer.

Psa_51:9-13. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clear heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

“If thou wilt only save me, I will tell everybody about it; I will be a preacher as well as a penitent. Rising from my knees, where I have been confessing my sin, rejoining that thou hast blotted it all out, I will hasten away, and tell to others what a good God thou art, and they will believe my testimony, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, —

David had been guilty of the death of Uriah. It is a proof of, his sincerity that he does not mince matters, but calls a spade a spade, and prays, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,” —

Psa_51:14. Thou God of my Salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

“I will not only preach, but I will also sing. I will be preceptor as well a preacher. A Christian man can never do too much for the Lord who has so graciously pardoned him. David feels that he cannot do anything aright, either singing or preaching, by himself; so he adds, —

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. God cares little for the mere outward forms of worship; Ritualistic observances are nothing to him: “Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.” Though these were the fixed ordinances of the Lord under which David lived, yet he was enabled to look beyond them to something higher and better.

Psa_51:17-19. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

When we come to God, and are saved by him, then ordinances take their proper place. You cannot teach a man how to live until he is born, and you cannot teach him what his spiritual life is to be until he is born again; all religious rites and ceremonies which precede the new birth go for nothing.

First there must be the inward life, the broken heart, the contrite spirit, and then everything else drops into proper order. Mind this; God help us all to mind it well!



A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, and rebuked him, in the name of God, for his great sin with Bathsheba.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindess: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

This is not a Psalm to be sung to the joyous music of the harp and the viol, but rather to the minor music of sighs, and groans, and tears. You must have the picture of weeping David before your mind’s eye if you would really get to the heart and soul of his language here. There is only one thing on the psalmist’s heart, and that is the consciousness of his great sin, which seemed to swallow up everything else. He feels that he must have that sin forgiven; he cannot rest until he knows that it is pardoned. Note how he makes his appeal to the lovingkindness and tender mercies of God. A sinner under a sense of sin has a keen eye for the mercy of God, for he knows that there is his only hope, and therefore he looks for it as a mariner at sea looks for a star, and will not allow even one to escape his observation if there be but one visible between the rifts of the clouds. David urges the most powerful plea with God: “According to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For he loathes it, it is abominable in his sight, his whole spirit seems sickened at the very recollection of it. He not merely prays, “Wash me,” but “’Wash me thoroughly.” Wash me thoroughly, not only from sin, but from the inequity of it, the wrongdoing of it, that wherein it was essentially sin, and when thou hast washed me, cleanse me, for, perhaps, washing will not be enough; there may need a cleansing by fire. Lord cleanse me anyhow, only do cleanse me from my sin.”

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

He had tried to forget it, but he could not, for it haunted him wherever he went. He had put it behind his back, but now it had got in front of his eyes.

It seemed as if it were painted on his eyeballs, and he could not see without seeing through his sin. This is how God makes men repent, — how he makes sin to be like gall and wormwood to them.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

David had sinned against a great many others beside God, but the virus, the very poison of the sin, seemed to him to lie in this, that he had sinned against God. The unregenerate usually take no account of that, they care nothing about sinning against God. Offending men, doing some injury to their fellow-creatures, may cause them trouble, but as for offending God they snap their fingers at that, and count it to be something not worth even thinking of. But when a man is really awakened by divine grace, he sees that sin is an attack upon God, an offense against God’s very nature and this becomes the heaviest burden to him. Do you know what this experience means, dear friends?

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

David has got further than seeing sin upon him, he sees that he is himself sinfulness, that his nature, his very being, is steeped and dyed in sin. The evil is, not merely that thou hast sinned, but that thou art a sinner. Sin would never come out of thee if it were not in thee. And, oh, what mine of sin, what a bottomless deep of sin, there is in human nature! No wonder that it bursts forth as it does. As the volcano is but the index of a mighty seething ocean of devouring flame within the bowels of the earth so any one sin is only a token of far greater sinfulness that seethes and boils within the cauldron of our nature: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:

“Alas, O Lord, it is not there! I have looked there, but have seen only sin. It is not truth, but the reverse of truth, that I find in my inward parts Lord, thou wilt never have what thou desires to see in me unless thou dost put thy hand to the work.”

Psa_51:6. And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Yes, God can teach us. Even those hidden parts which no human teaching can reach, God can touch, and there he can make us to know wisdom.

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

“Sprinkle the blood of atonement upon me, give me a sacrificial cleansing, and then I shall be clean.”

Psa_51:7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

To my mind, this is a wonderful expression of faith, I do not know of any Scripture that seems more full of holy confidence than this is. David had such a deep sense of his sinfulness that it was a wonderful thing that he should have, side by side with it, such a perfect confidence in the power of God to cleanse him. It is easy enough to say, “I shall be whiter than snow,” when we do not realize what scarlet sinners we are, but when the crimson is before us, and we are startled by it, it requires a real and living faith to be able to say to God, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou had broken may rejoice.

God has a way of making our sins come home to us like the blows of great bone-breaking hammers. I suppose that no pain can be much worse than that of a broken bone, but God can make the pain of sin in the conscience to be as continuous and as intense as that of broken bones, and then, blessed be his name, he knows how to heal the bones which he has broken, and to make each broken bone to sing and rejoice. Whereas it groaned before, he can give it a new power, and make that very bone to be a mouth out of which shall come praise to God.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins,

“Lord, look no more at them. Do not hide thy face from me, but hide it from my sins.”

O thou that hear’st when sinners cry,

Though all my crimes before thee lie,

Behold them not with angry look,

But blot their memory from thy book!”

Psa_51:9. And blot out all mine iniquities.

“Do not let them be recorded any longer, O Lord! Run thy pen through them; let them not stand against me in thy books of remembrance!”

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Here the truly quickened man speaks. It is not salvation from punishment he asks for, but salvation from the power of sin. He wants a new heart. He wants to have removed from him the defiling power of sin over his affections; “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” It will need the Creator to do it. Only the God who made the world can make me what I ought to be.

Great Creator, put thy hand to this work: ‘Create in me a glean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.’”

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me, “O Lord, do not thrust me into a dungeon, and say, ‘Thou shalt never be a favoured child of mine again.’ ‘Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. That I should dread beyond everything else.”

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

“Lord, I shall slip again unless thou dost hold me up, and, since thou canst not trust thy little child by himself, come and teach me how to walk.”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

“If thou wilt but teach me, and save me, and cleanse me, then I will tell to others what great things thou hast done for me. I will tell out the story of thy love that others also may prove its power.”

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

This was a wonderful prayer, but it was not wonderful that David should get relief when he called his sin by its right name. Another man, in his place, might have said, “I did not kill Uriah. It is true that I had him put where he was likely to be slain, but then the sword devoureth one as well as another.” That was the way that David did hypocritically talk at first; but now that his conscience has been aroused, he confesses that he is a murderer: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God.”

Psa_51:15-16. O Lord open thou my lips: and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

How wonderfully a true sense of sin puts a man on the track of Evangelical doctrine, David could see that sin was too grievous a thing for the blood of sheep and bullocks to wash it away, and though he did not despise the ritual which God had ordained, he looked beyond it to something greater and better of which it was but a type.

Psa_51:17-18. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

This is a blessed end to David’s mournful Psalm. He felt that his sin had a tendency to do injury to the Church of God, — that he had, in fact, pulled down the towers of Zion by his iniquity, so he prays “Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.”

Psa_51:19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.



May God graciously grant to all of us the grace which shall enable us to enter into the penitential spirit which is so remarkable in this Psalm!

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, —

He breaks the silence at last, and he does so by crying to God for mercy. Ere he says anything else, he appeals to this attribute of mercy, which is so glorious a trait in the character of Jehovah; and he casts himself, all guilty as he is, upon the absolute mercy of God: “Have mercy upon me, O God,” —

Psa_51:1. According to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

David talks as if the Lord had said to him, “What is the measure of the mercy that you want?” and he knows of nothing by which he can measure it except the boundless and infinite lovingkindness of the Lord. “O God!” he seems to say, “deal out mercy to me according to the measure of thine own boundless nature. Let thy mercy be the only judge of the mercy that I need.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,

The forgiveness of sin is not enough for the true penitent; he wants the defilement, which he has incurred through sin, also to be removed. If washing will not suffice, he asks the Lord to try any other method that will accomplish the desired end.

Psa_51:2. And cleanse me from my sin.

“If fire is needed to purify me, use fire, O Lord, only ‘cleanse me from my sin.’

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

David felt that there was a multitude of transgressions recorded against him in God’s unerring register, yet he specially realized the guilt of that one sin which Master Trapp calls the devil’s nest-egg, to which so many other sins were added. That first sin was a peculiarly foul one, but he added lying, deception, and murder to it, in order to try to cover it, and thus he made it even greater than it was at first. It was well that he confessed that great sin, which was ever before him.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. “The essence, the virus, the climax of my sin consists in its assault upon thee, my God; therefore, O God, if thou condemnest me, thou wilt be just!

There is nothing that can be said against the severest verdict of thine infallible justice; yet, O God, I still appeal to thy mercy, and pray thee to forgive me, and to put away all my sin!”

Psa_51:5. Behold,

David is full of astonishment and amazement; his one great sin has opened his eyes to see the sinfulness of his whole nature.

Psa_51:5. I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

“I was ‘shapen in iniquity’ when I was shapen, and ‘conceived in sin’ when I was conceived.” He sees that the sin is in himself, and that it does not happen to him as an accident, but flows from him as naturally as foul water runs from a polluted spring.

Psa_51:6. Behold,

Here are more wonders.

Psa_51:6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: —

First he wondered when he saw how sinful he was; now he wonders as he sees the purity which God demands: “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts:” —

Psa_51:6-7. And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, —

“O Lord, thou hast ordained means by which leprous sinners may be cleansed; the outward sign is the bunch of hyssop dipped in sacrificial blood. O Lord, give me in every deed what that sign means! Give me the cleansing influence of the blood of the great sacrifice: ‘Purge me with hyssop,’ “ —

Psa_51:7. And I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

I cannot help once more remarking, though I have often before made the same observation, that we have here the evidence of wonderful faith on David’s part. He has a very real consciousness of the blackness of his sin, yet he also has a triumphant conviction that God can put that sin away, and can make even his defiled nature to become clean and pure: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; —

How late in the Psalm that prayer comes! He writes seven verses before he dares to pray for joy and gladness; and those seven verses are all either confessions of sin or petitions for deliverance from sin; and, my sinful friend, you must not first seek to get rid of your sorrow; but, rather, be thankful for your sorrow for sin, and pray that you may never lose that sorrow until you lose the sin that causes it: “Make me to hear joy and gladness;” —

Psa_51:8. That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

If God’s children fall into sin, the Lord does not wink at their sin, but he chastises them so severely that he sometimes even breaks their bones; but God’s pardoning mercy can set those bones, and make each broken and mended bone to become a mouth for holy song: “that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins,

“Do not look at them, O Lord! Even take pains to put them out of thy sight.”

Psa_51:9. And blot out all mine iniquities.

“Obliterate them; as though they had been written upon tablets of wax, and thou didst, with a hot iron, put the whole record of them away: ‘blot out all mine iniquities.’ “

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God;

He feels that he needs his Creator to again perform his great creating work. David knows that he needs a clean heart, but he does not ask the Lord to make his heart clean, he knows better than to present that request. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” so David’s cry to God is, “ ‘Create in me a clean heart,’ — let it be a new creation; give me a new heart, and a clean heart.”

Psa_51:10. And renew a right spirit within me.

There was once a right spirit in man; but, through sin, it has lost its beauty, its tenderness, its delicacy, its sensitiveness, its holiness; so each one of us needs to pray, “O God, renew a right spirit within me!”

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence;

“I cannot bear to be away from thy presence; I must see thy face, or I cannot live.”

Psa_51:11-13. And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

One of our proverbs says, “A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind;” and he who knows by bitter experience what sin is, talks tenderly and sympathetically to his fellow-sinners; and God is sure to bless such earnest personal testimony, and so sinners will be constrained to turn unto him.

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:

He called his sin by its right name. He knew that he had really been the murderer of Uriah, so he confesses his guilt in all its hideousness: “Deliver me from bloods (see marginal reading), O God, thou God of my salvation.” It is remarkable that, when David confesses his sin in the strongest language that he can use, he at the same time lays hold upon God with the boldest faith that he can exercise. So, the deeper the sense of sin in us is, the stronger can the grace of God make our faith to be.

Psa_51:14. And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

Should not David have said, “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy mercy”? That would have been quite right, yet David knew that God had a way of bestowing his mercy in complete consistency with his righteousness; and this being the more singular part of divine forgiveness, the most astonishing wonder of all, he selects that, and says, “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips; —

In the eighth verse, he had prayed, “Make me to hear;” and now he does as good as say, “Make me to speak.” Sin puts all the organs of the human body out of order, and grace is needed to put them all right again: “O Lord, open thou my lips;” —

Psa_51:15-16. And my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; —

The offering of bullocks, and lambs, and rams amid the pomp of priestly ritual: “Thou desirest not sacrifice;” —

Psa_51:16-17. Else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:

This is all sacrifices put into one, and the man who brings a bleeding heart to God is accepted when the one who brings a bleeding bullock is rejected; and he who brings a bleeding Saviour brings the best sacrifice of all.

Psa_51:17-18. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:

David seems to say, “Whatever thou doest with me, O God, do bless thy people!”

Psa_51:18. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

“My sin has helped to pull them down, and so has done great mischief; but, O Lord, wilt thou not undo the mischief that I have done, and build again the walls of thy Zion?”

Psa_51:19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Never do men give so freely to the cause of God as when they are rejoicing over pardoned sin. Keep a deep sense of your indebtedness to God alive in your soul, and you will feel that you can never do enough for him who has forgiven you so much.



It is a Psalm, and therefore it is to be sung. It is dedicated to the chief Musician, and there is music in it, but it needs a trained ear to catch the harmony. The sinner with a broken heart will understand the language and also perceive the sweetness of it; but as for the proud and the self-righteous, they will say, “ It is a melancholy dirge,” and turn away from it in disgust. There are times, to one under a sense of sin, when there is no music in the world like that of the 51st Psalm, and it is music for the chief Musician, for “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth; “ and this is the Psalm of penitence, and there is joy in it, and it makes joy even to the chief Musician himself.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Here is a man of God, a man of God deeply conscious of his sin, crying for mercy, vying with all his heart and soul, and yet with his tear-dimmed eyes looking up to God, and spying out the gracious attributes of Deity, lovingkindness, and tender mercies, multitudes of them. There is no eye that is quicker to see the mercy of God than an eye that is washed with the tears of repentance. When we dare not look upon divine justice, when that burning attribute seems as if it would smite us with blindness, we can turn to that glorious rainbow of grace round about the throne, and rejoice in the lovingkindness and the tender mercies of our God.

Psa_51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

“If washing will not remove it, burn it out, O Lord, but do cleanse me from it; not only from the guilt of it and the consequent punishment, but from the sin itself. Make me clean through and through. ‘ Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”’

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

“As if the record of it were painted on my eyeballs I cannot look anywhere without seeing it. I seem to taste it in my meat and drink; and when I fall asleep, I dream of it, for thy wrath has come upon me, and now my transgression haunts me wherever I go.”

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

This is the sting of sin to a truly penitent man, that he has sinned against God. The carnal mind sees nothing in that. If ever it does repent, it repents of doing wrong to man. It only takes the manward side of the transgression; but God’s child, though grieved at having wronged man, feels that the deluge of his guilt-that which drowns everything else- is that he has sinned against his God. It is the very token and type and mark of an acceptable repentance that it has an eye to sin as committed against God.

Now observe that the psalmist, having thus sinned, and being thus conscience of his guilt, is now made to see that, if the evil came out of him, it must have been in him at first; he would not have sinned as he had done had there not been an unclean fountain within him.

Psa_51:5-6. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:-

Then it is not sufficient for me to be washed outside, and being outwardly moral is not enough. “ Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: “-

Psa_51:6. And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

In that part which is even hidden from myself, where sin might lurk without my knowing it, there wouldst thou spy it out. I pray thee, Lord, eject all sin from me, rid me of the most subtle form of iniquity that may be concealed within me.

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

This is a grand declaration of faith. I know not of such faith as this anywhere else. The faith of Abraham is more amazing; but, to my mind this faith of poor broken-hearted David, when he saw himself to be black with sin and crimson with grime, and yet could say, “ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,” is grand faith. It seems to me that a poor, trembling, broken-down sinner, who casts himself upon the infinite mercy of God, brings more glory to God than all the angels that went not astray are ever able to bring to him.

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot sin with impunity. Worldlings may do so as far as this life is concerned; but a child of God will find that, to him, sin and smart, if they do not go together, will follow very closely upon one another’s heels. Ay, and our Father in heaven chastens his people very sorely, even to the breaking of their bones; and it is only when he applies the promises to our hearts by the gracious operation of his Holy Spirit, and makes the chambers of our soul to echo with the voice of his lovingkindness, that we “ hear joy and gladness again. It is only then that our broken bones are bound up, and begin to rejoice once more.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sin,

David could not bear that God should look upon them.

Psa_51:9. And blot out all mine iniquities.

“ Put them right out of sight. Turn thy gaze away from them, and then put them out of everybody’s sight.”

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

“Make me over again; let the image of God in man be renewed in me. Nay, not the image only, but renew the very Spirit of God within me.”

Psa_51:11-12. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

“Lift me up, and then keep me up. Let me never sin against thee again.”

Psa_51:12-13. And uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy way’;

There are no such teachers of righteousness as those who have smarted under their own personal sin; they can indeed tell to others what the ways of God are. What are those ways? His ways of chastisement,-how he will smite the wandering; his ways of mercy,-how he will restore and forgive the penitent.

Psa_51:13. And sinners shall be converted unto thee.

He felt sure that they would be converted, and if anything can be the means of converting sinners, it is the loving faithful testimony of one who has himself tasted that the Lord is gracious. If God has been merciful to you, my brother or my sister, do not hold your tongue about it, but tell to others what he has done for you; let the world know what a gracious God he is.

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

I like that confession and that prayer of David. He does not mince matters, for he had guiltily caused the blood of Uriah to be shed, and here he owns it, with great shame, but with equal honesty and truthfulness. As long as you and I call our sin by pretty names, they will not be forgiven. The Lord knows exactly what your sin is, therefore do not try to use polite terms about it. Tell him what it is, that he may know that you know what it is. “ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.” “But surely,” says someone, “there is nobody here who needs to pray that prayer.” Well, there is one in the pulpit, at least, who often feels that he has need to pray it; for what will happen if I preach not the gospel or if I preach it not with all my heart? It may be that the blood of soul shall be required at my hands. And my brothers and sisters, if anything in your example should lead others into sin, or if the neglect of any opportunities that are presented to you should lead others to continue in their sin till they perish, will not the sin of bloodguiltiness be possible to you? I think you had better each one pray David’s prayer, “ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.” ‘. And then, O Lord if I once get clear of that, ‘my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”’

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips He is afraid to open them himself lest he should say something amiss.

Pardoned sinners are always afraid lest they should err again.

Psa_51:15-16. And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest no sacrifice; else would I give it:

“ Whatever share is in the whole world that thou desirest, I would gladly give it to thee, my God.”

Psa_51:16-18. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion -You see that the psalmist loves the chosen people of God. With all his faults, his heart is right towards the kingdom under his charge. He feels that he has helped to break down Zion, and to do mischief to Jerusalem, so he prays, “ Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: “-

Psa_51:18-19. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon shine altar.

Once get your sin forgiven, and then God will accept your sacrifices. Then bring what you will with all your heart, for an accepted sinner makes an accepted sacrifice, through Jesus Christ.



Let us read two Psalms of penitence. Repentance, and faith go hand in hand all the way to heaven. Repenting and believing make up a large measure of the Christian life. First, let us read the 51st Psalm, penned by David after his great sin with Bathsheba, when, by the instrumentality of Nathan, he had been led to repentance. What if we have not fallen into any gross open sin. Yet, mayhap, if we could see our hearts, as God sees them, we should be as much ashamed as the Psalmist was when to the music of his sighs and groans, he poured out this Psalm.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

What delicious words those are! “Thy loving-kindness.” I have sometimes felt glad to be a Saxon, that I should speak a language that had such delightful words in it. “Loving-kindness,” “tender mercy.” Now, the eye that is quickest to see the tenderness of God is the eye of repentance, for the sinner who feels condemnation in his own heart looks so keenly after everything that may make for his comfort, and his eye lights on the tender mercies and loving-kindness of God. The prayer is for pardon; nay, it is for purification, as well as pardon.

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Take out this plague spot. I cannot bear it longer. Oh! cleanse me from every trace of it, my God, I beseech thee.

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

I tell it to thee because it haunts me. It is always present to my mind. It seems painted on my eyeballs. I cannot but see it, turn whichever way I may.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

He had sinned against his people, setting them an ill-example — sinned against Bath-Sheba and Uriah; but he sees the whole evil concentrating itself, as it were, upon his God. He felt that the virus of the whole thing was that he had done dishonour to the name of the Most High, whose servant he was.

Psa_51:5-7. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me. and · shall be whiter than snow.

“Behold,” says he, as if to go to the bottom of it, and to show that sin was not an accident with him, but that he himself was sinful. It was a grand faith — it was an Abrahamic faith — that when a man had such a sense of sin as David had, he at the same time could believe in the cleansing power of the blood. For you do not know what sin is, and who have never groaned beneath the burden, to talk about the pardoning blood — oh! it is easy enough, and there is nothing in it; but for a soul that knows the guilt and feels it. and is burdened by it, still to believe in the power of the atoning sacrifice — this is faith indeed. David had seen the priest take the bunch of hyssop and dip it in the warm blood of the goat or the bullock, and then sprinkle it; and he says, “Lord, do the same with me — with that richer blood of divine atonement “ — that blood which, in David’s day, was yet to be shed. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8-10. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Lord, the mischief lies deep. Strike at the root of it. I would not have thee to wash out a spot only, but go to my heart and renew that, that I may sin no more.

Psa_51:11-14. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways: and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

In that verse there is one of the surest mares of David’s sincere repentance, namely, that he calls his sin by its right name — “ blood-guiltiness.” I have no doubt that he had said to himself that Uriah died by accident, and pleaded very much to excuse and extenuate his guilt. But now he outs with it. That is the word — “ blood-guiltiness.” It is no use trying to apologize and excuse yourselves before God. As long as that is done, no pardon will ever be applied to the conscience; but when the sin is seen in its true colors, then shall those colors be washed away, and we shall be whiter than snow. “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways.” He felt that if God would pardon him, he would be the man to tell of God’s way of mercy to others. And I trust, dear friends, if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious, our witness will never be silent about the goodness and the mercy of the Lord. If you have never spoken to others, begin Tonight. Teach others the ways of God to you

Psa_51:15-19. O Lord open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Sure to be good times when men are under a sense of pardoned sin. None serve him so well as those whose sins are washed away — who feel the same within. Now, we will read the 32nd Psalm.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51, 32.



There are many sweet notes in Christian music, but to my own heart there is none so softly, tenderly, sweet as the note of repentance. Full assurance rings out her clarion trumpet strain, and we ought to be able to send it forth, but sometimes we are unable. Conquest over sin gives us Miriam’s timbrel to dance to, and it is well; but for everyday use commends me to the harp-strings of penitence. We ought always to be able to play on those strings. They always befit our guilty fingers. They are always sweet to the ear of the Most High. Mr. Rowland Hill used to say that there was one friend of his whom he could not take to heaven, and whom he thought he should regret to leave, and that was sweet repentance. I suppose when God wipes every tear from our eyes we shall not be able to weep for sin, but until then:—

Lord, let me weep for naught but sin,

And after none but thee;

And then I would-(oh that I might!)—

A constant weeper be,”

for these bitter sweets—these sweet bitters—are almost the choicest of our sorrow joys or joyful sorrows that we have this side of heaven. Thus David sings.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

And really, brethren, if we cannot feel that we have need to say, “Have mercy upon me,” and if, indeed, this is not the habitual language of our soul, there must be something more wrong about us than even open sin. Not to be able to confess sin, and not to be able to mourn it, is one of the direst estates of sin, in which even sin can be found; but to be able to say from the very soul, “Have mercy upon me: blot out my transgressions,” indicates that there is a soundness in us still by divine grace. Do you notice what a quick eye David has here for the softer attributes of God? Did ever any man put words together more pleasantly? “According to thy loving-kindness”—“ according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.” God never looks more beautiful than when he is seen through a tear. If, under a sense of sin, you see him as the strangely forgiving ‘God, oh! how pleasant a God he is, and how our hearts love him!

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

It is not the punishment. The child of God has got away from the legal fear that dreads the punishment. The sin—the sin—is that which he loathes and hates. “Lord, get rid of it. I seem to want double cleansing. Wash me; wash me thoroughly; and when thou hast done that, cleanse me, for there are stains that washing will not get out. Try fire, Lord, if water will not do it; but somehow wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

It is thrown out on the surface. Health comes back when the disease manifests itself by an outward eruption. It is when you do not acknowledge it—it is when it is not before you—when you cannot perceive it—will not confess your sin—it is then that it is at the heart-strings killing you, murdering you. Confessed sin has the teeth taken out of it: but sin that is not felt and known, and still is there, breeds the canker of self-conceit and pride, and is deadly to the heart.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

For, in sin, this is the essence of it—that it is sin against God. You cannot get the worldly man to feel that. “I have done no hurt to my neighbour. I have not injured society.” But how different it is with the child of God. It is against God that he has sinned. What if he has never left his chamber—if he has never done an action or said a word? Yet that proud heart of his that rebelled when he was full of pain—that murmuring spirit that would not brook the Lord’s will—that is enough to lay him in the dust; and he mourns it and confesses it. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.”

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me.

It is not merely that I sinned, but I am sin. I am a lump of sin—a heap of iniquity—by nature so. It is not merely in me, but it is me—my very self. It is in my blood, my bones, my marrow. O God, canst thou cleanse me from this?

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

And sin is a lie, and sin is folly. God desires truth and wisdom. Can he give us both of these? Yes, and he will; only let us own the untruthfulness and confess the unwisdom, and put ourselves into his hands for his infinite grace to deal with us; and he will do it yet. “In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

“With hyssop.” Just as the priest took the bunch of herbs, and put it into the basin full of blood, and stirred it round and round till he soaked the hyssop in the crimson and then sprinkled it upon the penitent, oh Lord, apply the blood of Christ to my soul. Purge with me hyssop”-“ And I shall be clean.” I shall not be clean any other way. This is the only cleansing-purgation by the sacrificial atonement. And thou alone must do it. Lord, do it now.

Psa_51:8-9. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

I do not want to hear it unless thou make me to hear it. I would not .be comforted unless thou comfort me. Dread above everything, dear friends, false comfort—false judgments of yourselves—high notions about your own attainments—grand ideas of your own standing in yourselves.

Psa_51:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

For there must not merely be a creation, but a daily renewal, or else what thou hast once created will soon be blotted and marred as thy first natural creation was. Go on from day to day to make and keep my heart pure within.

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Do not fling me away as a man pulls up a weed by the roots and throws it on a dunghill.

“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” Oh! how often will the child of God have to pray this prayer? The Holy Spirit is in him, and he knows it, but he grieves the Spirit; and when his heart is very tender this is his daily fear—lest the Spirit of God should depart from him. “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

I did know it once. What joy it is—the joy of thy salvation. Give it me back, O Lord. I cannot live on the old mercy. The recollection does not satisfy. It only makes me hunger. “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”

Psa_51:13. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Nobody ever teaches the mercy of God so well as he that tastes it. Sinner, do you know what a good God my Lord Jesus is? He has forgiven my innumerable sins, and therefore I love to speak of him, and to speak of him to such as you are, such as I am. “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.” Dear friends, if you know the Saviour, be sure you tell all you know; or if you cannot tell it all, tell as much as you can, and as long as you have got breath left. And it may not be long. You may not have many mere opportunities, for sickness comes so suddenly, and puts the strong man aside so soon. Do use for God what time you have, and tell of his love while yet you are in the land where men can hear it, and where you can speak of it. Let this be your prayer: “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

He said that he would, be a preacher; nay, he said that he would be a singer. God’s people feel that they cannot do too much when they get a sense of pardoned sin. They will be both preacher and precentor. They will preach; they will sing. They will have all the irons in the fire. They will not be afraid of turning their faculties to too many accounts.

Psa_51:15-17. O Lord open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

What a sweet verse that is! Have you got a broken heart tonight, dear friend, and do you feel almost ashamed to bring it, because it is in such a broken condition? It is in the best possible condition. I have read accounts of meetings of God’s saints met by the ten days together, and talking all about great things that have been done for them and from the first to the last no indication of a broken heart or of a contrite spirit. I confess I could not understand it, and did not want to understand it. I would rather stand with the poor publican behind the door five minutes, and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” than sit ten days with perfect brethren to magnify and glorify God about what I thought he had done for me, because I am persuaded that in the latter case I should be always in danger of magnifying myself, rather than God; whereas in the former case I should be near the truth, and near where I ought to be. Oh! keep you to this, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

Psa_51:18-19. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Notice this. David felt that he had done something to pull down the walls of Zion. His bad example would do mischief to the cause of God; and his prayer to be forgiven is not a selfish one, which deals only with his own particular blessing, or his own desire for mercy. He wants the church to prosper; he wants God’s work to go on; and so he cannot close the prayer, even of a penitent and broken heart, without crying, “Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” In proportion as we think less of ourselves we shall think more of the church of God, and more of the work of God in the land. To despise yourself is the way to honour God and his people. But when you honour yourself, you will first despise others, and it will go on by degrees to a dishonouring of God himself from which may the Lord save us!

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51. and Rom_7:7-25.



Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

There may be some people who think themselves so holy that they cannot join in this Psalm. I can, for one, and I believe that there are many of you who can join with me. Just let us for the time being forget all others, and let us come, each one for himself or herself, with David’s language on our lips or in our hearts so far as it applies to our individual case.

Psa_51:2-19. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is, ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressions thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

This exposition consisted of readings from Numbers 19.; and Psalms 51.



This Psalm is dedicated to the chief musician, so that it was intended to be sung. Yet it is not by any means a joyous piece of music. It seems more fit to be sung — or sighed — as a solo for the solitary penitence of a broken heart than for the united songs of believers. Yet, in God’s ear, it is clear that the voice of penitence is full of music, for this penitential Psalm is dedicated to the chief musician.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:

No eye can spy out the tender attributes of God like an eye that is sore with weeping on account of acknowledged sin, so David prays, “Have mercy upon me O God, according to thy lovingkindness.” This word “lovingkindness” is a rich double word, and it was specially suitable just then, for he who has a broken heart — bruised and broken on account of sin, needs double mercy from God.

Psa_51:1. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

“They are on record, and I cannot erase the terrible lines, nor canst thou erase them, O Lord, without displaying a multitude of thy tender mercies. It will need omnipotence itself to get rid of this gravure in the brass; therefore, according unto the multitude of the tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.

“Wash me through and through, O Lord; wash me thoroughly!” A hypocrite is satisfied with the washing of his garments, but the true penitent cries, “Wash me. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. It is almost the only thing that I can really call my own, and it is most sadly mine, O Lord, wash mine iniquity right away!”

Psa_51:2. And cleanse me from my sin.

“If washing will not suffice, put me in the fire; but somehow, anyhow, O Lord, cleanse me from my sin!” You notice that David’s prayer is not concerning the punishment of his sin, but concerning the sin itself. That is the one thing which is eating into his heart; see how many words he uses to describe it: “My sin, mine iniquity, my transgressions.” He cries to God to help him to get rid of that which is the source of all his sorrow. The thief dreads the gallows, but the penitent fears not the punishment of his sin, it is the sin itself that terrifies him.

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

“I cannot get away from it and I cannot get rid of it. It stares me in the face, it haunts me in my lying down and my rising up. I am obliged to acknowledge my sin, for it is ever before me.”

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight:

“It is true that I have grieved others, and that I have done much injury to others by my sin; but, in all this, I have sinned most against thee. The virus — the essence of my sin is that it has been committed against thee, O my God!”

Psa_51:4. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

“My sin was committed within thy jurisdiction, and against thy law, O Lord; and, therefore, as I am summoned to appear at thy court, I cannot disobey the summons. I am compelled to give an answer to the charge brought against me; and my answer is that I am guilty, without any extenuating circumstances that I can plead before thee, O Lord! I am guilty through and through.”

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

David does not say that by way of making an excuse for himself; but rather to aggravate his own guilt. He admits that his guiltiness is really a part of himself. He does not say, “Lord, I was acting contrary to my nature when I committed this sin. Thou knowest that it was not like me to do that.” Oh, no! but he says, “Lord, thou knowest that I was acting quite in accordance with my nature, it was just like me to fall into this terrible sin.” We have sometimes heard people say that they were surprised to find that they had been guilty of certain sins; let it not be so with you, but rather be you surprised to find yourself kept from guilt, wonder when you are preserved from sin, for the whole tendency of unrenewed human nature is towards iniquity. “In sin did my mother conceive me.”

Psa_51:6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

As much as to say, “Lord, that which thou desires” to see in me is not there; and though thou hast made me also to desire it, yet I fear that I have not at present gone beyond the desire, for still within me, in my secret soul, there lies a tendency to evil, and unless I keep a strict watch over myself, I soon go astray. Lord, make me inwardly clean; I cannot bear that it should be otherwise with me.”

Psa_51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

As the priest purges the unclean man by dipping the bunch of hyssop into the blood of the sacrifice, and then sprinkling him with it, so, “purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”

Psa_51:7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

“That is to say, I shall be clean if thou dost wash me, O Lord! My own washings make me no cleaner; my own purgations make me fouler than I was before; but if thou wilt purge me, and if thou wilt do it with the sacrificial blood, then I shall be whiter than snow.” This is grand faith on David’s part. I cannot help calling your attention to it, — that he, with a sense of his sin heavy upon him, and bowed down to the very earth with the consciousness of his great guilt, yet dares to say, “Wash me,” —adulterous, murderous David, — “wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” No faith brings greater glory to God than the faith of the audaciously guilty when they dare to believe that God can forgive them.

Not even the unfallen seraphim can render to God purer homage than when thou, a defiled and condemned sinner, darest to believe in the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and so to believe as to say, with David, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

If a good man ever goes astray, he may depend upon it that his sin will be very costly to him, and the better a man is, the more expensive will his sin be to him in the long run. God breaks the very bones of his children when he chastens them for their sin. I do not doubt that, many a time, their pilgrim way has been all the more weary in their later days by reason of their sins in their earlier days. There is many a pain, that shoots through old bones, that is meant to remind the old bones what they were when they were young. God will certainly chasten us for our iniquities if we are his own people.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins,

“Lord, do not look at them. Refuse to see them. Hide thy face, not from me, but from my sins.”

Psa_51:9. And blot out all mine iniquities.

See how he comes back to that note again and again; he is never long away from it. There are certain tunes in which one note is constantly repeated, so is it here. David prays, “O God, put away my sin, blot out my sin, forgive my sin.” He cries for nothing else but that: “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.” He longs for the time when not one of them shall be in existence.

Psa_51:10-11. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

These are the groanings of a true child of God. Never has a man, without the Spirit of God within him, prayed to God in this fashion. David, therefore, notwithstanding all his sin, still had the life of God within his soul, and when Nathan came to reprove him, the sacred fire began to burn again. Here are some of the sparks of it, and some of the smoke of it, too:

Cast me not away from thy presence.

Dismiss me not thy service, Lord.”

“Say not, I can no longer use you. You shall no longer stand in my courts, for you have disgraced my livery; get you gone from my presence.’ ‘Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.’”

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

David longs for his Lord to some back to him. When God flogs his children, they still cling to him, and they cry to him. They do not wish to run away, and hide themselves from him. No, their only comfort is to weep upon their Father’s bosom, and to wait for the kiss of forgiveness from his lips. So David prays, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Do you not see, brothers and sisters, that we must be in a right state of heart if we are to serve God well? We cannot teach transgressors his way, with a confident hope that they will be converted unto him, unless we ourselves possess the joy of God’s salvation, and are upheld by his good Spirit. If we go to God’s work out of order, we shall make a mess of it, and accomplish nothing that is really worth doing; but when God gives us his comforting grace within, and his upholdings on every hand, then shall we teach with power, and sinners shall learn to profit: “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

None sing so loudly the praises of redeeming grace as those who have been forgiven great sins. There is no music, outside heaven, that has such a volume of God-glorifying praise in it as the song of the man who loves much because he has had much forgiven: “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips; —

He felt as if he could not be trusted to open his own lips; and, certainly, he was not to be trusted to open his own eyes, for when he had aforetime opened them, he had looked on that which led him into sin. So now he would have God to keep his very lips, that he shall never speak again except as he shall be guided from on high: “O Lord, open thou my lips;”-

Psa_51:15-16. And my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:

Very naturally, David’s mind began to think of the multitudes of bullocks, and lambs, and rams, that were burnt upon Jehovah’s altar. There is nothing that makes a man so spiritual, and so Evangelical, as a deep sense of sin. You cannot be a sacramentarian and a ceremonialist long if you have a broken heart. Those pretty toys do very well for the kind of “miserable sinners” who do not know what either misery or sin means; but he who really has had his heart broken, on account of the guilt of his sin, cannot be content with the mere outward sacrifice, he must have that which is spiritual: “Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:”

Psa_51:16-17. Those delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are as broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

David has to feel that it is better to have one genuine sigh for sin than to make ten thousand bullocks shed their blood upon the sacrificial altar; and if thou art truly broken from thy sin, — if thou dost really hate it, and cry to God for the pardon of it, — if the Spirit of God has really given thee complete cleansing from thy guilt by the precious blood of Jesus — this is better than all the material sacrifices offered in all the temples that were ever built, and overlaid with gold. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

Psa_51:18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

As much as though David said, “I have done great hurt to Zion, I have pulled down the walls of Jerusalem by my sin; now, Lord build them up again; undo the mischief which thy poor foolish servant has wrought by his backslidings.” So may any backsliders amongst us pray to the Lord, “Visit thy Church so graciously, Lord, that my sin may not injure her!”

Psa_51:19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Oh, yes, we are sure to bring to God the best that we have when we once get our sins forgiven. After we have looked to Christ, who is the one great sacrifice for sin, then we bring to God all that we can to show how grateful we are for his pardoning mercy.

This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 51. and 142.



We will first read Psalms 51 :If we need any music to this Psalm, we must have the liquid melody of tears, sighs, cries, entreaties. It is above all the others, the penitential Psalm. It is the Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had committed his great sin with Bathsheba.

Thus, David prayed:-

Psa_51:1-3. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

And there is no hope of pardon unless we do this. We must not try to cloak or hide our sin from God; but we must acknowledge our transgressions. Our sin must be ever before us,-a ghost that haunts us, a black cloud that hangs over us, which we greatly dread.

Psa_51:4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Whatever God may say to us, however sharp it is, and whatever God may do to us, however terrible it is, we deserve it; and when we are in a penitential frame of mind, we feel that it is so.

Psa_51:5-7. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

David does not hope to wash himself, he does not trust in outward ceremonies: but he appeals to God, the God against whom he has sinned: “Lord, cleanse me. Thou alone canst do it.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

When God’s Spirit deals with sinners, he does not play with them. A sense of sin is like the breaking of bones; but God, who breaks the bone, can heal it. He that takes away our joy, when we are under a sense of sin, can give us back that joy by a realization of pardon.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

“And when thou hast done that, change my nature, that I may not sin again.

Psa_51:10-11. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

He might well be afraid that, after so foul a fall, so disgraceful a crime, God would cast him away; but he prays that it may not be so: “Cast me not away from thy presence.”

Psa_51:12-13. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

“I will tell others what thou hast done. Thy free grace, thy pardoning mercy, shall not be hidden away in my breast; but I will begin to be a preacher of thy love; ay, and I shall have converts, too, for the news of thy grace to me shall draw others to thee: ‘Sinners shall be converted unto thee.’”

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

He puts his finger on the sin. He might have said, and at one time he did say, that he did not kill Uriah the Hittite. Ah, but when he is right with God, he makes no pretences! He does not mince the matter, but he confesses the blood guiltiness, for he was guilty of Uriah’s death: “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness.” Be honest with God. You will not receive pardon till you are. He can see through you: what is the use of attempting to hide anything from him? Out with it, man, that God may out with it, too.

Confess it, that God’s pardon covering thy confession may cover all thy sin.

Psa_51:15-17. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Are you bringing this sacrifice to the Lord? Are there some in this house of prayer who have greatly sinned, and who are now greatly ashamed of themselves? Take heart of hope, poor sinner, for God delights to accept a broken and contrite heart.

Psa_51:18-19. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Now turn to the prophecy of Zec_12:10.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51; and Zec_12:10-14; Zec_13:1-6.



There are seven penitential Psalms, but this seems to be the chief one of the seven. The language of David is as suitable to us today as it was to him, and though much was lost to the cause of righteousness by David’s sin, yet the Church is enriched for all ages by the possession of such a Psalm as this. It is a marvelous recompense. Surely here the Lord reigneth, bringing good out of evil, blessing generation after generation through that which in itself was a great evil.

Psa_51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Observe he appeals to mercy, and mercy only — to mercy, abounding mercy in its tenderest and kindest aspect. “According to thy tender mercies.” Note here David does not use his name. He does not say, “Lord remember David”: he is ashamed of his name. And he does not seem to want God to remember that, but to remember mercy: and to have pity upon this nameless sinner. He does not say, “Save the son of thine handmaid,” or “Deliver thy servant,” as he was wont to do; he just appeals to mercy, and that is all. And observe it is not “Have mercy upon me, oh! my God.” He is far off now: he has lost the comfortable assurance of the covenant of grace, and so it is rather more like the cry of the prodigal when he returned and said, “I am not worthy to be called thy son”: have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness — according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out — (or as more correctly it might be rendered, “wash out” — “wipe out”) — my transgressions. The allusion is rather to a dish — wipe it out, turn it upside down, and turn out all that is in it, sweep it away — wipe out all my transgressions. Or it may be as a withdrawal of a record in court when the indictment is withdrawn, “Lord be pleased to quash the indictment against me; blot out all my transgressions.”

Psa_51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Nothing about the punishment observe — he does not mention that. The true penitent, though he dreads punishment, much more dreads sin. It is sinfulness — sin that he would be delivered from. “Wash me.” Thou must do it; no other washing will suffice. Wash me thoroughly, till I am perfectly cleansed: cleanse me from my sin — my sin. I do not lay it on anyone else; cleanse me from it.

Psa_51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Unless sin is before us, we shall not be likely to spread it before God; but when we have knowledge of it, then we shall make acknowledgment of it to God. “My sin is ever before me.” He was in such a state of heart that the remembrance of sin seemed painted on his eyeballs. Even in his dreams he remembered it: he was never free from the dread remembrance of it.

Psa_51:4. Against thee only have I sinned.

Yet he had sinned against many more; but just now the thought of his sin against God swallowed up all else. All his offenses against his fellow men were trivial compared with the high treason which he had committed against his God. This is the virus of sin, that it is sin against God.

Psa_51:4. And done this evil in thy sight.

Whilst thou wast looking on. For a thief to steal in the presence of the Judge is impudence indeed, but yet in thy presence, O my God, I have done this evil.

Psa_51:4. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

As much as to say, “I make this confession of sin, which is so black, that if thou shouldest judge me, however severely, or sentence me to however exemplary a punishment, thou wilt be quite clear and quite just. I could put in no plea against whatever thou shouldest command. I richly deserve all thy wrath can bring upon me.”

Psa_51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin, did my mother conceive me.

The black stream leads him to look at the black fountain. How can we expect from parents who have sinned that there should be born unto them pure and spotless children. No! the tendencies in us all towards evil are there at the very first. He does not at all venture to excuse himself, but rather to aggravate his sin, that he had been a sinner from his very birth.

Psa_51:6-7. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

He had seen the leper pronounced clean when the hyssop was dipped in blood and sprinkled on him; but then the leper had to be clean beforehand before this could make him ceremonially clean. He is leaping through the first process and coming to the closing one, his soul anxious to be accepted with God at once.

Psa_51:7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Yet what can be whiter than snow? Snow is not like a whited wall that is but white on the surface: it is white all through. And yet when God washes the believer, he makes him whiter than snow, for the snow soon becomes tainted, soon loses its purity; but we never shall if God shall wash us. There was no provision made for the cleansing of an adulterer under the law. David, therefore, had to look beyond all the sacrifices of the law to the cleansing power of the great coming sacrifice, and he so believed in it that with a brave faith — (I know no more brave expression in all Scripture than this) — he says, “Wash me, filthy as I am, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Psa_51:8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

The original expression is “bones cracked,” or, as one puts it, smashed. His sense of sin had been so great that he felt as one might feel whose very bones had been smashed by some terrible blow. So he seems to say that, as there may be a delightful pleasure in having every one of these broken bones restored, such would be his pleasure if God would pardon his sins.

Psa_51:9. Hide thy face from my sins,

If we set out sins before our own faces, then God will turn his face away from our sins. If we hide our sins from our faces, God will set them before his face, but when they are ever before us they shall be never before him.

Psa_51:9-10. And blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God:

It is a creation: the very word is used which is employed concerning the creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Psa_51:11. Cast me not away from thy presence: and take not thy holy spirit from me.

I have put thee away from my presence by forgetting thee, but put me not away from thy presence. I have been filled with an unholy spirit, but oh! take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Psa_51:12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me.

He feels how much he needs it. The burnt child dreads the fire. “Uphold me with thy free spirit.”

Psa_51:13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways: and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

And David has been doing that ever since, for this Psalm has been a continual sermon to sinners, teaching them God’s ways in pardoning sin; and many, I doubt not, have been converted unto God by his Spirit through the language of this Psalm. When you and I find Christ, let us tell of our blessed finding. Hast thou honey? Eat it not all thyself: go, tell thy fellow men. Art thou saved? Tarry not, but go and spread the news that others may be saved too.

Psa_51:14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation;

His faith is growing. He has humbled himself. It is the way to rise. Weaken thyself before God, and thou shalt grow strong. Empty thyself, and thou shalt be filled; bow low, and he will lift thee up. “Thou God of my salvation.”

Psa_51:14. And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

Those tongues that confess sins are the best tongues to sing with. That tongue which has been salted with the brine of penitence is fitted to be sweet with the honey of praise.

Psa_51:15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

You know the leper when he was unclean — what did he do? He covered his lips, as much as to confess that he was not fit to speak. So here the unclean David, with the covering over his lips, will not venture to speak until the Lord has taken away his sin, and opened his mouth for him. It was this that Isaiah meant when he said, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips”; but when it was said concerning the live coal, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips,” then he spake right eloquently. “Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.”

Psa_51:16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

Here we have what God does desire, and what he does not. If you turn to the sixth verse, you will see what he does desire. “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” Now here he does not desire the mere outward and external worship rendered by sacrifice. It was not the type alone that satisfied him.

Psa_51:17. The sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

There are some spices that are never perfect in fragrance till they are pounded with the pestle in the mortar, and so is a broken heart. If it be made to suffer and to smart, yet there is sweet pleasure to the Lord when he perceives in his people the smart concerning sin — when they hate and loathe it.

Psa_51:18-19. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Gratitude ascends when sin is forgiven, and when God appears to bless his church, then she blesses her God.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51, Psa_119:145-168.