Psalm 51 commentary

PSALM 51 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
When the prophet athan came to him after
David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "Title. To the Chief Musician. Therefore not written for private
meditation only, but for the public service of song. Suitable for the loneliness of
individual penitence, this matchless Psalm is equally well adapted for an assembly of
the poor in spirit. A Psalm of David. It is a marvel, but nevertheless a fact, that
writers have been found to deny David's authorship of this Psalm, but their
objections are frivolous, the Psalm is David like all over. It would be far easier to
imitate Milton, Shakespeare, or Tennyson, than David. His style is altogether sui
generis, and it is as easily distinguished as the touch of Rafaelle or the colouring of
Rubens. "When athan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to
Bathsheba." When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and
made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his
psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his
spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of
sighs and tears. The great sin of David is not to be excused, but it is well to
remember that his case has an exceptional collection of specialities in it. He was a
man of very strong passions, a soldier, and an Oriental monarch having despotic
power; no other king of his time would have felt any compunction for having acted
as he did, and hence there were not around him those restraints of custom and
association which, when broken through, render the offence the more monstrous.
He never hints at any form of extenuation, nor do we mention these facts in order to
apologize for his sin, which was detestable to the last degree; but for the warning of
others, that they reflect that the licentiousness in themselves at this day might have
even a graver guilt in it than in the erring King of Israel. When we remember his
sin, let us dwell most upon his penitence, and upon the long series of chastisements
which rendered the after part of his life such a mournful history.
Divisions. It will be simplest to note in the first twelve verses the penitent's
confessions and plea for pardon, and then in the last seven his anticipatory
gratitude, and the way in which he resolves to display it.
ELLICOTT, "This psalm has been so identified with David, that to surrender the
tradition which ascribes it to him seems a literary crime. Indeed, the character of
the man has been react so constantly through the medium of Psalms 32, 51, that we

must admit that a personality, dear to all the religious world, recedes and becomes
less distinct before the criticism which questions the genuineness of the Davidic
authorship of either of them. Yet in the case before us we must either break this
long cherished association, or admit the last two verses of the psalm to be a later
addition for liturgical use.
But the question of authorship does not affect the estimation in which this psalm has
always been held, and always will be held, in the Church, as the noblest expression
of penitence. Even if it was not originally, directly, and exclusively the expression of
an individual’s repentance, but rather the voice of the people of Israel deploring,
during the exile, its ancient errors and sins (the only conclusion which completely
explains Psalms 51:4, see ote), and praying for a new lease of covenant-favour, yet
the associations of the psalm with individual experience of sin and repentance from
it are now far too close to be broken, and it must ever remain in the truest sense one
of the penitential psalms, suited for private use as well as for that of the Church. It
presents as has been rightly said, the Hebrew and Christian idea of repentance; not
remorse, not mere general confession of human depravity, not minute confessions of
minute sins dragged to light by a too impulsive casuistry, but change of life and
mind; and, in the words of Carlyle, “all earnest souls will ever discern in it the
faithful struggle of an earnest human soul towards what is good and best.” The
parallelism is distinct and well sustained.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
BAR ES, "Have mercy opon me, O God - This is the utterance of a full heart; a
heart crushed and broken by the consciousness of sin. The psalmist had been made to
see his great guilt; and his first act is to cry out for mercy. There is no attempt to excuse
his sin, or to apologise for it; there is no effort to vindicate his conduct; there is no
complaint of the righteousness of that holy law which condemned him. It was “guilt”
that was before his mind; guilt only; deep and dreadful guilt. The appeal properly
expresses the state of a mind that is overwhelmed at the remembrance of crime, and that
comes with earnestness to God to plead for pardon. The only hope of a sinner when
crushed with the consciousness of sin is the mercy of God; and the plea for that mercy
will be urged in the most earnest and impassioned language that the mind can employ.

“Accordingly to thy Iovingkindness.” On the meaning of the word used here, see the
notes at Psa_36:7.
(a) The “ground” of his hope was the compassion of God:
(b) the “measure” of that hope was His boundless beneficence; or, in other words, he
felt that there was need of “all” the compassion of a God.
His sin was so great, his offence was so aggravated, that he could have no hope but in a
Being of infinite compassion, and he felt that the need of mercy in his case could be
measured and covered “only” by that infinite compassion.
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies - The same idea occurs
here also. The psalmist fixed his eye on the “vastness” of the divine mercy; on the
numberless “acts” of that mercy toward the guilty; here he found his hope, and here
alone. Every instance of extraordinary mercy which had occurred in the world furnished
him now with an argument in his appeal to God; was an encouragement to him “in” that
appeal; was a ground of hope that his appeal would not be rejected. So to us: every
instance in which a great sinner has been forgiven is evidence that we may be forgiven
also, and is an encouragement to us to come to God for pardon. See the notes at 1Ti_
1:16.
Blot out my transgressions - In allusion to an account that is kept, or a charge
made, when such an account is wiped away, erased, or blotted out. Compare Exo_32:32-
33; see the notes at Isa_43:25; notes at Isa_44:22; notes at Col_2:14. Never was a more
earnest appeal made by a sinner than that which is made in this verse; never was there a
more sincere cry for mercy. It shows us where we should “begin” in our prayers when we
are pressed down with the consciousness of sin - with a cry for “mercy,” and not an
appeal to “justice;” it shows us what is to be the “ground” and the “measure” of our hope
- the mere compassion of an infinitely benevolent God; it shows us the place which we
must take, and the argument on which we must rely - a place among sinners, and an
argument that God has been merciful to great sinners, and that therefore he may be
merciful to us.
CLARKE, "Have mercy upon me, O God - Without mercy I am totally, finally
ruined and undone.
According to thy loving-kindness - Mark the gradation in the sense of these three
words, Have Mercy on me, ‫חנני‬ chonneni; thy Loving-Kindness, ‫חסדך‬ chasdecha; - thy
Tender Mercies, ‫רחמיך‬ rachameycha, here used to express the Divine compassion. The
propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation.
The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is
expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and
tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they
respectively make over them.
The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and
liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances
of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This
denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former.
The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks called splagcnizesqai,
that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which

argues the highest degree of compassion of which nature is susceptible. See Chandler.
Blot out my transgressions - ‫מחה‬ mecheh, wipe out. There is a reference here to an
indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the
writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to
discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the
mercy, loving-kindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.
GILL, "Have mercy upon me, O God,.... David, under a sense of sin, does not run
away from God, but applies unto him, and casts himself at his feet, and upon his mercy;
which shows the view he had of his miserable condition, and that he saw there was
mercy in God, which gave him hope; and upon his bended knees, and in the exercise of
faith, he asks for it;
according to thy lovingkindness; not according to his merits, nor according to the
general mercy of God, which carnal men rely upon; but according to his everlasting and
unchangeable love in Christ; from which as the source, and through whom as the
medium, special mercy comes to the children of men. The acts of special mercy are
according to the sovereign will of God: he is not moved to mercy neither by the merits
nor misery of men, but by his free grace and favour; it is love that sets mercy to work:
this is a most glaring gleam of Gospel light, which none of the inspired writers besides,
except the Apostle Paul, saw, Eph_2:4;
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions; for his sin was complicated, attended with many others; and, besides,
upon a view of this, he was led to observe all his other sins; and particularly the
corruption of his nature, his original sin, which he mentions, Psa_51:5. These he desires
might be "blotted out"; out of the book of account, out of God's debt book; that they
might not stand against him, being debts he was not able to pay or make satisfaction for;
and out of the table of his own heart and conscience, where they were ever before him,
and seemed to be engraven; that they might be caused to pass from him, and he might
have no more conscience of them; or that they might be blotted out, as a cloud by the
clear shining of the sun of righteousness, with the healing of pardoning grace in his
wings; or that they might be wiped away, as any faith is wiped from any person or thing:
and all this "according to the multitude of his tender mercies". The mercy of God is
plenteous and abundant; he is rich in it, and various are the instances of it; and it is
exceeding tender, like that of a father to his children, or like that of a mother to the son
of her womb; and from this abundant and tender mercy springs the forgiveness of sin,
Luk_1:77. The psalmist makes mention of the multitude of the mercies of God, because
of the multitude of his sins, which required a multitude of mercy to forgive, and to
encourage his hope of it.
HE RY 51-52, "The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David's fall. But,
though he fell, he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him and raised
him up. 1. The sin which, in this psalm, he laments, was the folly and wickedness he
committed with his neighbour's wife, a sin not to be spoken of, nor thought of, without
detestation. His debauching of Bathsheba was the inlet to all the other sins that

followed; it was as the letting forth of water. This sin of David's is recorded for warning
to all, that he who thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall. 2. The repentance which,
in this psalm, he expresses, he was brought to by the ministry of Nathan, who was sent
of God to convince him of his sin, after he had continued above nine months (for aught
that appears) without any particular expressions of remorse and sorrow for it. But
though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, and to lie a great while in it, yet he will,
by some means or other, recover them to repentance, bring them to himself and to their
right mind again. Herein, generally, he uses the ministry of the word, which yet he is not
tied to. But those that have been overtaken in any fault ought to reckon a faithful reproof
the greatest kindness that can be don them and a wise reprover their best friend. Let the
righteous smite me, and it shall be excellent oil. 3. David, being convinced of his sin,
poured out his soul to God in prayer for mercy and grace. Whither should backsliding
children return, but to the Lord their God, from whom they have backslidden, and who
alone can heal their backslidings? 4. He drew up, by divine inspiration, the workings of
his heart towards God, upon this occasion, into a psalm, that it might be often repeated,
and long after reviewed; and this he committed to the chief musician, to be sung in the
public service of the church. (1.) As a profession of his own repentance, which he would
have to be generally taken notice of, his sin having been notorious, that the plaster might
be as wide as the wound. Those that truly repent of their sins will not be ashamed to own
their repentance; but, having lost the honour of innocents, they will rather covet the
honour of penitents. (2.) As a pattern to others, both to bring them to repentance by his
example and to instruct them in their repentance what to do an what to say. Being
converted himself, he thus strengthens his brethren (Luk_22:32), and for this cause he
obtained mercy, 1Ti_1:16.
In these words we have,
I. David's humble petition, Psa_51:1, Psa_51:2. His prayer is much the same with that
which our Saviour puts into the mouth of his penitent publican in the parable: God be
merciful to me a sinner! Luk_18:13. David was, upon many accounts, a man of great
merit; he had not only done much, but suffered much, in the cause of God; and yet,
when he is convinced of sin, he does not offer to balance his evil deeds with his good
deeds, nor can he think that his services will atone for his offences; but he flies to God's
infinite mercy, and depends upon that only for pardon and peace: Have mercy upon me,
O God! He owns himself obnoxious to God's justice, and therefore casts himself upon his
mercy; and it is certain that the best man in the world will be undone if God be not
merciful to him. Observe,
1. What his plea is for this mercy: “have mercy upon me, O God! not according to the
dignity of my birth, as descended from the prince of the tribe of Judah, not according to
my public services as Israel's champion, or my public honours as Israel's king;” his plea
is not, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions, how he vowed to build a place for
the ark (Psa_132:1, Psa_132:2); a true penitent will make no mention of any such thing;
but “Have mercy upon me for mercy's sake. I have nothing to plead with thee but,” (1.)
“The freeness of thy mercy, according to thy lovingkindness, thy clemency, the goodness
of thy nature, which inclines thee to pity the miserable.” (2.) “The fulness of thy mercy.
There are in thee not only lovingkindness and tender mercies, but abundance of them, a
multitude of tender mercies for the forgiveness of many sinners, of many sins, to
multiply pardons as we multiply transgressions.”
2. What is the particular mercy that he begs - the pardon of sin. Blot out my
transgressions, as a debt is blotted or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor
has paid it or the creditor has remitted it. “Wipe out my transgressions, that they may
not appear to demand judgment against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion

and terror.” The blood of Christ, sprinkled upon the conscience, to purify and pacify
that, blots out the transgression, and, having reconciled us to God, reconciles up to
ourselves, Psa_51:2. “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity; wash my soul from the
guilt and stain of my sin by thy mercy and grace, for it is only from a ceremonial
pollution that the water of separation will avail to cleanse me. Multiple to wash me; the
stain is deep, for I have lain long soaking in the guilt, so that it will not easily be got out.
O wash me much, wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me from my sin.” Sin defiles us, renders
us odious in the sight of the holy God, and uneasy to ourselves; it unfits us for
communion with God in grace or glory. When God pardons sin he cleanses us from it, so
that we become acceptable to him, easy to ourselves, and have liberty of access to him.
Nathan had assured David, upon his first profession of repentance, that his win was
pardoned. The Lord has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die, 2Sa_12:13. Yet he prays,
Wash me, cleanse, blot out my transgressions; for God will be sought unto even for that
which he has promised; and those whose sins are pardoned must pray that the pardon
may be more and more cleared up to them. God had forgiven him, but he could not
forgive himself; and therefore he is thus importunate for pardon, as one that thought
himself unworthy of it and knew how to value it.
JAMISO 1-4,"Psa_51:1-19. On the occasion, compare 2Sa_11:12. The Psalm
illustrates true repentance, in which are comprised conviction, confession, sorrow,
prayer for mercy, and purposes of amendment, and it is accompanied by a lively faith.
A plea for mercy is a confession of guilt.
blot out — as from a register.
transgressions — literally, “rebellions” (Psa_19:13; Psa_32:1).
K&D 1-2, "Prayer for the remission of sin. Concerning the interchangeable names for
sin, vid., on Psa_32:1. Although the primary occasion of the Psalm is the sin of adultery,
still David says ‫י‬ ַ‫ע‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ְ , not merely because many other sins were developed out of it, as his
guilt of blood in the case of Uriah, the scandal put into the mouths of the enemies of
Jahve, and his self-delusion, which lasted almost a whole year; but also because each
solitary sin, the more it is perceived in its fundamental character and, as it were,
microscopically discerned, all the more does it appear as a manifold and entangled skein
of sins, and stands forth in a still more intimate and terrible relation, as of cause and
effect, to the whole corrupt and degenerated condition in which the sinner finds himself.
In ‫ה‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ְ‫מ‬ sins are conceived of as a cumulative debt (according to Isa_44:22, cf. Isa_43:25,
like a thick, dark cloud) written down (Jer_17:1) against the time of the payment by
punishment. In ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ֵ‫ס‬ ְ ַⅴ (from ‫ס‬ ֶ ִⅴ, πλύνειν, to wash by rubbing and kneading up,
distinguished from ‫ץ‬ ַ‫ח‬ ָ‫,ר‬ λούειν, to wash by rinsing) iniquity is conceived of as deeply
ingrained dirt. In ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ֲ‫ֽה‬ ַ‫,ט‬ the usual word for a declarative and de facto making clean, sin is
conceived of as a leprosy, Lev_13:6, Lev_13:34. the Kerî runs ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ֵ‫ס‬ ְ ַⅴ ‫ב‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ה‬ (imperat. Hiph.,
like ‫ף‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ Psa_37:8), “make great or much, wash me,” i.e., (according to Ges. §142, 3, b)
wash me altogether, penitus et totum, which is the same as is expressed by the Chethîb
‫ה‬ ַ ְ‫ר‬ ַ‫ה‬ (prop. multum faciendo = multum, prorsus, Ges. §131, 2). In ‫ּב‬‫ר‬ ְⅴ (Isa_63:7) and
‫ב‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ה‬ is expressed the depth of the consciousness of sin; profunda enim malitia, as Martin
Geier observes, insolitam raramque gratiam postulat.

CALVI , "1.Have mercy upon me. David begins, as I have already remarked, by
praying for pardon; and his sin having been of an aggravated description, he prays
with unwonted earnestness. He does not satisfy himself with one petition. Having
mentioned the loving-kindness of the Lord, he adds the multitude of his
compassions, to intimate that mercy of an ordinary kind would not suffice for so
great a sinner. Had he prayed God to be favorable, simply according to his clemency
or goodness, even that would have amounted to a confession that his case was a bad
one; but when he speaks of his sin as remissible, only through the countless
multitude of the compassions of God, he represents it as peculiarly atrocious. There
is an implied antithesis between the greatness of the mercies sought for, and the
greatness of the transgression which required them. Still more emphatical is the
expression which follows, multiply to wash me Some take ‫הרבה‬,)258 ) herebeh, for a
noun, but this is too great a departure from the idiom of the language. The sense, on
that supposition, would indeed remain the same, That God would wash him
abundantly, and with multiplied washing; but I prefer that form of expression
which agrees best with the Hebrew idiom. This, at least, is certain from the
expression which he employs, that he felt the stain of his sin to be deep, and to
require multiplied washings. ot as if God could experience any difficulty in
cleansing the worst sinner, but the more aggravated a man’s sin is, the more earnest
naturally are his desires to be delivered from the terrors of conscience.
The figure itself, as all are aware, is one of frequent occurrence in Scripture. Sin
resembles filth or uncleanness, as it pollutes us, and makes us loathsome in the sight
of God, and the remission of it is therefore aptly compared to washing This is a
truth which should both commend the grace of God to us, and fill us with
detestation of sin. Insensible, indeed, must that heart be which is not affected by it!
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God. He appeals at once to the
mercy of God, even before he mentions his sin. The sight of mercy is good for eyes
that are sore with penitential weeping. Pardon of sin must ever be an act of pure
mercy, and therefore to that attribute the awakened sinner flies. "According to thy
lovingkindness." Act, O Lord, like thyself; give mercy like thy mercy. Show mercy
such as is congruous with thy grace.
"Great God, thy nature hath no bound:
So let thy pardoning love be found."
What a choice word is that of our English version, a rare compound of precious
things: love and kindness sweetly blended in one-- "lovingkindness." According
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Let thy most loving compassions come to
me, and make thou thy pardons such as these would suggest. Reveal all thy gentlest
attributes in my case, not only in their essence but in their abundance. umberless
have been thine acts of goodness, and vast is thy grace; let me be the object of thine
infinite mercy, and repeat it all in me. Make my one case an epitome of all thy
tender mercies. By every deed of grace to others I feel encouraged, and I pray thee
let me add another and a yet greater one, in my own person, to the long list of thy

compassions. Blot out my transgressions. My revolts, my excesses, are all recorded
against me; but, Lord, erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate
the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever; many strokes of thy
mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou has a multitude
of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Title. "After he had gone in to Bathsheba." This was the devil's nest egg that caused
many sins to be laid, one to, and upon another. See the woeful chain of David's lust,
2Sa 11:1-27 12:1-31. John Trapp.
Title. "When athan the prophet came unto him as he (i.e., David) had come unto
Bathsheba." The significant repetition of the phrase came unto, is lost in the English
and most other versions. "As" is not a mere particle of time, simple equivalent to
when, but suggests the idea of analogy, proportion, and retaliation. J. A. Alexander.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is the brightest gem in the whole book, and contains
instruction so large, and doctrine so precious, that the tongue of angels could not do
justice to the full development. Victorinus Strigelius, 1524-1569.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is often and fitly called THE SI ER'S GUIDE. In some
of its versions it often helps the returning sinner. Athanasius recommends to some
Christians, to whom he was writing, to repeat it when they awake at night. All
evangelical churches are familiar with it. Luther says, "There is no other Psalm
which is oftener sung or prayed in the church." This is the first Psalm in which we
have the word Spirit used in application to the Holy Ghost. William S. Plumer.
Whole Psalm. I cannot doubt the prophetic bearing of this Psalm upon the nation of
Israel. In the latter day they shall consider their ways: repentance and self loathing
will be the result. Blood guiltiness heavier than that of David has to be removed
from that nation. They will become the teachers of the Gentiles, when first the
iniquity of their own transgressions has been purged away. Arthur Pridham.
Whole psalm. This is the most deeply affecting of all the Psalms, and I am sure the
one most applicable to me. It seems to have been the effusion of a soul smarting
under the sense of a recent and great transgression. My God, whether recent or not,
give me to feel the enormity of my manifold offences, and remember not against me
the sins of my youth. What a mine of rich matter and expression for prayer! Wash,
cleanse me, O Lord, and let my sin and my sinfulness be ever before me. Let me feel
it chiefly as sin against thee, that my sin may be of the godly sort. Give me to feel the
virulence of my native corruption, purge me from it thoroughly, and put truth into
my inward parts, that mine may be a real turning from sin unto the Saviour. Create
me anew, O God. Withdraw not thy Spirit. Cause me to rejoice in a present
salvation. Deliver me, O God, from the blood guiltiness of having offended any of
thy little ones; and so open my lips that I may speak of the wondrous things thou
hast done for my soul! May I offer up spiritual sacrifices; and oh! let not any
delinquencies of mine bring a scandal upon thy church; but do thou so purify and
build her up, that even her external services, freed from all taint of corruption or
hypocrisy, may be well pleasing in thy sight. Thomas Chalmers.
Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God. I tremble and blush to mention my name, for
my former familiarities with thee only make me more confounded at being
recognized by thee after my guilt. I therefore say not, "Lord, remember David, "as
on a happier occasion; nor as propitiating thee, I used to say, to thy "servant, "or,

"to the son of thy handmaid." I suggest nothing that should recall my former
relation to thee, and so enhance my wickedness. Ask not, then, Lord, who I am, but
only forgive me who confess my sin, condemn my fault, and beseech thy pity. Have
mercy upon me, O God. I dare not say my God, for that were presumption. I have
lost thee by sin, I have alienated myself from thee by following the enemy, and
therefore am unclean. I dare not approach thee, but standing afar off and lifting up
my voice with great devotion and contrition of heart, I cry and say, Have mercy
upon me, O God. From "A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms, chiefly
from ancient sources." By the Right Rev. A. P. Forbes, Bishop of Brechin, 1857.
Ver. 1. Have mercy. The Hebrew word here translated have mercy. signifieth
without cause or desert; Ps 35:19 69:4 Ezekiel 14:23; and freely, without paying any
price, Exodus 21:11. And it is made use of in Leviticus 6:8, where oah is said to
have found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that is, special favour, such as the Lord
beareth to his chosen in Christ Jesus. Charles D. Coetlogon, A.M., in "The
Portraiture of the Christian Penitent, "1775.
Ver. 1. Mercy, lovingkindness, tender mercies. I cannot but observe here, the
gradation in the sense of the three words made use of, to express the divine
compassion, and the propriety of the order in which they are placed, which would
be regarded as a real excellence and beauty in any classical writer. The first (yngx),
denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over any object that
we love and pity--that otorge, natural affection and tenderness, which even brute
creatures discover to their young ones, by the several noises which they respectively
make over them; and particularly the shrill noise of the camel, by which it testifies
its love to its foal. The second, (Kdoxk), denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large,
and liberal disposition to goodness and compassion powerfully prompting to all
instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as milk into the
breasts, or as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of
goodness than the former. The third, (Kymxr), denotes what the Greeks express by
oplagcnizeoyai; that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart
and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which human nature
is susceptible. And how reviving is the belief and consideration of these abundant
and tender compassions of God to one in David's circumstances, whose mind
laboured under the burden of the most heinous complicated guilt, and the fear of
the divine displeasure and vengeance! Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 1. According to the multitude. Men are greatly terrified at the multitude of
their sins, but here is a comfort--our God hath multitude of mercies. If our sins be in
number as the hairs of our head, God's mercies are as the stars of heaven; and as he
is an infinite God, so his mercies are infinite; yea, so far are his mercies above our
sins, as he himself is above us poor sinners. By this the Psalmist seeketh for
multitude of mercies, he would show how deeply he was wounded with his manifold
sins, that one seemed a hundred. Thus it is with us, so long as we are under Satan's
guiding, a thousand seem but one; but if we betake ourselves to God's service, one
will seem a thousand. Archibald Symson.
Ver. 1. Tender mercies, or, according to Zanchy in his treatise upon the attributes of
God, such a kind of affection as parents feel when they see their children in any
extremity. 1 Kings 3:26. Charles D. Coetlogon.
Ver. 1. Blot out my transgressions. (hxm), mecheh, wipe out. There is reference here

to an indictment: the Psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs
that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the
parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him:
and this only the mercy, lovingkindness, and tender compassions, of the Lord can
do. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. Blot out my transgressions. What the psalmist alludes is not, as Mr. Leclerc
imagines, debts entered into a book, and so blotted out of it when forgiven; but the
wiping or cleansing of a dish, so as nothing afterwards remains in it. The meaning of
the petition is, that God would entirely and absolutely forgive him, so as that no part
of the guilt he had contracted might remain, and the punishment of it might be
wholly removed. Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 1. Blot out, or, as it is used in Exodus 17:14, utterly extirpate, so as that there
shall not be any remembrance of them forever. Isa 43:25 44:22. Charles de
Coetlogon.
Ver. 1. MY transgressions. Conscience, when it is healthy, ever speaks thus: "MY
transgressions." It is not the guilt of them that tempted you: they have theirs; but
each as a separate agent, has his own degree of guilt. Yours is your own: the
violation of your own and not another's sense of duty; solitary, awful, unshared,
adhering to you alone of all the spirits of the universe. Frederick William
Robertson.
Ver. 1,5. Transgressions...iniquity...sin.
1. It is transgressions, (evp), pesha, rebellion.
2. It is iniquity, ( we), avon, crooked dealing.
3. It is sin, (tajx), chattath, error and wandering. Adam Clarke.
HI TS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
The Psalm is upon its surface so full of suggestions for sermons that I have not
attempted to offer any of my own, but have merely inserted a selection from Mr. G.
Rogers and others.
Ver. 1.
1. The Prayer.
1. For mercy, not justice. Mercy is the sinner's attribute--as much a part of the
divine nature as justice. The possibility of sin is implied in its existence. The actual
commission of sin is implied in its display.
2. For pardon, not pity merely, but forgiveness.
II. The plea.
1. For the pardon of great sins on account of great mercies, and lovingkindness.
2. Many sins on account of multitude of mercies.
3. Hell deserving sins on account of tender mercies. We who have sinned are human,
he who pardons is divine.
"Great God, thy nature hath no bound,
So let thy pardoning love be found."
COKE, "Title. ‫למנצח‬ ‫מזמור‬ ‫לדוד‬ lamnatseach mizmor ledavid.— o one can read this
psalm of David, but must see all the characters of true repentance in the person who
wrote it, and the marks of the deepest sorrow and humiliation for the sins of which
he had been guilty. How earnestly does he plead for mercy, and acknowledge his

own unworthiness! How ingenuous the confessions that he makes of his offences!
How heavy the load of that guilt which oppressed him! The smart of it pierced
through his very bones, and the torture that he felt was as though they had been
broken and crushed to pieces. He owns that his sins were of too deep a dye for
sacrifices to expiate the guilt, and that he had nothing but a broken heart and
contrite spirit to offer to that God whom he had so grievously offended. How earnest
his prayers, that God would create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit
within him! How does he dread the being deserted of God! How earnestly deprecate
the being deprived of his favour, the joy of his salvation, and the aids and comforts
of his holy spirit! Let but this psalm be read without prejudice, and with a view only
to collect the real sentiments expressed in it, and the disposition of heart which
appears throughout the whole; and no man of candour will ever suspect that it was
the dictate of hypocrisy, or could be penned from any other motive than a strong
conviction of the heinousness of his offence, and the earnest desire of God's
forgiveness, and restraint from the commission of the like transgressions for the
future. Those who reflect upon David's character on account of his conduct in the
matter of Uriah, though they cannot too heartily detest the sin, and must severely
censure the offender; yet surely may find some room in their hearts for compassion
towards him, when they consider how he was surprised into the first crime, and how
the fear and dread of a discovery, and his concern for the life of the woman whom
he had seduced, led him on to farther degrees of deceit and wickedness, till he
completed his guilt by the destruction of a great and worthy man; especially when
they see him prostrate before God, confessing his sin, and supplicating forgiveness;
and even exempted by God himself from the punishment of death which he had
incurred, upon his ingenuously confessing, I have sinned against the Lord;
2 Samuel 12:13 an evident proof that his repentance was sincere, as it secured him
immediate forgiveness from God, whom he had offended. See Chandler.
Psalms 51:1. Have mercy upon me, &c.— The gradation in the sense of the three
words here made use of to express the divine compassion, and the propriety of the
order in which they are placed, deserves particular observation. The first, rendered
have mercy, or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning
over any object that we love and pity; that στοργη, natural affection, and
tenderness, which even brute creatures discover to their young ones, by the several
noises which they respectively make over them; and particularly the shrill voice of
the camel, by which it testifies its love to its foal. The second, rendered loving-
kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition to
goodness and compassion; powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and
bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as milk into the breasts, or as waters from
a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former. The
third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks express by σπλαγχνιζεσθαι,
that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which
argues the highest degree of compassion whereof human nature is susceptible. And
how reviving is the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender
compassions of God to one in David's circumstances, whose mind laboured under
the burthen of the most heinous, complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine

displeasure and vengeance! The original word, ‫מחה‬ mecheh, which we render blot
out, properly signifies to wipe out, or wipe any thing absolutely clean, as a person
wipes a dish. The original meaning is preferred, 2 Kings 21:13. The purport of the
petition is, that God would entirely and absolutely forgive him, so as that no part of
the guilt he had contracted might remain, and the punishment of it might be wholly
removed. Chandler.
BE SO , "Psalms 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God — O thou, who art the
supreme Lawgiver, Governor, and Judge of the world, whom I have most highly
offended many ways, and, therefore, may most justly be condemned to suffer the
effects of thy severest displeasure; I cast myself down before thee, and humbly
supplicate for mercy. O pity, help, and answer me in the desires I am now about to
spread before thee; according to thy lovingkindness — Thy known clemency and
infinite compassions. For I pretend to no merit: I know my desert is everlasting
destruction of body and soul; but I humbly implore the interposition of thy free
grace and unmerited goodness. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies —
Hebrew, ‫,רחמיְך‬ rachameicha, thy bowels of mercies, yearning over thy fallen, sinful,
and miserable creatures. Thy mercies are infinite, and, therefore, sufficient for my
relief: and such mercies, indeed, do I now need. “How reviving,” says Chandler, “is
the belief and consideration of these abundant and tender compassions of God, to
one in David’s circumstances; whose mind laboured under the burden of the most
heinous, complicated guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance!”
Blot out — ‫,מחה‬ mechee, deleto, absterge, destroy, wipe away, my transgressions —
That is, entirely and absolutely forgive them; so that no part of the guilt I have
contracted may remain, and the punishment of it may be wholly remitted. The word
properly signifies to wipe out, or to wipe any thing absolutely clean, as a person
wipes a dish: see 2 Kings 21:13 . Blot out my transgressions — As a debt is blotted
or crossed out of the book, when either the debtor has paid it, or the creditor has
remitted it; wipe them out — That they may not appear to demand judgment
against me, nor stare me in the face to my confusion and terror. Give me peace with
thee, by turning away thine anger from me, and taking me again into thy favour;
and give me peace in my own conscience, by assuring me thou hast done so.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Blot out.—The figure is most probably, as in Exodus 32:32-33,
taken from the custom of erasing a written record (comp. umbers 5:23; Psalms
69:28). So LXX. and Vulg. Isaiah, however (Isaiah 44:22) uses the same word in a
different connection, “I will blot out thy sins as a cloud.” A fine thought that the
error and guilt that cloud the mind and conscience can be cleared off like a mist by
a breath from heaven.
Transgressions.—See Psalms 32:1. The word seems to imply a wilful throwing off of
authority or restraint, perhaps here the breach of the covenant-relation irrespective
of any particular sin by which the breach was brought about. Whether it is an
individual or the community that speaks, the prayer is that Jehovah would act
according to His chesed or covenant-favour towards the suppliant, and wipe out
from His records whatever has intervened between the covenant parties.

TRAPP, "Psalms 51:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when athan the
prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. » Have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies blot out my transgressions.
A Psalm of David] Who was not ashamed to do open penance here in a white sheet,
as it were; so did Theodosius the emperor, at the reprehension of Ambrose, after the
slaughter at Thessalonica; he spent eight months, saith Theodoret, in weeping and
lamentation; he fell down on his face in the place of the penitents, and said, My soul
is glued to the earth, &c. Henry IV (then king of avarre only, afterwards of France
also), having abused the daughter of a gentleman in Rochel, by whom he had a son,
was persuaded by Monsieur Du-Plessis to make a public acknowledgment of his
fault in the church, which also he did before all the nobility of his army. This
counsel being thought by some to be too rigorous, Du-Plessis made this answer, That
as a man could not be too courageous before men, so he could not be too humble in
the presence of God (Life of Phil. de Morn., by Mr Clark).
When athan the prophet came unto him] Rousing him out of a long lethargy, into
which sin and Satan had cast him. See here the necessity of a faithful ministry, to be
to us as the pilot was to Jonah, as the cock to Peter, &c.; as also of a friendly
admonitor, such as David had prayed for, Psalms 141:5, and here he is answered.
David had lain long in sin without repentance to any purpose; some remorse he had
felt, Psalms 32:3, but it amounted not to a godly sorrow, till athan came; and in
private, dealing plainly with him, more prevailed than all the lectures of the law or
other means had done all that while.
After he had gone in to Bathsheba] This was the devil’s nest-egg that caused many
sins to be laid, one to and upon another. See the woeful chain of David’s lust, 2
Samuel 11:1-27; 2 Samuel 12:1-25, and beware.
Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me, O God] It was wont to be, O my God, but David had
now sinned away his assurance, wiped off his comfortables; he dares not plead
propriety in God, nor relation to him, as having forfeited both. At another time,
when he had greatly offended God by numbering the people, God counted him but
plain David, "Go and say to David," 2 Samuel 24:12, whereas before, when he
purposed to build God a temple, then it was, "Go tell my servant David," 2 Samuel
7:5. Sin doth much impair and weaken our assurance of God’s favour; like as a
drop of water falling on a burning candle dimmeth the light thereof. The course that
David taketh for recovery of this last evil is confession of sin, and hearty prayer for
pardoning and purging grace. In the courts of men it is safest (saith Quintilian) to
plead on feci, ot guilty; not so here, but Ego feci, miserere miserrimi peccatoris,
misericors Deus. Guilty, Lord, have mercy, &c.
Per miserere mei tollitur ira Dei.

According to the multitude of thy tender mercies] They are a multitude of them, and
David needeth them all, for the pardon of his many and mighty sins; that where sin
had abounded grace might superabound, it may have a superpleonasm, 1 Timothy
1:14.
Blot out my transgressions] Out of thy debtbook; cross out the black lines of my sins
with the red lines of Christ’s blood; cancel the bond, though written in black and
bloody characters.
SIMEO , "TRUE PE ITE CE DESCRIBED
Psalms 51:1-3. 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 throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.
SI is, for the most part, thought a light and venial evil, especially amongst the
higher ranks of society: as though the restraints of religion were designed only for
the poor; and the rich had a dispensation granted them to live according to their
own will. But sin, by whomsoever committed, will, sooner or later, be as the gall of
asps within us; nor can all the charms of royalty silence the convictions of a guilty
conscience. View the Psalmist. He had been elevated, from the low condition of a
shepherd’s boy, to a throne: yet, when he had offended God in the matter of Uriah,
there was not found in his whole dominions a more miserable wretch than he.
Before his repentance became deep and genuine, “his bones waxed old through his
roaring all the day long: for day and night God’s hand was heavy upon him; and his
moisture was turned into the drought of summer [ ote: Psalms 32:3-4; Psalms 38:2-
8.].” Even in his penitence we may see how heavy a load was laid upon his mind.
This psalm was written on that occasion: and the words before us, whilst they
declare the workings of his mind, will serve to shew us, in a general view, the true
penitent:
I. In his occasional approaches to the throne of grace—
“Mercy” is the one object of his desire and pursuit. Observe,
1. His petitions—
[“Have mercy upon me, O God; blot out my transgressions! wash me throughly
from mine iniquities; and so cleanse me from my sin,” that no stain of it may remain
upon my soul! Here he views his sins both individually and collectively; and,
spreading them before the Lord with conscious guilt, he implores the forgiveness of
them: dreading lest so much as one should be retained in the book of God’s

remembrance, as a ground of procedure against him in the last day — — — Thus
will every true penitent come to God: and plunge, as it were, into the fountain of the
Redeemer’s blood, “the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness” — — —]
2. His pleas—
[Though David had, till the time of his grievous fall, served God with a more than
ordinary degree of zeal and piety, he makes no mention of any past merits, nor does
he found his hope on any future purposes. He relies only on the free and sovereign
grace of God, as displayed towards sinners in the gift of his only dear Son: and to
that he looks, as the ground and measure of the blessings he implores. This is the
view which every true penitent must have. He should see that God is of his own
nature inclined to mercy [ ote: Exodus 34:6-7.]; and that all which Christ has done
for us is the fruit of the Father’s love [ ote: John 3:16. Ephesians 2:4-5. Titus 3:4-
5.]. Such are the pleas which God approves; and such will surely prevail in the court
of Heaven.]
But, view the penitent farther,
II. In the daily habit of his mind—
Repentance is not a mere occasional expression of the mind, but a state or habit that
is fixed and abiding in the soul. The true penitent, wherever he goes, carries with
him,
1. A sense of guilt—
[“His sin is ever before him:” indeed, he wishes it to be so: he desires to be humbled
under a sense of it: and though he longs to have his transgressions blotted out of
God’s book, he would never have them effaced from his memory; or cease, if he
could help it, to have as deep an impression of their odiousness and malignity, as if
they had been but recently committed — — — To his latest hour he would “walk
softly” before God, in the remembrance of them.]
2. A sense of shame—
[He is ashamed when he reflects on his conduct throughout the whole of his life; yea,
“he blushes and is confounded before God [ ote: Ezra 9:6.],” and even lothes and
abhors himself in dust and ashes [ ote: Job 42:6.].” or does a sense of God’s
pardoning love produce any difference; except, indeed, as enhancing the
lothesomeness of his character in his own eyes [ ote: Ezekiel 36:31; Ezekiel
16:63.].” The name which, in sincerity of heart, he acknowledges as most
appropriate to him, is that which the Apostle Paul assumed, “The chief of sinners.”]
Address—
1. Those who are not conscious of having committed any flagrant

transgression—
[Many, doubtless, are of this character. But have they, on that account, any reason
to boast? Who is it that has kept them? “Who is it that has made them to differ?”
Will they themselves deny that the seeds of all evil are in them? or that, if they had
been subjected to the same temptations as others, they might have proved as frail as
they? Are they better than David previous to his fall? Let them, then, confess their
obligations to God; and remember, that if in outward act they have less reason for
humiliation than others, they have the same depravity in their hearts, and are in
reality as destitute of vital piety as others; and, consequently, have the same need of
humiliation and contrition as they.]
2. Those who are deeply sensible of their guilt before God—
[What a consolation must it be to you, to see that there was mercy even for such a
transgressor as David. Greater enormity than his can scarcely be conceived: yet not
even his prayers were poured forth in vain. Two things, then, I would say to you.
The first is, Do not attempt to extenuate your own guilt, as though you would
thereby bring yourselves more within the reach of mercy. The other is, Do not
presume to limit God’s mercy, as though it could not extend to such a sinner as you.
You never need be afraid of beholding your wickedness in all its extent, if only you
will bear in mind that God’s mercy in Christ Jesus is fully commensurate with your
utmost necessities or desires. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin:” and
the more you feel your need of it, the more shall you experience its unbounded
efficacy. Only humble yourselves as David did; and, like him, you shall experience
all the riches of redeeming grace.]
3. Those who have obtained mercy of the Lord—
[Happy, beyond expression, are ye! as David says; “Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sin is covered.” Be joyful, then, in God your
Saviour. But still remember, that you have need at all times to watch and pray. If
David, after all his high attainments, fell, who is secure? “Let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall.” And learn from him to guard against the very first
approaches of evil. It was by a look that his corruptions were inflamed: and from
the progress of evil in his heart, you may learn to make a covenant with your eyes,
yea, and with your hearts too. You see in him “how great a matter a little fire
kindleth.” Walk humbly, then, before God; and cry to him day and night, “Hold up
my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not!”]
BI 1-19, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.
The fifty-first psalm
A darker guilt you will scarcely find—kingly power abused—worst passions yielded to.
Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual
feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell;
something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate:

generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst
crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred,
undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature.
I. Scripture estimate of sin.
1. Personal accountability. “My sin.” It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own.
We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his.
2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another
estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it.
Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not
rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out
of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry.
Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and
perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. “Perhaps evil is not so bad
after all—perhaps good—who knows?” Remember, therefore, in matters practical,
conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this
language of the Bible.
3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it,
but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and God’s will. This is the feeling of
this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a
material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it
would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared
more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea
of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has
painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration
and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-
nature!
II. Restoration.
1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of
the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin
in two feelings: one human, one divine. The feeling that there must be something
surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the
false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it
inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his
fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism,
and are even now found in common views of Christ’s sacrifice. But men like David
felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to
God’s will: that a man’s best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice.
Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you—
yourself—your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was
precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the
last and highest evidence of entire surrender.
2. Spirit of liberty. “Thy free spirit”—literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit,
unconstrained—“the royal law of liberty.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The exceeding sinfulness of sin
I. The nature of sin in the eyes of one who sees God. Just as one crime against the State

can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs
so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right
path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God
has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a
popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a
vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees
it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it.
II. Where iniquity did abound, grace did much more abound. The penitent, having laid
bare his sin, now asks for God’s grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay
vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, “Mercy!” meant “Ransom!”—“Spare
my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, “Mercy!”
we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” but
He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace.
But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to “blot them out,” as we read
elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what
we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer:
“Wash me throughly”—more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry
out.
III. The grounds on which he asks for pardon.
1. There is the multitude of God’s mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our
favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me;
though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people
forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before
the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their
faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then
they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which
could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope,
and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of
us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin.
Let us hope.
2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing.
3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah
or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. “Behold, I
was shapen in wickedness;” and therefore “the truth in the inward parts” can only be
reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. (Canon
Newbolt.)
David’s repentance
I. The cry of contrition. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical
teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary
taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor
summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of
his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the
evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of God’s righteous law.
II. The cry for cleansing. This cry for cleansing is twofold—cleanse the record, cleanse
myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin—God’s and David’s. From each

gazer these sins must be hidden—from the one that there may be no condemnation,
from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter
than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted
stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the
springs of Jericho call for their Maker’s hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but
fruitful view of sin!
III. The cry of consecration. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and
the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with
thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not
wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God.
Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there
should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.)
The prayer of the penitent
I. The prayer. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be
specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates.
1. The general petition. “Have mercy upon me.” He did not plead right or merit; he
did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he
needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the
mark of his need;
2. The specific petition.
(1) “Blot out my transgressions.” All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the
murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness (Isa_43:25;
Isa_44:22). 42) “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.” This is a prayer for
justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of
the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to
do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence David’s allusion to the ceremonial
law (Psa_51:7). (Compare Lev_14:4; Lev_14:9; Num_19:18; Heb_9:22.) The
allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel
(Isa_1:18), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus (Rev_1:5).
(3) “Cleanse me from my sin.” This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence
against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls.
God’s mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing (Eph_
5:25-27).
II. The confession.
1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. “I have sinned”—that is the
long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve.
2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is
cast behind God’s back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our
backs.
3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no
doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friend’s wife, he most
bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them.
4. Deep conviction. “Behold I was shapes in iniquity,” etc. David is convinced that an

inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he
confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil
proceeds. Hence his further prayer, “Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,”
etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin
must be renewed inwardly.
III. Renewed petition. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as
oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and
we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is
healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after bath in the
cleansing tide.
1. Joy and gladness.
2. He prays for a new heart.
3. He prays for the restoration of salvation’s joy.
4. A vow of consecration. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
A petition and an argument
I. The petition “Have mercy upon me,” etc.
1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner.
(1) It frees us from the greatest evil—sin.
(2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness.
(3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us.
(4) It sweetens all other comforts.
2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular.
3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to
be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt
adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him.
(1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages.
(2) Prayer and seeking to God.
(3) Forsaking it and turning from it.
(4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may
attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins.
II. The argument. “According to thy lovingkindness,” etc.
1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a
multitude of tender mercies.
(1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace (Psa_116:5; Psa_86:15; Psa_145:9). Here is matter
of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of
information, that we may be able rightly to discern of God’s love and affection to
us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all;
and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it,
thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse.

God’s kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example.
(2) Mercy or compassion.
(a) The tenderness of God’s mercy is seen in—
(i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person
who sins against Him (Psa_103:13).
(ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where,
notwithstanding, there is ground for it (Psa_86:15; Joe_2:13; Jon_4:2;
Nah_1:3).
(iii.) The moderating of His corrections (Jer_30:11). Severity knows no
limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself;
and this also is in God (Psa_103:10; Ezr_9:13).
(iv.) The seasonable removal; there’s tenderness in that also (Psa_103:9).
(b) The greatness of it (Psa_57:10; Psa_119:156).
(i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving
of great sins (Isa_1:18; 1Ti_1:13).
(ii.) For the freeness of it (Rom_9:17; Isa_43:25).
(iii.) For the duration (Isa_54:7-8; Psa_103:17; Lam_3:22).
(c) The number and plurality. He has mercy for:
(i.) Many persons.
(ii.) Many offences.
(iii.) Many times of offending (Isa_55:7; Jas_2:13; Rom_5:20; Hos_
14:4; Psa_103:3).
2. The inference.
(1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved
and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage.
(2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God.
(3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them
(Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The psalmist’s prayer for mercy
I. To whom the prayer is addressed. He does not address himself to God under the name
Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture
when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title
implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal
through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title
from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity,
as three in One.
II. The object which a penitent sinner proposes to himself in drawing near to God; and
the spirit or frame of mind in which he addresses Him. A recovery of Divine favour is the
grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture.

“In Thy favour is life.” Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil
which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the
light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away.
III. The measure or rule, according to which a penitent sinner desires to be dealt with in
the expected answer to his prayer, “According to Thy lovingkindness.” How delightful is
this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The
grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy
Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its
freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner,
in every point of view, “the life of God in the soul of man.” The term “lovingkindness”
seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this
the view which faith takes of Divine grace—a river deep and wide which is formed by a
confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite
justice and holiness all flow into this “river of the water of life.” (T. Biddulph, M. A.)
The greatness of sin to a true penitent
1. The true penitent sees sin as against God.
2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. “Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity.”
3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. “Thou
desirest not sacrifice . . . Thou delightest not in burnt offering.” If religious acts,
offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring
them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts.
4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power.
5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David
his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. “Build thou,” he prays, “the
walls of Jerusalem!” Every backslider’s sin has this destroying power.
6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may
exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they
always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough.
7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin,
separated from God.
8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps
there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were
known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, “If he ever repents
he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his
repentance.” But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us.
9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin.
10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward
cleansing. “ Purge me with hyssop “ refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured
the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due
honour. (Monday Club Sermons.)

The prayer of the Penitent
I. The guilt of sin. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place—“vice” as
though it were merely an evil against self alone; “crime “ or an offence against society. All
such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God.
You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God.
II. The Divine forgiveness, Between blinding one’s eyes against the guilt of sin and
seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It
exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time
God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges.
III. The new heart. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it
clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus.
IV. The fruits of the new life.
1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the
joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own.
2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the
followers in the service of God. “Then will I teach transgressors,” etc. (David O.
Mears.)
The moan of a king
The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth
merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling
after a higher mode of being. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin.” Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out,
but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change
of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to
contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for
mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we
should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have
known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are
indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. “I acknowledge my
transgressions.” Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of
right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which
are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns king’s
evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless
confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his
crime. But David’s is far other than these. “My sin is ever before me.” The point to be
noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try
for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume
material manifestation. Covetousness—a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched
bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger.
Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and
heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of
such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (verse 4). “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.”
Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively
against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed

this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning
against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing
your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every
respect—hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth!
What shall be our prayer in relation to it? “Wash me throughly,” etc. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The penitent sinner
I. The penitent’s prayer.
1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. God’s
way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy.
2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored.
3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition—
(1) Of his perilous position; and
(2) Of his personal accountability: “nay sin.”
II. The penitent’s plea. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position,
princely prowess; but the plenitude of God’s mercy. A “multitude” of tender mercies!
(Homilist.)
Lessons
1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress.
(1) There is a commandment for it (Psa_50:15).
(2) There is a promise of success (Isa_65:24).
(3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses (Pro_18:8;
Eph_3:20).
(4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired (Psa_46:1;
Mic_7:18; Psa_145:18).
(5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished
them with the Spirit of prayer (Gal_4:6; Rom_8:26).
2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the
hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon
his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When
thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth
of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit.
3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on God’s part of the guilt of sin
(Psa_32:1-2; Isa_44:22; Mic_7:18-19; Jer_31:34; Jer_50:20).
4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of God’s grace in making suit for the pardon of
his sins (Psa_130:4; Ezr_9:6; Ezr_9:10; Ezr_9:15). (S. Hieron.)

The prayer for mercy
1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest
wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence
of God is a wonder. God’s spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we
understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are
humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy.
For there God is known as the Holy One.
2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace
alone can be his hope.
3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries,
that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring
me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know
God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy.
4. This longing is in full harmony with what God’s Word teaches us on these points.
The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy,
partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it
is called giving mercy, showing mercy. (Andrew Murray.)
God’s lovingkindness
God’s kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called
“loving.” The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no
kindness like His. All kindness but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the
kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it.
The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a
father or a mother—for that is the kindest that this world possesses—that, even that, has
its limits. God’s kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and
so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. (T. Alexander, M.
A.)
According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions.
God’s mercy
The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a
merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who
is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who
hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His
mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works,
extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. (A. Symson.)
God’s-tender mercies
They are unbounded, and they are “tender.” Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy
you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, “I forgive, but
I do not forget.” There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our

mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness
and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it
“tender.” But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no
upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all.
He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. “Be of good cheer; thy sins
are forgiven thee.” The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of
the sea. God’s mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their
nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless,
endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion
yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. God’s mercies, beginning
with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life
journey. (T. Alexander, D. D.)
God’s former dealings a plea for mercy
These words, “According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies,” may be taken not
only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the
goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to
him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds
and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in
the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His
wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the
advantage of God’s children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the
account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should
remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their
nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives.
The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that
hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; God’s mercies are so linked and
chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
“Blot out my trangressions”
The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and
say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, “According to the
multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” The law of God takes
reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven
they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no
intercourse with the holy and righteous God so long as this old guilt was not abolished,
was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring
him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be
appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must
have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace.
Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and
therefore he prays, “Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions.” (Andrew
Murray.)
Sin blotted out

A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, “I will blot out, as a
thick cloud, thy transgressions.” And he said: “Mother, what does God mean when He
says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I can’t see how God can
really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean—blot out?” The mother, who
is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, “Didn’t I see, you yesterday
writing on your slate?” “Yes,” he said. “Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his
mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, “Where is what you wrote? Oh,” he
said, “I rubbed it out.” “Well, where is it?” “Why, mother, I don’t know.” “But how could
you put it away if it was really there?” “Oh, mother, I don’t know. I know it was there,
and it is gone.” “Well,” she said, “that is what God meant when He said, ‘I will blot out
thy transgressions.’” (Campbell Morgan, D. D.)
MACLARE , "DAVID’S CRY FOR PARDO
Psalms 51:1 - Psalms 51:2.
A whole year had elapsed between David’s crime and David’s penitence. It had been
a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart
against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David
had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, ‘My bones waxed old through
my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy on me.’ Then
came athan with his apologue, and with that dark threatening that ‘the sword
should never depart from his house,’ the fulfilment of which became a well-head of
sorrow to the king for the rest of his days, and gave a yet deeper poignancy of
anguish to the crime of his spoiled favourite Absalom. The stern words had their
effect. The frost that had bound his soul melted all away, and he confessed his sin,
and was forgiven then and there. ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ is the confession
as recorded in the historical books; and, says athan, ‘The Lord hath made to pass
from thee the iniquity of thy sin.’ Immediately, as would appear from the narrative,
that very same day, the child of Bathsheba and David was smitten with fatal disease,
and died in a week. And it is after all these events-the threatening, the penitence, the
pardon, the punishment-that he comes to God, who had so freely forgiven, and
likewise so sorely smitten him, and wails out these prayers: ‘Blot out my
transgressions, wash me from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.’
One almost shrinks from taking as the text of a sermon words like these, in which a
broken and contrite spirit groans for deliverance, and which are, besides, hallowed
by the thought of the thousands who have since found them the best expression of
their sacredest emotions. But I would fain try not to lose the feeling that breathes
through the words, while seeking for the thoughts which are in them, and hope that
the light which they throw upon the solemn subjects of guilt and forgiveness may
not be for any of us a mere cold light.
I. Looking then at this triad of petitions, they teach us first how David thought of his
sin.
You will observe the reiteration of the same earnest cry in all these clauses, and if
you glance over the remainder of this psalm, you will find that he asks for the gifts
of God’s Spirit, with a similar threefold repetition. ow this characteristic of the

whole psalm is worth notice in the outset. It is not a mere piece of Hebrew
parallelism. The requirements of poetical form but partially explain it. It is much
more the earnestness of a soul that cannot be content with once asking for the
blessings and then passing on, but dwells upon them with repeated supplication, not
because it thinks that it shall be heard for its ‘much speaking,’ but because it longs
for them so eagerly.
And besides that, though the three clauses do express the same general idea, they
express it under various modifications, and must be all taken together before we get
the whole of the Psalmist’s thought of sin.
otice again that he speaks of his evil as ‘transgressions’ and as ‘sin,’ first using the
plural and then the singular. He regards it first as being broken up into a multitude
of isolated acts, and then as being all gathered together into one knot, as it were, so
that it is one thing. In one aspect it is ‘my transgressions’-’that thing that I did
about Uriah, that thing that I did about Bathsheba, those other things that these
dragged after them.’ One by one the acts of wrongdoing pass before him. But he
does not stop there. They are not merely a number of deeds, but they have, deep
down below, a common root from which they all came-a centre in which they all
inhere. And so he says, not only ‘Blot out my transgressions,’ but ‘Wash me from
mine iniquity.’ He does not merely generalise, but he sees and he feels what you and
I have to feel, if we judge rightly of our evil actions, that we cannot take them only
in their plurality as so many separate deeds, but that we must recognise them as
coming from a common source, and we must lament before God not only our ‘sins’
but our ‘sin’-not only the outward acts of transgression, but that alienation of heart
from which they all come; not only sin in its manifold manifestations as it comes out
in the life, but in its inward roots as it coils round our hearts. You are not to confess
acts alone, but let your contrition embrace the principle from which they come.
Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for
the whole thing is uppermost in David’s mind. It is my transgression, it is mine
iniquity, and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-
called wise thinkers to-day: ‘I was tempted, and I could not help it.’ He does not talk
about ‘circumstances,’ and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to
himself. ‘It was I did it. True, I was tempted, but it was my soul that made the
occasion a temptation. True, the circumstances led me astray, but they would not
have led me astray if I had been right, and where as well as what I ought to be.’ It is
a solemn moment when that thought first rises in its revealing power to throw light
into the dark places of our souls. But it is likewise a blessed moment, and without it
we are scarcely aware of ourselves. Conscience quickens consciousness. The sense of
transgression is the first thing that gives to many a man the full sense of his own
individuality. There is nothing that makes us feel how awful and incommunicable is
that mysterious personality by which every one of us lives alone after all
companionship, so much as the contemplation of our relations to God’s law. ‘Every
man shall bear his own burden.’ ‘Circumstances,’ yes; ‘bodily organisation,’ yes;
‘temperament,’ yes; ‘the maxims of society,’ ‘the conventionalities of the time,’ yes,-
all these things have something to do with shaping our single deeds and with
influencing our character; but after we have made all allowances for these
influences which affect me, let us ask the philosophers who bring them forward as
diminishing or perhaps annihilating responsibility, ‘And what about that me which

these things influence?’ After all, let me remember that the deed is mine, and that
every one of us shall, as Paul puts it, give account of himself unto God.
Passing from that, let me point for one moment to another set of ideas that are
involved in these petitions. The three words which the Psalmist employs for sin give
prominence to different aspects of it. ‘Transgression’ is not the same as ‘iniquity,’
and ‘iniquity’ is not the same as ‘sin.’ They are not aimless, useless synonyms, but
they have each a separate thought in them. The word rendered ‘transgression’
literally means rebellion, a breaking away from and setting oneself against lawful
authority. That translated ‘iniquity’ literally means that which is twisted, bent. The
word in the original for ‘sin’ literally means missing a mark, an aim. And this
threefold view of sin is no discovery of David’s, but is the lesson which the whole
Old Testament system had laboured to print deep on the national consciousness.
That lesson, taught by law and ceremonial, by denunciation and remonstrance, by
chastisement and deliverance, the penitent king has learned. To all men’s
wrongdoings these descriptions apply, but most of all to his. Sin is ever, and his sin
especially is, rebellion, the deflection of the life from the straight line which God’s
law draws so clearly and firmly, and hence a missing the aim.
Think how profound and living is the consciousness of sin which lies in calling it
rebellion. It is not merely, then, that we go against some abstract propriety, or break
some impersonal law of nature when we do wrong, but that we rebel against a
rightful Sovereign. In a special sense this was true of the Jew, whose nation stood
under the government of a divine king, so that sin was treason, and breaches of the
law acts of rebellion against God. But it is as true of us all. Our theory of morals will
be miserably defective, and our practice will be still more defective, unless we have
learned that morality is but the garment of religion, that the definition of virtue is
obedience to God, and that the true sin in sin is not the yielding to impulses that
belong to our nature, but the assertion in the act of yielding, of our independence of
God and of our opposition to His will. And all this has application to David’s sin. He
was God’s viceroy and representative, and he sets to his people the example of
revolt, and lifts the standard of rebellion. It is as if the ruler of a province declared
war against the central authority of which he was the creature, and used against it
the very magazines and weapons with which it had intrusted him. He had rebelled,
and in an eminent degree, as athan said to him, given to the enemies of God
occasion to blaspheme.
ot less profound and suggestive is that other name for sin, that which is twisted, or
bent, mine ‘iniquity.’ It is the same metaphor which lies in our own word ‘wrong,’
that which is wrung or warped from the straight line of right. To that line, drawn by
God’s law, our lives should run parallel, bending neither to the right hand nor to
the left. But instead of the firm directness of such a line, our lives show wavering
deformity, and are like the tremulous strokes in a child’s copy-book. David had the
pattern before him, and by its side his unsteady purpose, his passionate lust, had
traced this wretched scrawl. The path on which he should have trodden was a
straight course to God, unbending like one of these conquering Roman roads, that
will turn aside for neither mountain nor ravine, nor stream nor bog. If it had been
thus straight, it would have reached its goal. Journeying on that way of holiness, he
would have found, and we shall find, that on it no ravenous beast shall meet us, but
with songs and everlasting joy upon their lips the happy pilgrims draw ever nearer

to God, obtaining joy and gladness in all the march, until at last ‘sorrow and sighing
shall flee away.’ But instead of this he had made for himself a crooked path, and
had lost his road and his peace in the mazes of wandering ways. ‘The labour of the
foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to come to the city.’
Another very solemn and terrible thought of what sin is, lies in that final word for it,
which means ‘missing an aim.’ How strikingly that puts a truth which siren voices
are constantly trying to sing us out of believing! Every sin is a blunder as well as a
crime. And that for two reasons, because, first, God has made us for Himself, and to
take anything besides for our life’s end or our heart’s portion is to divert ourselves
from our true destiny; and because, second, that being so, every attempt to win
satisfaction or delight by such a course is and must be a failure. Sin misses the aim if
we think of our proper destination. Sin misses its own aim of happiness. A man
never gets what he hoped for by doing wrong, or, if he seem to do so, he gets
something more that spoils it all. He pursues after the fleeing form that seems so
fair, and when he reaches her side, and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the tempter, a
hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him. The siren voices sing to you from the
smiling island, and their white arms and golden harps and the flowery grass draw
you from the wet boat and the weary oar; but when a man lands he sees the fair
form end in a slimy fish, and she slays him and gnaws his bones. ‘He knows not that
the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ Yes! every sin is a
mistake, and the epitaph for the sinner is ‘Thou fool!’
II. These petitions also show us, in the second place, How David thinks of
forgiveness.
As the words for sin expressed a threefold view of the burden from which the
Psalmist seeks deliverance, so the triple prayer, in like manner, sets forth that
blessing under three aspects. It is not merely pardon for which he asks. He is
making no sharp dogmatic distinction between forgiveness and cleansing.
The two things run into each other in his prayer, as they do, thank God! in our own
experience, the one being inseparable, in fact, from the other. It is absolute
deliverance from the power of sin, in all forms of that power, whether as guilt or as
habit, for which he cries so piteously; and his accumulative petitions are so
exhaustive, not because he is coldly examining his sin, but because he is intensely
feeling the manifold burden of his great evil.
That first petition conceives of the divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a
writing, perhaps of an indictment. There is a special significance in the use of the
word here, because it is also employed in the description of the Levitical ceremonial
of the ordeal, where a curse was written on a scroll and blotted out by the priest.
But apart from that the metaphor is a natural and suggestive one. Our sin stands
written against us. The long gloomy indictment has been penned by our own hands.
Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. We have to
spread the writing before God, and ask Him to remove the stained characters from
its surface, that once was fair and unsoiled.
Ah, brethren! some people tell us that the past is irrevocable, that the thing once
done can never be undone, that the life’s diary written by our own hands can never
be cancelled. The melancholy theory of some thinkers and teachers is summed up in
the words, infinitely sad and despairing when so used, ‘What I have written I have
written.’ Thank God! we know better than that. We know who blots out the

handwriting ‘that is against us, nailing it to His Cross.’ We know that of God’s
great mercy our future may ‘copy fair our past,’ and the past may be all obliterated
and removed. And as sometimes you will find in an old monkish library the fair
vellum that once bore lascivious stories of ancient heathens and pagan deities turned
into the manuscript in which a saint has penned his Contemplations, an Augustine
his Confessions, or a Jerome his Translations, so our souls may become palimpsests.
The old wicked heathen characters that we have traced there may be blotted out,
and covered over by the writing of that divine Spirit who has said, ‘I will put My
laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts.’ As you run your pen through
the finished pages of your last year’s diaries, as you seal them up and pack them
away, and begin a new page in a clean book on the first of January, so it is possible
for every one of us to do with our lives. otwithstanding all the influence of habit,
notwithstanding all the obstinacy of long-indulged modes of thought and action,
notwithstanding all the depressing effect of frequent attempts and frequent failures,
we may break ourselves off from all that is sinful in our past lives, and begin afresh,
saying, ‘God helping me! I will write another sort of biography for myself for the
days that are to come.’
We cannot erase these sad records from our past. The ink is indelible; and besides
all that we have visibly written in these terrible autobiographies of ours, there is
much that has sunk into the page, there is many a ‘secret fault,’ the record of which
will need the fire of that last day to make it legible, Alas for those who learn the
black story of their own lives for the first time then! Learn it now, my brother! and
learn likewise that Christ can wipe it all clean off the page, clean out of your nature,
clean out of God’s book. Cry to Him, with the Psalmist, ‘Blot out my
transgressions!’ and He will calm and bless you with the ancient answer, ‘I have
blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.’
Then there is another idea in the second of these prayers for forgiveness: ‘Wash me
throughly from mine iniquity.’ That phrase does not need any explanation, except
that the word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and
beating. David, then, here uses the familiar symbol of a robe, to express the ‘habit’
of the soul, or, as we say, the character. That robe is all splashed and stained. He
cries to God to make it a robe of righteousness and a garment of purity.
And mark that he thinks the method by which this will be accomplished is a
protracted and probably a painful one. He is not praying for a mere declaration of
pardon, he is not asking only for the one complete, instantaneous act of forgiveness,
but he is asking for a process of purifying which will be long and hard. ‘I am ready,’
says he, in effect, ‘to submit to any sort of discipline, if only I may be clean. Wash
me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, rub
me with smarting soap and caustic nitre-do anything, anything with me, if only
those foul spots melt away from the texture of my soul!’ A solemn prayer, my
brethren! if we pray it aright, which will be answered by many a sharp application
of God’s Spirit, by many a sorrow, by much very painful work, both within our own
souls and in our outward lives, but which will be fulfilled at last in our being clothed
like our Lord, in garments which shine as the light.
We know, dear brethren! who has said, ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me white raiment,
that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear.’ And we know well who were the
great company before the throne of God, that had ‘washed their robes and made

Psalm 51 commentary

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