Psalm 51

A Prayer of Repentance - To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight - that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.”  Psalm 51:1-4 (NKJV)

In order to fully understand the context of today’s psalm, we must see it through the narrative of 2 Samuel 12.

“…Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’  So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.’ Then Nathan departed to his house.  And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.”  2 Samuel 12:7a-15 (NKJV)

I remember reading 2 Samuel 12 as a new believer, young in the faith, and I could not understand how King David could mutter, “I have sinned against the Lord,” and actually be forgiven.  Oh, the injustice!  Who would avenge Uriah the Hittite?  Something about God’s forgiveness seemed wrong.  But today’s psalm helps us understand that David did not simply utter a short prayer.  David fully acknowledged his sin and articulated to anyone watching-on (the whole nation soon saw David’s kingdom under siege from within his family) that, unlike Job, David was about to get what he deserved, but with mercy. Instead of dying for his sin, David had to live with it.

This account is both frightening and comforting. David knew he could never cleanse himself, but that God could and would.  He begged God for a new heart and a steadfast spirit.  And, like all believers, David received it.  (Romans 15:13; Jeremiah 24:7)