By Colleen Podmore
“Have mercy on me O
God, according to Your unfailing love, according to Your great compassion blot
out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Psalm 51;1-2
There is a note at the top of the psalm that explains the
reason David wrote these words. It says
that it was about the time David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then
contrived to murder Uriah, her husband. If you don’t know the story you can
read about it in 2Sam11.
Briefly, David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife
Bathsheba. Then when she became pregnant, David tried to cover his sin by
recalling Uriah from the front-lines of battle so that he would sleep with his
wife and think that he was the father of her child. But Uriah was an honourable
man and he would not go to his wife while his men were at war – so David
arranged to have him killed in battle and then David married Bathsheba and
their son was born.
How old do you think David was when this happened? 20? 30?
40? 50? Probably in his 50’s. What were the sins David committed? Coveting,
adultery, lying, murder – 10th, 7th, 9th and 6th
commandments. Who had he sinned against? -Bathsheba, Uriah, Community, his
body, God.
It’s hard to believe that a man like David, a man after
God’s own heart who had suffered so much in his life could get it so utterly
wrong and furthermore be blind to his wrong-doing. It’s a bit scary really
because are we so different to David?
In this psalm we see the initial petition David makes – vs1.
Straight away we see a man taking responsibility for his actions. He does not
say, ‘Have mercy on me because I’m the King, or because I have worked all my
life to serve God and I’m a pretty good person!’ He admits his wrong-doing and
cries out to a God whom he believes is all these things - merciful, loving, and
compassionate.
In these first two verses we can see some of the beauty of
Hebrew poetry. These are the first three triplets of three triplets in these
verses –‘merciful, unfailing love, compassion’, ‘blot, wash, cleanse’, and
‘transgressions, inequities, sins’
David goes on with his petition – He says, ‘Blot out, wash
and cleanse’. These three words are quite interesting if we look at them. Blot
– this is a legal term and means to expunge a record so that there is no longer
any trace of the wrong-doing. David knows his sin is recorded somewhere (Ps
56:8; Jer18:23; Is 43:25). But his request is to have it completely removed
from the record. Wash – this is a laundering term. It means that the garment is
so clean that there is no stain left. Cleanse – means to make clean. Perhaps to
remove a guilty conscience compare to the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14).
Finally we have the last of the three triplets -
transgressions, iniquities and sins
These are the three most common words the Bible uses for
offences. Transgressions and iniquities are used in the OT and mainly sin in
the NT
Transgression once again is a legal term for breaking the
law, Iniquities are immoral or unfair behaviour like injustices. Sin is just
missing the mark.
Transgressions and iniquities may be words or actions
pertaining to the law – very relevant to the Jews who lived by law, but we who
live by grace don’t break any specific laws- we just miss the mark. There are
no laws for us to live by except the perfect law – ‘to Love the Lord our
God...’ (Matt22:37)-there are no ‘do this’, ‘do that’, ‘go to church’, ‘don’t
swear’, etc. Just the requirement to live in such a way that we don’t stumble
anyone (1Cor 10:24).
David sinned – but it was not until Nathan confronted him
that he was convicted and realised the state to which he had fallen. And Nathan
was able to reveal to David in such a way that it reached into his soul.
King David wrote down this psalm and it has become a model
of repentance. Even though we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, we
have one who intercedes for us. This
does not give us license to sin however, no we should never abuse the grace of
God. And if we see a brother or sister in sin then we should try to ‘gently
restore them’ (Gal 6:1).
Finally, David wrote a sequel to this plea for mercy - Psalm
32. ‘Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven....’ Amen.
