"To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar."
Psalm 51
The cry of the Psalmist in 10ff, as was pointed out at the end of the previous note, bears witness to the Psalmist's need of being renewed by the Holy Spirit, and thus delivered from the waywardness that had led him so far away from God. It is the need for a restored relationship of fellowship with God which will permanently link his life with Him. Only thus can he know the continuing power of the Spirit for his sanctification, and the restoration of the joy of God's salvation (12) which he once knew and had so badly lost. The saddest thing about sin in the believer is that it closes his mouth and negates his testimony (13-15). It is this that is restored when things are put right, and the possibility of magnifying God's Name becomes a reality once again. It is when the Lord thus opens our lips that our mouths can show forth His praise, to tell what the Lord has done for our souls. The word about sacrifices with which the Psalm closes (16ff) is very moving: the words in 17 about 'a broken spirit' and 'a heart broken and contrite' mean 'the breaking and crushing of man's sinful nature, the destroying of man's self' (Snaith). Without this, all sacrifices are meaningless and offensive to God. But no one who comes this way, and experiences what the Psalmist did, will ever fail to find acceptance with God.