"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 note that is struck at the outset indicates the real awareness in the Psalmist's heart of the situation. This is not a piteous cry for help (1, 2): he is not suffering from a sense of misfortune. It is a cry for mercy, for he knows he has done wrong, and it is the consciousness of guilt that is so distressing him. 'God be merciful to me a sinner' is his cry. Three different words for sin are used: the word 'sin' means missing the mark, the idea of a man knowing what is right and failing to do it; the word 'iniquity' carries the idea of deliberate offence, a deliberate turning out of the way, being twisted or bent; the word 'transgression' contains the idea of rebellion, and this is the most personal word: he has rebelled against God. Corresponding to these are three different words used to describe the nature and effect of the Divine mercy: 'blot out' refers to forgiveness as the erasure of a writing or an indictment (cf 'the handwriting against us', Colossians 2:14); 'wash' refers not to simple rinsing but kneading or beating - he is ready to submit to any painful discipline to gain his objective; 'cleanse' underlines the fact that guilt is not only a blotted record or a polluted robe, but a disease like leprosy. It is these ideas that invest the confession which follows (3-6) with such a profound meaning.