A Prayer for Pardon from Personal Sin (Psalm 51:1–19)

After the predictably horrible reign of Saul, God hand-picked David to succeed him as king of Israel (1 Samuel 13:14). And David loved God, worshipped God, served God, and represented God. By all earthly measurements, David was a great man. But, as 2 Samuel 11:1–12:12 demonstrates, even the greatest of people still sin, sometimes dramatically. No one—no matter how mature they are in the Lord, how knowledgeable they are about the Lord, or how useful they’ve been to the Lord—is immune to temptation, disobedience, and moral shipwreck.  We may never steal someone’s spouse or conspire to have someone killed as David did, but we all rebel against the God we claim to love. The question is, what do we do when we do? How should we respond to our own trespasses? How do we process our personal immorality and the accompanying guilt it brings before our God? Psalm 51 gives us a guide.