Psalm 51: David’s confession and repentance

Psalm 51 is one of the seven penitential Psalms, and it is probably the best known of the penitential psalms because it is David’s confession and repentance when he is confronted by the Prophet Nathan after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah the Hittite.  David appeals to God’s grace as the grounds for forgiveness.  Note that sacrifices in and of themselves do not provide forgiveness, but they are only of benefit to the sinner who is humble and repents in faith.  1-2 – David begins by asking God to have mercy upon him because of God’s steadfast love. Here David calls back to Exodus 34:6-7, where God passes before Moses, who is in a cave on the side of a mountain, and proclaims “the LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”  David calls for God to wash away his iniquity and cleanse him from sin.3-5 –  David confesses his sin; he owns up to his sin.  David acknowledges that his actions have sinned against God, and that God’s judgment or justice upon him is clear and justified.  David goes so far as to say that he has been a sinner since the moment that he was conceived.    6-13 – David asks for restoration and renewal with a fresh sense of God’s presence.  He wants to be clean on the inside, his inner self.  David asks that God blot out and no longer look at David’s sin.  David asks that God not take away the Holy Spirit from him.  Much has been said and written about this statement. The Old Testament says little about the Holy Spirit, so it is hard to use this one-line to justify a theological position on the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. 14-17 – These verses deal with worship after a person’s sins have been forgiven.  True worship only comes as a result confession, repentance, forgiveness and restoration. 18-19 – These are interesting verses that imply each person’s spiritual relationship with God is somehow related to everyone else’s spiritual relationship with God.  The application for us is that as church body, we are a community of forgiven people worshipping God in the way that he has directed us.