True repentance is not satisfied with the knowledge of forgiveness, but goes on to seek the renewal and elevation of the nature that has sinned and fallen into disorder.
I. HE SEEKS A NEW REVELATION OF THE FORCE OR FAVOUR OF GOD. (Ver. 9.) "Do not look upon me in anger for my sins, so as to bring me into judgment, but lift upon me the glory of thy face, or presence." And to this end -
II. "CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART, THAT I MAY BE ABLE TO SEE THEE." (Ver. 10; Matthew 5:8.)
III. "GIVE ME AGAIN A STEADFAST SPIRIT OF OBEDIENCE TO THY WILL." (Ver. 10.) A strong spirit not easily swayed to and fro through its own weakness, or by the gusts of temptations, but persistent in right aims and endeavours.
IV. HE PRAYS THAT HE MAY NEVER LOSE THE SUCCOUR AND STRENGTH OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT. (Ver. 11.) Such a prayer on the lips of David could not mean all that it means now to a Christian. Christ has revealed the work and the necessity of the Divine Strengthener (the Paraclete) far more clearly than it was known to David. As the Teacher of the truth and the Helper of our weakness.
V. HE PRAYS FOR THAT SENSE OF JOY WHICH IS UNITED WITH THE SPIRIT OF A FREE OBEDIENCE. (Ver. 12.) Our spirits attain to their greatest freedom when under the influence of the Spirit of God - like water heated by fire. - S.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
This psalm is made up partly of confessions and acknowledgments of his great crimes, partly of petitions and supplications, wherein he intercedes for pardon, and prays for forgiveness. And this was but necessary to complete the duty of confession, which without this additional act of devotion might have looked rather like a daring defiance of Divine justice; God having nowhere promised us His pardon, or indeed any other blessing without our asking; nor that He will open the gates of His mercy to penitent sinners, and grant them readmission into His favour again, but upon their earnest applications and importunate knocking.
I. THE SENSE AND MEANING OF THE WORDS.
1. By "sins" we may understand offences of a high nature, wilful and deliberate transgressions, such as are mightily provoking in the sight of God, from which, therefore, he prays God to "hide His face."
2. By "iniquities" may be understood the common frailties and ordinary miscarriages of our lives, those which with the greatest care we can use, cannot well be avoided; such as we daily run on score with God, which, therefore, he desires may be "blotted out."
3. God's "hiding His face " from anything is His passing it by, and His not regarding it (Psalm 55:1; Ezekiel 39:29). Proportionably to "hide His face from our sins " is to overlook them; particularly to suspend sentence, not to proceed to judgment against us, but to forbear us. And this is properly that act of forgiveness the Latins call Igno-scentia, to seem not to know, not to resent injuries, and to put up affronts which are done to His Heavenly Majesty. And, oh blessed God, may every one of us, sinners as we are, say, how do we all of us stand obliged to Thy goodness, that Thou hast not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; but hast lengthened out our time and Thy patience, and given us space of repentance, and left us still in a possibility of salvation, and hast from time to time hid Thy face from our provoking sins, oven when we have boldly and deliberately dared Thy justice to Thy face! Oh, praised be that unspeakable mercy of Thine.
4. To "blot out all our iniquities" is so to forgive them as that they shall never be remembered more (Ezekiel 33:16). This is a metaphor taken from the usual discharge of debts and release of suits and actions we may have against any man, when we wipe out the score, and cancel all bills and obligations whatever, and give him a free general pardon and quit-claim of all duos or demands. And this is that act of forgiveness which in Latin is called condonatio, an absolute and full discharge. And this is the very term and tenor of evangelical pardon, as Himself hath declared it by His prophet (Isaiah 43:25). Gracious God, be always pleased to hide Thy face from our sins, but never hide it from our persons or from our prayers; which is the severest token of Thy heaviest displeasure.
II. THE NATURE OF GOD'S PARDONING GRACE. Consider the wonderful goodness of God's nature in Himself and of His will towards us, that He doth as it were lay aside all His glorious attributes almost, to serve us; and shows us mercy, even in disparagement to His infinite knowledge and holiness and justice; that, though He cannot but see and know our sins, because He knows all things, yet He takes no notice of them: and because they cannot be hid from His face, He hides His face from them; though He cannot but abominate sin, and hate it with a perfect hatred, yet He loves and bears with the sinner; and though He stand obliged as a righteous judge to punish sin, wherever He finds it, yet He delays the punishment in expectation of our repentance. And this is the first act of pardon, or, at least, step towards it, that God doth not rebuke us in His anger, nor chasten us in His hot displeasure; that there is a suspension at least of punishment, a reprieve in order to a full pardon; which follows in the next place, the blotting out of all our iniquities, so as never to be remembered more; and this is the removal of guilt, a total and final discharge for the future, as that is a forbearance of vengeance at present. That in a manner is but present impunity; this is an absolute discharge for ever; and that —
1. Total: all mine iniquities; and —
2. Final: by being blotted out.
III. HOW THIS FORGIVENESS AND FULL PARDON MAY BE ATTAINED.
1. Contrition. Labour to be thoroughly convinced of thy sins; consider and lay to heart thy dangerous estate; spread thy sins before thy own conscience first, before thou lay them before God in thy confession. Fruit is first bruised and squeezed before it yields its precious liquor; stones, and the hardest metals themselves, when they are melted down, will run. Then, when thou art thus contrite, when thou hast broken thy heart, and melted it with the coals of Divine love, thy soul will pour out itself.
2. Supplication. Get thee to thy Lord right humbly; beseech His mercy to accept thy repentance, and His grace to improve it. Let Him not alone till thou hast obtained a gracious answer.
3. Lay hold on Christ; plead His passion and merits. In His name and mediation thy supplications must hope to speed, and have their designed effect. Lot thy prayers be perfumed in the censer of thy High Priest, and be mingled with His intercessions.
4. Amendment of life; or else all that thou hast done hitherto falls short and comes to nothing,
IV. THE BLESSED EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCE OF THIS PARDONING GRACE.
1. The favour of God as now reconciled in Christ. If thou hast this pardon, thou hast the light of God's countenance shining upon thy inner man, and art in the same condition as a child restored to his father's love. And this thou mayest know by thy own dutiful behaviour and ingenuous affections, as well as by His kind reception; if thou givest Him cause by thy filial diligence to rejoice in thy return, as thou thyself rejoicest in His reconcilement.
2. This favour procures the peace and quiet of conscience.
3. The gracious assurance of thy present acceptance, both of thy person and performances.
4. The ascertaining of thy future hopes. Present acceptation goes a great way with a faithful servant; but to have, beside and beyond this, an ascertainment of what expectations and future rewards such a servant may look for at the hands of a kind master; this cannot but raise, as well as quiet, his spirit. This will not only fix, but elevate him in his loyalty.
V. MARKS WHEREBY A SINNER MAY KNOW WHETHER HE HATH ATTAINED THIS PARDON.
()
People
Bathsheba,
David,
Doeg,
Nathan,
Psalmist,
SaulPlaces
JerusalemTopics
Blot, Face, Hide, Iniquities, Iniquity, Sin, Sins, WrongdoingOutline
1. David prays for remission of sins, whereof he makes a deep confession6. He prays for sanctification16. God delights not in sacrifice, but in sincerity18. He prays for the churchDictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 51:9 1210 God, human descriptions
1255 face of God
Psalm 51:1-10
8272 holiness, growth in
Psalm 51:1-12
8604 prayer, response to God
Psalm 51:1-17
1065 God, holiness of
6655 forgiveness, application
6735 repentance, examples
8707 apostasy, personal
Psalm 51:7-12
8150 revival, personal
Library
David's Cry for Pardon
... Blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'--PSALM li. 1, 2. A whole year had elapsed between David's crime and David's penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, 'My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureDavid's Cry for Purity
'... Renew a right spirit within me. 11. ... And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. 12. ... And uphold me with Thy free Spirit.' --PSALM li. 10-12. We ought to be very thankful that the Bible never conceals the faults of its noblest men. David stands high among the highest of these. His words have been for ages the chosen expression for the devotions of the holiest souls; and whoever has wished to speak longings after purity, lowly trust in God, the aspirations of love, or the raptures of devotion, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
January the Twenty-Seventh the Confession of Sin
"I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me." --PSALM li. 1-12. Sin that is unconfessed shuts out the energies of grace. Confession makes the soul receptive of the bountiful waters of life. We open the door to God as soon as we name our sin. Guilt that is penitently confessed is already in the "consuming fire" of God's love. When I "acknowledge my sin" I begin to enter into the knowledge of "pardon, joy, and peace." But if I hide my sin I also hide myself from "the unsearchable …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
Unimpeachable Justice
There is now agitating the public mind something which I thought I might improve this day, and turn to very excellent purpose. There are only two things concerning which the public have any suspicion. The verdict of the jury was the verdict of the whole of England; we were unanimous as to the high probability, the well-nigh absolute certainty of his guilt; but there were two doubts in our minds--one of them but small, we grant you, but if both could have been resolved we should have felt more easy …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
The Wordless Book
"Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."--Psalm 51:7. I DARESAY you have most of you heard of a little book which an old divine used constantly to study, and when his friends wondered what there was in the book, he told them that he hoped they would all know and understand it, but that there was not single word in it. When they looked at it, they found that it consisted of only three leaves; the first was black, the second was red, and the third was pure white. The old minister used to gaze upon …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 57: 1911
Praying Saints of the Old Testaments (Continued)
Bishop Lambeth and Wainwright had a great M. E. Mission in Osaka, Japan. One day the order came from high up that no more meetings would be allowed in the city by Protestants. Lambeth and Wainwright did all they could but the high officials were obstinate and unrelenting. They then retired to the room of prayer. Supper time came and the Japanese girl came to summon them to their meal, but she fell under the power of prayer. Mrs. Lambeth came to find what the matter was and fell under the same power. …
Edward M. Bounds—Prayer and Praying Men
Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D.
In the fourth period of the Church under the heathen Empire, or the period of the consolidation of the Church, the number of Christians increased so rapidly that the relation of the Roman State to the Church became a matter of the gravest importance (ch. 1). During a period of comparative peace and prosperity the Church developed its doctrinal system and its constitution (ch. 2). Although the school of Asia Minor became isolated and temporarily ceased to affect the bulk of the Church elsewhere, the …
Joseph Cullen Ayer Jr., Ph.D.—A Source Book for Ancient Church History
Some Helps to Mourning
Having removed the obstructions, let me in the last place propound some helps to holy mourning. 1 Set David's prospect continually before you. My sin is ever before me' (Psalm 51:3). David, that he might be a mourner, kept his eye full upon sin. See what sin is, and then tell me if there be not enough in it to draw forth tears. I know not what name to give it bad enough. One calls it the devil's excrement. Sin is a complication of all evils. It is the spirits of mischief distilled. Sin dishonours …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12
The Songs of the Fugitive.
The psalms which probably belong to the period of Absalom's rebellion correspond well with the impression of his spirit gathered from the historical books. Confidence in God, submission to His will, are strongly expressed in them, and we may almost discern a progress in the former respect as the rebellion grows. They flame brighter and brighter in the deepening darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars are seen most clearly. He is far more buoyant when he is an exile once more in the wilderness, …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David
Transcriber's Note.
There are significant differences in the numerous reprints of Isaac Watts' "Psalms." The first generation of this Project Gutenberg file was from an 1818 printing by C. Corrall of 38 Charing Cross, London. The Index and the Table of First Lines have been omitted for the following reasons: 1. They refer to page numbers that are here expunged; and 2. In this electronic version key words, etc., can be easily located via searches. Separate numbers have been added to Psalms that have more than one part …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms of David
How God Answered Donald's Prayer
God often uses children to win grown folks for Christ. Little children not only have a deep faith but a childlike trust in believing that God answers their prayers. "All that ye ask in my name, believing, that ye shall receive." As a young girl, I went to Sunday School and learned about Jesus. Although I knew about my Savior and what He had done to save me, yet I never accepted Him as my own Redeemer and Friend. As years went by, I went into sin and shared in the common sins of worldly people. …
S. B. Shaw—Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer
David and Nathan
'And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin.'--2 SAMUEL xii. 13. We ought to be very thankful that Scripture never conceals the faults of its noblest men. High among the highest of them stands the poet- king. Whoever, for nearly three thousand years, has wished to express the emotions of trust in God, longing after purity, aspiration, and rapture of devotion, has found that his words have been before him. And this man …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Out of the Deep of Sin.
Innumerable troubles are come about me. My sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up; yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me.--Ps. xl. 15. I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.--Ps. li. 3. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord; and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.--Ps. xxxii. 6. Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep
Cleansing.
As there are conditions requiring to be complied with in order to the obtaining of salvation, before one can be justified, e. g., conviction of sin, repentance, faith; so there are conditions for full salvation, for being "filled with the Holy Ghost." Conviction of our need is one, conviction of the existence of the blessing is another; but these have been already dealt with. "Cleansing" is another; before one can be filled with the Holy Ghost, one's heart must be "cleansed." "Giving them the Holy …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life
All are Sinners.
Some time ago we overheard from a person who should have known better, remarks something like these: "I wonder how sinners are saved in the Lutheran Church?" "I do not hear of any being converted in the Lutheran Church," and such like. These words called to mind similar sentiments that we heard expressed long ago. More than once was the remark made in our hearing that in certain churches sinners were saved, because converted and sanctified, while it was at least doubtful whether any one could find …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church
God the Holy Spirit the Love which Dwells in the Heart.
"It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments." --Psalm cxxxiii. 2. The fact that love can radiate within man does not insure him the possession of true and real Love, unless, according to His eternal counsel, God is pleased to enter into personal fellowship with him. So long as man knows Him only from afar and not near, God is a stranger to him. He may admire His Love, have a faint sense of it, be pleasantly …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
Original Sin
Q-16: DID ALL MANKIND FALL IN ADAM'S FIRST TRANSGRESSION? A: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' &c. Rom 5:12. Adam being a representative person, while he stood, we stood; when he fell, we fell, We sinned in Adam; so it is in the text, In whom all have sinned.' Adam was the head …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity
St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh.
16. (10). At that time an episcopal see was vacant,[321] and had long been vacant, because Malachy would not assent: for they had elected him to it.[322] But they persisted, and at length he yielded when their entreaties were enforced by the command of his teacher,[323] together with that of the metropolitan.[324] It was when he was just entering the thirtieth year of his age,[325] that he was consecrated bishop and brought to Connor; for that was the name of the city through ignorance of Irish ecclesiastical …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh
In Fine, Supplication for Pardon, with Humble and Ingenuous Confession of Guilt...
In fine, supplication for pardon, with humble and ingenuous confession of guilt, forms both the preparation and commencement of right prayer. For the holiest of men cannot hope to obtain anything from God until he has been freely reconciled to him. God cannot be propitious to any but those whom he pardons. Hence it is not strange that this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer, as we learn from several passages in The Psalms. David, when presenting a request on a different subject, …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith
But Regard the Troops of virgins, Holy Boys and Girls...
37. But regard the troops of virgins, holy boys and girls: this kind hath been trained up in Thy Church: there for Thee it hath been budding from its mother's breasts; for Thy Name it hath loosed its tongue to speak, Thy Name, as through the milk of its infancy, it hath had poured in and hath sucked, no one of this number can say, "I, who before was a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, in that I did in being ignorant, in unbelief." [2130] Yea more, that, which Thou commandedst …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.
Moral Depravity.
VIII. Let us consider the proper method of accounting for the universal and total moral depravity of the unregenerate moral agents of our race. In the discussion of this subject, I will-- 1. Endeavor to show how it is not to be accounted for. In examining this part of the subject, it is necessary to have distinctly in view that which constitutes moral depravity. All the error that has existed upon this subject, has been founded in false assumptions in regard to the nature or essence of moral depravity. …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology
The Sinfulness of Original Sin.
MATTHEW xix. 20.--"The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" In the preceding discourse from these words, we discussed that form and aspect of sin which consists in "coming short" of the Divine Law; or, as the Westminster Creed states it, in a "want of conformity" unto it. The deep and fundamental sin of the young ruler, we found, lay in what he lacked. When our Lord tested him, he proved to be utterly destitute of love to God. His soul was a …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man
How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin?
That we may give some satisfaction to this question, we shall, 1. Shew what are the ingredients in this case, or what useth to concur in this distemper. 2. Shew some reasons why the Lord is pleased to dispense thus with his people. 3. Shew how Christ is life to the soul in this case. 4. Shew the believer's duty for a recovery; and, 5. Add a word or two of caution. As to the first, There may be those parts of, or ingredients in this distemper: 1. God presenting their sins unto their view, so as …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life
That a Man Ought not to Reckon Himself Worthy of Consolation, but More Worthy of Chastisement
O Lord, I am not worthy of Thy consolation, nor of any spiritual visitation; and therefore Thou dealest justly with me, when Thou leavest me poor and desolate. For if I were able to pour forth tears like the sea, still should I not be worthy of Thy consolation. Therefore am I nothing worthy save to be scourged and punished, because I have grievously and many a time offended Thee, and in many things have greatly sinned. Therefore, true account being taken, I am not worthy even of the least of Thy …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ
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