The possession of all possessions, however, most needed by him, the foundation of all other possessions, is the assurance of the forgiveness of his sins. The second futures in Psalm 51:9 are consequents of the first, which are used as optatives. Psalm 51:9 recalls to mind the sprinkling of the leper, and of one unclean by reason of his contact with a dead body, by means of the bunch of hyssop (Leviticus 14, Numbers 19), the βοτάνη καθαρτική (Bhr, Symbol. ii. 503); and Psalm 51:9 recalls the washings which, according to priestly directions, the unclean person in all cases of uncleanness had to undergo. Purification and washing which the Law enjoins, are regarded in connection with the idea implied in them, and with a setting aside of their symbolic and carnal outward side, inasmuch as the performance of both acts, which in other cases takes place through priestly mediation, is here supplicated directly from God Himself. Manifestly בּאזוב (not כבאזוב) is intended to be understood in a spiritual sense. It is a spiritual medium of purification without the medium itself being stated. The New Testament believer confesses, with Petrarch in the second of his seven penitential Psalms: omnes sordes meas una gutta, vel tenuis, sacri sanguinis absterget. But there is here no mention made of atonement by blood; for the antitype of the atoning blood was still hidden from David. The operation of justifying grace on a man stained by the blood-red guilt of sin could not, however, be more forcibly denoted than by the expression that it makes him whiter than snow (cf. the dependent passage Isaiah 1:18). And history scarcely records a grander instance of the change of blood-red sin into dazzling whiteness than this, that out of the subsequent marriage of David and Bathsheba sprang Solomon, the most richly blessed of all kings. At the present time David's very bones are still shaken, and as it were crushed, with the sense of sin. דּכּית is an attributive clause like יפעל in Psalm 7:16. Into what rejoicing will this smitten condition be changed, when he only realizes within his soul the comforting and joyous assuring utterance of the God who is once more gracious to him! For this he yearns, viz., that God would hide His face from the sin which He is now visiting upon him, so that it may as it were be no longer present to Him; that He would blot out all his iniquities, so that they may no longer testify against him. Here the first part of the Psalm closes; the close recurs to the language of the opening (Psalm 51:3).

Psalm 51:13 Parallel Commentaries

Then

Psalm 32:5,8-10 I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD...

Zechariah 3:1-8 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him...

Luke 22:32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.

John 21:15-17 So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me more than these? He said to him, Yes...

Acts 2:38-41 Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins...

Acts 9:19-22 And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus...

2 Corinthians 5:8-20 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord...

ways

Psalm 25:4,8 Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths...

Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob...

Acts 13:10 And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness...

converted

Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes...

Jeremiah 31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke...

Matthew 18:3 And said, Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Acts 3:19 Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...

Acts 15:3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles...

Acts 26:18-20 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God...

James 5:19,20 Brothers, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him...