Psalm 51:1-19 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness… I. TO WHOM THE PRAYER IS ADDRESSED. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One. II. THE OBJECT WHICH A PENITENT SINNER PROPOSES TO HIMSELF IN DRAWING NEAR TO GOD; AND THE SPIRIT OR FRAME OF MIND IN WHICH HE ADDRESSES HIM. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. "In Thy favour is life." Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away. III. THE MEASURE OR RULE, ACCORDING TO WHICH A PENITENT SINNER DESIRES TO BE DEALT WITH IN THE EXPECTED ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER, "According to Thy lovingkindness." How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, "the life of God in the soul of man." The term "lovingkindness" seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace — a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this "river of the water of life." (T. Biddulph, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.} Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. |
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