📖 The Book of Psalms — Unit 4: Psalm 51, The Penitential Psalm

1. A Sickness No Doctor Can Cure

There is a kind of sickness for which doctors have no cure. It is spiritual sickness, and it was the sickness King David carried for more than a year. David had sinned with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah killed to cover it up. For an entire year he was separated from God, and you can imagine how miserable he was during that time. He broke up a home; he committed adultery and murder. And yet this same man is called one of the greatest who ever lived — a man after God's own heart. How can both things be true? Because the story of Psalm 51 is not finally about a man's sin; it is about how a sinner finds his way home to God.

One day David's preacher came to see him. His name was Nathan, a prophet of God — the kind of pastor who visited his members. The 51st Psalm is the prayer David wrote out of that visit. In it we can watch, step by step, exactly how a guilty man returns to the God he has wronged. There are four steps, and they are the same four steps every one of us must take.

2. David Was Confronted with His Sin

The prophet had probably known about the sin for some time, but he said nothing until God sent him. Nathan understood the danger; throughout history messengers who brought bad news were often killed, and David held the power of life and death over him. So the man of God came and told a story: a rich man with many flocks took the one little ewe lamb of a poor man and killed it for a guest. David was furious. "Such a man should be put to death!" Then Nathan looked at his king and said, "You are the man." David, the rich king with many wives, had taken Uriah's wife and then had Uriah murdered. He had condemned himself.

God is always working to confront us with our sin. Sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks through our conscience, sometimes through the hardships of life, sometimes through a Christian friend. In the parable of the prodigal son, the young man "came to himself" while starving among the pigs, and only then turned home. The first step toward being forgiven is simply to realize that we need forgiveness.

3. David Admitted His Sin

David cried out, "I have sinned against the LORD." Even though he had wronged Bathsheba and Uriah and the nation, he understood that ultimately he had sinned against God. How differently we usually react when we are told we are sinners, for it is always hard to accept personal responsibility. Consider the easier roads David did not take.

He could have lied: "You have no proof; you don't know what I've done." A small child quickly learns that lying is easier than telling the truth. He could have blamed someone else: that Bathsheba enticed him. That is the oldest excuse there is — when God confronted Adam, his first defense was, "This woman You gave me caused me to do it." He could have made excuses: that he was distracted running the government, or that he had a hard boyhood. He could even have grown angry and had Nathan killed for his insolence.

Instead of all these, David admitted his sin, because no excuse could suffice. The all-knowing God looks directly into a man's heart and cannot be deceived. He knows our open sins and our secret sins, our sins of commission and our sins of omission. The One who counts the hairs of our head knows about our sins. David was helpless and knew it. The heart that had been frozen for a year was finally thawed, and with a broken spirit he confessed.

4. David Was Sorry for His Sin

The 51st Psalm begins with David begging God to turn his life around. For too long he had been separated from God; for too long he had struggled in guilt and shame; for too long he had been the most miserable of men. It is a sad fact that as long as our lives are caught up in willful sin, we cut ourselves off from God's presence. One of the chief reasons for unanswered prayer is unconfessed sin. Rebellion against God never makes us happy. As long as we know what is right and refuse to do it, we manufacture our own grief.

Perhaps the teenage years are the classic years of rebellion. I remember reaching that age and thinking I could make all my own decisions — I did not want anyone telling me when to study, when to come home, or what to choose. Eventually I rebelled against God too, and decided the church was not all that important to me. It took several years to learn that doing whatever I wanted was not as good as it was supposed to be; in fact it was the most miserable time of my life. Perhaps God allows us to hit rock bottom so that we will have nowhere else to look but up. And then He stands waiting for us with open arms.

5. David Turned from His Sin

The 51st Psalm makes clear that David vowed to commit his life to the Lord. Some people think the past, once done, can never be addressed — "what I have written, I have written." It is true we cannot change the past. There is no time machine to undo our mistakes; the record of our lives is written in indelible ink. Lady Macbeth tried in vain to wash the bloodstain from her hands, but the spot remained. And it is true that we can never clear our own consciences. Every sin is ultimately against God, so if we are to be forgiven, God must forgive us.

Here is the good news: the Bible is the only book of religion that says God completely forgives. When we ask humbly, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner," His reply is, "I will remember your sins no more." Yet turning is more than feeling sorry. Zacchaeus the tax collector, when he met Jesus, did not merely confess; he paid back four times what he had stolen. Part of true repentance is the positive act of trying to make our wrongs right. And there is one more thing we can do: we can change the future. There is no real repentance if we are content to keep sinning. At this very moment you are becoming the person you will be in a year; we never stand still — we are always moving toward God or away from Him.

6. The Father Who Runs to Meet Us

7. The Slate Wiped Clean

David's life was spared through his repentance, but Nathan warned him that "the sword shall never depart from your house." The sin was forgiven, yet consequences remained; any sin leaves certain scars. But here we have an advantage David did not fully see: Christ bore the pain of our sin on the cross.

8. The Disease and the Only Cure

All through the Bible, sin is pictured as a disease — a terrible disease that is always fatal, and every one of us carries it. As Romans 3:23 says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The disease is fatal, but there is one cure: Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. No matter what they are, we can be forgiven; we are given a second chance.

A small boy came through a delicate emergency operation and was breathing freely, but late that night a frightened nurse neglected her duty, and the boy died. The doctor decided she could not be trusted and wrote a letter to end her career. He called her in and read it; she listened in shame and misery. "Have you nothing to say?" he asked. She shook her head, and when she finally spoke she said only, "Give me another chance." That is the cry of every sinner, and the wonder of the gospel is that God grants it. David was confronted, he admitted, he was sorry, and he turned — and instead of punishment he received the forgiveness of God. The same mercy waits for you. Have mercy upon me, O God; blot out my transgressions.

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