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4th July
Psalm 51. A psalm of penitence that David may have used after feeling
chastised by Nathan’s parable
- 2 Samuel 12 makes very clear that David felt very chastened by
Nathan’s rebuke over his adultery and the death of Uriah. This psalm
expresses the writer’s deep personal sense of guilt for what must
have been a very serious offence. The editor who collected the psalms
together, and added the notes at the beginning of many of them, had
probably inherited a tradition that linked this psalm with David and those
events.
- In any event the writer is finding the burden of sin very severe,
imploring God to forgive him in three different ways in the first two
verses alone. Verse 14 suggests that he has either shed blood or is
expecting to face death as a punishment for the sin, and the second part of
verse 8 shows how heavily the burden of guilt is weighing on him. In verse
4 he is saying that all wrongdoing against anyone is ultimately a sin
against God, and in verse 5 that he feels totally bad through and through
(not that he is trying to blame his misdeeds on what he has inherited from
his parents!)
- The psalm as a whole is a very moving plea for forgiveness, which can
be achieved in full only from God as a result of full repentance, not by
any formal ritual (v.16, 17). With God’s cleansing action he can be
restored to a full and proper relationship with God (v.10-12, 15).
- We may not have shed blood but sometimes we can feel cut off from God
as a result of our own misdeeds or our failure to do things we should have
done. Being written in such a moving and personal way, we can use this
psalm as a prayer to God, expressing our deep remorse. Psalms like this are
especially valuable if we feel our own words are inadequate. We can then
play our full part once more in helping others to meet God (v. 13) and we
can be effective in building up the collective witness of the church as a
whole (v.18-19).
- It is important to reflect from time to time on how far we fall short
of the ideal Christian life and beg forgiveness, even if we have not
committed such a serious crime as this writer seems to have done. Of
course, we do need to keep things in proportion and not dwell too much on
the negative aspects of our lives at the expense of the positive. This
psalm provides us with a very useful means of doing this, always
remembering that we can approach God with even more confidence than the
psalmist, because we know that he has reached out to us in the person of
Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Prayer using words from the psalm
- Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within
me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to
sustain me. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your
praise.
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