Devotional Short Note on Psalm 51: The sweet Spirit of God grabbed the heart of David just in time before Satan ran away with him. Thanks to the visit of Nathan the prophet after his scandal with Bathseba. David thought he could get away with it and cover it up but everything fell through the cracks when God pointed a finger at David through this prophet. Back against the wall there was only one solution: run to the Accuser or deny Him further. He chose the first.

David is on his knees and don’t know where to look. “Be gracious O God according to Your mercy, according to the multitude of Your compassions, blot out/delete my transgressions”. Why delete? There are Books in Heaven keeping record of our deeds. His deeds also.

In 51:4 David is focused on self and used “me” and “my” is used four times. A washing is needed, a cleansing. Both his iniquity and sins needed attention. As an adult he needed a baptism. Even though there is a conversion, he felt he needed a baptism. In the Catholic and Reformed traditions infant baptism was invented as a superstitious “trick” to remove the peccatum originale or “Original sin” that they believed since Augustine’s time that everyone is born with. Guilty with Adam’s sin. But the theology was wrong according to Ezechiel 18 since the father does not die for the sins of the son nor the son for the sins of the father principle. To substantiate this view they used David’s words in 51:7b “and in sin did my mother conceive me” but his is wrong. It is in an environment of sin that the baby is born. Jesus was born in an environment of sin. “Can good come from Nazareth?” people asked in Jesus’ days. He was sinless and perfect in the absolute. Jesus took the nature of the Fallen Adam and not the Adam before the Fall. Why? Because original sin is a myth and Jesus did not have sin at all. David does not qualify to be an ontological theologian here trying to prescribe doctrine of the nature of man or salvation to everyone. He is sinner and in need of Christ and that is what we hear throughout the Psalm.

David knows his transgressions because it is popping-up in his memory and Satan made sure it did continuously [tamid](51:5b). In fact, David added an extra independent personal pronoun to emphasize that he really knows “I, I know”. Briggs wanted to delete it as useless and Dahood also thought it is not really emphasizing but that is not true. God needs to know that he knows. David is in severe agony here. His greatest enemy is himself and that is why he says “I, I know”. Self took control of his life instead of God and he burnt his fingers. Christ agony in Gethsemane is all about this feeling of utter rejection and the feeling of forsakeness.

In 51:6 David addresses God and used “You” four times. The only God that he has sinned against is God of his faith. He did evil in the sight of God and he says this because God will be justified when He speaks and right when He will judge [future] since 1844 (51:6d). He knows that God desires truth in the inward parts of humans and therefore he pleaded that God would give him desired [ubesatum = begeerde/gekoesterde] wisdom that he may know (51:8a-b).

David needed a washing or baptism seriously. A kind of heavenly Laundromat that could clean him properly and the right Soap-powder to get him whiter as snow (51:9). In the Apologia of Hattusilish III who lived between 1289-1265/1246 BCE he mentioned n-at GIM-an kas hassas parkunut-at harganut “Just as this soap has cleaned it (and) made (it) white….” David desires joy and gladness and a healing of his broken bones (51:10).

There is no rejection worse than the feeling that God has turned His back on a person. That Christ sweat blood is this agony of total loneliness. God should please hide His face from his sins and blot out all his iniquities (51:11).

The Creator as Recreator in conversion is called upon here: the heart should be recreated, clean and new with a spirit that is stable and constant (51:12).

He does not want to be rejected and the Holy Spirit leaving him (51:13). He used a very strong word for rejection here: shālak which is in the context of judgment and which is the problem in Daniel 8:11 with Satan in this verse throwing down (shālak) the mekun [equilibrium of peace and harmony] of the Sanctuary of heaven. In the next verse the papacy as Little Horn threw down (shālak) truth (Daniel 8:12). For Satan’s action he was thrown down (shālak) upon the earth (Ezechiel 28:17; also Isaiah 14:19a). David pleaded not to be thrown down (shālak) similarly.

The Spirit of God is so necessary for salvation and sanctification following. Without the Spirit of God is life impossible. David knows this. If this happen, recreation and forgiveness then joy will return in him because he will be saved and he asked for a willing spirit (51:14). If this restoration happens, then he can be a teacher for others who are transgressing and he can show them the way back to God (51:15).

Because of the killing of Uriah, David asked to be forgiven for that: “bloodguiltness” (51:16a). In this verse David is desperate by using the form “O God my God”. There is an emotional pathos in this structure. If David is serious of seeing heaven, he has to face this tragic event in his life and he has to get God’s forgiveness otherwise he will be forever lost. David is in agony in this verse because he makes it clear in 51:18 that he tried to appease God by bringing sacrifices and burntoffering. “For You delight not in sacrifice, else would I give it, You have no pleasure in burntoffering”. True worship is a broken spirit, broken heart and contrite heart (51:19). The depth of true worship shines here above repetitious liturgy and external religious motions.

In 51:17 he asked the Lord to open his lips. Why must the Lord open his lips? It is a declaration of the praise of the Lord for salvation and unless he receives that salvation he does not feel he can praise God or open his lips in praise.

“Cause to do good in Your favor Zion and You will built the walls of Jerusalem” (51:20). David probably thought of the temple and its walls since it was his great desire to built the temple but he couldn’t. He can then [if God is in all this] see that burnt-offering and bullocks on His altar will be acceptable.