Psalm 51, verses 1 to 6, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned

 

Psalm 51:1 ¶  «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. 2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

David has been confronted by Nathan and will lose the child of his adultery with Bathsheba. Please see 2Samuel 12 for Nathan’s confronting of David for his sin.

 

What follows is a plea for forgiveness, an acknowledgement of his transgressions and there were many. It is also an acknowledgement of David’s sinful nature although not using that as an excuse but a lamentation. Solomon noted that there is no one who doesn’t sin and he said it twice for us in the Bible.

 

1Kings 8:46a  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,)

 

Ecclesiastes 7:20  For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

 

Then Jeremiah lets us know about our hearts.

 

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

This passage also implies that God knows our most inward thoughts.

 

Psalm 94:11  The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

 

We also need to see that our sins are against God first, then the offended party. We would do well to listen to this psalm and make it our prayer knowing we have committed an egregious sin.

 

David asks that God blot out his transgressions based on God’s tender mercies and to cleanse him from his sin, which is always present in his mind. He can’t escape from it.

 

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 

Some commentators and Bible paraphrases say that verse 5 isn’t a condemnation of either the lawful sex act or David’s mother but that it is saying that David states that he was born a sinful man, that’s his legacy from his conception, and we might say that it was passed on from our ancestor, Adam. John Gill who preached in Charles Spurgeon’s church a century before him, states this, that the verse refers to David being a sinner from the beginning.

 

Isaiah 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

 

God desires truth in our hearts and that is something only He can provide us, through His words.

 

Psalm 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.