Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Sermons Psalm 51:1-19 Psalm 51:1-19. This might be called The minister's psalm. We may imagine the servant of the Lord engaged in devout meditation. He looks before and after. He communes with himself as to his life and work. The deepest thoughts of his heart are revealed. I. EVER-GROWING SENSE OF THE EVIL OF SIN. Sin is thought of in the abstract, and its badness is seen. It is looked at in the world, in society, in the Church, and more and more its evils are discerned. But worst of all, it is felt to belong to one's self "My sin." II. DEEPER SYMPATHY WITH ALL TRUE SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH AND HOLINESS. The task is noble, but difficult. Only these who have tried know how difficult. There are not only obstacles without, but there is the fearful obstacle within of a sinful heart. III. TRUER REALIZATION OF THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK OF RESTORATION. Experience is the best teacher. It is better to judge from fact than from theory. Such as have themselves been "restored" are the fittest to speak of restoration. They know that the work is possible, though hard, for they themselves have experienced it. Like John Newton, the minister may take heart in time of despondency: "God has converted me, therefore I can never doubt of his power to convert the greatest sinner." This was Paul's argument (1 Timothy 1:15, 16). IV. THE NECESSITY OF NEW AND THOROUGH CONSECRATION. Looking to the past, there is much to humble us. Looking to God, there is everything to encourage us. We need to give ourselves anew to Christ. Opportunities are precious. To save ourselves from "bloodguiltiness," we must pray more and watch more. The nearer we live to God, the more interested we shall be in God's work. V. INCREASED DELIGHT IN CARRYING THE MESSAGE OF PEACE TO SINNERS. What we prize ourselves we commend to others. The peace we enjoy we would have others enjoy also. The freedom and the bright hopes that cheer our path we would gladly impart to others. When pressed with the burden of our own sins, we are under restraint; but when freed from guilt and fear, we can plead for God with boldness. VI. CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S LOVE AND POWER AS A SAVIOUR. Our highest ambition is to "convert' sinners, not to a Creed, or a party, or a Church, but to God. "To thee." But this is God's work. He only is able to make the Word effectual unto salvation. Having the witness in our own hearts of his saving might, we speak with all boldness. "The love of Christ constraineth us." VII. BRIGHTER HOPES OF THE FUTURE. There is a good time coming. The hope of this springs immortal in the hearts of the redeemed. When we are low, we take low views of things. If it be a dark time with ourselves, we are apt to despond as to the work of God in others. But when we are lifted up, all things seem possible. The future grows bright and yet brighter before us, and our hearts are thrilled with a foretaste of celestial joys. "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!" - W.F.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I. How DAVID THOUGHT OF HIS SIN. The repetition of these petitions show his earnestness of soul. In like manner he asks for the gifts of God's Spirit.1. He speaks of transgressions, the individual acts of sin; and then — 2. Of the iniquity which is the centre and root of them all. Further, in all the petitions we see that the idea of his own single responsibility for the whole thing is uppermost in David's mind. It is my transgression, it is mine iniquity and my sin. He has not learned to say with Adam of old, and with some so-called wise thinkers to-day, "I was tempted, and I could not help it." He does not talk about "circumstances," and say that they share the blame with him. He takes it all to himself. The three words which the psalmist employs for sin give prominence to different aspects of it. Transgression is not the same as iniquity, and iniquity is not the same as sin. "Transgression" literally means rebellion, a breaking away from and setting oneself against lawful authority. "Iniquity" literally means that which is twisted, bent. "Sin" literally means missing a mark, an aim. Think how profound and living is the consciousness of sin which lies in calling it rebellion. It is not merely, then, that we go against some abstract propriety, or break some impersonal law of nature when we do wrong, but that we rebel against a rightful Sovereign. Not less profound and suggestive is that other name for sin, that which is twisted, or bent, mine "iniquity." It is the same metaphor which lies in our own word "wrong," that which is wrung or warped from the straight line of right. David had the pattern before him, and by its side his unsteady purpose, his passionate lust had traced this wretched scrawl. Another very solemn and terrible thought of what sin is lies in that final word for it, which means "missing an aim." How strikingly that puts a truth which we are for ever tempted to deny. Every sin is a blunder as well as a crime. Sin ever misses its aim. It is a temptress that seems so fair, and when he reaches her side, and lifts her veil, eager to embrace the tempter, a hideous skeleton grins and gibbers at him. Yes! every sin is a mistake, and the epitaph for the sinner is "Thou fool." II. HOW HE THINKS OF FORGIVENESS. As the words for sin expressed a threefold view of the burden from which the psalmist seeks deliverance, so the triple prayer, in like manner, shows that it is not merely pardon for which he asks. Forgiveness and cleansing run into each other in his prayer as they do in our own experience, for they are inseparable one from the other. The first petition regards the Divine dealing with sin as being the erasure of a writing, perhaps of an indictment. Our past is a blurred manuscript, full of false things and bad things. And we want God to blot them out. Ah! some people tell us that the past is irrevocable, that the thing once dens can never be undone, that the life's diary written by our own hands can never be cancelled. Thank God, we know better than that. We know who blots out the handwriting "that is against us, nailing it to His cross." We know that of God's great mercy our future may "copy fair our past," and the past may be all obliterated and removed. Then there is another idea in the second of these prayers for forgiveness, "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity." The word expresses the antique way of cleansing garments by treading and beating. He is not praying for a mere declaration of pardon, he is not asking only for the one complete, instantaneous act of forgiveness, but he is asking for a process of purifying which will be long and hard. "I am ready," says he in effect, "to submit to any sort of discipline, if only I may be clean. Wash me, beat me, tread me down, hammer me with mallets, dash me against stones, rub me with smarting soap and caustic nitre — do anything, anything with me, if only those foul spots melt away from the texture of my soul." A solemn prayer, if we pray it aright, which will be answered by many a sharp application of God's Spirit, by many a sorrow, by much very painful work, both within our own souls and in our outward lives, but which will be fulfilled at last in our being clothed like our Lord in garments which shine as the light. The deliverance from sin is still further expressed by that third supplication, "Cleanse me from my sin." He thinks of it as if it were a leprosy, incurable, fatal, and capable of being cleansed only by the great High Priest, and by His finger being laid upon it. III. WHENCE COMES THE CONFIDENCE FOR SUCH A PRAYER. His whole hope rests upon God's character as revealed in the multitude of His tender mercies. This is the blessedness of all true penitence, that the more profoundly it feels our own sore need and great sinfulness, in that very proportion does it recognize the yet greater mercy and all-sufficient grace of Our loving God, and from the lowest depths beholds the stars in the sky, which they who dwell amid the surface-brightness of the noonday cannot discern. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) II. THE SIGNS WHICH MARK HIS SINCERITY. They are — 1. That the one thought which fills his soul is, "I have sinned against the Lord." True, he had sinned against man as well as God, yet, because the aspect of his sin as committed against God was so much more terrible and awful to him that it filled up the whole field of his view, and he could see nothing else. 2. And he sees his sin in all its hugeness and vileness. There is no diminishing or excusing it, no paring it down. 3. He takes willingly the disgrace of his sin; and — 4. Its punishment. But whilst he asks not deliverance frets these, there is a cry — 5. The cry for cleansing. "Create in me a clean heart," etc. 6. He turns straight to God, clinging to Him, even in this hour of shame. 7. His one terror is test he be cast away from God's presence. 8. There is the devotion of all his after life to God's service. III. CONCLUSION. 1. Have you ever trembled under the word of God? 2. Are these marks of true repentance visible in you? Go over them one by one. 3. Seek the. blessing of true repentance by prayer to God for it; it is His gift. It is the work at that "tree Spirit" which is Christ's special gift. Until that heavenly dew falls upon thy soul, it will be, must be, dry and cold, and bare. Thou cannot work thyself into penitence. But when that gracious shower is poured upon the heart, all is done. Then the voice of the turtle is heard. Then the heart mourns apart, It is like the breaking up of some mighty northern frost, which has bound the so, ailing sea fast beneath its iron band, when the western gale has breathed upon it, and the hard, thick-ribbed ice-crest has broken up as a cobweb under the grasp of a giant. And then all is changed; on the ocean's breast the mighty currents wake again into life, bearing on and on to the frozen north the life-giving streams of southern waters; and as the warm gales breathe on the snowy plains of the neighbouring shore, the long-banished verdure flashes again into colour and beauty, and the sweet spring comes on apace, the birds begin their songs, the fountains awake; and every blade and leaf, with all the tribes of life around them, rejoice before God in the blessed sunlight. And yet, what is all this to the breaking up of the ice-crest which has bound down a living soul for which Christ died? And 2. Remember thy sins. 3. Revenge thy fault (2 Corinthians 7:11). 4. As thou gazest upon thy sin, gaze more earnestly upon the face of thy Lord who, by His cross, delivers thee from thy sin. (Bishop S. Wilberforoe.) II. THE DESIRE AND ENDEAVOUR OF A GRACIOUS HEART; and that is, to be freed and delivered from this defilement. 1. The object specified. "Mine iniquity and my sin." 2. The act propounded, "Wash me," etc. This washing it may be conceived of two sorts. Either first, in reference to justification, "Wash me," that is, free me from the guilt of it; or else secondly, in reference to sanctification, "Wash me" from the defilement. 3. The intention of the act. "Throughly." It was not any slight kind of sprinkling which would serve David's turn; no, but he would be washed to purpose; he would have this work complete in him. And here we have still a further property in the true servants of God, which is considerable in them; and that is, to have the work both of forgiveness, and likewise of holiness perfected to them. A good Christian would have nothing left impure or unsanctified in him, but would be sanctified throughout; in his understanding, will, affections, outward man, and where he is any way failing; he would have all corruption cleansed from him, he would be generally and universally good as much as may be; and he sets upon reformation of particulars by reforming in general. The reason of it is this —(1) Because one sin draws on another, in the nature of the thing itself; sins seldom go alone, but have more at the heels of them.(2) Because the heart of man, being polluted and defiled with sin, is now ready and prone to more; so long as there's any corruption left at the bottom in us, we are never secure from the actings of it at one time or other; and if it chance not to break out now, yet at another time we are sure to hear of it. 4. The vehemency of the affection. "Wash me... and cleanse me." We should be importunate with God in such petitions, and not easily be put off from them. III. THE MANNER AND PRACTICE OF GOD AS TO FORGIVENESS AND HOLINESS. And that is, to go through with them. 1. Forgiveness is an utter abolition of all kinds of guilt (Psalm 32:1, 2; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:18, 19). 2. So as to sanctification; God is also complete in this work, He works throughly.(1) He works in His Servants a thorough fight of that evil which is in their hearts, the general corruption of their whole nature.(2) He works in them also a thorough hatred and detestation of all sin, so as to allow of no evil at all in themselves.(3) He gives sin its mortal wound and death-blow in them; from whence, though it be not absolutely dead, yet it is dying still in them.(4) He will also one day, and at the last, wholly and absolutely free them from sin. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) I. THE EVILS FROM WHICH A TRUE PENITENT IMPLORES DELIVERANCE. Sin is imputed, it is communicated, and it is committed.II. THE NATURE OF THE DELIVERANCE WHICH THE PENITENT IMPLORES. The blessing of purification from the love and power of sin always accompanies deliverance from its guilt; and as these blessings are never separated, the one from the other, in a communication of grace, so are desires after them always united in the experience and prayers of penitent sinners. Is it not wisdom to submit to the means which are necessary for restoration to health, though those means may be, for a time, painful and distressing? (T. Biddulph, M. A.) People Bathsheba, David, Doeg, Nathan, Psalmist, SaulPlaces JerusalemTopics Clean, Cleanse, Evil, Fully, Iniquity, Sin, Thoroughly, Throughly, Wash, Washed, WrongdoingOutline 1. David prays for remission of sins, whereof he makes a deep confession6. He prays for sanctification 16. God delights not in sacrifice, but in sincerity 18. He prays for the church Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 51:2 6021 sin, nature of 1030 God, compassion 6733 repentance, nature of 1065 God, holiness of Library David's Cry for Pardon... Blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'--PSALM li. 1, 2. A whole year had elapsed between David's crime and David's penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, 'My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture David's Cry for Purity January the Twenty-Seventh the Confession of Sin Unimpeachable Justice The Wordless Book Praying Saints of the Old Testaments (Continued) Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D. Some Helps to Mourning The Songs of the Fugitive. Transcriber's Note. How God Answered Donald's Prayer David and Nathan Out of the Deep of Sin. Cleansing. All are Sinners. God the Holy Spirit the Love which Dwells in the Heart. Original Sin St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh. In Fine, Supplication for Pardon, with Humble and Ingenuous Confession of Guilt... But Regard the Troops of virgins, Holy Boys and Girls... Moral Depravity. The Sinfulness of Original Sin. How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? That a Man Ought not to Reckon Himself Worthy of Consolation, but More Worthy of Chastisement Links Psalm 51:2 NIVPsalm 51:2 NLT Psalm 51:2 ESV Psalm 51:2 NASB Psalm 51:2 KJV Psalm 51:2 Bible Apps Psalm 51:2 Parallel Psalm 51:2 Biblia Paralela Psalm 51:2 Chinese Bible Psalm 51:2 French Bible Psalm 51:2 German Bible Psalm 51:2 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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