Psalm 51:5 Sermons: Look, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.

◄ Psalm 51:5 ►

Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

Sermons

Repentance and Forgiveness	C. Short	Psalm 51:1-8
A Petition and an Argument		Psalm 51:1-19
Blot Out My Trangressions	Andrew Murray.	Psalm 51:1-19
David's Repentance	J. S. Macintosh, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
God's Former Dealings a Plea for Mercy	Thomas Horton, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
God's Lovingkindness	T. Alexander, M. A.	Psalm 51:1-19
God's Mercy	A. Symson.	Psalm 51:1-19
God's-Tender Mercies	T. Alexander, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
Lessons	S. Hieron.	Psalm 51:1-19
Sin Blotted Out	Campbell Morgan, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin	Canon Newbolt.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Fifty-First Psalm	F. W. Robertson, M. A.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Greatness of Sin to a True Penitent	Monday Club Sermons	Psalm 51:1-19
The Minister's Psalm	W. Forsyth	Psalm 51:1-19
The Moan of a King	J. Parker, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Penitent Sinner	Homilist	Psalm 51:1-19
The Prayer for Mercy	Andrew Murray.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Prayer of the Penitent	G. F. Pentecost, D. D.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Prayer of the Penitent	David O. Mears.	Psalm 51:1-19
The Psalmist's Prayer for Mercy	T. Biddulph, M. A.	Psalm 51:1-19
Nothing But Sin	A. Symson.	Psalm 51:5-7
Of Original Sin	D. Clarkson.	Psalm 51:5-7
Original Depravity	J. Parker, D. D.	Psalm 51:5-7
Original Sin	Archbishop Magee.	Psalm 51:5-7
Original Sin	G. F. Pentecost, D. D.	Psalm 51:5-7
Secrets of the Heart	W. Forsyth	Psalm 51:5-7
The Fact of Original Sin Indisputable		Psalm 51:5-7
The Natural State of Mankind in Regard of Sin	T. Horton, D. D.	Psalm 51:5-7
Total Depravity	G. F. Pentecost, D. D.	Psalm 51:5-7

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

Secrets Of The Heart

Psalm 51:5-7

W. Forsyth

Behold! This is a word of power. It takes hold. It demands attention. It marks the solemnity and seriousness of the things to be brought before us. The veil is so far lifted. In the light of God, we get glimpses into the awful secrets of the heart.

I. THE SECRET OF SIN IS FOUND IN THE CORRUPT HEART. The first thing that startles and staggers us may be some actual transgression; but as we consider the matter, we are forced back and back, and closer and closer, till we end with the corrupt heart. Sin is everywhere; but always, when we seek its origin, we come to the same source. We may not be able to explain fully why and how the heart is corrupt, but of the fact there can be no question. It is better to seek deliverance from the pit, than to weary and vex ourselves in vain with inquiries how we came there.

II. THAT THE EVIL OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE CONTRADICTION OF TRUTH. What God desires must be right and good. But instead of "truth in the inward parts," it is the opposite. Instead of law, there is self-will; instead of order, there is confusion; instead of the unity of the Spirit, there is enmity and strife. The mind and the will are in contradiction to God. It is this that makes the disease so desperate, and the remedy so difficult (Genesis 17:9). We might make clean the outside of the cup, but it remains defiled within. We may whitewash the sepulchre, but after all it is a sepulchre, full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Helpless, and well-nigh despairing, our cry is, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?"

III. THAT DELIVERANCE FROM SIN CAN ONLY BE EFFECTED BY THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF GOD'S AUTHORITY IN THE HEART. Healing that does not go to the root of the disease is vain and delusive. The heart must be made right or nothing is right. This is the work of God through Christ Jesus (Romans 6:8-14). It is not slight, or half-and-half work, but thorough. We cannot serve two masters. But by the grace of Christ we are saved from the bondage and misery of our old master, and God is again enthroned in our hearts as our true and rightful Lord, whose service is perfect freedom, and whose rewards are peace and joy for evermore. - W.F.

Biblical Illustrator

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psalm 51:5-7

Original depravity

J. Parker, D. D.

Men may come upon this doctrine one of two different ways. —

1. As a dogma in theology. The first thing that some theologians do is to assail human nature, to describe it as covered with wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, and as deserving nothing but eternal burning. And human nature denies this. It says, "No, I have good impulses, upward desires, generous emotions; I resent your calumnies."

2. The second way is totally unlike this. Here is a true believer in Jesus Christ, one who loves Him with passionate devotion, and grows daily more like Him. From this attitude he looks back upon his former self, compares the human nature he started with, with that which he has attained, and involuntarily, by the sheer necessity of the contrast, he says, "I was born in sin." What he never could have understood as an opinion he realizes as a fact. Let a tree be conscious. Tell it in April how bare and barren it is. It will defend itself stoutly. Go to it after it has had a summer's experience, and it will confess, "I am not what I was; I was as you said, but now I feel as if I had been born again."

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Of original sin

D. Clarkson.

The end of the Gospel is to bring sinners unto Christ; for this they must feel their misery without Christ. And this misery consists in our sin, original and actual.

I. NATURAL CORRUPTION IS A SIN (Romans 7.), where you may find near twenty aggravations of this sin. And it is not a valid objection that this sin is not voluntary, for what is involuntary may be sin. But original sin is voluntary both in respect of Adam who represented us all, and in respect of us by our after consent.

II. WE ARE TAINTED WITH IT FROM OUR BIRTH (Isaiah 48:8). Stay not to inquire how sin is conveyed to us in the womb, but consider how to be set free from it.

III. IT SHOULD BE THE GROUND OF OUR HUMILIATION.

1. It is a privation of all good (Romans 7:18).

2. There is an antipathy to God and the things of God (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind is not only an enemy, but "enmity." Naturalists write of a beast that will tear and rend the picture of a man if it come in his way; whence they argue his great antipathy to man. And so we may argue antipathy to God when men will tear and despise His image. What cause, then, for humiliation.

IV. PRESS HOME THIS DOCTRINE. Consider, therefore —

1. The unnaturalness of this sin. We hate vermin that are naturally poisonous more than any other.

2. The sinfulness of it; for it violates not one of, but all, God's commands, and that always without interruption; there is no cessation from it.

3. The causality of it. All actual sin springs from it.

4. Its habitualness both in respect of permanency — see leprosy (Lviticus 14:41, 42) — and facility in acting (Romans 7:21; Jeremiah 8:6).

5. Its pregnancy; it is all sin virtually, for all sin is wrapped up in it.

6. Its extent. It has overspread the whole man (Isaiah 1:6).

7. Its monstrousness; see the deformity it has brought upon the soul by defect, impotency, dislocation.

8. Its irresistibleness and strength.

9. Its devilishness, brutishness and incorrigibleness.

(D. Clarkson.)

Original sin

Archbishop Magee.

We purpose considering the subject of original sin — what it is that David means, when he says, "I was shapen in iniquity." This implies two things — guilt and corruption, that every man is "born in sin and a child of wrath" — there is guilt imputed to him. This guilt which is imputed to him is the guilt of Adam, his representative, and this sin which is derived by him is that of Adam, his progenitor. This is our twofold inheritance from our first parent — original sin. Let us take each of these in its order. Our first proposition is, that we inherit from Adam guilt; that he stood before God the representative of all humanity — their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker. In him we all once stood upright, in him we were tried, fell, were judged and condemned. Is it true? Turn, then, to Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 5:12; "Death has passed upon all men," because "all have sinned." But the only sin they could have suffered for was the sin of Adam. Stern and strange as this doctrine may seem, it is not more stern or more strange than the undeniable fact which proves it. We take the man who denies it to the bedside, where lies the corpse of a new. born babe that has just breathed out its few short hours of painful life. Why is this? Pain has been here, and death — what brought them? What had that little sufferer done, that the dread penalty of death should be extracted from it, and its young life untimely snatched away? It "was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin." But this fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies, to a certain extent, an answer to the objection made on the score of justice; for the injustice of imparting to us Adam's guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adam's punishment. In this world the innocent do suffer for the guilty, and the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Ask the offspring of the drunkard, the libertine, the criminal, the spendthrift. And the sins of one age are visited upon the next. A godless statesman suffers a nation to grow up in ignorance, and the next generation reap the bitter fruits of his neglect in misery and crime. A faithless ministry leave their flocks unguarded and unfed, and they who come after them toil painfully, and almost hopelessly, to recall those sheep to the fold from which the carelessness of others had suffered them to stray. Wherever we turn, then, we see men suffering for the sins and smarting for the follies of others. Why, then, should it startle you when we ask you to admit a fact which is not one whir more opposed to justice, nay, which throws the only gleam of light along this dark chain of sinful cause and sorrowful effect — namely, that we not only suffer the consequences, but also share the guilt, of our first parent's first offence? If you object to the doctrine of original sin as revealed in the word of God, you must object against the fact of vicarious suffering as ordained in the providence of God. There is no stoppingplace between Atheism and the faith of the Christian who believes, in spite of all mystery, that God is just and good. But you say it is unjust that I should be held to have sinned in Adam — what, then, is it you would demand? A trial in your own person — that you should be placed as Adam was, in a state of probation, made upright, with the option of so continuing, if you could; this, you will say, would have been just. But if you were so placed, do you imagine that you would have fared better than he did? Was he not the very perfection of humanity? Was there any weakness in him there would not have been in you? Is there any strength you could have that He had not? What could you have been at best but another Adam, sure to yield to the very same temptation to which he yielded? What difference, then, is there, in point of justice, between this trial having been made for you or by you, if the result would be the same in either case, and if you are only held guilty of a sin which you would assuredly commit, had you the opportunity of committing it? But the vindication is more complete and triumphant when we remember that over against the sin of the first Adam is placed the grace of the second, so that "where sin did abound, grace," etc.

(Archbishop Magee.)

Original sin

G. F. Pentecost, D. D.

I. MAN BY NATURE IS SINFUL.

1. Prove this by Bible testimony (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21).

2. Every page of human history tells the sad story of man's natural corruption.

3. What we observe in others we have to confess to be even more true of ourselves. We know not only the fact of this tendency to sin, but its strength; for we have had to struggle against it in order to do good, and to abstain from evil. Any righteousness in man is the result of an effort to work up-stream against his own nature.

4. This has been the testimony of the best men in all ages (Job 42:6; Isaiah 6:5; 1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 7:23).

5. The same is testified to by highest reason. If you try apple after apple from every part of the tree, and all alike sour, you cannot but conclude the tree itself is bad. If you drink from a stream and find it brackish, day after day you conclude that the fountain itself is bitter. Now, when you observe man after man sinning day after day, in all ages, under every form of government and society, you must conclude that the troubles lie in the very nature of man.

II. THIS CORRUPTION IS UNIVERSAL AS TO THE WHOLE RACE, AND TOTAL AS TO EACH MAN. Like leprosy, it may not be visible in the whole face or body, but being in the blood it is only a question of time as to when it will claim every part. Do not deceive yourselves. However you may manage to hold your inward corruption in check, it will sooner or later work out your total corruption, if not in this world, in the world to come. Death will remove all restraining motives and you will in eternity be left to the unrestrained operations of your sinful nature.

III. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR SINFUL NATURE. I do not believe that God's Word teaches that we were guilty of original sin in Adam. But the Word of God is clear that you are guilty and responsible for original sin by your own act. We have inherited sin; God does not condemn us for having inherited it, but for choosing to stand by the sin we have inherited, and refusing to give it up and turn from it when He calls upon us to forsake it and accept His abundant mercy in forgiveness, together with a new nature in Christ Jesus.

(G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

The natural state of mankind in regard of sin

T. Horton, D. D.

I. THE ORIGINAL OF IT. "I was shapen," etc. Original sin, wherewith the nature of man is so infected, consists in two things. First, in Adam's voluntary transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit, imputed to all his posterity. Secondly, in the hereditary corruption of nature, propagated and derived to his posterity.

II. THE MANNER OF IT, HOW IT IS CONVEYED. There are divers opinions about it, and each have their arguments for them. It is enough for us to know this, that man produces his like not only in nature, but also in corruption; and the one is consequent upon the other; so that it is impossible for a sinner to produce any other than a sinner (Job 14:4; John 3:6). The consideration of this point is thus far useful unto us.

1. As it teaches parents how to carry themselves towards their children; which, although it be not to indulge them, yet to pity corruption in them, as considering how themselves have been the occasions of conveying it to them. And further, it will hence concern parents to be so much the more careful and industrious of freeing their children from sin, so far forth as lies in their power. As they have been the occasion of corrupting them, so they should be likewise instruments of reforming them; and as they have been the conveyers of sin, so they should be also of grace. Now, this is especially done three manner of ways.(1) By hearty and earnest prayers to God for them.(2) By good and careful education.(3) By godly example. I might add as an appurtenance hereunto the bringing of them to the Sacrament of Baptism, the laver of regeneration (Titus 3:5), as that which seals to all true believers their new birth in opposition to their corruption of nature.

2. Here is an item also to children from hence, not to glory too much in their pedigree and natural birth into the world. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite; thou wast shapen in iniquity, and in sin did thy mother conceive thee.

III. THE NOTORIOUSNESS OF IT. "Behold." David sets a mark upon this sin as being most grievous. And so it is.

1. In respect of the largeness of it; for it comprehends in it all other sins and evils.

2. in regard of the strength and power of it.

(1)As it hinders us from good (Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:17; Romans 8:7; Jeremiah 13:28).

(2)As it Carries forcibly to evil (Jeremiah 8:6; Genesis 11:6; Ephesians 4:19).

3. The inherence and permanency of it (Romans 7:17). As for many actual sins, they may be wholly suppressed in us so as we may never return to them again. But this corruption of nature will always more or less continue; and we shall never be freed absolutely from the actings and stirrings of it so long as we live. Now, the application of this point thus explained may be drawn forth into this improvement, namely, as matter of just abasement and humiliation to us, and that which may lay us low both in our own eyes and the eyes of God. And it may do so to two sorts of persons. First, those who are yet in their natural condition; here's a word of astonishment and advertisement also to them. By how much the more grievous original sin is in its own nature, by so much the more sad and lamentable is their estate, and they have cause to be affected with it. Now, further, there may be an improvement of it likewise to the regenerate, and that to sundry intents. First, in a way of thankfulness to God for their freedom and deliverances. The worse that original sin is, the greater mercy to be freed from such an evil. Secondly, in an endeavour to make others partakers of this birth so far forth as we are able; it is that which Paul professes of himself in the behalf of the Galatians (Galatians 4:19). Thus should ministers for their people, parents for their children, Christian friends one for another, seeing a natural condition is so grievous, therefore being renewed themselves, to endeavour likewise the conversion of others. Thirdly, in a way of caution and wariness for themselves. They should hence ha persuaded to keep a watch over their own hearts, and to remember that they have flesh in them as well as spirit, from whence they may not make too bold with the occasions and temptations to sin, but may suppress and subdue them in them betimes. And further, to have sober thoughts in themselves when they behold the enormities of others; not to be high-minded, but to fear.

(T. Horton, D. D.)

Total depravity

G. F. Pentecost, D. D.

Total depravity is the entire alienation of the will and affections from God; and that carries all the good qualities as well aa the bad ones away from God and enlists them against Him. A daughter, tenderly reared and carefully educated, in an evil hour yields to temptation and loses her virtue, and subsequently chooses to lead a life of sin and shame. So far as her standing in society and among virtuous people is concerned she is totally depraved; and yet in her sin and shame she retains her accomplishments, and if not all her former graces and kindliness of heart and disposition, at least very much that is good. But who will deny that, for all this, she is in every sense a bad and totally lost woman, so far as virtuous society is concerned? I have recently wandered over some of the splendid ruins of Europe — through many an ancient abbey and cathedral. In some, if not all, there were the remains of their ancient and exquisite beauty. Here was a window with its exquisite tracery in stone as complete as when it was built; there an arch as entire and strong as of yore; and here again a cloister-room as entire as when it was occupied by one of the priests of the chapter. But for all this, the cathedral as such was a total ruin. Who has not admired with a constantly increasing admiration that grandest of European ruins, the old castle at Heidelberg! Much of it is still intact; its splendid and elaborately carved and sculptured facades are still there and the chapel scarcely decayed; and so of many other parts. And yet it is a mournful ruin, entirely and utterly destroyed so far as the purpose for which it was originally built is concerned. Out here in our own beautiful harbour a few months ago there was a collision between two ships, and one of them went to the bottom. The divers went down to examine her hull and see if it would pay to attempt to raise her, and coming up they pronounced her a "total wreck." Now, some one objects to that report and says, "while the ship is wrecked, to be sure, there are many parts about her that are as good as ever; keel and bow, and one entire side, boiler and engines scarcely damaged — why should she be called a total wreck?" Why? Because she is beyond repair. The materials out of which she was built may be recovered and sold for old iron, but the ship as a ship is wholly ruined. In this sense man, with his many remainders of original beauty and perfections, is a totally depraved being. Man, originally upright, and to serve and enjoy God, he has "sought out many inventions"; he has become entirely alienated from God; and what of his powers have not become the prey of low and disgusting sins have boon preserved for selfish uses and wholly withdrawn from the service of God. Could a man be found who was a model of intellectual and moral perfection who yet withdrew from the fellowship and service of God and used those unimpaired and beautiful faculties against Him, he would be a totally depraved man.

(G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

Nothing but sin

A. Symson.

So the knowledge of this one sin bringeth him to the examination of his whole life, till he find nothing in himself but sin. For if the fountain be poisoned, what will the streams be that flow from it? If we would look back to our original sin, we might have cause the more to lament our actual sins as poisoned streams flowing from such a fountain. So soon, therefore, as our conscience accuseth us of any one sin, we should call to remembrance the whole course of our life, that it hath been nothing else but a continual sinning against God; that thus the last putting us in mind of the first, we may not he content to repent and ask pardon for one, but for all. A sick man having obtained health, doth remember how long he was sick, whereby for the present he both considereth his own frailty and God's mercy in delivering him, as also encourageth and animateth himself against the time to come, by remembrance of former mercies obtained. Happy were we if we would begin to remember our miseries and God's mercies.

(A. Symson.)

The fact of original sin indisputable

Sin must be within us naturally, since the best training does not prevent it. Children secluded from the sight or hearing of evil, kept as it were within a glass case, yet run to it when the restraint is removed. As the young duck which has been reared in a dry place, yet takes to the water as soon as it sees a pond, so do many hasten to evil at the first opportunity. How often it happens that those young persons who have been most shut out from the world have become the readiest victims of temptation when the time has come for them to quit the parental roof! It must be in them, or it could not thus come out of them. In many cases evil cannot be the result of mistaken education nor of ill example, and yet there it is; the seed is in the soil, and needs no sowing.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People

Bathsheba, David, Doeg, Nathan, Psalmist, Saul

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Behold, Birth, Conceive, Conceived, Evil, Formed, Forth, Iniquity, Shapen, Sin, Sinful, Truly

Outline

1. David prays for remission of sins, whereof he makes a deep confession
6. He prays for sanctification
16. God delights not in sacrifice, but in sincerity
18. He prays for the church

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Psalm 51:5

     5082   Adam, significance
     5199   womb
     5652   babies
     5655   birth
     6023   sin, universality
     6139   deadness, spiritual
     6156   fall, of humanity
     6745   sanctification, nature and basis
     8244   ethics, and grace

Psalm 51:1-5

6624 confession, of sin

Psalm 51:1-7

6174 guilt, human aspects

Psalm 51:1-10

8272 holiness, growth in

Psalm 51:1-12

8604 prayer, response to God

Psalm 51:1-17

     1065   God, holiness of
     6655   forgiveness, application
     6735   repentance, examples
     8707   apostasy, personal

Psalm 51:2-7

4470 hyssop

Psalm 51:3-5

5888 inferiority

Psalm 51:3-6

5024 inner being
8479 self-examination, examples

Psalm 51:3-7

6115 blame

Psalm 51:4-5

5052 responsibility, to God

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
'... Renew a right spirit within me. 11. ... And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. 12. ... And uphold me with Thy free Spirit.' --PSALM li. 10-12. We ought to be very thankful that the Bible never conceals the faults of its noblest men. David stands high among the highest of these. His words have been for ages the chosen expression for the devotions of the holiest souls; and whoever has wished to speak longings after purity, lowly trust in God, the aspirations of love, or the raptures of devotion, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

January the Twenty-Seventh the Confession of Sin
"I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me." --PSALM li. 1-12. Sin that is unconfessed shuts out the energies of grace. Confession makes the soul receptive of the bountiful waters of life. We open the door to God as soon as we name our sin. Guilt that is penitently confessed is already in the "consuming fire" of God's love. When I "acknowledge my sin" I begin to enter into the knowledge of "pardon, joy, and peace." But if I hide my sin I also hide myself from "the unsearchable …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Unimpeachable Justice
There is now agitating the public mind something which I thought I might improve this day, and turn to very excellent purpose. There are only two things concerning which the public have any suspicion. The verdict of the jury was the verdict of the whole of England; we were unanimous as to the high probability, the well-nigh absolute certainty of his guilt; but there were two doubts in our minds--one of them but small, we grant you, but if both could have been resolved we should have felt more easy …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Wordless Book
"Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."--Psalm 51:7. I DARESAY you have most of you heard of a little book which an old divine used constantly to study, and when his friends wondered what there was in the book, he told them that he hoped they would all know and understand it, but that there was not single word in it. When they looked at it, they found that it consisted of only three leaves; the first was black, the second was red, and the third was pure white. The old minister used to gaze upon …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 57: 1911

Praying Saints of the Old Testaments (Continued)
Bishop Lambeth and Wainwright had a great M. E. Mission in Osaka, Japan. One day the order came from high up that no more meetings would be allowed in the city by Protestants. Lambeth and Wainwright did all they could but the high officials were obstinate and unrelenting. They then retired to the room of prayer. Supper time came and the Japanese girl came to summon them to their meal, but she fell under the power of prayer. Mrs. Lambeth came to find what the matter was and fell under the same power. …
Edward M. Bounds—Prayer and Praying Men

Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D.
In the fourth period of the Church under the heathen Empire, or the period of the consolidation of the Church, the number of Christians increased so rapidly that the relation of the Roman State to the Church became a matter of the gravest importance (ch. 1). During a period of comparative peace and prosperity the Church developed its doctrinal system and its constitution (ch. 2). Although the school of Asia Minor became isolated and temporarily ceased to affect the bulk of the Church elsewhere, the …
Joseph Cullen Ayer Jr., Ph.D.—A Source Book for Ancient Church History

Some Helps to Mourning
Having removed the obstructions, let me in the last place propound some helps to holy mourning. 1 Set David's prospect continually before you. My sin is ever before me' (Psalm 51:3). David, that he might be a mourner, kept his eye full upon sin. See what sin is, and then tell me if there be not enough in it to draw forth tears. I know not what name to give it bad enough. One calls it the devil's excrement. Sin is a complication of all evils. It is the spirits of mischief distilled. Sin dishonours …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Songs of the Fugitive.
The psalms which probably belong to the period of Absalom's rebellion correspond well with the impression of his spirit gathered from the historical books. Confidence in God, submission to His will, are strongly expressed in them, and we may almost discern a progress in the former respect as the rebellion grows. They flame brighter and brighter in the deepening darkness. From the lowest abyss the stars are seen most clearly. He is far more buoyant when he is an exile once more in the wilderness, …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Transcriber's Note.
There are significant differences in the numerous reprints of Isaac Watts' "Psalms." The first generation of this Project Gutenberg file was from an 1818 printing by C. Corrall of 38 Charing Cross, London. The Index and the Table of First Lines have been omitted for the following reasons: 1. They refer to page numbers that are here expunged; and 2. In this electronic version key words, etc., can be easily located via searches. Separate numbers have been added to Psalms that have more than one part …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms of David

How God Answered Donald's Prayer
God often uses children to win grown folks for Christ. Little children not only have a deep faith but a childlike trust in believing that God answers their prayers. "All that ye ask in my name, believing, that ye shall receive." As a young girl, I went to Sunday School and learned about Jesus. Although I knew about my Savior and what He had done to save me, yet I never accepted Him as my own Redeemer and Friend. As years went by, I went into sin and shared in the common sins of worldly people. …
S. B. Shaw—Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer

David and Nathan
'And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin.'--2 SAMUEL xii. 13. We ought to be very thankful that Scripture never conceals the faults of its noblest men. High among the highest of them stands the poet- king. Whoever, for nearly three thousand years, has wished to express the emotions of trust in God, longing after purity, aspiration, and rapture of devotion, has found that his words have been before him. And this man …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Out of the Deep of Sin.
Innumerable troubles are come about me. My sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up; yea, they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart hath failed me.--Ps. xl. 15. I acknowledge my faults, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.--Ps. li. 3. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord; and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.--Ps. xxxii. 6. Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

Cleansing.
As there are conditions requiring to be complied with in order to the obtaining of salvation, before one can be justified, e. g., conviction of sin, repentance, faith; so there are conditions for full salvation, for being "filled with the Holy Ghost." Conviction of our need is one, conviction of the existence of the blessing is another; but these have been already dealt with. "Cleansing" is another; before one can be filled with the Holy Ghost, one's heart must be "cleansed." "Giving them the Holy …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life

All are Sinners.
Some time ago we overheard from a person who should have known better, remarks something like these: "I wonder how sinners are saved in the Lutheran Church?" "I do not hear of any being converted in the Lutheran Church," and such like. These words called to mind similar sentiments that we heard expressed long ago. More than once was the remark made in our hearing that in certain churches sinners were saved, because converted and sanctified, while it was at least doubtful whether any one could find …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

God the Holy Spirit the Love which Dwells in the Heart.
"It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments." --Psalm cxxxiii. 2. The fact that love can radiate within man does not insure him the possession of true and real Love, unless, according to His eternal counsel, God is pleased to enter into personal fellowship with him. So long as man knows Him only from afar and not near, God is a stranger to him. He may admire His Love, have a faint sense of it, be pleasantly …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Original Sin
Q-16: DID ALL MANKIND FALL IN ADAM'S FIRST TRANSGRESSION? A: The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him, by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,' &c. Rom 5:12. Adam being a representative person, while he stood, we stood; when he fell, we fell, We sinned in Adam; so it is in the text, In whom all have sinned.' Adam was the head …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh.
16. (10). At that time an episcopal see was vacant,[321] and had long been vacant, because Malachy would not assent: for they had elected him to it.[322] But they persisted, and at length he yielded when their entreaties were enforced by the command of his teacher,[323] together with that of the metropolitan.[324] It was when he was just entering the thirtieth year of his age,[325] that he was consecrated bishop and brought to Connor; for that was the name of the city through ignorance of Irish ecclesiastical …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

In Fine, Supplication for Pardon, with Humble and Ingenuous Confession of Guilt...
In fine, supplication for pardon, with humble and ingenuous confession of guilt, forms both the preparation and commencement of right prayer. For the holiest of men cannot hope to obtain anything from God until he has been freely reconciled to him. God cannot be propitious to any but those whom he pardons. Hence it is not strange that this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer, as we learn from several passages in The Psalms. David, when presenting a request on a different subject, …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

But Regard the Troops of virgins, Holy Boys and Girls...
37. But regard the troops of virgins, holy boys and girls: this kind hath been trained up in Thy Church: there for Thee it hath been budding from its mother's breasts; for Thy Name it hath loosed its tongue to speak, Thy Name, as through the milk of its infancy, it hath had poured in and hath sucked, no one of this number can say, "I, who before was a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, in that I did in being ignorant, in unbelief." [2130] Yea more, that, which Thou commandedst …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Moral Depravity.
VIII. Let us consider the proper method of accounting for the universal and total moral depravity of the unregenerate moral agents of our race. In the discussion of this subject, I will-- 1. Endeavor to show how it is not to be accounted for. In examining this part of the subject, it is necessary to have distinctly in view that which constitutes moral depravity. All the error that has existed upon this subject, has been founded in false assumptions in regard to the nature or essence of moral depravity. …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Sinfulness of Original Sin.
MATTHEW xix. 20.--"The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" In the preceding discourse from these words, we discussed that form and aspect of sin which consists in "coming short" of the Divine Law; or, as the Westminster Creed states it, in a "want of conformity" unto it. The deep and fundamental sin of the young ruler, we found, lay in what he lacked. When our Lord tested him, he proved to be utterly destitute of love to God. His soul was a …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin?
That we may give some satisfaction to this question, we shall, 1. Shew what are the ingredients in this case, or what useth to concur in this distemper. 2. Shew some reasons why the Lord is pleased to dispense thus with his people. 3. Shew how Christ is life to the soul in this case. 4. Shew the believer's duty for a recovery; and, 5. Add a word or two of caution. As to the first, There may be those parts of, or ingredients in this distemper: 1. God presenting their sins unto their view, so as …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

That a Man Ought not to Reckon Himself Worthy of Consolation, but More Worthy of Chastisement
O Lord, I am not worthy of Thy consolation, nor of any spiritual visitation; and therefore Thou dealest justly with me, when Thou leavest me poor and desolate. For if I were able to pour forth tears like the sea, still should I not be worthy of Thy consolation. Therefore am I nothing worthy save to be scourged and punished, because I have grievously and many a time offended Thee, and in many things have greatly sinned. Therefore, true account being taken, I am not worthy even of the least of Thy …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Links

Psalm 51:5 NIV
Psalm 51:5 NLT
Psalm 51:5 ESV
Psalm 51:5 NASB
Psalm 51:5 KJV

Psalm 51:5 Bible Apps
Psalm 51:5 Parallel
Psalm 51:5 Biblia Paralela
Psalm 51:5 Chinese Bible
Psalm 51:5 French Bible
Psalm 51:5 German Bible

Psalm 51:5 Commentaries

Bible Hub