“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” Psalm 51:2
I don’t now about you, but my first response to sin in my life is to minimize it. I look for ways to lesson my responsibility. Someone else made me angry and that’s why I responded the way I did. I was sick or tired or simply don’t remember doing anything wrong. Or how about this one: what I did is not as bad as what someone else did. In all these ways and more, I attempt to justify my actions, to make my sin seem like a good thing, when it is actually far from it.
In Psalm 51, we get a glimpse into the heart of a sinner, King David. The prophet Nathan confronted David for his sin against Bathsheba and his immediate response wasn’t to self-justify himself. He didn’t try to minimize his sin or look for someone else on which to lay the blame. He didn’t even come up with some method to rehabilitate himself; rather, he simply said, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). He then penned Psalm 51, a lament in which he confessed his sin to the Lord. This psalm then became a hymn for God’s people.
There is much we can learn from David’s psalm about confession of sin. Even more, it can help shape our own prayers of confession.
Trust in God’s steadfast love and mercy: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” (v.1). At the start of this psalm, David turned in humble reliance upon God’s covenant love and mercy. These are characteristics of God found throughout Scripture, linked with his identity as the Great I AM (see Ex. 34:6-7). This is the truth we too must rest in when we cry out to the Lord and seek his forgiveness for sin. We come before One who is unchanging in his steadfast love and mercy. The same God who walked past Moses as he hid behind a rock is the same God who hears our prayers today. The same God to whom David turned in prayer, is the same God we turn to today—full of steadfast love and mercy.
Our sin is against God: Though David’s sin was against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, it was ultimately a sin against a holy and righteous God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (v.4). We must remember that all our sin is against God. Even one sin, no matter how small it may seem, is an affront to One who is holy pure. When we have sinned, it is important that we call it what it is. That we name it. That we don’t minimize or excuse it, but confess it.
Salvation is found in God alone: Only God can cleanse us from our sin. “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow… Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior” (vv. 2, 7, 14). In David’s day, atonement for sin was made through the sacrificial system, one that had to be repeated over and over. On this side of redemptive history, forgiveness and salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Through faith in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, we are cleansed from sin and made righteous. There is nowhere we can turn for life and hope but in Jesus. No one else can rescue us but the perfect Lamb of God. As much as humanity might like to think otherwise, there is no other solution, plan, or remedy available to us. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6).
Our sin is a barrier between us and God: David refers to this barrier in Psalm 51, “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” (vs. 11-12). Ever since our first parents sinned and were cast out of the Garden, there has been a barrier between us and God. Jesus came to tear down this barrier. He came to bring us back into right relationship with the One who made us. And in removing this barrier, we now have full access to the throne of grace, where we can come to God in confidence and receive the grace and help we need (Heb. 4:16).
God cleanses us and makes us new: In this lament, David asks for cleansing: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v.10). Not only does David want forgiveness, he wants to be cleansed; he wants to be washed clean from his sin. We have to be made right before we can come into God’s presence, for only those who are holy can stand before him. In Christ, we are new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). What amazing grace!
God wants our broken and contrite hearts: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (vv.16-17). We bring nothing to the throne of grace but our broken and contrite hearts. We come to God just as we are. We do so through the sacrifice of Christ, wrapped in his robes of righteousness. When we’ve sinned, it is good and right to come to the Lord in lament for our sin, bringing him our broken and contrite hearts. That is a sacrifice he delights in.
Our response to this grace is a heart that rejoices. Anyone who encounters God’s amazing grace— who has been forgiven, cleansed, and made right with God— can’t help but response in praise to the One who made it so. “Restore to me the joy our your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (v.12). “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise” (v. 15). When we’ve confessed our sin and appropriated the gospel of Jesus Christ to our heart and experience God’s grace and forgiveness anew, we respond in praise and thanksgiving. We rejoice at the goodness of God.
David sinned against Bathsheba and rightly felt the sting of conviction. His guilt weighed on him, so much so, that it felt like broken bones (v.8). When we too feel the pain of conviction for sin, may we be quick to run to our Father in prayer. May we come to him in humility and honesty, with complete confidence, knowing that our loving, merciful God forgives us through the cleansing blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
