Psalms 51:3-6

David Freely And Openly Admits His Total Sinfulness And Guilt (Psalms 51:3).

David tells God that he now knows the truth about himself. He no longer dismisses what he has done as unimportant because he is a king and chief judge, and therefore, as the one finally responsible for the law, above the law. For God has brought home to him the depths to which he has fallen. He now recognises his responsibility towards a greater King and Judge. As he said to Nathan when his sin was made clear to him, ‘I have sinned against YHWH' (2 Samuel 12:13).

Psalms 51:3

For as for me I know my transgressions,

And my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned,

And done what is evil in your sight,

That you may be justified when you speak,

And be clear when you judge.

In the Hebrew the ‘I' is emphasised, which we have indicated by the words ‘as for me'. He is emphasising his inner awareness of his own guiltiness. ‘I know', that is, I have recognised the situation for what it is and am fully aware of what I have done. I recognise that I have no excuse. ‘My rebellions.' He has not just done wrong, he has been in rebellion against God, something revealed by his two acts of open rebellion. ‘My sin is ever before me.' All who have ever come under deep conviction of sin will know what he means. Whatever he tries to do he cannot get away from the heavy weight of guilt that lies upon him. It continually forces itself on his attention. Only God can remove it.

‘Against you, you only have I sinned.' He had, of course, sinned against Uriah, and he had sinned against the nation by bringing it under the wrath of God. But Uriah was dead and could not hold him accountable. And the nation had no jurisdiction over him. Who else could bring the king into account? There was only One other and that was God. He was responsible only to God. Indeed, it was the shame that he had brought on God's Name that wholly possessed his thoughts. He was a man who truly loved God, and the thought of how he had disgraced his God tore deep into his heart. It blotted out any other thought.

‘And done what is evil in your sight.' No one had seen his adultery, he had made sure of that. The murder had been cleverly concealed. Only Joab knew of his desire to have Uriah killed. All his attention had been on ensuring that no one else knew. And he had been quite satisfied in his heart that he was in the clear. But now Nathan had brought home to him the fact that God had been watching all the time. God had seen everything that he had done, and was appalled by it. He had not only done evil, but he had done it openly before God. His greatest sin was his treating of God as though He would not know and flouting His severest Laws before His eyes. The words echo the words of Nathan in 2 Samuel 12:9, ‘why have you despised the word of YHWH, to do what is evil in His sight?'.

‘In order that you may be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge.' Thus he admitted that God was totally justified in pronouncing judgment against Him, He was after all an eyewitness, and was thus totally in the clear in judging him. No charge could be brought against God of unfairness. He had seen what had been done.

David does not, of course mean that his sin was committed in order that God might be justified, as though the revelation of God's justice rested upon his having sinned, thus suggesting that his sin has achieved a good purpose. The reference back is rather to his having done it in His sight. It was because he had done it in His sight that God was justified in passing sentence. He had not, of course intended to do it in God's sight. But all that we do is in His sight. This is why none of us can avoid our sins, or God's judgment on them. It is because He is an eyewitness to them. And God has determined that all that we do should be done in His sight in order that He might be justified in calling it into account.

Psalms 51:5

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

And in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts,

And in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.

In his deep awareness of his sinfulness David now looks back to how it is he can be so depraved. It is because he was the product of sinful parents. It is because man is inherently sinful so that every child born is sinful. He is not excusing his sin, but recognising his true state, and the true state of every man. There was only One Who was brought forth sinless. And He was not the product of a human father, nor of a human egg. He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit's working (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35). Thus all men, including the smallest child, is sinful before God, although not guilty until a sin is first committed. However, that act of sin is not long in coming. ‘The unrighteous are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies' (Psalms 58:3). Lying and deceit is inherent in human nature.

‘Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.' God, on the other hand, demands truth. He is the very opposite of man. And what He requires of those who love Him, is not an outward response of truth only, but truth in the inward parts. Total honesty within. This requires the mighty working of God within, spoken of in the Old Testament as being ‘circumcised in heart' (Deuteronomy 30:6; compare Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4; Exodus 6:30) and ‘having the law written in the heart' (Jeremiah 31:33), and in the New Testament as being ‘born from above' (John 3:3) and ‘newly created' (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10). For such an experience only comes about when God makes us to know wisdom in our inner lives. David was thus aware that such an experience could only come about by the divine activity of God.