Psalms 51:1-19

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness.

The fifty-first psalm

A darker guilt you will scarcely find--kingly power abused--worst passions yielded to. Yet this psalm breathes from a spirit touched with the finest sensibilities of spiritual feeling. Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell; something strangely near to God. It is good to observe this, that we rightly estimate: generously of fallen humanity; moderately of highest saintship. The germs of the worst crimes are in us all. In our deepest degradation there remains something sacred, undefiled, the pledge and gift of our better nature.

I. Scripture estimate of sin.

1. Personal accountability. “My sin.” It is hard to believe the sins we do are our own. We lay the blame anywhere but on ourselves. But here David owns it as his.

2. Estimated as hateful to God. The simple judgment of the conscience. But another estimate, born of the intellect, comes in collision with this religion and bewilders it. Look over life, and you will find it hard to believe that sin is against God: that it is not rather for Him. No doubt, out of evil comes good; evil is the resistance in battle, out of which good is created and becomes possible; it is the parent of all human industry. Even moral evil is generative of good. Thoughts such as these, I doubt not, haunt and perplex us all. Conscience is overborne by the intellect. “Perhaps evil is not so bad after all--perhaps good--who knows?” Remember, therefore, in matters practical, conscience, not intellect, is our guide. Unsophisticated conscience ever speaks this language of the Bible.

3. Sin estimated as separation from God. It is not that suffering and pain follow it, but that it is a contradiction of our own nature and God’s will. This is the feeling of this psalm. Do you fancy that men like David, shuddering in sight of evil, dreaded a material hell? Into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise I when the idea of the strife of self-will in battle with the loving will of God prolonged for ever, has painted itself to the imagination as the real infinite Hell! when self-concentration and the extinction of love in the soul has been felt as the real damnation of the devil-nature!

II. Restoration.

1. Sacrifice of a broken spirit. Observe the accurate and even Christian perception of the real meaning of sacrifice by the ancient spiritually-minded Jews. It has its origin in two feelings: one human, one divine. The feeling that there must be something surrendered to God, and that our best, is true; but men have mixed up with it the false thought that this sacrifice pleases God because of the loss or pain which it inflicts. Hence, the heathen idea of appeasement, to buy off his wrath, to glut his fury. See story of Iphigenia, Zaleucus, etc. These notions were mixed with Judaism, and are even now found in common views of Christ’s sacrifice. But men like David felt that what lay beneath all sacrifice as its ground and meaning was surrender to God’s will: that a man’s best is himself; and to sacrifice this is the true sacrifice. Learn, then, God does not wish pain, but goodness; not suffering, but you--yourself--your heart. Even in the sacrifice of Christ, God wished only this. It was precious not because it was pain, but because the pain, the blood, the death, were the last and highest evidence of entire surrender.

2. Spirit of liberty. “Thy free spirit”--literally, princely. A princely is a free spirit, unconstrained--“the royal law of liberty.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The exceeding sinfulness of sin

I. The nature of sin in the eyes of one who sees God. Just as one crime against the State can set all the machinery of our civilization against us, on which our existence now runs so smoothly; and the network of law, which secured us freedom of motion in the right path, serves only to trip us up when we have left it; so, one great act of sin against God has the power to pervert all the spiritual relationships of our life. In an ethical study by a popular writer, in the form of a story; at a critical moment the heroine is vouchsafed a vision of a successful sin in all its hideous nature, and shrinks back appalled. David sees it here, but, alas I too late to save his life from the shadow which never again left it.

II. Where iniquity did abound, grace did much more abound. The penitent, having laid bare his sin, now asks for God’s grace. First he asks for mercy. When the foe lay vanquished in the power of the conqueror, to cry, “Mercy!” meant “Ransom!”--“Spare my life and take a ransom! What a meaning it may have to us if, when we cry, “Mercy!” we feel that we are asking God to take a ransom! “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” but He in His pity allows me to plead those precious merits, and so obtain pardon and peace. But he goes on to ask God to do away his offences; to “blot them out,” as we read elsewhere. Sin remains as a witness against us, and only God can blot it out. This is what we mean by Absolution. But David goes even further. It is a bold prayer, an awful prayer: “Wash me throughly”--more and more. Have we courage to pray thus? Alas! we soon cry out.

III. The grounds on which he asks for pardon.

1. There is the multitude of God’s mercies. Each day we live is an argument in our favour. God sent me here; God has rescued me so often; God is always helping me; though I fall, I shall not be cast away. Hope is a great power. We seem like people forced to climb higher and higher up the face of the cliff by the sea driven in before the gale. It seems impossible to climb any further, and the spray is dashing in their faces, and the rock quivers to its base as the waves are shivered upon it. And then they find, it may be, at their feet, grass and flowers in the cleft of the rock, which could only grow above the highest water-mark, and at once they feel there is hope, and with hope comes an access of strength. So there are flowers in the lives of all of us here, which could only grow at a height above the devouring level of mortal sin. Let us hope.

2. He has told God everything; he has concealed nothing.

3. He acknowledges the true relation of sin to God. It is not the injury done to Uriah or to society; it is the insult done to God. God knows how weak we are. “Behold, I was shapen in wickedness;” and therefore “the truth in the inward parts” can only be reached when the plenitude of mercy touches the magnitude of sin. (Canon Newbolt.)

David’s repentance

I. The cry of contrition. Like a perfect master of medicine, unfolding in his clinical teaching, feature after feature Of the special ease under treatment till the very hereditary taint is manifest, David searches out this worst sickness; like the stern, skilful prosecutor summing up the damning evidence against a criminal, David lays bare fact after fact of his unmitigated guilt; like a faithful, solemn judge according just recompense to the evildoer, David pronounces on himself the penalty of God’s righteous law.

II. The cry for cleansing. This cry for cleansing is twofold--cleanse the record, cleanse myself. Two faces are bent over the proofs of his sin--God’s and David’s. From each gazer these sins must be hidden--from the one that there may be no condemnation, from the other that there may be full consolation. Cleanse me, wash me, make me whiter than snow. What orderliness, what Spirit-taught wisdom in this prayer! A polluted stream may be run off, but a poisoned spring must be cured. The wells of Marsh and the springs of Jericho call for their Maker’s hand. So does my heart. What a terrible but fruitful view of sin!

III. The cry of consecration. These new powers shall not be wasted. The new heart and the new spirit long for work. This fresh and unstinted grace to David fills his soul with thankfulness, and thankfulness embodies itself in toil for God and man. Praise is not wanting. But works surpass words. Grace from God always produces giving to God. Labour is as love, and love is as forgiveness. Where there is no condemnation there should be full consecration. (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.)

The prayer of the penitent

I. The prayer. It was both general and specific. He desired mercy, and he desired it to be specifically manifested in several ways, which he enumerates.

1. The general petition. “Have mercy upon me.” He did not plead right or merit; he did not plead a mitigation Of the righteous law of God. He knew exactly what he needed; and so, like the publican, he sent the arrow of his prayer straight go the mark of his need;

2. The specific petition.

(1) “Blot out my transgressions.” All of them; the covetousness, the adultery, the murder. To blot out carries with it the idea primarily of forgiveness (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22). 42) “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.” This is a prayer for justification, as the former petition was for forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of the gracious and sovereign will of God; but to justify a man from his iniquity is to do so on the ground of some expiation. Hence David’s allusion to the ceremonial law (Psalms 51:7). (Compare Leviticus 14:4; Leviticus 14:9; Numbers 19:18; Hebrews 9:22.) The allusion may be illuminated if we remember the word of Isaiah to sinful Israel (Isaiah 1:18), and the ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus (Revelation 1:5).

(3) “Cleanse me from my sin.” This is a prayer for sanctification. Sin is an offence against God, against the law, and it leaves a stain deep and dark on our souls. God’s mercy provides for this also, and we are assured of such Cleansing (Ephesians 5:25).

II. The confession.

1. Frank acknowledgment. No excuses; no justification. “I have sinned”--that is the long and the short of it. He did not lay the blame on Bathsheba, as Adam on Eve.

2. A standing offence. Unforgiven sin is before us and before God; but forgiven sin is cast behind God’s back, and is among the things upon which we also may turn our backs.

3. An offence against God. God was more wronged even than man, and while no doubt he sorrowed that he had wronged his friend and his friend’s wife, he most bitterly grieved that he had wronged God in them.

4. Deep conviction. “Behold I was shapes in iniquity,” etc. David is convinced that an inherent depravity of nature is the evil root from which all sin springs. So herein he confesses his sinful nature as well as his sinful deeds. It is out of the heart that all evil proceeds. Hence his further prayer, “Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” etc. In this we have a strong hint of regeneration. The nature that is spoiled by sin must be renewed inwardly.

III. Renewed petition. He repeats his prayer for purging and washing, just as oftentimes, even after we are forgiven, the memory of the bitter sins still remains, and we are in some doubt whether it is all gone. It is like the burning of a wound that is healed. It is the sign of returning health; the desire of the soul for an after bath in the cleansing tide.

1. Joy and gladness.

2. He prays for a new heart.

3. He prays for the restoration of salvation’s joy.

4. A vow of consecration. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

A petition and an argument

I. The petition “Have mercy upon me,” etc.

1. Forgiveness of sin is mainly desirable of every sinner.

(1) It frees us from the greatest evil--sin.

(2) It entitles us to the greatest good-forgiveness.

(3) It comforts in the greatest-afflictions incident to us.

(4) It sweetens all other comforts.

2. This serves to stir up our affections and desires in this particular.

3. And the sooner we do this, the better. It is not good or safe for any to suffer sin to be festering in their souls, but to be rid of it as soon as may be, and of the guilt adherent to it; by humiliation of themselves before God, and seeking to Him.

(1) Confession and acknowledgment of miscarriages.

(2) Prayer and seeking to God.

(3) Forsaking it and turning from it.

(4) Forgiveness of others. By these, and the like means, we see how we may attain to this mercy of pardon and forgiveness of our sins.

II. The argument. “According to thy lovingkindness,” etc.

1. Here is something supposed; viz. that there is in God lovingkindness and a multitude of tender mercies.

(1) Lovingkindness, i.e. grace (Psalms 116:5; Psalms 86:15; Psalms 145:9). Here is matter of praise and acknowledgment. We may take notice of it also in a way of information, that we may be able rightly to discern of God’s love and affection to us; we cannot judge of it by His kindness, for that is general and common to all; and there are none (though never so bad) but they do in a degree partake of it, thereby to stop their mouths against Him, and to leave them without excuse. God’s kindness is a lesson to us, to teach us go follow His example.

(2) Mercy or compassion.

(a) The tenderness of God’s mercy is seen in--

(i.) His prudent consideration of the state and condition of the person who sins against Him (Psalms 103:13).

(ii.) His deferring and forbearing to punish and correct, where, notwithstanding, there is ground for it (Psalms 86:15; Joel 2:13; John 4:2; Nahum 1:3).

(iii.) The moderating of His corrections (Jeremiah 30:11). Severity knows no limits when once it begins; but tenderness puts a restraint upon itself; and this also is in God (Psalms 103:10; Ezra 9:13).

(iv.) The seasonable removal; there’s tenderness in that also (Psalms 103:9).

(b) The greatness of it (Psalms 57:10; Psalms 119:156).

(i.) In regard of the object of it. It extends to the pardoning and forgiving of great sins (Isaiah 1:18; 1 Timothy 1:13).

(ii.) For the freeness of it (Romans 9:17; Isaiah 43:25).

(iii.) For the duration (Isaiah 54:7; Psalms 103:17; Lamentations 3:22).

(c) The number and plurality. He has mercy for:

(i.) Many persons.

(ii.) Many offences.

(iii.) Many times of offending (Isaiah 55:7; James 2:13; Romans 5:20; Hosea 14:4; Psalms 103:3).

2. The inference.

(1) Our knowledge of God is then right, and as it should be, when it is improved and drawn down to practice and our own spiritual comfort and advantage.

(2) The best of us stand in need of mercy in their approaches to God.

(3) Great sinners require great mercies for the pardoning and forgiving of them (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

The psalmist’s prayer for mercy

I. To whom the prayer is addressed. He does not address himself to God under the name Jehovah; but makes use of the plural title, which is commonly employed in Scripture when the gracious intercourse of Deity with fallen creatures is spoken of. The title implies the covenant relation to sinful man which God has been pleased to reveal through Jesus Christ our Lord. In our Litany mercy is implored by the use of this title from each of the three Persons in the adorable Trinity separately; and from the Trinity, as three in One.

II. The object which a penitent sinner proposes to himself in drawing near to God; and the spirit or frame of mind in which he addresses Him. A recovery of Divine favour is the grand object of desire to those who are made conscious of its value and of its forfeiture. “In Thy favour is life.” Guilt, natural and acquired, constitutes the impenetrable veil which separates between God and the contrite sinner; and the mediation of Christ, the light of life, is regarded as the only agency by which the dense veil can be swept away.

III. The measure or rule, according to which a penitent sinner desires to be dealt with in the expected answer to his prayer, “According to Thy lovingkindness.” How delightful is this co-operation of the persons of the Godhead in effecting the salvation of sinners! The grace of the Father provided and has accepted the needful atonement; the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work of propitiation; and the grace of the Holy Ghost enables us to pray for an interest in that atonement, and then reveals it, in all its freeness and sufficiency, to the afflicted heart. Thus is the life that is restored to a sinner, in every point of view, “the life of God in the soul of man.” The term “lovingkindness” seems literally to import a confluence of streams to form one vast river. And is not this the view which faith takes of Divine grace--a river deep and wide which is formed by a confluence of all the perfections of the Godhead? Omnipotence, omniscience, infinite justice and holiness all flow into this “river of the water of life.” (T. Biddulph, M. A.)

The greatness of sin to a true penitent

1. The true penitent sees sin as against God.

2. The penitent sees in his sin a corruption of nature. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.”

3. The penitent acknowledges that all his religous acts are a mockery of God. “Thou desirest not sacrifice. .. Thou delightest not in burnt offering.” If religious acts, offerings, prayers, labours, penances, could cover sin, how gladly would he bring them! We have made clean the outside. God desireth truth in the inward parts.

4. The penitent sees that sin deprives him of joy, and thus of spiritual power.

5. The penitent sees his sin as destructive to the Church. To the opened eyes of David his sin had, as it were, thrown down the walls of Zion. “Build thou,” he prays, “the walls of Jerusalem!” Every backslider’s sin has this destroying power.

6. The true penitent offers no extenuation for sin. Beware of palliations. They may exist. Let others find them. Let God allow for them if He will. But in the penitent they always indicate that the work in him has not been thorough.

7. The penitent sees that the evil of sin is its sinfulness. He felt himself, by his sin, separated from God.

8. The penitent sees that public sin demands a full and public confession. Perhaps there are sins in our lives, which in our confessions we have slighted. They were known to others; they had publicity. And men who knew us said, “If he ever repents he will confess that sin. That shall be the test with us of the genuineness of his repentance.” But we did not confess. We tried. Often it troubles us.

9. The true penitent justifies God in His judgment upon sin.

10. The penitent acknowledges that sin requires a great remedy. He needed inward cleansing. “ Purge me with hyssop “ refers to the Levitical sacrifice which prefigured the atonement. Only when we make sin great do we give the sacrifice of Christ its due honour. (Monday Club Sermons.)

The prayer of the Penitent

I. The guilt of sin. Titles of lighter meaning have been substituted in its place--“vice” as though it were merely an evil against self alone; “crime “ or an offence against society. All such subterfuges are simply a glossing over of what is a moral evil in its relations to God. You cannot touch man without touching God; cannot wrong him without wronging God.

II. The Divine forgiveness, Between blinding one’s eyes against the guilt of sin and seeking infinite mercy to overcome such guilt, there is almost an infinite remove. It exalts the Divine character to know His readiness to forgive sin, while at the same time God can be justified when he speaks, and be clear when He judges.

III. The new heart. There must be more than the outward cleansing of the cup to make it clean. All things must become new in the new creature in Christ Jesus.

IV. The fruits of the new life.

1. He seeks first the personal rest freed from the goadings of his sin. He longs for the joy he once had, but which is now lost. He seeks a strength other than his own.

2. He recognizes the connection between the character of the leaders and the followers in the service of God. “Then will I teach transgressors,” etc. (David O. Mears.)

The moan of a king

The prayers of the Bible are among its sublimest treasures. Prayer does not set forth merely what I am, but what I would be; it is my ideal life; it is a glimpse and a struggling after a higher mode of being. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” Mark the thoroughness of this desire. Not only must sin be blotted out, but the sinner himself must be washed and cleansed. There must not be merely a change of state, but a change of nature. Not only must the debt be forgiven, but all disposition to contract further debt must be eradicated. David at the outset of the psalm appeals for mercy. No penitent asks for justice. The Pharisee may, not the publican. But for sin we should never have known the merciful side of the Divine government. We should have known nothing but law. As we are indebted to the storm for the rainbow, so we are indebted to sin for the better boon of earth-encircling mercy. “I acknowledge my transgressions.” Confession is a necessary basis for forgiveness, and is a convergence of right judgment, right feeling, right action. But there are many kinds of expression which are wholly unavailing. As the selfish confession of the criminal who turns king’s evidence. The defiant confession of the man who glories in his crime. The careless confession made with an air of indifference and is insensible of the turpitude of his crime. But David’s is far other than these. “My sin is ever before me.” The point to be noted here is the distinct personal relation which every man sustains to his own sin. Try for a moment to embody sin. Personify iniquities! Let each transgression assume material manifestation. Covetousness--a lean, gaunt, spectral image; with outstretched bony fingers; with eager eyes, in which is written the expression of an insatiable hunger. Look at that and call it your sin. Unholy anger, with swollen lips and fire-lit eyes, and heaving breast; oaths and blasphemies might well burn on such lips and glare out of such eyes. That unholy anger is yours (verse 4). “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” Some sins exclusively against God, others against man also; but none are exclusively against man. But whosoever sins against man sins against God. Let all oppressors heed this. While it is true, therefore, that you can sin against God without directly sinning against man, yet it is equally true that you cannot sin against God without diminishing your power to promote the highest interests of man; so that sin is an enemy in every respect--hateful to God, hurtful to man, darkening the heavens, burdening the earth! What shall be our prayer in relation to it? “Wash me throughly,” etc. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The penitent sinner

I. The penitent’s prayer.

1. A prayer of pity. Three ways of treating sin: indifference, severity, mercy. God’s way, as revealed specially by Christ, unites both justice and mercy.

2. A prayer for pardon. Sin must be blotted out before peace can be restored.

3. A prayer for purification. There is here a recognition--

(1) Of his perilous position; and

(2) Of his personal accountability: “nay sin.”

II. The penitent’s plea. He does not plead past purity, pious parentage, public position, princely prowess; but the plenitude of God’s mercy. A “multitude” of tender mercies! (Homilist.)

Lessons

1. To fly to God is the only true way to find comfort in the time of spiritual distress.

(1) There is a commandment for it (Psalms 50:15).

(2) There is a promise of success (Isaiah 65:24).

(3) There is ability in God to give a gracious issue to all our distresses (Proverbs 18:8; Ephesians 3:20).

(4) He is ready both to be found and to afford that which is desired (Psalms 46:1; Micah 7:18; Psalms 145:18).

(5) Because He would have all His diligent in this course, He hath furnished them with the Spirit of prayer (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:26).

2. The mercy of God in the pardon of sin is a blessing of exceeding worth. It is the hungry soul that can best judge of the worth of good. It is he which lieth sick upon his couch, and not able to stir for weakness, that can tell the worth of health. When thy soul is pained with the horror of sin, then thou wilt be fit to apprehend the truth of this doctrine, and then thou wilt need but little quickening to this kind of suit.

3. In forgiving of sin, there is an utter abolishment on God’s part of the guilt of sin (Psalms 32:1; Isaiah 44:22; Micah 7:18; Jeremiah 31:34; Jeremiah 50:20).

4. Man hath no plea but the freedom of God’s grace in making suit for the pardon of his sins (Psalms 130:4; Ezra 9:6; Ezra 9:10; Ezra 9:15). (S. Hieron.)

The prayer for mercy

1. The true suppliant believes that there is mercy with God. This is the greatest wonder of the Divine being. The omniscience of God is a wonder. The omnipotence of God is a wonder. God’s spotless holiness is a wonder. None of these things can we understand. But the greatest wonder of all is the mercy of God. In heaven men are humbled at the thought of it, and never cease to adore and thank God for His mercy. For there God is known as the Holy One.

2. The suppliant also feels that he has need of mercy; that nothing but free grace alone can be his hope.

3. He desires also that mercy may be shown to him. That God is merciful, he cries, that I know there is great mercy with God, that there is mercy for all son still bring me no rest. What I need to make the anxious heart peaceful is, that I should know God is merciful to me, Be merciful to me, yes, to me, O God of mercy.

4. This longing is in full harmony with what God’s Word teaches us on these points. The Word speaks always of finding mercy, obtaining mercy, receiving mercy, partaking of mercy, having mercy; and looked at from the side of God as an action, it is called giving mercy, showing mercy. (Andrew Murray.)

God’s lovingkindness

God’s kindness is more than ordinary, and more than extraordinary; it must be called “loving.” The kindness is loving, and the love is kind. There is no love like His, no kindness like His. All kindness but this, if you use it often, wears out. However great the kindness of a neighbour be, if you keep daily drawing upon it you will soon exhaust it. The kindness of a friend has limits which are soon reached and passed, The kindness of a father or a mother--for that is the kindest that this world possesses--that, even that, has its limits. God’s kindness is loving. It is the strong band of love that makes it so long and so lasting. You cannot break that cord, it is so fine and yet so strong. (T. Alexander, M. A.)

According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

God’s mercy

The greatest comfort that Christians have in their trouble is, that they have to do with a merciful God, and not rigorous, nor one who will chide with us continually, but, one who is slow to anger, ready to forgive, whose name is mercy, whose nature is merciful, who hath promised to be merciful, who is the Father of mercies. The earth is full of His mercies, they are above the heavens and the clouds; His mercy is above all His works, extending to a thousand generations, whose mercy endureth for ever. (A. Symson.)

God’s-tender mercies

They are unbounded, and they are “tender.” Our mercy is not tender. What little mercy you find in man is often harsh and hard. It is a common saying among us, “I forgive, but I do not forget.” There is often harshness, hardness, unkindness in the way in which our mercy is bestowed. And even when that is not so, but when man bestows his kindness and vouchsafes his mercy in his blandest way, you could never think of calling it “tender.” But God forgives; and when He forgives He does it tenderly. There is no upbraiding. He blots out the trangression, and there is no more remembrance of it at all. He forgets as soon as He forgives. It is done in a gentle way. “Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.” The sin is swept away; it is cast behind His, back into the depths of the sea. God’s mercies are very tender. And then they are a multitude. Tender in their nature, they are a multitude in their number. They are numberless, measureless, endless. Like the stars, man cannot count them. Like the grains of sand that cushion yonder wave-beaten shore, no man knows how many they be. God’s mercies, beginning with our birth, are heaped up around and upon us all day long, and all through our life journey. (T. Alexander, D. D.)

God’s former dealings a plea for mercy

These words, “According to Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies,” may be taken not only absolutely but respectively in reference to his own former experiences of the goodness of God towards him. David had found and felt how gracious God had been to him in former time, in divers mercies which He had bestowed upon him in several kinds and ways; and more particularly in the pardoning and forgiving of sin unto him, and in the assuring of him also of this pardon; and now he deals with God upon terms of His wonted goodness, which he desires still may be continued to him. This shows us the advantage of God’s children in this particular, that they can deal with God upon the account of former goodness; that having justified their persons in general, He should remit their special transgression to them; and having forgiven them the sins of their nature, He should therefore consequently forgive to them likewise the sins of their lives. The reason of it is this, because He is still like Himself, and changes not, so that he that hath done the one, will not stick to do the other with it; God’s mercies are so linked and chained together that we may reason in this manner from them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

“Blot out my trangressions”

The general prayer for mercy is not enough. The Lord desires that we should know and say what we would have mercy to do for us. And the first thing is this, “According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” The law of God takes reckoning of every transgression that we commit. In the great account-book of heaven they stand against us as a record of our guilt. David knew that there could be no intercourse with the holy and righteous God so long as this old guilt was not abolished, was not blotted out. He knew that mercy could not convert or change the sinner, or bring him to heaven, unless his guilt was first blotted out. The wrath of God must first be appeased. The old guilt of the past must first be taken out of the way. The sinner must have acquittal and the forgiveness of his sins. This is the first work of Divine grace. Without this, God the Holy Judge cannot receive the sinner into His friendship; and therefore he prays, “Have mercy upon me. Blot out my transgressions.” (Andrew Murray.)

Sin blotted out

A boy ran in to his mother one day after he had read that promise, “I will blot out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.” And he said: “Mother, what does God mean when He says He will blot out my sins? What is He going to do with them? I can’t see how God can really blot them out and put them away. What does it mean--blot out?” The mother, who is always the best theologian for a child, said to the boy, “Didn’t I see, you yesterday writing on your slate?” “Yes,” he said. “Well, show it to me. He brought his slate to his mother, who, holding it out in front of him, said, “Where is what you wrote? Oh,” he said, “I rubbed it out.” “Well, where is it?” “Why, mother, I don’t know.” “But how could you put it away if it was really there?” “Oh, mother, I don’t know. I know it was there, and it is gone.” “Well,” she said, “that is what God meant when He said, ‘I will blot out thy transgressions.’” (Campbell Morgan, D. D.)