Psalms 51:2

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

David’s cry for pardon

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.)

The repentance of David

I. The means which won him to it. It was the preacher’s voice. How wretched, how fearful, how nigh unto reprobation was his state ere Nathan came to him. And now he breaks down like the snow wreath when the sun looks full upon it.

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.)

A specific plea for pardon

I. The kinds of sin are laid down in a variety of expressions: transgression, iniquity, sin. All of them together, for the nature of them, are here exhibited as polluting and defiling. This point sets a price upon the blood of Christ, which “cleanseth us from all sin.”

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 (Psalms 32:1; Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:18).

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.)

Deliverance from iniquity and sin sought

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.)