PSALM LI _The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for remission_ _of sins_, 1-4; _which he confesses, and deeply deplores_, 5-14; _states his willingness to offer sacrifice, but is convinced that_ _God prefers a broken heart to all kinds of oblations_, 15-17; _prays for the restorati... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:2. _WASH ME THROUGHLY_] הרבה כבסני _harbeh cabbeseni_, "Wash me again and again, - cause my washings to be multiplied." My stain is deep; ordinary purgation will not be sufficient.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:3. _FOR I ACKNOWLEDGE MY TRANSGRESSIONS_] I know, I feel, I confess that I have sinned. _MY SIN_ IS _EVER BEFORE ME._] A true, deep, and unsophisticated mark of a genuine penitent. Wherever he turns his face, he sees his sin, and through it the eye of an angry God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:4. _AGAINST THEE, THEE ONLY, HAVE I SINNED_] This verse is supposed to show the impropriety of affixing the above _title_ to this Psalm. It could not have been composed on account of the matter with Bath-sheba and the murder of Uriah; for, surely, these sins could not be said to have... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:5. _BEHOLD, I WAS SHAPEN IN INIQUITY_] A genuine penitent will hide nothing of his state; he sees and bewails, not only the _acts_ of sin which he has committed, but the _disposition_ that led to those acts. He deplores, not only the _transgression_, but the _carnal mind_, which is... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:6. _BEHOLD, THOU DESIREST TRUTH_] I am the very reverse of what I should be. _Thou desirest truth in the heart_; but in me there is nothing but sin and falsity. _THOU SHALT MAKE ME TO KNOW WISDOM._] Thou wilt teach me to restrain every inordinate propensity, and to act according to... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:7. _PURGE ME WITH HYSSOP_] תחטאני _techatteeni_, "thou shalt make a sin-offering for me;" probably alluding to the cleansing of the leper: Leviticus 14:1, c. The priest took two clean birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop one of the birds was killed; and the living bird, with the s... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:8. _MAKE ME TO HEAR JOY_] Let me have a full testimony of my reconciliation to thee; that the soul, which is so deeply distressed by a sense of thy displeasure, may be healed by a sense of thy pardoning mercy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:9. _HIDE THY FACE FROM MY SINS_] The sentiment here is nearly the same as that in Psalms 51:3: _His sin was ever before his own face_; and he knew that the eye of God was constantly upon him, and that his purity and justice must be highly incensed on the account. He therefore, with a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:10. _CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART_] _Mending_ will not avail; my heart is altogether corrupted; it must be _new made_, made as it was in the beginning. This is exactly the sentiment of St. Paul: _Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but_ _a new creation_; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:11. _CAST ME NOT AWAY FROM THY PRESENCE_] Banish me not from thy house and ordinances. _TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME._] I know I have sufficiently grieved it to justify its departure for ever, in consequence of which I should be consigned to the blackness of darkness, - either t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:12. _RESTORE UNTO ME THE JOY OF THY SALVATION_] This is an awful prayer. And why? Because it shows he _once HAD the joy of_ _God's salvation; and had LOST it by sin_! _UPHOLD ME_ WITH THY _FREE SPIRIT._] Prop me up; support me with a princely spirit, one that will not stoop to a mea... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:13. THEN _WILL I TEACH TRANSGRESSORS_] I will show myself to be grateful; I will testify of thy loving-kindness; I will call on transgressors to consider the error of their ways; and shall set before them so forcibly thy _justice_ and _mercy_, that sinners shall be converted unto the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:14. _DELIVER ME FROM BLOOD-GUILTINESS_] This is one of the expressions that gives most colour to the propriety of the title affixed to this Psalm. Here he may have in view the _death of_ _Uriah_, and consider that _his blood_ cries for vengeance against him; and nothing but the mere... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:15. _O LORD, OPEN THOU MY LIPS_] My heart is believing unto righteousness; give me thy peace, that my tongue may make confession unto salvation. He could not praise God for pardon till he felt that God had pardoned him; then his lips would be opened, and his tongue would show forth t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:16. _FOR THOU DESIREST NOT SACRIFICE_] This is the same sentiment which he delivers in Psalms 40:6, c., where see the notes. There may be here, however, a farther meaning: Crimes, like mine, are not to be expiated by any sacrifices that the law requires nor hast thou appointed in the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:17. _THE SACRIFICES OF GOD_ ARE _A BROKEN SPIRIT_] As my crimes are such as admit of no legal atonement, so thou hast reserved them to be punished by exemplary acts of justice, or to be pardoned by a sovereign act of mercy: but in order to find this mercy, thou requirest that the he... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Psalms 51:18. _DO GOOD IN THY GOOD PLEASURE UNTO ZION_] This and the following verse most evidently refer to the time of the _captivity_, when the _walls of Jerusalem were broken down_, and the _temple_ _service entirely discontinued_; and, consequently, are long posterior to the times of Dav... [ Continue Reading ]