Psalm
51
THE
SWORD OF NATHAN
INTRO
1. Nathan, the prophet, had carefully considered his approach to King David. He must get to
the King's heart.
David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah were already a year old. From
evidence in several other psalms, we can see David's private sufferings were real.
But David had not acknowledged publicly his sin. He simply sat on his throne in Jerusalem
brazening out the whole thing.
So Nathan skillfully came with his story about a poor man's lamb, stolen by a rich man
to provide a feast for a passing guest. David had reacted instantly to that tale of injustice.
He had sworn to take the life of the offender and make him pay for the lamb fourfold.
And when David was done, Nathan
had said, "Thou
art the man!"
The sword was at David's throat before David even knew Nathan had a sword.
Down off of the throne came the king. The fountains of the deep in his soul were broken.
The pent-up passion of remorse, shame, guilt, and anxiety were released in a flood of
tears.
With his heart still pounding in his breast, David wrote Psalm 51.
2. And we have all been there---where David was.
a) The circumstances may have been different.
b) But the issue is sin...and it always keeps us from enjoying the fellowship of God.
3. Here is a psalm that we should read frequently, perhaps even pray back to God from our own
lives.
*******
I. DAVID'S CONFESSION (v.1-6)
David
has two great sobs:
1. Lord, be merciful in my need. (v.1-4a)
2. Lord, be mindful of my nature. (v.4b-6)
A. Lord, Be Merciful In My Need. (v.1-4a)
•His need was great.
a) He had sinned with a high hand against God who had lavished countless
benefits upon him.
b) His sin was inexcusable, and he took all the blame.
•Notice it's "me" and "mine" all the way through.
a) "Have mercy upon me."
b) "Wash me."
c) "Cleanse me."
d) "Mine iniquity."
e) "My sin."
f) "My transgression."
•David did not blame heredity, society, or his fallen nature.
HE
ASSUMED FULL RESPONSIBILITY.
#1. I am very sinful. (v.1-2)
"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin."
1. David uses three great words for sin:
a) Transgression
A high-handed revolt against divinely constituted law.
b) Iniquity
Revealing all the perverseness of his nature.
c) Sin
A missing of the mark, a stumbling, a falling short.
2. David saw himself in three ways:
a) He saw himself as a diary.
That diary contained a record so foul that he pleaded with God to blot it out. He could never undo the past---what had been written had been written. But God could blot out the damning record.
b) He saw himself as a dress.
However, this was a garment that had been trampled in the dirt. It needed to be washed. The word he used is a vigorous word meaning "to trample with the feet." Often clothes were cleaned in this way in olden times as they still are in developing countries even today. The dirt in David's life
was so ingrained that no light soaking or rinsing would do.
c) He saw himself as a disease.
This would be a dreadful and deadly disease. He needed to
be cleansed from that disease. The word he used for "cleanse" is one used when a leper was pronounced ceremonially clean. There may be a hint of a fact we meet elsewhere in the psalms, that David had been smitten with
that leprosy.
#2. I am very sorry. (v.3-4a)
•There are two things that David cannot escape:
1. The Ghost That Haunts Him. (v.3)
"For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me."
a) Imagine the guilt in David, the same David as the one on the
field tending his father's sheep.
b) What ghosts did he constantly have before him?
1) Uriah the Hittite
2) His guilty past
3) The tragic eyes of Bathsheba
4) The cynical eyes of Joab
5) The knowing looks of the servants' eyes
6) The soldiers fully aware
7) His own sons knowing
c) It must have been a long, long 12 months.
2. The Guilt That Horrifies Him. (v.4)
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Thy sight."
a) What an evaluation of sin!
b) Question: Had not David sinned against Uriah? Bathsheba?
Ahithophel, his friend? The people over whom he
ruled? (Discuss.)
c) What did the prodigal son say? "I have sinned before heaven
and in Thy sight."
d) Sin is against God; as such, it is so enormous an offense, so
fearful a guilt, that all human dimensions fade into nothing
when compared with it.
e) David's repentance and sorrow were real and very deep. It was
not that he was just sorry for the consequences of his
sin.
1) Esau, Saul, and Judas were all sorry for the consequences
of their sin.
2) David was sorry for the sin itself.
B. Lord, Be Mindful of My Nature. (v.4b-6)
•For the record, sin is inherited from Adam.
1. I Was Born in Sin. (v.4b-5)
"That Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest,
and be clear when Thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me."
1. Modern theologians hate verse 5.
a) Liberals like to talk about the "God in man."
b) Liberals hate to talk about the "sin in man."
2. The source of sin is in our souls, not in our surroundings.
a) David is not making excuses for his sin.
b) While it is true that he was a sinner by birth, he was also a sinner
by choice.
3. David is simply asking God to take this fact into account when passing
final sentence against him.
2. I Am Blinded by Sin. (v.6)
"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom."
1. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.
a) David knew that.
b) We all can prove that by our own lives.
2. When the fires of temptation come, we must not yield all other
considerations and recklessly proceed. But that is what Satan
desires we do.
3. The one who had written a dozen psalms was blinded by sin....this
was David's confession.
*******
II. DAVID'S CLEANSING (v.7-12)
•David sat on a throne, had autocratic power, had servants by the
hundreds, armies to
command, wealth, influence...he was a brilliant man.
•But David could not cope with the consequences of sin...neither can
we.
•7 Consequences of Sin:
A. Sin's Defilement (v.7)
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
1. David felt contaminated.
2. He knew of no cleaning agent on earth---not even Tide---that could cleanse a
sin-stained soul.
a) No ritual.
b) No resolve.
c) No religion.
3. Hyssop: a common Palestinian herb, sprouted on the walls, and used as a
sprinkler in various ceremonial cleansing of the leper.
4. What hyssop could do for the leper, David wanted something for his soul.
5. He could stand his defilement no longer.
B. Sin's Deafness (v.8)
"Make me to hear joy and gladness;
that the bones which Thou has broken may rejoice."
1. David had become deaf to the voice of God, deaf to all sounds of joy.
2. Remember, this is a man who understood the sounds of joy; with a harp
and song he made a joyful
noise unto the Lord.
3. Now his inner agony was a great as the physical agony of broken bones.
4. David had no way to restore the song to his soul...to hear the voice of God.
C. Sin's Disgrace (v.9)
"Hide Thy face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities."
1. It is a terrible thing to be found out in a sin.
2. Illustration: Watch people who commit crimes and see how they react when
the cameras are filming their faces. They pull up coats over their
heads. They crouch down. They shield their faces with their arms
or with a newspaper or a hat. The disgrace of their sin shames them.
3. David's sense of disgrace went far deeper than that.
a) It was not just a matter of what man might think.
b) It was a matter of what God thought....God had seen and the reality
of knowing that broke his heart.
4. This is the reason that while David was a great sinner, he was also a great saint.
5. If God would not blot out his iniquities, then he knew that he could not face
God's eyes upon his life again.
D. Sin's Damage
(v.10)
"Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me."
1. Create in the Hebrew is bara.
a) Used in Genesis 1:1.
b) Means to create absolutely, supernaturally something out of nothing.
2. David wanted a new heart.
a) He did not just want to have the old one changed.
b) If he was to be kept from sinning in the future, a radical work needed
to be done in his soul.
c) As Jesus would later tell Nicodemus, he needed to be born again.
3. David was not just after RESTORATION.
4. David was after REGENERATION....a new, clean heart....a new nature.
5. Isn't this an amazing prayer, one that grasps so much New Testament truth?
E. Sin's Doom (v.11)
"Cast me not away from Thy presence;
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me."
1. To be cast away from God's presence is the ultimate doom of sinners.
David was afraid that he might have earned that doom.
2. He prayed that God would not take away His Holy Spirit from him.
a) This is the first time in Scripture this great name for the third Person of
the Godhead is used.
b) Indeed, only one other time in the Old Testament is it used.
c) See Isaiah 63:10-11.
3. David had seen the Spirit of God taken away from Saul in order to be given to
him.
a) He had seen Saul become a tormented victim of an evil spirit.
b) David was afraid this might happen to him.
F. Sin's Depression (v.12a)
"Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation."
1. Much of the depression in the lives of Christians today is caused by sin;
sin causes depression.
2. David did not take his depression to a psychologist.
a) He took it to God.
b) He knew the depression was caused by sin.
3. Joy comes from two Hebrew roots:
a) Meaning bright.
b) Meaning lily or whiteness.
4. David wanted to get back a joy that was as bright and beautiful as the lily.
5. God is the only source of this kind of joy.
G. Sin's Defeat
(v.12b)
"And uphold me with Thy free spirit."
1. The idea is that a willing spirit would sustain him.
2. David wanted to never again fall into such a sin.
3. When God is allowed to cleanse a life, He is thorough enough to deal with
every aspect of sin in one's life.
*******
III.
DAVID'S CONSECRATION
(v.13-19)
A. The Life He Would Not Forsake
(v.13-15)
#1. He would continue to PREACH. (v.13)
"Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto Thee."
1. When someone can say, "I know what your are going through, I've
been there myself" it is a great consolation.
2. This is what makes Jesus such a great High Priest...He knows....
&