Psalm Devotional
Forgive Me!
Some texts of Scripture are so powerfully clear, so penetrating and convicting, that it almost seems a disservice to exposit them. Psalm 51 is such a passage. It is no wonder that Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm, “Such a psalm may be wept over, absorbed into the soul, and exhaled again in devotion; but, commented on—ah! Where is he who having attempted it can do other than blush at his defeat?”
Expecting better than defeat, but still with a blush, here is a look at the Psalter’s most well-known penitential psalm. These words, which capture the spiritual outpouring of a man brought low by his sin, speak to us with a clear example of true repentance.
As the title of the psalm indicates, David penned these words after committing adultery with Bathsheba, murdering Uriah, and being confronted by Nathan the prophet. It was a low point in David’s life, and his desperation can be sensed.
He opens the psalm with an appeal to God’s “lovingkindness,” which translates a Hebrew term for God’s unique covenant love. Because of the covenant of grace, which God swore by His own name to uphold, David knows that there is hope for forgiveness. He goes to the Lord without excuses or explanations. Instead, he owns and confesses his sin. In the first three verses alone he uses the word “my” five times (my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin, etc.)
