Psalm, Chapter 51
A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when [a]Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
- The title of this message is a contrite sinners prayer for pardon
- the first attribute to note is contrite
o feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt:
o "a broken and a contrite heart"
- The second attribute to note is that it is a sinners prayer
o this means that the person who sends recognizes his sin and considers himself a Sinner
- the third attribute of this title is that this contrite Sinner is praying for pardon
o this means he is asking for forgiveness (with the correct attitude of heart)
- It is a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him
o David means “beloved”
o Nathan means “he gives”
o This is a picture of how God will give mercy to his beloved children if they repent from their sin and ask with a contrite heart
- after he had gone in to Bathsheba
o Bathsheba means daughter of an oath
o This is a picture of her status as married woman
- The prophet Nathan had come in and explained to David the king that there was a man who had a herd of sheep and other animals but he coveted the one sheep, the only sheep that his neighbor owned. so the man who owned herds of sheep took the man’s sheep who only owned one. David became enraged and said this man should be killed. Nathan then explain that the man in this story was King David and that the one sheep that he took which belonged to another man was Bathsheba. David was cut to the heart because he knew he had sinned and had tried to cover it up by having Uriah move to the front lines and killed. Now God's prophet shows up and tells him that God knows what he did in that he told it to Nathan.
- all of these things are what we learn merely from the title; now we get into the chapter:
- be gracious to me, oh God, according to your loving kindness
o grace is an extraordinary type of love that gives someone something they do not deserve (it is the opposite of what they do deserve)
o David is asking for God to be gracious to him and to do so according to his loving kindness (this was a tall order to ask considering his sin)
o but we all must remember that worse in abounds grace did abound much more
- according to the greatness of your compassion blot out my transgressions
o David is recognizing the greatness of God's compassion
o thank God he is compassionate and understands that sometimes we give in to the flesh
o in this first David is recognizing that he has a big stain caused by his sin and he once got to blot it out (wash it away)
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