This is the word of the Lord. To the chief musician, a psalm
of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone
in to Bethsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, 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. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us today. I must confess that I have been
more aware of heightened emotions in preparing the young people's
addresses over the past few weeks than perhaps I have ever been
before in my preparation. And I mean by that with reference
to David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah
and to a certain extent the circumstances also in today's reading with
Amnon and Tamar. I think that the emotions that
I felt as I was preparing was anger and anxiety. Anger that David of all people
could do such a thing. And then anxiety that if David
of all people could do such a thing, What is to prevent me from doing
the same? And the phrase, there but for
the grace of God go I, it has become a little bit of a cliche,
but it is true. David was tempted and David fell
into heinous sin. If such a prophet as David, one
so beloved, one so blessed of God, is not immune from such
foul conduct as adultery and deception and murder, if such
A prophet as David, so beloved and blessed of God, is not immune
from these things. Who can stand? So that David is living proof
of weak flesh, of man's deceitful heart, and of our bias, our proclivity,
to immoral conduct. And the strength of David's faith
at other times was not sufficient to protect him here. And the
fearful thing is that we are just like him. Peter warns in
1 Peter 5, verse 8, be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. We have an adversary and that
adversary is looking to devour us all the time. May the Lord
uphold and protect us or how else shall we stand It has been
painful to watch and to witness David's shame and be reminded
that the best of men are but sinful men at their best. But let us be clear on this matter. There is nothing intrinsically
good in any of us. No good dwells in us except what
God puts there. We believe in a doctrine called
total depravity. That just means that every part
of our nature is opposed to God. Every part of our nature is spoiled
and ruined with sin. And the totality comes from the
fact that there is nothing good in us except what God puts there. There are in this world, Paul
tells us in Romans chapter nine, there are vessels of mercy and
there are vessels of wrath in this world. There is a division
between men and women in this world, a division that God has
made. He has made some men and women
vessels of mercy, some men and women vessels of wrath. And they
are indistinguishable. except for the grace of God. David's predecessor, Saul, is
in hell today and David is in glory. But David is not more blessed
because he was more righteous or better behaved himself. The evidence of 2 Samuel chapter
11 testifies clearly to that. In one extended period of dissipation
and indulgence, David forgot all the commands of the first
table of God's law and he broke all the commands of the second
table. And he did so as a believer. And he did so while basking in
the covenant promises of his Saviour. So let us be under no
illusion. What distinguishes one from another
in this world is the sovereign mercy and cleansing blood of
Jesus Christ alone. We might wonder why we even get
to know in the Bible about David's sin and his shame. Well, I think that the Holy Spirit
has recorded this conduct of David that we all might learn
from it. And I think that Psalm 51 is
a beautiful corollary, a beautiful parallel to the story of David's
shame that we read in 2 Samuel chapter 11. David is the author
of Psalm 51 and he writes it in order to express his own desire
for forgiveness and the repentance that he had in his soul. so that the Holy Spirit is teaching
us by this psalm what it is to seek forgiveness from God, what
it is to be repentant in our own hearts. The purpose of our
gathering here today is to state categorically that God has made
a distinction between vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath
in this world. And that that distinction has
been made by God's grace alone. And we are here to learn about
that. We are here to learn that a distinction
has been made because our Creator has elected to gather out from
among the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, a certain chosen out
people for himself. The Lord Jesus told his disciples
in John 15, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have chosen you out of the
world. so that a division, a distinction,
a separation has been made between those that God is calling to
himself and those who are left in their sin. And a distinction
has been made by God granting faith to certain individuals
to believe the gospel. Not everyone believes the gospel,
indeed, Few there be that find it. There is a broad road and
there is a narrow road. There are many on the broad road
that leads to destruction. Few there be that find life in
Christ, that find forgiveness from God, that find peace and
reconciliation. But God grants faith to certain
individuals to believe the Gospel. And the Gospel declares the fact
of God's saving purpose in history. Telling how salvation has been
accomplished. And more importantly, telling
by whom salvation has been accomplished. Paul tells the Corinthians in
1 Corinthians 1, we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling
block. Why was Christ crucified a stumbling
block to the Jews? Because the Jews thought that
they could please God by their works. Whereas Paul was saying
that the only way of pleasing God is by faith in Jesus Christ
crucified. The Jews couldn't get their heads
around that. It was a stumbling block to them. We preach Christ
crucified. To the Jews, that was a stumbling
block. He says to the Greeks, it was
foolishness. The Greeks heard Paul preaching
Jesus Christ crucified and they thought, what unsophisticated,
simple, weak nonsense that is. That's no faith, that's no religion. Not when we've got all of the
complexity of the classical gods that explains all of the ways
of the world and all of the things that we see and observe around
about us. What is this nonsense about somebody
being put onto a cross and slain? The Jews found it a stumbling
block, the Greeks thought it was foolishness. That's just
the Jews and the Gentiles, the Jews and the Greeks. But Paul
says this, we preach Christ crucified. And unto them which are called,
whether they be Jews or Greeks, if they are called by God, Christ
is the power of God and Christ is the wisdom of God. And today,
like Paul, we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ with this aim
in view. that we might discover and gather
them which are the called of God into the family of Christ. was one of God's elect. David
was a chosen vessel, a vessel of mercy. He was chosen to salvation
by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace. He was set
apart by God the Holy Spirit. He was united, he was joined
to the Lord Jesus Christ with all the chosen in the body of
Christ according to the eternal counsels of God. He was ordained to be redeemed
from his sin by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
who would come in time and bear his sins on the cross at Calvary. Christ came to bear the sins
of all those committed by the Father into his hands. he was
their substitute and he was their surety. And that means because
David was one of those redeemed of the Lord, because David was
one of the elect of God, because David was joined by God the Holy
Spirit into the body of Christ, it means that although David
committed adultery with Bathsheba, He had a substitute in Jesus
Christ to whom the sin of adultery was imputed and who bore his
guilt and carried his punishment. It means that David, though he
committed murder and had Uriah slain, Uriah the Hittite had
him slain, yet he had a representative in Christ to whom This sin of
murder was imputed and who incurred God's judgment, leaving David
without condemnation. And it is for this reason that
Nathan could say to David upon his repentance, the Lord hath
put away thy sin. David was forgiven of his sins
because the Lord had put away his sin by laying it on the shoulders
of his own dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross. The Father placed all the sin
of all his chosen people upon Christ and Christ carried it
all away. And this brings us to Psalm 51.
And we know from the introduction of this psalm that it was written
upon the occasion of Nathan's visit to David when Nathan was
sent from the Lord. And when Nathan told David the
parable and David was angry at the story that he was told and
then Nathan turned it right around on him and he said, no David,
Don't get angry at someone else, you're the man. And David's conscience
was struck with the guilt of his actions, his adultery with
Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. Thou art the man. And for the sins that he had
committed, David sought forgiveness, and this is what he is writing
about in Psalm 51. Indeed, this psalm may even have
been written in Nathan's presence there and then. We don't know
the way in which these inspired writings were given, but if not,
it certainly appears to have been shortly thereafter. When the Holy Spirit brings conviction
upon one of the Lord's elect, he does so to recover that fallen
saint and restore him to peace with God. And that is what is
happening in Psalm 51. The Holy Spirit has worked upon
David's conscience, worked upon David's heart and soul and mind
to show him his folly and to draw forth from him these requests,
these pleadings for forgiveness. The Holy Spirit does that to
the elect of God upon the basis of Christ's redeeming work in
order that that fallen saint might be restored to a sense
of peace with God, seeing once again the shed blood of their
Saviour. And I want to just touch lightly
on three spiritual gifts granted to David in these first seven
verses of this psalm. And I want just to think about
them like this. The blessing of conviction, the
blessing of conviction for sin, the hope of forgiveness, and
a fresh view of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us quickly move
through these thoughts, if the Lord will. The first one is this
blessing of conviction. For a child of God, sin brings
shame, and it brings guilt, and it brings a felt need for cleansing. That is not true for all men
and women, but it is true for a child of God. Sin brings shame,
guilt and a need for cleansing. Perhaps not for some time, perhaps
we can live with that for a period. David appears to have done so
for at least nine or ten months until, until Nathan went to him. But the first thing we notice
about this is David's felt shame. Where had that shame been for
nine months? We wonder, we wonder. How is
it that David's conscience didn't trouble him until Nathan's confrontation? How is it that he never felt
the way he is obviously feeling when he writes Psalm 51? I have no doubt that David knew
that he had done wrong. That was the reason for his scheming. He knew he had done wrong by
Bathsheba, which was the reason why he called for Uriah to come
back to Jerusalem. He made him drunk. He sent him
to his house. He ended up putting him in the
front line of the battle, in the hottest part of the battle,
so that he would be killed. Oh, he knew that he was trying
to cover up his sins. You know, it's hard to commit
a single sin. I'm not saying that you try it,
but it's hard to commit a single sin. Invariably, one leads to
another. And David knew that he had done
wrong, but in his coldness towards God, in his insensitivity to
the displeasure of the Lord, and the loss of fellowship that
that brought, he was careless to the point of, to use Nathan's
words, despising the commandment of the Lord in order to do evil
in his sight. David, a man so blessed, had
come to that point where he despised the holiness of God in order
to do evil according to his own desires. And so David teaches
us the true nature of sin. Sin is personal, sin is far-reaching,
and sin is debilitating. The Holy Spirit taught David
that. David's prayer, we mentioned
this in the little note that I sent out, but David's prayer
is full of personal pronouns, like I and me and my and mine,
and that's the whole point. Sin must be owned. You can't blame someone else. You can't justify yourself before
God. All we can give reasons as to
why we did this, why we did that, The bottom line is this, if we
are going before God and seeking forgiveness, then we have to
speak in the first person singular. It's I, it's me, it's my and
it's mine. And David knew that he had sinned
and he knew who he had sinned against. He knew where his guilt
lay. And he also knew that that sin
guiltiness ran much deeper than just these most recent actions. He knew that there was a deep
rebellion against God that still remained in his own soul, that
stained his soul and lay at the heart of his nature. He knew
that he had been born in sin and shaping in iniquity. He knew
that the very fabric of his being was enmity against God and opposed
to holiness and truth. And that was as a believer. It takes a spiritual work of
preserving grace to keep a man close to the Lord. and it takes
a spiritual work of conviction to bring a sinner back who has
wandered away. And we might wonder why the Lord
allowed that to happen. Why might the Lord withdraw for
a period from one of his little ones? Why might he withdraw his
preserving grace and allow a man like David to fall so shamefully
as he did? Well, again, I'm only looking
at David's experience here. I suspect that this is different
for us all. But look at what happened to
David. And God deals with us personally. David obtained an
enlarged view of his sin. He was given to understand the
true nature of his sin. He discovered the true sinful
state of his own soul. The natural man. And he was taught thereby to
confess his dependence upon the Lord. These are positive outcomes
from a hard experience, and if we have these hard experiences
in our life, then these are the positive outcomes that the Lord
will bring us to. They will be different for each
one, but these were they as far as David was concerned. He saw
in a new and in a humbling way my sin is ever before me. That was his testimony. He saw
how his sin was essentially against God. Bathsheba's not mentioned,
Uriah's not mentioned, it's God that he had sinned against. Against
thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. He was beginning to grasp the
true nature of his sin, the depths to which it reached. And he saw
he was sinful in his nature, not merely in his actions. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. We may not like this. We may
wish that it were not so. But this is how the Lord shows
us the true extent and nature of our sin, the true bitterness
of our sin. And consequently, the other side
of that, the dimensions of God's love and mercy for our souls,
the accomplishments of Christ on the cross. And David in Psalm
51, by acknowledging his sin, confesses his guiltiness and
he opens the door to repentance and forgiveness. Because sins
confessed are sins forgiven. The Lord delights to forgive
his people and he will, but he waits to be asked. If you want
peace of conscience, you must confess your sin. 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 says,
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let
me repeat that. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. David was proving this to be
true. So too, God, by noting and resenting,
noting and hating David's sin, demonstrates his holiness and
manifests his justice. So that episodes like this in
David's life teach us the lengths to which the Saviour had to go
in order to recover and deliver us from our just deserts. These are the blessings of Holy
Spirit conviction. And there's another aspect, this
is the second point that I wanted to make. The Holy Spirit in dealing with
David like this also teaches him the hope of forgiveness. The same Holy Spirit who convicts
us of sin As I say, it took 9-10 months for David to come under
this conviction. But it was a work of grace in
his life that he did at the time of the Holy Spirit's dealing
with him. The same Holy Spirit who convicts
us of sin brings us to the Gospel. And the Gospel gives hope for
forgiveness. And Psalm 51 is full of hope. Though broken and humiliated,
David employs the language of grace and he leans into the promise
of forgiveness. And this is what a believer does.
A believer is not without hope in coming to the Lord for forgiveness. In the opening verse, David races
straight to the loving kindness of God and he appeals for mercy
upon the basis, upon the foundation of God's love. He draws on God's own words. The very words that God used
to Moses Way back in the book of Exodus, when the law was being
given to Moses on Mount Sinai, when it was being given to the
children of Israel, God spoke to Moses there on the mountain
and David employs the very words that God used on the mountain
to Moses in order to remind God of the promises of grace and
forgiveness. David says, blot out my transgressions. That was his words in the opening
verses of Psalm 51. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
me from iniquity. Cleanse me of sin. Now transgressions
are rebellion against God. Iniquity is our immorality and
our wicked deeds. and sin is the offence that that
causes and the guilt that comes with it. And in using these three
words, transgressions, iniquity, and guilt, David was not using
them randomly or in an arbitrary way. They were carefully used
by David with the express purpose of, shall we say, humbly drawing
the Lord's attention to the covenant promises of grace. David was
pleading God's promise in Psalm 51. He was referring to Exodus
34, verses six and seven, where the Lord Jesus himself met Moses
on Mount Sinai and promised grace in the everlasting covenant to
those who were chosen to salvation in Christ. This is what that
verse says, the Lord passed before him, that is Moses, the Lord
passed before Moses and proclaimed, so this is the word of the Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning was the word, the word
was with God and the Word was God. And so this is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, speaking, proclaiming, declaring
before Moses, revealing himself to his people. The Lord passed
before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. Listen, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The very three words
David employed in Psalm 51. So David uses the language of
grace and he continues to do the same. He speaks about purging
with hyssop. Again, his language is purposeful
and it's important. David is recalling here in these
verses the blood covering of the Passover lamb in Egypt. Remember, the Passover lamb had
to be taken, it had to be examined, it had to be kept, it had to
be examined to make sure that it was without spot and blemish.
a picture of the perfection and the holiness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then it had to be slain again as the Lord Jesus Christ
was slain. Then its blood had to be taken
and it had to be daubed, it had to be sprinkled on the doorposts
and the lintel of the house in which the people dwelt. And there,
underneath that covering of blood, was safety and security. and the hyssop that daubed the
blood over the entrance to those homes is the hyssop that David
now speaks about. It was gospel language under
the Old Testament typology and the Old Testament symbols that
foreshadowed the work of Christ on the cross. Listen, here's
what David was saying. He was saying this, I'm asking
for washing and cleansing from sin, but I'm thinking of the
lamb that was slain. And that is the essence of the
gospel. That is evangelical repentance. It shows that David was looking
forward to Christ when he was asking for forgiveness and mercy. He was looking to Christ's blood
sacrifice on Calvary and the cleansing of sins that Christ
accomplished for his people. so that the Holy Spirit brings
God's elect the blessing of conviction, firstly. He brings us the hope
of forgiveness. And then number three, he brings
us a fresh view of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit bestows a sense
of peace because of the work of Christ, because of the atonement
and because of reconciliation. The Holy Spirit's job was to
bring comfort. He's called the Comforter. And the way that he gives comfort
is by giving us fresh views of Jesus Christ and his work on
the cross. Grace brings the experience of
reconciliation and peace with God to needy sinners like you and
like me. Did you notice the double use
of the word behold in our reading? I bet you didn't, but let me
draw it to your attention. In verse five and six, David
uses the word behold twice. Now that again is an interesting
word. It's not a word that we should
pass lightly. It's equivalent to the Lord saying
verily, verily in the New Testament. And it's often used to point
to the Saviour or to emphasise something wonderful or to elicit
a sense of admiration in the people to whom it is written.
And so it is here. David uses it twice and the Holy
Spirit is drawing attention to the necessity of the divine work
of grace for sinners dead in sin. The Holy Spirit is using
it to point us to Christ and the necessity of grace for the
forgiveness of our sins. He's saying, truth and wisdom,
truth and wisdom are required in a man's soul. That's what
David is effectively saying here. Let me read it again. Verse six
says this. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts. Now, who is truth? Truth is the
Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and
in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Well, wisdom is another name
for Christ. Wisdom and truth are both names of Christ. And
here, David, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is recognising
that truth and wisdom are required in a man's soul, in our inward
parts. This isn't about our outward
profession. It isn't about our outward works.
It isn't about the way we act before people. It's about the
nature of our souls and the condition of our hearts, and whether or
not Christ resides in our life. Christ is required in our soul
in the hidden part of the man. This is the implanting of a new
creation because what God requires, he implants. It's all a work
of grace. David had been brought to his
senses. David had been shown his sin
and he had been convicted before God. And as a result of that,
he sought a fresh view of Christ and a fresh sense of cleansing
and a fresh sense of blotting out of the sins that only Christ
could give. and it's God himself who must
grant these mercies. So we go to the Lord, we go to
the Lord as the Holy Spirit leads us to conviction, as the Holy
Spirit gives us the hope of forgiveness. We go to Christ and we seek that
reconciliation and peace of conscience for our sins through the work
of the blood on the cross. And David knew that the Lord
could be trusted. That's what faith does for us.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and shows us Christ
as the sin bearer, then sooner or later, he will grant us faith
to believe that our sins are carried away. And David had that
faith. Notice the confidence with which
he speaks. He says, purge me with hyssop. Again, remember that's the Old
Testament symbolism for the New Testament work. Purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean. That is emphatic and it is certain. I shall be clean. That's David's
statement of confidence. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. This is a lovely statement of
faith in the power of Christ's death and the success of the
sin-cleansing work of Christ on the cross. How can a sinner
be clean before God? By the purging of blood and the
washing of regeneration. And only God can do that in Christ. It's not about our works. It's
not about our ideas. It's not about our confessions.
It's about God enacting this transformation, this conversion
in the soul. And when God removes a sinner's
sin and lays it on Christ, our substitute, he is being both
merciful to us and just in himself. He deals with sin according to
justice and the sinner's soul is washed clean. It is made whiter
than snow. What a beautiful picture that
is. David's prayer in this psalm
is an outline for us all who are sensitive to our sin and
sick of the guilt that it brings. Psalm 51 is a message of hope
built on grace, the grace of God, and the mercy that flows
from the love of God to His chosen people. It points us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is truth, that truth and that wisdom that is
required in the inner man. It signposts the God-man, Jesus
Christ, who is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. And it teaches us to hope. despite
our unworthiness, despite our sin, despite our failures, despite
all of the battles that go on in our soul and the shadows that
cover our minds, the distractions that we face and the troubles
that we have, it teaches us to hope in the covenant promises
of grace, saying, if David found mercy with God, then why can't
I? May the Lord give us that sense
of mercy. May he give us that sense of
peace. May he give us the words that David spoke in our own vocabulary
that we might, with a sincerity, go before him and seek the very
blessings that David sought on this occasion. Amen.