Let us turn again to the Word
of God, and this morning to the Book of Psalms, Psalm 51, and
especially the second and third verses. In the Book of Psalms, Psalm
51, and especially verses 2 and 3, where the psalmist prays this
prayer, wash me truly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from
my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is
ever before me. The prayer of the psalmist, wash
me truly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And we know that these are the
words of David. As it says at the top of the
psalm, this is a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came
unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. So this psalm was
written at that time that we read of earlier in the service,
when David committed that terrible sin, or that series of sins,
really. First of all, adultery with Bathsheba,
and secondly, effectively murdering Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. And when Nathan the prophet comes
and reveals to him that God knows all about his sin, then it seems
that he wrote this prayer. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin, It's the words of a king, the words
of a great and powerful king. David was the king of the whole
of Israel and Judah. He'd been brought to the throne
and he was in a position of great responsibility and a position
of great power. But we see him here recognizing
that there is a greater and a higher king than himself. And we see
him looking up to that king and speaking to that king and praying
to that king. And as we come together this
morning, in this time of great change in the life of our nation,
we pray for our new king. And I'm sure we pray for him
in many ways, that he might be comforted at this time of great
loss, that he might know the help of God in all the responsibilities
that now fall upon him. but surely there is no better
prayer that we can put up for him than that he might know this
same king of kings that David prays to here, and that he might
have the same kind of relationship with God as David did. Wash me truly from mine iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin. These are, as I said, the words
of David, but we know that they are not just the words of David.
It is the Holy Spirit that is working and moving David to record
these words. And when we recognize and realize
that truth, well, surely then, what David is asking for here,
we can say without any doubt that it is something that God
is willing to give. God would not move him to ask for this
washing and this cleansing if God was not willing to give it.
And it is an encouragement to us when we realise that we too
have sinned against this same God. David had no right to demand
this forgiveness. But he did have every encouragement
to ask for it. And we too have every encouragement
to come and ask for the forgiveness of our sins. I acknowledge my
transgressions, my sin is ever before me. It's a familiar context,
as I said. We read through those two chapters
in the second book of Samuel, and they are sad chapters, aren't
they? David sends his army off to fight, but for some reason,
and perhaps this is where he began to go wrong, he stays behind
in Jerusalem, and the devil makes work for idle hands. And as David
is there upon his rooftop, he sees Bathsheba. And we all know
the outcome, how he takes her to himself, and she becomes pregnant
by him. And even then, David, he seems
still to be determined to cover this up, doesn't he? And he calls
for Uriah to come back from the battle. And no doubt his hope
was that Uriah would go home to his house, and that the child
that then would be born, everybody would just think it was Uriah's
child. But Uriah, he refuses, doesn't he? He seems to have
been more noble and more upstanding than David at least at this time.
He says the ark and Israel and Judah and my Lord Joab and the
servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields and in effect
he says well it doesn't seem right that I should get to go
home to my wife when they don't get to go home to their wives.
And so he remains sleeping with the servants of David at the
door of the house of David. And even when David gets him
drunk, he refuses to return home to his wife. And so David has
to think again. And it's a terrible plan that
he comes up with, isn't it? He writes a letter to Joab. Essentially
it was Uriah's death sentence that he was writing. And it was
Uriah's death sentence that Uriah is carrying back to Joab. And
Joab assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men
were, where he knew that the battle would be fierce and where
the danger would be great. And just as David and Joab planned,
Uriah the Hittite is killed in the battle. And we read that when the wife
of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned
for her husband. But when the time of mourning was past, David
sent and fetched her to his house and she became his wife. And
perhaps David thought that that would be the end of it. Perhaps
David thought that everything now would be covered up, that
nobody would find out. that the child would be born
in nine months or so, and that people would just think that
the child had been conceived after David had taken Bathsheba
to be his wife. But it reminds us, doesn't it,
of that word that Moses brings to the children of Israel back
in the book of Numbers, when he speaks to them about the choice
that they had to make. And he says to them, in effect,
if you choose the wrong pathway, then be sure your sin will find
you out. If ye will not do so, if they
would not obey the commandment of God, he says, behold, ye have
sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you
out. And David's sin, that he thought
was all covered up and that nobody would ever discover, he suddenly
finds that God knows all about it. And here is Nathan the prophet
at the beginning of chapter 12, and he comes with this parable.
And it's a sign of David's great darkness and the lack of wisdom
that he had at this time, that even when he hears the parable,
he doesn't understand it, does he? In the parable, Nathan speaks
of two men, one rich and the other poor. And the rich man
has a great amount of possessions, exceeding many flocks and herds. The poor man just has one little
ewe lamb. The poor man is a picture of
Uriah, isn't he? He doesn't seem to have been a rich or an important
person. He was just an ordinary man there in Jerusalem. But David,
not being content with all that God had given him, He is determined
to have Bathsheba also. And as the man in the parable,
the rich man, takes that single ewe, that little ewe lamb that
belonged to the poor man, so David, he has to have Uriah's
wife as his wife. And when David hears the parable,
he's full of anger, isn't he, against the rich man? And he
says, this man that has done this thing, he's worthy to die.
He shall surely die because he did this thing and because he
had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. This
is about you, David. You are the rich man. I anointed
thee king over Israel. I gave thee thy master's house.
I gave thee thy master's wives. I would have given thee more
things if it had been necessary for you to have had more. But thou hast despised the commandment
of the Lord to do evil in his sight. Thou hast killed Uriah
the Hittite, thou hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and
hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. It's
as if you yourself, David, are guilty of murder. Now therefore
the sword shall never depart from thine house." And we know
how those words were literally fulfilled in the life of David. And David suddenly is full of
guilt, isn't he? I have sinned against the Lord.
And as I say, it was on that occasion that David wrote this
51st psalm. And it's a well-known psalm.
I'm sure some of you have read through it. Perhaps some of you
have had to come with these same words in relation to your own
sin. What is it that's on David's
mind as he writes this psalm? What is it that he keeps on coming
back to, especially in the early part of the psalm? Well, it's
his own sin, isn't it? and he uses various words to
describe it, but he keeps coming back to it. In verse 2, my iniquity,
my sin. In verse 3, my transgressions,
my sin. In verse 4, he says I have sinned,
done this evil. In verse 5, he talks again about
his iniquity, his sin. In verse 7, he desires to be
purged, for his sins to be taken away. And in verse 9, he speaks
again about his sins and his iniquities. He keeps coming back
to this. It's almost the most common word in the psalm, is
this word that is hear sin, iniquity, transgression. This is not unusual
for David. In other psalms, we find him
in a similar place. If you turn over to Psalm 31,
you'll find David there in a time of great trouble and in a time
of grief. And what is it that has upset
him? And what is it that has cast
him down? Psalm 31, verse 10, he says, my life is spent with
grief, and my years with sighing. My strength faileth. And we might
ask David, what is it, David, that's making you feel like this?
What is it that's making you feel so cast down? What is it that's making you
feel so weak? And there were many things that David had to
struggle with, weren't there? His life was a life full of trouble. You remember how he has to fight
against Saul, how Saul is determined to kill him and he has to flee
from Saul. And then later on in his life he has trouble with
his own family, doesn't he? Over and over again he has sons
that kill each other. He has sons that rebel against
him and his life is in danger. All these things he had to fight
with. But it's not those things that David is talking about here,
is it? He says, my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, not
other people's. and my bones are consumed. It's
his own sin that is having this effect upon him. And then again
in Psalm 38, just a few psalms later, what does he say in verse
3? There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones,
again, because of my sin, because of my sin. This was the greatest problem
for David. This was his most difficult thing
that he had to deal with. It wasn't other people's sins.
He had to struggle with those, of course. But the worst thing,
it seems, was his own sin. And when we think of the Apostle
Paul, don't we find that his experience was very similar?
Again, Paul had many problems, didn't he? He gives us a list
of them. in the second book of Corinthians
as he talks about what his life was like and all the things that
he had had to pass through and all those things that he was
enduring. He talks about being beaten. He talks about being
in prison. He talks about being stoned,
shipwrecked. He talks about his often journeyings,
the perils of water, perils of robbers, perils by his own countrymen,
perils by the heathen, perils in the city, in the wilderness,
in the sea, among false brethren. All of these things, he says,
they come upon me. Weariness, painfulness, watchings, hunger,
thirst, fastings, cold, nakedness, and the care of all the churches.
All of these things, they came upon him, and he had to struggle
with them. But you know, there's only one
place where you find Paul describing himself as a wretched man, isn't
there? And it's there in Romans chapter 7, the well-known chapter.
What does he say at the end of the chapter? Oh, wretched man
that I am. What is it that makes him feel so wretched? Well, it's
the same thing that made David so miserable. The same thing
that David is talking about here in this 51st Psalm. It's his
own sin, isn't it? Paul says, I find then a law
that when I would do good, even when I would do good, even when
I'm determined to do good. He says evil is present with
me. Evil is right there. There's no escaping from it.
And he talks about that sin that dwells in him. I know, he says,
that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord So then with the mind I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. It is
sin that makes Paul describe himself as a wretched man. And
it is sin that makes David, here in this psalm, so cast down. Well, this is true of you. What about your sins? Do they
have the same effect upon you as David's sins did upon him?
Do they have the same effect upon you as Paul's sins did upon
him? We are called upon, aren't we,
to acknowledge our own sin. Sometimes it's very easy to confess
other people's faults, isn't it? And to talk about what other
people have done and say, well, do you know so and so, he's gone
and done this now. It's easy to recognize other
people's faults. The Lord Jesus spoke of that,
didn't he? How easy it is to spot that little speck of dust
that's in someone else's eye, but to be ignorant of that great
beam that is in your own eye. But we are called upon to come
to the Lord in humility and with honesty and to make confession
of our own sin and to take responsibility for our own sin, not to blame
other people for them. or to blame circumstances for
them, or to say, well, it's not surprising that I react like
that when he does that. Our sins are our own sins, and
David confesses his own sins, doesn't he? Look at what he says
here in verse 3. He prays for this washing and
this cleansing, that God would take away his sin. But in verse
three, he speaks about acknowledging his transgressions. Acknowledging,
that is a word that's changed its meaning, doesn't it? Hasn't
it? When we talk about acknowledging something now, we sometimes mean
that we just make a note of it. Or we have a letter from someone
and we reply just to say, I acknowledge your letter. We're just making
a note of it and then really putting it to one side. Well,
that's not what David means here. Really, it's the same word here
as we have in the previous psalm, in Psalm 50, verse 11, where
God himself is speaking. And he says, I know all the fowls
of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
I know them. What does God mean when he says
that? He means he's intimately familiar with them. He knows
them all. He could count them. It's not just that he just takes
a quick glance at them now and again, but he is so intimately
familiar with them. Well, it's the same word, as
I say, that David uses with respect to his transgressions. I acknowledge
them. I see them now. I understand them. Suddenly I
see the size of them and the weight of them, and no longer
can I think of them as small things. No longer can I compare
them with the sins of other people and say, well, I may be a sinner,
but I'm not so great a sinner as so-and-so. Now I acknowledge
them, I own them. I realize the greatness of them.
And then he says, my sin is ever before me. It's ever before me. It's not just something small
that just is there for a few moments and then I can forget
about it. that my sin is ever before me. Or we might equally
translate it like this, my sin stretches out before me. It's
as if he says, my sin, it seems to go on forever. I can't measure
it. I can't count it. I can't compare
it with the other people's. It just seems to go on forever.
There's a hymn where the hymn writer, he sees something very
similar, doesn't he? We're going to sing about it
at the end of the service. Hymn 755. The hymn writer, he
comes to this. He says, over sins, unnumbered
as the sand, and like the mountains for their size. What's the hymn
writer reading? He means his sins, they just
seem to go on forever. They're ever before him. They
stretch out in front of him. Sins unnumbered as the sand,
like the mountains for their size, not just small sins, But
great sins and numerous sins, unnumbered as the sand, we know
that it's impossible to count sand, isn't it? You take even
a small container full of sand, it's hard work to count the grains,
isn't it? You think of all the sand that there is in the world.
Well, it's like that with my sins, says the hymn writer. They
just seem to go on forever and the more I look, the more I seem
to see them. Unnumbered as the sand, another
hymn writer, he wrote of his sins like this, he said, mine
iniquity crimson hath been, infinite, infinite, sin upon sin. Well,
that's the same attitude that we see in David here. I acknowledge
my transgressions, I see them now. And my sin is ever before
me, it stretches out. Well, really all sin is infinite. Sometimes we meet people and
they're ready to speak about big sins and little sins. Well,
really sin can't be measured like that. You can't have a little
sin and you can't have a big sin. All sin is infinite because
all sin is against an infinite God. You can't measure it. There's no scale that you can
put your sin against and see how long it is or how heavy it
is. All sin is infinite sin. I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. It's a strange
isn't it, that we have here at the beginning of verse 3? You might almost think that David
is saying to the Lord, wash me throughly from my iniquity and
cleanse me from my sin because I acknowledge my transgressions.
As if he's saying to the Lord, well, forgive me because I see
now how big my sin is and now that I've seen that, I deserve
to be forgiven. You might almost make the mistake
of thinking that David sounds rather entitled as if he's saying
to the Lord, well, I've done this now, I've acknowledged it,
now forgive him. Well, that's not what David means
at all. For I acknowledge my transgressions. What does he
mean? Well, it's a bit like this. If you were taken to court by
somebody, If you'd done something that was illegal, or something
that was against what you'd promised, and someone takes you to court,
and the judge, he hears the case, and at the end of the case he
says, well, I find you guilty and you've got to pay this man
£10. Well, most of us would just pay the fine, wouldn't we? We
wouldn't even think about it. We would probably be quite relieved
that it wasn't any more. But if the judge at the end of
the trial said, well, you must pay this man £10,000, well, again,
we would probably think to ourselves, well, that's going to be difficult,
but maybe I could borrow the money. I could whip round my
friends and see if they can chip in so that I can raise this £10,000
that I have to pay. But if the judge came to the
end of the trial and said, you've got to pay this man a billion
pounds, or tens of billions, or hundreds of billions, Well,
we would sit down with that amount, wouldn't we? And we would put
our head in our hands and we would say, well, there's no chance
of ever paying it. No use going to my friends and
asking them to raise a billion pounds. It's no good going to
a bank and asking them to lend me a billion pounds. This is
unpayable. And so our only hope, what would it be? Our only hope
would be to go to that man and to ask for forgiveness. To go
to that man and say, look, this amount is so great, it's so large,
I can never pay it. What is the psalmist saying here
when he uses this word for? He's not saying do this for I
deserve it. He's saying do this for this
is my only hope. I see this is my only hope. And
he comes in desperation almost, doesn't he? Because he has no
other option. Because he sees that his sins,
they can't be made up for. He can't reverse them. How true
that was in the matter of Bathsheba. You think of those sins that
David committed. They couldn't be uncommitted,
could they? There was no way that he could bring Uriah back.
No way that he could undo what he did with Bathsheba. All sin is like that, really.
It can't be undone. I know that we can sometimes
make amends for our sin in some way. If we steal something, we
can give it back. If we tell a lie, we can acknowledge
it. But you know, the act of stealing,
it can't be undone. It's still there. And the act
of telling the lie, it can't be undone. It's still there,
isn't it? And so the psalmist, he comes
and he says, wash me through from my iniquity, cleanse me
from my sin, for there is no other way for me to make up for
it. Nothing else that I can do about
it. No other option. When you think of how Jesus,
there were so many that came to him when he was here, weren't
there? You think of that blind man, Bartimaeus, who was sitting
by the highwayside begging outside Jericho. And when he heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and to say,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged
him that he should hold his peace. They said to him, there's no
use calling out Jesus, he's not going to be interested in you.
But what did he do? He cried them all, a great deal.
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Why did he do that? Why
did he cry out in that way? It was because he saw that there
was no other hope for him, no other way for him, no other solution
to his problem. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they call the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort. Rise, he calleth thee. And he
comes to Jesus, and Jesus restores his sight. Go thy way, he says.
Thy faith hath made thee whole. And there is faith here in David,
isn't there? Isn't there faith here in David? What faith he would have needed
to come to God with a prayer like this? How hard it might
have been for him to believe that it was possible for God
to wash away his iniquity and to cleanse him from his sin.
When he saw how great his sins were, when he realized the great
weight of those sins, the natural response would have been, well,
there's no point asking for forgiveness here. I've gone too far now. His sins are too great. But he saw that there was forgiveness
with God, didn't he? There's another psalm that talks
about that. It says, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
who shall stand? As if he says to God, if you
were so strict about sin that there was no way of atonement,
who could stand before thee? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. And so he comes looking for that
forgiveness, doesn't he? Wash me throughly from mine iniquities. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgressions. I see the size of them, the scale
of them, the weight of them now. My sin is ever before me, it
stretches out forever. Mine iniquities, crimson, hath
been infinite, infinite, sin upon sin. And so he comes with
this prayer. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Wash
me throughly, wash me completely. Wash me perfectly. Wash me whiter
than snow. He wants to be pure, doesn't
he? Again, it's there in the first verse. Have mercy upon
me, he says. According to the multitude of
thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Blot them
out. He doesn't just want a little
bit of his sin to be erased. He doesn't just want to be let
off for a few sins in the hope that he can make up for the others.
No, he says, blot them all out. Blot them all out. Wash me throughly.
Cleanse me from my sin. That was his prayer. Well, what was his hope? How
was he hoping that this washing, that this cleansing could come
to him? Well, as we read on in the psalm, it's an interesting
expression in verse 7, isn't there? Where he says, purge me. Purge me, again, that means wash
away my sins, get rid of them. But he says, purge me with hyssop. Why does he say, purge me with
hyssop? Hyssop is a plant, isn't it? It's a herb that grows in
that part of the world. Why does he say, purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean? Well, I remember another preacher
when I was much younger than I am, and he said that when you
come to a word like that, sometimes it's helpful to look up the first
place that it appears in the Bible, and sometimes that can
give you an insight into what it means. Well, that's certainly
true of this word hyssop. The first place that we have
the word hyssop is in Exodus, chapter 12. And if you turn to
the chapter, you'll find it's one that you probably, many of
you are familiar with. It's the account of the institution
of the Passover. And you remember how the Israelites,
towards the end of their time in Egypt, God sends plague after plague
upon the Egyptians in order to persuade Pharaoh to let his people
go. But each time, Pharaoh refuses. And now here is this last great
plague, the death of the firstborn. And in every house in Egypt,
the eldest son is going to die, but the Israelites are going
to be sheltered. And the instruction is that they take a lamb, a lamb
of the first year, a male without blemish, and they're going to
keep it up. for 14 days, and on the 14th
day the whole congregation of Israel are all going to kill
their lambs in that same evening. And they shall take up the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post
of the houses wherein they shall eat it." And in verse 22, What does Moses say to the elders
of Israel? Draw out and take you a lamb
according to your families and kill the Passover and you shall
take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the
basin and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood
that is in the basin and none of you shall go out of the door
of his house until the morning. And that blood that was applied
to those two side posts of the door and the lintel of the door,
that blood was their protection, wasn't it? And when their children
asked them, why are you doing this? They were to say to them,
it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the
houses of the children of Israel in Egypt. When he smoked the
Egyptians and delivered our houses, it was the way of deliverance,
the application of that blood. Hyssop is associated with the
application of blood. Perjury with hyssop. What is
he looking forward to? Surely he is looking forward
to the coming of the Lord Jesus. and to that death that he died
in the place of others. The wages of sin is death, isn't
it? That is the effect of sin. That was what the Lord said to
the first man and woman, didn't he, there in the Garden of Eden.
He said, you can eat any one of these trees, but not that
one. That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't
eat that one, because in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And we see that being fulfilled,
didn't we? Adam and Eve, they literally died at the end of
their lives here. But when they ate of that tree,
there was a kind of death that happened to them instantly, wasn't
there? And their relationship to God, it changes so radically. And now when they hear him in
the garden, they don't want to be near him, and they try and
hide themselves from him. It was a kind of death. That
is the effect of sin. Purge me with hyssop. There is
a reference, surely, to what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary,
when he shed his blood and when he gave his life. And Paul talks
about it, doesn't he, when he writes to the Corinthians, he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
21. God was in Christ, he says, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we beseech
you, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God,
for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." This is how David
hopes for his sins to be forgiven. He knows that the cost of sin,
the punishment of sin is death. He needs someone else to die
that death for him. Purge me with hyssop. It's to be washed
in the blood of Christ. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. That was
his hope, that was his prayer. And though he sees the great
weight and size of his sins, Here he looks forward to a sacrifice
for sin that was big enough and wide enough to cover them all. And yes, the hymn writer, he
spoke of infinite sin. Infinite sin upon sin, he said,
but when we consider the work of Christ and all that he accomplished,
do we not find an infinite righteousness, an infinite grace, an infinite
forgiveness, an infinite love? Again, it's there in that hymn
that we're going to sing in a moment, 7-5-5. The hymn writer, he speaks
of his sins being unnumbered as the sand and like the mountains
for their size. But he also can talk of this,
can't he? The seas of sovereign grace expand.
The seas of sovereign grace arise. And it's as if the grace of God
and the forgiveness that there is in Christ, it covers those
sins, though they are so numerous and so large. Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. This was David's prayer. Wash
me throughly, cleanse me from my sin. He had no right to demand
it. His sense of guilt didn't give
him any right to demand it. And you and I have no right to
demand it. You and I have nothing in us that makes us deserve it. But David asked for it. And surely
you and I have as much right to ask for it as David did. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin. There's nothing here to discourage
us from asking, is there? Nothing throughout the whole
Bible to discourage us from asking. Everything to encourage us, isn't
there? And the Lord Jesus, He spoke
of Himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by Me, but He also said, Whosoever cometh
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. And He Himself promised,
Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh, receive,
and he that seeketh, findeth. and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. And that was certainly true of David. Yes, he is full
of sorrow and guilt and cast down by the size and weight of
his sin here. And as we see him in other Psalms,
we find him in the same place, don't we? He knew times when he could say,
there is no rest in my bones because of my sin. My iniquities
have gone over my head. as a heavy burden, they are too
heavy for me. But he could also speak of times of rejoicing,
couldn't he? Times of rejoicing in the forgiveness
of God, in the grace of God. When he could call upon Him with
confidence, and speak with assurance. Thou, O God, hast heard my vows.
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.
Thou wilt prolong the king's life, his years as many generations.
He shall abide before God forever. O prepare mercy and truth which
may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy
name forever, that I may daily perform my vows. O God, give
us to know this same prayer as we come before God. that we might,
as David did, acknowledge our transgression, not make excuses
for them, not blame other people for them, but to own them and
acknowledge them and to come, as David did, with this same
prayer, and all that is represented by it, purge me with hyssop and
I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Amen.