Psalm 51:1-19; A Psalm for Sinners

Andy Jones July 20, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have a Bible, I invite you to open with me to
Psalm 51, where we'll bestudying this morning.
And as you do that, let me justsay that the church where I
serve on Lookout Mountain doesnot have central AC, and so any
church that would have invitedme to preach in July I would
have gladly accepted, and ifyou're looking for a little

(00:22):
refiner's fire, you're more thanwelcome to join us these summer
months up on Lookout forWorship.
But this morning we're going tobe considering what's most
definitely probably, for any ofyou who spent time in God's Word
or among God's people, afamiliar psalm, if not a
familiar story that lays behindit.
Because this morning we'regoing to be looking at Psalm 51,

(00:44):
and this is the story we'retold at the beginning of the
psalm that arises out of David'ssin with Bathsheba, and so we
want to see what does it holdfor us to learn this morning as
God's children?
So let's give attention to thereading of God's word from Psalm
51.
Have mercy on me, o God.
According to your steadfastlove, according to your abundant

(01:07):
mercy, blot out mytransgressions, wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity andcleanse me from my sin, for I
know my transgressions and mysin is ever before me.
Against you you only have Isinnedned and done what is evil
in your sight so that you may bejustified in your words and

(01:31):
blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth ininiquity and in sin did my
mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth inthe inward being and you teach

(01:55):
me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop and Ishall Verse 1.
Hide your face from my sins andblot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, oGod, and renew a right spirit
within me.
Cast me not away from yourpresence and take not your Holy
Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of yoursalvation and uphold me with a

(02:21):
willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressorsyour ways and sinners will
return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, o God, o God of my
salvation, and my tongue willsing aloud of your righteousness
.
O Lord, open my lips and mymouth will declare your praise,

(02:42):
for you will not delight insacrifice, or I would give it.
You will not be pleased with aburnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are abroken spirit, a broken and
contrite heart.
O God, you will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your goodpleasure, build up the walls of
Jerusalem, then will you delightin right sacrifices, in burnt

(03:06):
offerings and whole burntofferings.
Then bowls will be offered onyour altar.
May God bless the reading of HisWord.
Let's turn to Him and ask Himto give us understanding of it.
Father in heaven, we comebefore you this morning,
gathered here as your children,and pray that it might be your
voice we hear speak to us todayand that we might not refuse

(03:30):
your voice, but that, father, wewould take everything we see in
your word today as truth andthat we would judge what is true
, good and beautiful by what yousay.
But, father as well, we prayfor your Holy Spirit to indwell
us and to be what you say.
But, father as well, we prayfor your Holy Spirit to indwell
us and to be in our midst, thathe would remove all the
impediments in our hearts thatresist your word, that he would

(03:55):
guide us into the truth and thetruth into us.
That in coming days, weeks andmonths we may bear fruit that
brings you glory.
And we ask this in Christ'sname, amen.
A few years ago I read a book onthe safety of the airline
industry and how it hasexponentially improved over the

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last 50 years, that essentiallyevery year over the last 50
years it's become safer, year byyear, to travel by air.
And this book explored thatsubject, wanting to understand
why, in the hopes that there wasthings that could be learned in
other industries.
And so, after analyzing all thedata, the author of this book

(04:41):
says that the single mostinfluential thing that accounts
for the safety that has improvedin air travel is the
introduction of the black box.
Some of you may be familiarwith the black box.
It's also called a flightrecorder, but it's mandated now
in commercial aircraft and itrecords all the data that's

(05:03):
happening during the flight andany communications involving the
pilots.
And the purpose is so that whenthere is an air traffic
incident, examiners can explorethe black box to come to
understand what happened, why ithappened, and then publish
their findings industry-wide sothey can help prevent such

(05:24):
things from happening again.
And the author of this bookconcludes that really the reason
air travel has improved isbecause there's been a culture
created of acknowledging andaddressing failures, that this
is how any industry and anyhuman grows, improves and

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develops in life, and that isthe willingness to acknowledge
and address failures.
We know this is true in othersections of life.
We know we know coaches, aftera game, will have their team
watch game tape, not only tocelebrate what was done
correctly but also to point outmistakes, so those mistakes

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aren't repeated, so the athletescan grow, develop and improve
over time.
We know it's true in marriage.
If you want to strengthen andgrow your marriage, I would
advise you to acknowledge andaddress your failures in your
marriage and you will find it tohave a strengthening effect.
And that's because failure hasbeen and continues to be one of

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the best teachers we have.
And that truth is not only trueprofessionally and personally,
but this morning, in Psalm 51,we discover it's also true
spiritually that if we want togrow and improve in our
relationship with God, then itrequires us to acknowledge

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failures, to come before him andto acknowledge the ways that we
have failed in our relationshipwith Him.
Now it's easy for us to thinkabout those concepts and to
assent to them mentally, but thetruth is we all resist with
great effort at everacknowledging failure.

(07:19):
Our minds are engineered toprotect us from the thought even
that we have failed someone,especially God himself, because
we're afraid that acknowledgingfailure is going to mean
judgment, in our relationshipsat work and in other aspects of
life, that it's going to lead todestruction.
But this morning we're remindedthat, as David does here, as he

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owns and brings his failures toGod, it doesn't lead to
destruction.
It leads to health, it leads togrowth, it leads to forgiveness
, it leads to restoration.
And so we want to look at thispsalm and to consider for
ourselves what can we learn fromDavid's experience here?
What does it mean for us tocome and acknowledge and address

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our failures before God?
And what we're going to see isthat the very God that our
hearts, when we're aware of sin,tell us to run from, is the
very God we must run to, because, instead of being met with
judgment, we're going to findthat he stands there ready to

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forgive and restore when we cometo Him and ask Him for mercy.
And so I want to just considerthree things from this passage
today as it applies to our lives.
What can we learn from thispsalm about sin, what can we
learn from this psalm about God,and what can we learn from this
psalm about forgiveness?

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So let's think about that firstpoint.
What do we have to learn aboutsin from this psalm.
You know, the first thing thathappens in us when we fail
whether it's in our personallives, spiritual lives is that
we tend to do two things, one oftwo things.
We downplay what happened sothat it's really not a failure,

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if you really understood thesituation, or we assign blame to
someone else or something else.
Yeah, there was a failure, butit's not really my fault.
But take note that what Daviddoes, as he's aware of his sin,
is he doesn't do either of thosethings, he doesn't minimize
what he's done and he doesn'tassign blame to anyone else.

(09:30):
Against you, you only have Isinned and I've done what is
evil in your sight.
David uses four different wordsfor sin in this passage.
He refers to it as sin, asiniquity, as transgression and
then finally, in verse 4, asevil.
But you probably know this.

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But in some form or fashion allthose words are getting at the
same thing, which God sets astandard, and sin is when we
don't meet the standard, andsometimes we defy the standard.
We see what God has said and wejust outright do the opposite,
and then sometimes we justneglect to pay attention to the
standard God has said.

(10:12):
And David is guilty of all ofthose things Because, as you
probably know, this story ofDavid and Bathsheba that David
has taken this beautiful giftfrom God in the form of this
woman and has used and misusedher in ways that God never
intended or instructed.

(10:34):
And then David uses and misuseshis power that's been given as a
gift as king over Israel.
He misuses that power againsther husband, uriah, for his own
selfish gain and selfishprotection.
And so David's open before God.
He owns that what he's done isevil.

(10:55):
Now I should note I saidearlier that you know we all
resist acknowledging failure,and David did as well, which is
why we're told at the beginningof the Psalm this confession
only happens because Nathancomes and confronts him about
what he's done.
David thinks he's in the right,but now he comes and confesses

(11:17):
his sin, that he has indeedmissed the mark when it comes to
righteousness before God.
But David says somethinginteresting in verse 4, against
you, you only have I sinned, youknow.
It would seem as though itmight be appropriate for David
to talk about what he didagainst Bathsheba.
It feels like he also sinnedagainst Uriah.

(11:38):
But here he says no, againstyou, o God, you only have I
sinned.
Now I think David is not tryingto say there weren't
destructive effects on thosepeople or their lives by any
means, but what he's trying toget at is that, at the end of
the day, who he offended andviolated was the God who created

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them, the God who entrusted himwith power and a role and
responsibility, that, at the endof the day, he violated the
great commandment love the Lord,your God.
And he had failed to do that.
And so it's because of that hecan say against you, you only
have I sinned.

(12:19):
And David is not satisfied withthinking about sin merely as an
outward behavior, because, youmay have noticed, in verses 5 to
6, he turns his attentioninside of himself.
It says it's not just that Ibehave in wrong ways, but he
says there's something terriblydisordered within me and he says

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this has been true since hisconception.
Verse 5, I was brought forth ininiquity and in sin.
My mother conceived me.
And then in verse 6, he talksabout the inward being and the
secret heart, which are missingthings that he needs God to put
in there.
But David's point is that thereare far deeper issues than just

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the adultery, than just themurder, than just the abuse of
power, that he has a heart thatis pulled in the wrong direction
, that his heart isn't headeddown straight paths, but it is

(13:23):
inclined to wander off the pathtowards things that are
destructive and evil.
A few years ago, one of our carswas pulling to the left and you
know, of course, I waited aslong as I could, but finally
succumbed and took it into anauto repair shop, and the
mechanic came out afterexamining the car and informed
me that my front left tire had aradial pull.
And, like any self-respectingman, I acted as though I

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understood what he was talkingabout and then waited for an
appropriate time to ask someone.
But a radial pull is when thesteel in your tire is not
perfect, that it's off-centered,that there's a defect and
imperfection in it, and so, nomatter what you do, it's always
going to pull that direction.

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And he said, the only way tofix this is you need a new tire.
And in that same way, christiansthroughout the centuries have
talked about this concept oforiginal sin, that our hearts,
that we're born as a result ofour first parent's sin, that
every human born from our firstparents has a heart with a

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radial pole, that our hearts arenaturally going to drift off
into lands that are dangerousand destructive, and that the
only cure for it is a new heart,and that's what David prays for
Created me a clean heart.
And so, as we go to God to talkabout our sin, we need to

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acknowledge that our sin isn'tjust occasional, but rather
there are depths to it, and thatwe need God to speak into and
change our hearts so that we canbear fruit that gives Him glory
.
But you know, as we do thinkabout David's sin, that gives
him glory.
But you know, as we do thinkabout David's sin, it of course

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is very appropriate to describeit as scandalous.
It was scandalous and that'simportant for us to recognize
the gravity of what David did.
But as we think about our ownsin I don't know who needs to
hear this this morning it maysound overly simplistic to say
this, but Christ came to die foractual sins.

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In other words, christ didn'tcome to die for the concept of
sin.
He came to die for people likeyou and me who do real, specific
sins, just like David.
Christ came to die for peoplelike David who commit murder,

(15:55):
who commit adultery, who abusetheir power.
Christ came to die not forsmall sins that we can manage
and improve on and not do again.
But he came also to die forlarge sins that we don't know
how to get a hold of.
Christ didn't come merely todie for sins that are out of

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sight, that no one notices, buthe came to die for sins that are
put on big screens at concertsand made viral across the
internet.
Christ came to die for the sinsthat we're scared to think
about and tell others about.
That's why the Lord JesusChrist came was to die for real,

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actual sins, and as David talksabout his sin, he's talking
about a real, actual sin that hecommitted against God.
But that brings us to the secondthing we want to think about.
Not only what do we learn aboutsin from this passage, but what
do we learn about God?
Well, it comes out in verse 1,where David says have mercy on

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me, o God, according to yoursteadfast love, according to
your abundant mercy.
Now notice what does Davidappeal to?
What's his only confidence ashe goes to God with this sin
that he calls evil?
His only confidence is in Godhimself, he says.

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He doesn't say God forgive mebecause of the quality of my
confession.
He doesn't say God forgive mebecause I'm on a performance
improvement plan and look at theprogress I've made so far.
But no, what does he say?
If I'm going to be forgiven,the only reason is is because
you Father, son and Holy Spiritare full of steadfast love and

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full of abundant mercy.
Now, the good news for us, as wesit here today, is God does not
need a reason outside ofhimself to forgive you.
He is filled with steadfastlove and abundant mercy.
He doesn't have to be cajoled,manipulated, put into the right

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mood or anything.
This is who he is.
The steadfast love of the Lordnever ceases.
His mercy can't be brought toan end.
You know, I used to think thatGod has to love me because Jesus
died for me, that it compelsHim to love me because of what
Jesus died for me, that itcompels him to love me because

(18:29):
of what Jesus did for me.
But as I studied the Scripture,I realized I had that backwards
.
God loves me and because of Hislove he sends His Son to die
for me.
That, in other words, god,father, son and Holy Spirit have
been conspiring from all ofeternity to secure our

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forgiveness and our salvationand everlasting life.
This is what has occupied Godfor all of eternity, that he
conspires to send His son tobear the judgment that we
deserve.
You may have noticed Davidspeaks about this in verse 4.
He says God, you would be rightto bring judgment against me.

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That's what I deserve.
But he says but in you there'smercy.
I can come to you knowingyou're not going to give me what
I deserve.
You're going to give me what Idon't deserve, and that is mercy
and steadfast love that,instead of holding my record
against me, what I know I'mgoing to find in you.

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Jehovah is a God who will blotout my transgressions.
That this is the God of theBible, and this is why the very
God that, when we fail, weresist running to, we want to
run away from, we must go to,because only in Him will we find
abundant mercy and steadfastlove.

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Of course, the glory of thegospel is that God doesn't give
us what we deserve.
He gives us what Christdeserves, and he gives Christ
what we deserve, and this is thegreat exchange and the glory of
God's redeeming work.
And so this morning we need tobe reminded the cross does not

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compel God to love me.
God's love for me compels thecross, and what we learn about
God is that, no matter how greatour sin is and David says here
his sin was great because it wasever before him, that was all
he could see that when he wentto God with his sin, what he

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found was a grace that aboundsall the more.
You know, you and I, in our sin,we are finite.
In sin, we can only sin at amaximum of 24, 7, 365, for
however many years we live.
But God's mercy and God'ssteadfast love is from
everlasting to everlasting.

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It precedes us and it willoutlast us for all of eternity.
There is no measuring His love,and so, however great our sin
may appear to us, this is why wecan go and say have mercy on me
, o God.
According to your mercy,according to your steadfast love

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, blot out my transgressions.
But finally, we also want tothink here for a moment of what
do we learn about forgiveness?
What do we learn aboutforgiveness?
And that comes out in thesecond half of the psalm, where
David says that forgiveness isgoing to mean full restoration

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not partial, but fullrestoration.
That he's now going to be ableto return to be among God's
people, that he's not going tobe cast out, that he's going to
be near, that he's going to beable to even go and offer
sacrifices before God.
And this is important.
And this truth, thatforgiveness means full

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restoration, actually comes outin verse 7, where there's the
statement purge me with hyssopand I shall be clean.
Often we read that passage andthat might not mean anything to
us, but to the first people whoheard that phrase, they would
have thought back to the book ofLeviticus, because in the book

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of Leviticus there were lawsgiven as to how the Israelites
were to handle people withleprosy and of course, as you
probably know, people who hadleprosy in the Old Testament
were forced to live outside thecamp.
They were cast out, they werecast away, but after a time of
healing, the priest, we're toldin Leviticus 14, was to go out

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to them and determining thatthey were ready to reenter was
to take a branch of hyssop, dipit in blood and sprinkle the
leper and pronounce them clean,that you are now ready to return
, that you have been restored tofellowship, that you're to be
treated as all the otherIsraelites, as though you never

(23:15):
had leprosy.
And this is what David'sgetting at Purge me with hyssop,
o God, and I shall be clean.
I shall, with all confidence,be able to reenter to your
presence, reenter your temple,reenter into the work that you
have called me.
You know David says somethinghere in his prayer that God will

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not despise the broken andcontrite heart.
You know, in our lives whensomething breaks, that means
it's time to get rid of it.
It no longer has usefulness tous.
But in God's economy God isdrawn to the broken.
That this is when God bringspeople into his inner circle is

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in this moment of brokenness.
This is when they get more ofhis attention, not less, is in
that moment of brokenness andcontrition.
You know in our own livesphysically you may know this
that you know, if you work out,if you lift weights or go for a
run, that what your body doeswhile you exercise is it strains

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and it tears muscles and fibers, and that what happens is your
body is designed to rushresources to those parts of the
body that are straining, thathave been bruised, and that the
recovery process leads tostrength.
That part of your body will getmore resources, more attention

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and be more stronger and moreuseful as a result of what has
happened, as a result of thisprocess, and we find out that
that's true in God's economy.
It's true in God's economy thatwhen we are strained, stretched
and broken spiritually, that'sin that moment that God is
pleased to rush more of Hisresources to us, and so that,

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the result being that there is agreater usefulness to His
purposes and to His kingdom.
That's what David says,starting in verse 13,.
What's going to happen?
I'm going to teachtransgressors your ways.
Sinners are going to return toyou.
I'm going to open my lips andmy mouth is going to declare
your praise.
And so David has this renewedspirit within him not to go off

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and abuse the forgiveness thatGod has given him, but to go off
and be even more useful asGod's ambassador to God's people
.
You know, as we said already,we're going to fail other people
this week.
We're going to fail our spouses, our co-workers, whoever it may
be, our kids.
We fail in many ways, and thescripture tells us, all have

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sinned and will fail God andfall short of his mark.
And this morning we need to bereminded that God is not in the
business of changing hisstandards, but he is in the
business of changing you and me,and the way he does that is by

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showering us, when we come tohim with abundant mercy and
steadfast love.
And so this morning, as God,through his spirit, explores the
black box of our hearts and weare scared to think about what
might be found there Like David,we can come, however small or

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big our sins may be, and comewith confidence as we bring them
to God.
We can ask Him for mercy andknow that he will not meet us
with His judgment, but he willgive us forgiveness and
restoration and a greaterusefulness for His purposes and
for His kingdom.
As much as I want you tobelieve this morning that David

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did these things and that Davidexperienced real and lasting
forgiveness for what he did,what I really want you to
believe is that God forgives youfor the sins that you and I
have done, that are very realand actual, and that, as we come
to see these failures, may wenot be stuck looking at our

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failures.
That's not where the Bibleleaves us.
We are having our eyes turned,like David, away from our sin to
gaze upon God, and as we do, wewill see that he stands ready
to forgive, receive and restoreus.
Father in heaven, we thank youthat your nature is far

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different from ours.
Father, we praise you that itis in your very nature to
forgive sinners like us.
And, father, it's not in ournature as well to believe that,
and so we need a profoundmiracle this morning.
Give us the very faith we needto receive the gift you give us

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through your Son, jesus Christ,to believe and rest assured in
his completed work on our behalfand to live as becomes His
followers this week.
Father, some of us this morningneed to hear the loud thunder
of your law, of your standard,and be awakened to dangerous
things that may be in front ofus.

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But, father, we all need tohear your fatherly voice speak
words of comfort and assurance.
So give us your Spirit, give usassurance that, indeed, our sin
, the bliss of this gloriousthought, our sin not in part,
but the whole, has been nailedto the cross, and we bear it no
more.
Grant us such grace.

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We pray for Christ's sake, amen.