Psalm 51 Part 2. A Psalm
of David with comments by Dennis Edwards
To go back to Part 1
Psalm 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have broken
may rejoice.
When we have strayed from the
Lord and entered into sin, God’s correction feels like our bones are being broken.
We lose the joy of the Lord. A dark cloud may hang over us. But it is the joy
of the Lord, that is our strength. In Psalm 32, another penitent psalm,
we find the same imagery.
Psalm 32:4 “For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is
turned into the drought of summer.”
Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear.”
It is our own iniquities that
separate us from God. But when we acknowledge our sins, and move from them, we
are on the path to victory.
Hosea 6:1 “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He has torn, and He
will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up.”
Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin unto You, and my iniquity have I not hid.
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and You forgave the
iniquity of my sin.”
Acknowledging, confessing,
and changing are the pathway to forgiveness and renewed joy and happiness.
Psalm 51:9-12 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from Your presence; and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me
the joy of Your salvation; and uphold me with Your free spirit.
As we read earlier, “If we
confess our sins (in truth), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:9.
Apostle Paul tells us that
nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Only our own
self-righteousness will separate us from God, if we do not humble ourselves
before Him and seek His mercy and forgiveness. In Jonah, we see the same
idea.
Jonah 2:8 “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
If we believe the lies of
Satan, that what we have done is beyond the forgiveness of God, then we forsake
the mercy He offers to those who come to Him with all their heart. The dying
thief found forgiveness on the cross with Christ. It’s never too late. We have
never sinned beyond the power of God to forgive.
Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. For whom the Son has set free, is free indeed. God’s Holy
Spirit frees us from the condemnation the enemy tries to place upon us. “Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved
us, (and continues to save us), by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
the Holy Ghost,” Titus 3:5.
We need a constant washing of
regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Ghost. The outer man must perish, but the
inward man must be renewed day by day, 2 Corinthians 4:16b. “If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Psalm 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors Your ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto You.
The fact that we have sinned
greatly and have found forgiveness in the arms of Jesus, compels us to want to
share the truth of the Gospel with others. The greatest sinners become the
greatest testimonies to God’s goodness and grace.
Psalm 51:14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, You, God of my
salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
Having found forgiveness in
God through the love of Jesus, for sins that are punishable by death, we sing
aloud of God’s goodness. David found forgiveness in God’s arms from the guilt
he felt on killing Uriah. He was able to sing and praise God in spite of his
great falling from grace. His great fall brought great repentance and helped
David to be a humbler and wiser king. Usually, God’s ways up are down, contrary
to what we think.
Psalm 51:15 O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
God dwells in the praises of
His people, Psalm 22:3. “And when they (Jerusalem and Judah) began to
sing and to praise,” the enemies of God were smitten, and God’s people were
delivered, 2 Chronicles 20:22. We enter into His gates with
thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise, Psalm 100:4a. Praise is
the victory! It causes God to rise in our defence.
Acts 16:25-26 “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto
God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake,
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and all the doors were
opened, and every one’s hands were loosed.”
Psalm 51:16-17 For You desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: You delight
not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and
a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
All the Old Testament
sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the death of the Messiah. When Jesus was on
earth, He had a broken and contrite heart. He made Himself of no reputation,
and took upon Him the form of a servant. He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, Philippines 2:7-8.
Isaiah 66:2b “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembles at My word.”
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves
such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Hebrews 13:15-16 “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. But to
do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased.”
Our praise to God is
considered a sacrifice in His eyes. Our doing good and communicating with
others are also seen as pleasing sacrifices to the Lord.
Psalm 51:18-19 Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: build the walls of
Jerusalem. Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with
burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Your
altar.
If we walk in praise and
thanksgiving, God will build us up. The spiritual walls of our lives will be
strengthened and renewed as we walk humbly before our God in obedience and
submission to His voice. Apostle Paul tells us our lives should be a “living sacrifice,”
not by following the culture, but by following God.
Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but you transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Our lives should be a living sacrifice in service to God and our fellow man. Jesus said, “For he that is greatest among you, must be servant of all,” Matthew 23:11. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it,” Luke 9:23-24.
As Jesus sacrificed Himself for us to be the propitiation for our sins, so we should do likewise and lay down our lives in humble service to our Lord and King, and to those around us. May our lives be a living sacrifice unto God our Father. Amen.
Here are two comments on Psalm
51 from famous people:
“Thus was David led from the
knowledge of this one sin to the knowledge of his whole sinful nature. As if he
would say—‘That such a one as I, endowed with so much grace, should have fallen
at once as from heaven to hell, is to me, and all others, a palpable sign that
there is no good thing in the flesh.’” Martin Luther
“This sin did not David when
he was suffering from Saul’s persecutions. Beware of prosperity, more perilous
to the soul than adversity to the body….He was nearer to God then, in his
tribulations, when to men he seemed most miserable.” Augustine
Both found in A Commentary on the Book of Psalms by William de Burgh, 1801-1866.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment