Revering the Word
Psalm 51 Create in me a clean heart.
Good morning, everyone. This morning, we are in Psalm 51, and what an amazing Psalm it is. This is a profound Psalm with a deep story to it, and we see the goodness and the mercy of God in this Psalm, especially as we, God's people, turn to Him in humility, in confession and receive His grace and mercy. This Psalm is titled A Contrite Sinners Prayer for Pardon. You know, these notes that I'm about to read here before the Psalm begins says, "For the choir director, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba." And, you know, some titles of certain sections of Scripture are not necessarily inspired. Man put them in later, but in the original scrolls, these titles, like I just mentioned from, for the choir director, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba, that actually is part of the original Psalm as an intro to the Psalm. Those are indeed authentic and inspired. So, we know the setting of the Psalm. Now, in order to take in the Psalm rightly, I'd like to take you to that what happened with David, and it goes all the way back to 2 Samuel chapter 11, and I'm going to just read portions of chapters 11 and 12 so we capture the setting. Then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Raba, but David stayed at Jerusalem. Now, when evening came, David arose and went, excuse me, and arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So, David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Iliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite?" David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him he lay with her, and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. The woman conceived, and she sent and told David and said, "I am pregnant." So David sees this woman, desires her, has her come to him, has intercourse with her, and gets her pregnant. Now, this woman's married, and her husband is out on the battlefield fighting for David and for Israel, and this is clearly a really terrible sin that David did committing adultery, being with another man's wife. And so, what he tries to do, and I'll summarize some of it, he realizes he's really in a bind, and that he's gotten this woman pregnant, and what he wants to do is try to make it seem as though it's Uriah, her husband who got her pregnant, and not David. So, he sends for Joab and says, "Get Uriah, get him out of the battlefield, and have him come home and spend time with his wife, so that he'll have intercourse with her. And then, when this baby comes, it could be as though it was Uriah's, and I'll be covered, instead of it being, you know, from me." Well, when he came home, this guy was an honorable guy, and it said, "When he came home, Uriah," this is verse 9 of 2 Samuel 11, "Yoriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house." Now, when they told David, saying, "Yoriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field, so then I go to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife. By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing." So, he didn't even want to rest, and he didn't want to go home because he felt like he should be out there with the military. And so then, David tries to get him drunk and have him go to his wife, and Uriah wouldn't do it. Uriah didn't go home to his wife. So then, David's like, "Well, how am I going to get out of this?" And he says to Joab to send David to the very front of, or excuse me, to send Uriah to the very front lines so that he'll be killed in battle. And indeed, they put Uriah at the front lines, and Uriah gets killed just as David designed. So, after this, then, now, when the, this is verse 26, now, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the time of her morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and then she bore him a son. And then it says this, "But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord." And indeed, it was evil. He committed murder, had someone else do it, but it was his plan, and he committed adultery. So, what a sad state of affairs of something that David did. So then, David's got this friend, Nathan, and listen to what Nathan does here. Pretty amazing. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said, and he tells David a story. Listen to this story. "There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ulem, which he brought and nourished. And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom. It was like a daughter to him. Now, a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock, or his own herd, to prepare for the wafer who had come to him. Rather, he took the poor man's ulem and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord surely lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb forefold because he did this thing and had no compassion." So he tells him this story so that David will have this heart of compassion for this poor guy who loved his lamb. And really, what the story is, is that the rich man is David, and the poor man is Uriah, and the little lamb is essentially Bathsheba, his wife. And so now David is infuriated that someone would take this person's little lamb, or in this case, really. It's about David taking this person's wife. Nathan then said to David, "You are the man. You're the one who took that little lamb that that person loved. Thus, that is the Lord God of Israel. It is I who anointed you, King over Israel, and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house and your master's wise into your care. And I gave you the house of Israel in Judah." So God's like, "I've given you everything. Why have you despised verse 9? The word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight. You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife, and you have killed him with the sword of the sons of a man, Amun." So God through Nathan tells David that what he did was wrong and evil, and that he's really upset at David, and he's going to give him some penalties. He talks about how there's going to be a lot of fighting in David's life, and also that the son that Bathsheba is going to have from David is going to die. So these are some of the penalties that God gives David for what he did wrong. And after he hears about all of this, this is what's so great about David, even though what he did is terribly wrong. But David was a man after God's own heart, and he got caught up into sin, and he did what was wrong, very wrong. But how he responded really was beautiful. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And so he realizes that he has sinned. Now, from all of that, then David writes this song. So remember, the title of the song was a song of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. So David now is fully realizing his sin, and you know, although in Second Samuel there, it just said he realized, you know, I have sinned. This is what he wrote about what he did wrong. So really, Psalm 51 is a psalm of confession, and it's a beautiful psalm of David confessing how sincerely he knows he did wrong, and essentially asking for the Lord's mercy, and even trusting in the beauty of God's grace and forgiveness for him. So let's take it in now. Listen to how it begins. These are some of the most beautiful words of Scripture. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. So he's confessing, yes, I am, I am a man of iniquity and cleansed me from my sin. He realizes that he's a sinner and that he did wrong and he wants to be cleansed. Listen to what he says here, for I know my transgressions. He doesn't deny them. He comes to the Lord and confesses them, and my sin is ever before me. And then listen to what he says here. This is why David was a man after God's own heart, despite being a sinner. Listen to this. Against you, you only I have sinned. He realizes that what he has done wrong was not only terribly wrong for Uriah, but that he did this and dishonored his God. And so against you, you only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge, even the penalties that he gives David for the fact that he did this sin. God David realizes that God is justified in it. And then he says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin, my mother concedes me. And David is really on to something there. Do you know that we are born into sin? We are sinners. We're sinners from birth. We have the Adamic sin problem from Adam, and we need the forgiveness of Jesus for our sin problem. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being. God wants the truth. God doesn't want us to hide in sin and lie about sin. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, innermost truth. And in the hidden part, you will make me no wisdom. And when we really come clean to God and confess our sin to him, we will become more wise. And listen to what he says next, purify me with hissep and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. It's almost as though David just has a further understanding of the kind of forgiveness that we're going to have through Messiah Jesus. Just beautiful words, wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Make me here join gladness. David is not feeling joy and gladness, but he's wanting to be restored to a relationship with God and have his sin forgiven. Let the bones, which you have broken rejoice. Oh, God, let me, let me rejoice again in you. Let me come clean before you, Hallelujah. Hide your face from my sins, Lord, and blot out all my iniquities. And do you know that in Jesus Christ now he has done that? He has blotted out our iniquities, Hallelujah. Listen to these words, just glorious. Creating me a clean heart. Oh, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. I just can't help but not want to sing those words and create in me a clean heart. Oh, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Oh, may this be true of us. Create in us, God, a clean heart, and renew in us a steadfast spirit. You know, when you, when we confess our sin, when we come clean before God, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when we realize that Jesus Christ out on that cross is the Lamb of God to take away all of our sin and that he can create a clean heart in us and renew a steadfast spirit to follow him. Oh, that's when we well up with joy and love for our Lord and Savior for what he's done, Hallelujah. Do not cast me away from your presence, Lord, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and through confession and through coming to God in faith. He does renew the joy of our salvation and sustain me with the willing spirit. And when we get renewed and restored and forgiven, listen to what it says then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you and we become fruitful and we multiply and we we help other people because we know of the great forgiveness and cleansing of our Lord and Savior and how that's changed us. And now we want to go to others and tell the good news and help other people to be converted to him. But now almost as though he's getting ahead of himself, he says, deliver me Lord from blood guiltiness, deliver me from my sin. Oh God, the God of my salvation. And when you do God, when you deliver me of the sin, then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness, Hallelujah. Oh Lord, open my lips that I may declare your praises. And you know what? When we realize that Jesus Christ came to forgive us of everything we've ever done wrong. Oh yes, that'll get you to praise God, Hallelujah. For you did not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. You know, David's right and it's not that he's wrong, but God did want their offerings and their sacrifices. But you know what he didn't want? He didn't want it from a heart that wasn't devoted to God. He did not want them to just go through the motions. And he doesn't want people to just check a devotion off their list or just to show up at church. And it's great to show up at church. But what he wants is he wants our heart. He wants us to love him. He wants to see his abundant grace and mercy and love for us. And then when we come to church, and when we do our devotions, and when we bring our offerings, if we were bringing an animal sacrifice like they did then, God would rejoice in it because it's coming from a heart that's devoted to him. That's what he wants. He wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The sacrifices of God, he says, are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. And we should come to God in humility. We should come to God knowing that we are far from perfect and that we need his forgiveness and that he's given it to us. And there's something sweet about a broken spirit, a broken and troncrite, contrite heart that comes before God and says, Oh God, thank you. Oh God, I need you. I need you for your grace and your forgiveness, God. And thank you for giving it to me. Hallelujah. And then the joy of the Lord returns. Then it says this, do your favor, buy your favor, do good to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices. See, it's not that the sacrifices were bad, but when we come to God with the right heart, then he delights in our sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then young bulls will be offered on your altar. Now this was an Old Testament time when the sacrificial system was still in effect. And we don't do that anymore because Jesus was the once and final sacrifice. So we no longer have to bring sacrifices at all. But God is saying, in the Old Testament here, what I really wanted was your heart. I really wanted you to see the beauty of me cleansing you and I wanted you to love me. And then when you come to church, when you bring your offering, it's coming from a place of love and devotion to our Lord. I want to encourage you to, you know, anytime, well, even now, you to think about your sin and to confess it before the Lord and realize that he wants to create a clean heart in you and that he has willingly done what's necessary through Jesus Christ to forgive you and that we could then well up in thanksgiving and devotion to our Lord for the grace that he has given us and forgiving us of everything we've ever done wrong through faith in Jesus Christ. Have you trusted in Jesus? You have to believe in him. You have to confess with your mouth that he is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And then you should get baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ. And when you when you follow through and faith in him and and make him your Lord and Savior, you are cleansed. Hallelujah. You are forgiven. The last word that I want to give to you and the beauty of this song is that there's a band. It's called the Sons of Cora and they maybe exclusively, if not largely, sing only Psalms. And you know, these songs, these are songs. Psalms are songs and they were written in Hebrew and they had great rhymes in Hebrew and they would be beautiful songs, song in Hebrew. But the Sons of Cora sings these songs, Psalms in English because that's obviously the language that we want to understand that or that we understand them in. They don't always rhyme as well, you know, in in English, but they still can be beautiful in English. And this one is one of the most beautiful Psalms I've ever heard. And if you go to YouTube or something like that and you go to Sons of Cora, Psalm 51, it is a terrific song and Psalm. And I think you'll be blessed by listening to it. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the grace you've given us. Thank you for creating a clean heart in us, God. Renew a steadfast spirit in us. Help us, God, to well up with thanksgiving for how you have shown us your grace and mercy. We love you, Lord. God bless you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]