Psalm 51
PSALM FIFTY-ONE
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet
Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
This psalm occupies a special place in the Book of Psalms. It is a confession of sin by David, the king of Israel, Israel's greatest king. David was, probably, one of the greatest men who ever lived. His poetic gifts place him among the highest rank of artists of all times. The depth of his emotions is nowhere evinced so clearly as after this deep fall. It is paradoxical that David's greatness is demonstrated so clearly in this confession of his awful sin. Abraham Kuyper has said correctly: "The garment of penitence does not disgrace man."
This fact does, in no way, lessen the horror and repulsiveness of David's acts. We have to remember, though, that before David wrote this psalm, God had already forgiven him. We read: "Then David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' Nathan replied, 'The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.' "1 Yet, this divine pardon did not affect the depth of his emotions. The fact that David wrote this psalm, after he had received God's grace, proves that he had not yet been able to put the matter behind him. He had no sense of being forgiven. God may have forgiven David, but David had not forgiven himself yet. This struggle is at the core of this psalm. It is the cry of a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.
The fact that man does not forgive himself as fast as God forgives him is, in itself, not an unhealthy thing. It demonstrates a sense of reality. Satan can use this, though, to manipulate guilt feelings, and cause depression, which separates from God. There is "godly sorrow" and "worldly sorrow." The Apostle Paul says: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death."2
In Psalm 51, we see David's struggle to clear his own conscience before God. Together with Psalm 32, this poem is a demonstration of, what we may call, the psychology of forgiveness. In Psalm 32, the awareness of forgiveness had already dawned; in this psalm the light only breaks through at the end.
There is no doubt, not even among Bible critics, about the historical background of this psalm. We read the report of David's adultery with Bathsheba, of the murder of Uriah, and of Nathan's confrontation in II Samuel.3 George Knight, in his Commentary On The Psalms, reminds us of the fact that the Old Testament knew no forgiveness for the sins of adultery and premeditated murder. The person who committed those sins had to be executed. The knowledge of this fact must have played an important part in David's struggle. He was the first person ever for whom God made an exception. That elevates this psalm to the level of a prophecy, and makes it a pointer to the sacrifice of Christ, which brought about atonement for sins that could not be atoned for under the old covenant.
This poem is, beyond doubt, a masterpiece. We should not be so naïve as to suppose that David wrote it immediately upon Nathan's confrontation with him. It is quite possible that it was not composed until everything was over. Thus the contrition of the moment became the basis of an artistic utterance, which the Holy Spirit presents to us as a model of confession of sin and of repentance.
In the opening verse, David appeals to God's lovingkindness, compassion, and grace. The plea for forgiveness does not only imply a confession of sin, but also an acknowledgment that punishment is deserved, and that David has forfeited his life. In Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the latter prays: "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."4 The Greek word used for "have mercy" literally means, "be reconciled." The intent is that God would accept the sin offering that has been put on the altar as a propitiation for sin. It is important to remember that forgiveness is an act of judicial value. God does not pardon us on the basis of our tears, but on the basis of the payment for our sins by the blood of Christ. That does not mean that tears are not important but, thank God, they are not the basis for our forgiveness.
The sacrifice for David's sin is not mentioned in this psalm, but this does not mean that none was brought. The stress in this psalm is on the fact that it is fitting, for a man who has sinned, to have a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Forgiveness and pardon may be judicial matters, they should become self-explanatory to us. This does not mean either that we ought to wear black the rest of our lives, and eternally moan about our sins. Contrition and brokeness should, however, be a basic factor in our relationship with God. If God is gracious to us, He gives us something that we did not merit.
David cannot have understood the depth of God's mercy to which he appeals in the psalm. He did not know that the sacrifice, which would be the basis for his pardon was the Son of God Himself. God's mercy is the goodness of God, which is an immutable characteristic of His eternal being. He demonstrates His unfailing love, or lovingkindness, His compassion for His creatures that have become a prey of the devil. The word translated with "compassion" can be taken literally, meaning, "suffering together." In Hebrew the word is chanah, which means "to incline," or even "to pitch a tent." God literally came down to our level; the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us, and took upon Himself our sufferings. But David can hardly have fathomed this.
The difference between David's struggle with his guilt and ours is that we can appeal to God's righteousness in Jesus Christ. When Christ died on the cross, the demand for God's righteousness was satisfied. The pardon of our sins is, in the first place, a judicial act. This was true of David also, but he may not have seen it that way. We can say "amen" to John's statement: "If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."5 It is true that, in vs. 14, David refers to God's righteousness, but the "how" and "why" of it, are not clearly stated. It makes an immense difference in our understanding of forgiveness whether or not we comprehend what the basis for it is.
Besides being a demonstration of God's righteousness, the cross of Christ is also an tremendous proof of God's love for us, that is His lovingkindness, and compassion. But our emotions should rest on the basis of the juridical aspect of the cross.
In the verses 1 and 2, David uses the words: "transgressions," "iniquity, and "sin" to describe the acts he committed. The Hebrew words used are pesha`, which literally means "a revolt," iniquity is `avon, which can be translated as "perversity," or "evil," chatta'ah is "an offense." What David had done was a willful transgression of the moral boundaries God had set. He had revolted against God. His sin was the same kind Adam and Eve had committed in paradise. The offense is in complete opposition to God's righteousness. It means that, in sinning, man's acts go against the character of God. Sinning means missing the mark; it means doing that which debases us, and makes us less than human. David sinned against the will of God, against God's character, and against the goal God had set for his life. He asked God that his transgressions be blotted out; which means that the acts he committed will be erased from the books that will be opened on the day of judgment. He asked to be washed of his iniquity. This request pertains to the aspect of a personal experience. When a person takes a bath, he feels clean and fresh. David asked that God would give him a sense of being forgiven. In his request for being cleansed of sin, he asked for a renewal of his life. The things David asked for are no small matters. He expressed the truth that, unless God renewed him completely, there would be no hope for him. That is a profound confession of sin.
The awareness that God is right when He sentences us to death forms the basis of God's work of grace in our lives; yet we rarely find this kind of consciousness of sin among people. We often pay more attention to, what the doctors call "a feeling of psychological guilt," than to the sinful acts that soil our soul.
The verses 3 and 4 clearly indicate that David had a profound understanding of his sinful acts. The names of Uriah and Bathsheba are not mentioned in this psalm. By withholding those names, David penetrated to the core of the problem. What we do to other people is only good or bad in as much as it is in accordance with, or is in opposition to, the character of God. What we do to others, we do to Him, and what we omit to do for others, we fail to do unto Him.6 David's adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah were sins committed against God. "Against you, you only, have I sinned." This does not mean that Bathsheba and Uriah were not involved in the matter. We can say that David raped the image of God in Bathsheba and murdered it in Uriah. God, not only identifies Himself with our neighbor, He comes to us in our neighbor. That is the reason we have to love our neighbor as ourselves. On the other hand, it means that we have to be "as God" to our neighbor. If sin had not entered the world, it would have been normal for men to demonstrate God's character to one another. That is what Jesus did. Therefore, He could say: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."7 When Jesus Christ was crucified, mankind murdered God Himself. It is a staggering mystery that this most gruesome of all sins brought about the salvation of the world!
David also understood the fact that the sins we commit against our neighbors, and which God takes as committed against Him personally, demonstrate the purity of His judgment: "… so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge." This is difficult for us to understand, because if we take the insults as committed against us personally, it diminishes our objectivity. We should remember, though, that God Himself is the standard of all judgment. Every act committed is either good or bad in as much as it is in accordance with His character, or deviates from it. That is the reason every human being has within him, as part of the divine image, an intuitive understanding of the difference between good and evil.
Vs. 5 is one of the verses in the Bible that form the foundation for the doctrine of man's hereditary sinful nature. David says that the tendency to sin was already in him the day he was conceived. Some people believe that man does not inherit a sinful nature, but that it is the result of demonic influences upon a child after birth. The sin of David's conception would then be the fact that it was the result of an extramarital relationship, of his father Jesse. The problem is that there is no scriptural proof to back up this theory. It is sometimes easy to make the Bible say what we want it to say. It is true that the doctrine of hereditary sin is an often abused part of theology, but this does not take away from the fact that every human being born in this world participates automatically in Adam's revolt against God, and suffers the consequences of this revolt. If this were not so, there would have been no reason for the immaculate conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about it that the devil finds a rich soil in our sinful nature to plant his own seeds. It is also true that, although sin may already be in us when we are born, sin is not part of human nature as God created man. Sin, like sickness and death, goes against the grain of our nature.
Hereditary sin does not diminish our personal responsibility for the acts we commit. David does not hide behind his sinful nature and says: "This is the way I am; it is not my fault." Contrarily, he confesses that he is rotten to the core. That is a difficult confession for a person who needs self-respect and respect from others. We have reached the deepest point if we understand that we trust ourselves. The problem is that the image of God remains within us. The presence of two opposite poles in us causes an unbearable tension. In the center of our being, in the heart, that hidden inner room of our personality, the place the Holy Spirit ought to fill, the devil sits enthroned. To discover this is a terrible experience. It is at the same time the most wholesome discovery one can make. Most people go through life thinking they are much better than they are. They never come to the point where they open their inner chamber to the Lord and invite the truth and wisdom of God to enter, in order to be governed by Him.
David's initial attitude to Bathsheba and to Uriah had been outwardly kind and benevolent. He did not give the impression of wanting to rape Bathsheba, nor of intending to murder Uriah. But what devilish ploys to pat Uriah kindly on the shoulder and send him back to Joab with the letter that contained his death sentence. David was a wolf in sheep's clothing! Yet "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone."8
David's sin with Bathsheba is probably one of the most well known sins in world history. This is due to the fact that David was one of the most pious men in the Old Testament. What matters is not how deep we fall, but how sincerely we confess our sins. If we compare David's sin with the sins of Saul, Saul comes out clean as a whistle. But if we compare David's contrition with that of Saul, we understand why Saul was lost, and David was forgiven.
The phrase: "Cleanse me with hyssop" is a reference to the Passover celebration. We read in Exodus: "Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.' "9 In using this image, David confessed that another creature had to die in his place, in order to keep him from being condemned by God. The words "cleanse me" are the translation of the Hebrew chata', which literally means "to miss," and which can be translated with "purge me."
In the Passover ritual, the application of the blood to the doorframe was nothing more than a protection against the coming judgment. In the context in which David uses it, it becomes a personal purification. Hyssop is also mentioned in the ritual of the cleansing of a leper.10 In Leviticus, it is not clearly stated how the hyssop is used there, but it is safe to suppose that it served to sprinkle the leper who had been declared healed of his sickness. The leper to be cleansed had to shave all the hair on his body twice in eight days, which made him look like a newborn baby. Then there was the accompanying ritual of the two birds, one of which was killed, and the other was covered with the blood of the first one. It was then released. Through this ritural, we see the image of the death and resurrection of Christ. The whole ritual of the cleansing of a leper was a picture of the new birth of the Christian. The Holy Spirit says to us, through the mouth of David, that we are cleansed and regenerated by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It seems incongruent that, in the confession of his sin, David could see himself as clean and whiter than snow. Without this hope of forgiveness and healing, however, a person will never come to the point of confession of his sin. The Spirit of God prompts us to open our hearts, and to disclose the depth of darkness and dirt inside us by whispering to us that our sins will be forgiven. We saw already that, before David wrote this psalm, he learned from Nathan's mouth that God had forgiven him. This is the reason why, in his deep inner struggle, the light slowly began to dawn.
With the hope that purification is possible also comes the hope that joy will return. David prays: "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Restore to me the joy of your salvation." Joy and gladness are not independent entities; they are a byproducts. David speaks about "the joy of your salvation." If a man seeks joy alone, outside fellowship with God, he seeks in vain. Without joy, however, we cannot live, just as a plant cannot grow in the dark. God has not created us to live in the dark. What David prays for is healing of his fellowship with God. Fellowship with God is like listening to joyful music, to which the crushed bones will react and be healed. The image is well chosen. We still use the expression: "I can feel it in my bones," which expresses an intense experience. If our bones are crushed, our inner man will no longer respond to God's music. David uses powerful words here. Were his bones literally crushed? Probably not. But the effect of sin in his life was that he could no longer stand before God. We need healthy bones to be able to stand erect. So, the effect of sin is the crushing of bones or the inability of standing up. The consciousness of being in the presence of God brings awareness of the awfulness of sin. After his forgiveness, David sees himself like the lame man in the book of Acts: "He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God."11
God can, of course, not hide his face from David's sin, as David asks Him to do. He cannot ignore our sins and act as if nothing ever happened. But He can blot out our sins, which He did in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The fact, however, that the case is closed, and that the sin has been paid for does not imply that the heart has been cleansed of all tendencies to commit sin again. David, therefore, prays that God will create in him a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within him. Better than Nicodemus, David understood that a man must be born again in order to be able to see the kingdom of God and to enter it.12 David could not know, of course, that in saying these words he reached forward to a new dispensation of God's grace. But the Holy Spirit put those words in his mouth to make us understand the danger to which we are exposed. A man who commits sin can easily fall for the same temptation, unless a radical change has taken place in his life. We cannot cleanse our own heart; God must do this. Also, our relationship with God is not built on our own determination; God will have to give us a spirit of steadfastness. Many people experience difficulties in their "quiet time" with God, because they do not ask for the help of the Holy Spirit in that matter.
The prayer: "Do not cast me from your presence" indicates how intense was the struggle for David, and how destructive the effect of sin is in the awareness of our being protected in fellowship with God. God never even considers the possibility of casting away one of His loved ones who come to Him with confession of sin and in contrition. David knows in all of this that the Spirit of God has not forsaken him. This is evident from the words: "Do not …take your Holy Spirit from me." David may have thought of the example of Saul, who lost his mind when the Spirit of God left him.13 It must have dawned on him that there was a possibility that such a thing could happen to him also. This must have frightened him. The brokenness of David, and his deep and sincere confession are proof of the fact that the Holy Spirit was doing His convicting work in David's heart. Even if David's prayer here was unnecessary, it was a good request.
Without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we cannot see ourselves as God sees us, and we cannot judge our acts correctly in His light. Without the Holy Spirit we have an inflated opinion of ourselves, and the image we believe we project has little connection to reality.
Both in verses 8 and 12, there is a reference to joy. In the latter, this joy is in relationship to salvation. All this seems incongruent in the larger context of this psalm. We tend to think that a person, who has sinned as David did, ought to be banned from joy, at least for a certain period of time. Yet, we cannot say that David easily shook himself free of the consequences of his sin. There is a fine line of division between the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in one's heart, and the manipulation of our guilt feelings by the devil. "The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, …[has been overcome] by the blood of the Lamb."14 This means that those whose sins have been forgiven overcome Satan by showing him the proof of their pardon. The joy of salvation is an important part of our forgiveness. Without this joy, it would be very difficult to help others who have sinned. David demonstrated an amazing insight when he placed his own experience in the larger context of his testimony towards others.
Joy goes hand in hand with obedience. The parallel to "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" is: "and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." The suggestion is that, obedience to God has to receive stimuli from outside; if this were not so, David would fail again morally. God is willing to help us obey, and then we can experience the joy of our salvation.
Some people are eager to teach transgressors God's ways, without being willing to go those ways themselves. By compensating for our own lack of obedience in this way, we can cause immeasurable harm to the spreading of the Gospel. But if our preaching of God's Word is based on our own experience of being forgiven, we have a powerful testimony. David paid a high price for this. It is never God's intention, of course, that we sin in order to experience forgiveness, but if we have gone through the trauma of confession, and we have received pardon, then we are better suited to testify of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ than any angel in heaven.
Nothing we experience in life affects ourselves alone. Even if we sin, it is never a merely personal matter. When Adam sinned, it meant the corruption of all of creation, and every sin of every human being following has meant an increase of this decay. Every sin pardoned, therefore, does not affect only one person. The Apostle Paul formulates it this way: "But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."15 If it is clear that even murderers like David, and Paul can be saved and renewed, then no one is excluded from this hope.
It is amazing to see how David, even while he was still in the process of confessing, had already this insight in the "why" of his experience. That, in itself, is already a breakthrough. It is always the devil's policy to try to keep away hope in such circumstances. The fact that David saw traces of hope was just as much the work of the Holy Spirit in him, as the brokenness of his spirit.
The Hebrew word for "bloodguilt" is midaamiyim, which is the plural form of dam, "blood." The term refers to the avenger of blood, the relative of the victim who had the right to kill the murderer. We read in Numbers: "If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him."16 This was what David thought of when he wrote: "Save me from bloodguilt, O God." TLB renders this with: "Don't sentence me to death. O my God." The same word occurs in the phrase: "Their blood will be on their own heads," in the context of incest and adultery.17
The question is: does David ask to be delivered from the consequences of his acts? That does not seem to fit in with the whole tone of the psalm. We may assume, therefore, that the request has a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. We may think of Ezekiel's accountability in warning sinners of their impending doom. In his account we read that God says to him: "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood."18 In the previous verse, David spoke about his testimony towards transgressors and sinners for the purpose of their salvation. A casual look at this would give the impression that David runs ahead of himself, and that his zeal to witness is a psychological trick to camouflage the depth of his own guilt. But the verses 12 and 13 suggest that David had to overcome similar resistance as Ezekieldid before he could go and speak to his fellowmen. David recognized, however, the urgency. He realized that, if he would not share the secret of his guilt and pardon with others, who had fallen in the same snare as he, God would hold him responsible for their lost souls. "Save me from bloodguilt," means: "give me the moral courage to witness to others." The mention of God's salvation and the opening of his lips to praise God reinforces this line of thought.
The salvation David experienced cannot be separated from the person of God. The plea: "O God, the God who saves me," is literally in Hebrew: "O God, God of my salvation." David speaks of God and salvation as being identical. God does not merely give us what we need, He is what we need. There is no better victory over fear to testify, than the realization of who God is. The indwelling of Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, in our hearts is, in fact, what the Apostle Paul calls "the hope of glory."19 In the context in which Paul places this in his epistle to the Colossians, this word is the basis for our witness. From a human perspective it would be impossible to place David's horrible sin next to his singing about God's righteousness. When we understand this paradox, we have grasped the mystery of the Gospel. What else can a man do, who has been dead, and has been brought back to life, than sing God's praises?
As we have seen already, the request: "O Lord, open my lips," is a parallel to: "Save me from bloodguilt, O God." The realization that it is God who has to speak through us when we witness to people, makes the difference between effectively winning people for Christ, and a fanatical buttonholding. This verse is often cited out of context in church liturgy to introduce a call for worship. It contains the acknowledgment that, without the help of the Holy Spirit, man is unable to praise God as he ought to. In this case, one can make no objection to the use of this verse out of context, as long as we understand that the words have a deeper meaning within the frame of this psalm. David adds a very practical dimension to the practice of witnessing, and the experience of being forgiven. Praising God is not only, and not even primarily, a question of using one's lips; it cannot be separated from the love and compassion for our fellowmen who have fallen in sin, and who are in danger of being lost eternally. Declaring God's praise with the mouth is identical to having a passion for souls.
The last stanza of this psalm is obviously the verses 15-19. Many commentators, however, consider the last two verses to be a later addition to the psalm, probably dating from the times of Nehemiah. But the mention of the sacrifice at the beginning and at the end of this stanza argues against this theory. David intended to elaborate on the meaning of the burnt offering at the opening and the closing of this section. If we give in to the tendency to refer verses to a later period, because the logic of thought escapes our twentieth century brain, we end up in the dangerous quagmire of Higher Criticism. Also, history would argue against additions to the sacred text, especially in the post-exilic period.
The NIV opens vs. 16 without the preposition "for" which is found in most of the other translations, and in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew word kiy, says Strongs Definitions, indicates a causal relation, an antecedent or consequent. The KJV translates it with words like "forasmuch, inasmuch," etc. This forces us to have another look at the context of the psalm. We tend to believe that, instead of developing a mounting line of thought in this poem, David vacillates between glimpses of hope, and depressive retrospect. If the little word "for," however, lays a connection between witnessing to sinners in order to make them turn back to God, and "a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart," then we have to draw the conclusion that David does not merely speak about himself in the following verses. David has penetrated deeply into the problem of the utter destruction that is caused by man's sin. This is much more than a warning against superficiality.
David uses the phrase "You do not delight in sacrifice," elsewhere in the psalms. In Psalm 40, we read: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire."20 When the writer to the Hebrews quotes the latter, he adds the parenthesis: "although the law required them to be made,"21 which applies to this psalm as well. David did not speak about the ceremonial law in a denigrating manner, but he wanted to demonstrate that the bringing of animal sacrifices had no meaning in itself, if it was not accompanied by the realization that the sacrifice was substitutional; the bringer should have died himself, but the animal took his place.
In the Fortieth Psalm, it is clear that what God has in mind is the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. In this psalm God wants us to understand that He is justified when He condemns us to death. If we really understand that we merit capital punishment, the result in us will be a broken spirit and a contrite heart. The miracle consists in the fact that God accepts this brokenness as a sacrifice that is a sweet aroma to Him. There is nothing beautiful in the spiritual brokenness of a person, nor was there any beauty in the tortured body of our crucified Lord. The miracle is that we may put the brokenness of our lives, the rubble of our spirit, that which nauseates us, on God's altar, and that God says: "I do not despise it." God sees in the bleeding animal that goes up in smoke on the altar, the symbol of a human being who rebelled against Him, and who has put down his arms. If, in that way, we return to dust, the miracle of creation is repeated: God takes this dust, these ashes, and forms us into a new creation by imparting His Spirit into us. Pardington calls this: The Crisis of the Deeper Life, which is nothing more or less than God's act of recreating us.
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit…" means that another sacrifice does not exist. A sacrificed lamb, even the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross, has no meaning whatsoever for us, if we do not place ourselves upon God's altar with "a broken spirit, [and] a broken and contrite heart." This is the sacrifice of our whole man; the spirit being the organ of fellowship with God, and the heart the seat of our intelligence, our emotions, and our will.
David uses this image for a converted person in general, not in the first place to express his own contrition and confession, although it can, of course, be applied to his personal experience. Within the context of this psalm, however, it is used of the transgressors, and sinners, mentioned in vs. 13.
The last two verses of this psalm come as a complete surprise. It seems as if they do not belong to what precedes. We ought to remember, though, that David's sin had consequences far beyond his own life. His sin had polluted Zion and had cracked the walls of Jerusalem. Sins are never private affairs only. If we think that these verses are additions from the times of Nehemiah, we ignore the cosmic consequences of our sins. The walls of Jerusalem had not been broken down by king Nebuchadnezzar, but by the sins of the people of Israel. Nehemiah did not only rebuild the way in a physical sense of the word, he rebuilt a witness and a testimony in this world. David prophesied here that, in Paul's words: "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. [And that we] are the body of Christ, and each one of [us] is a part of it."22 If the crack in Jerusalem's wall that was caused by David's sin were not mended, the whole city would easily become a prey to the enemy. Only God can build walls that keep out the enemy, and only God can build what man has broken down. If God pours out grace over Zion, and blesses His church with His good pleasure, because the members of the church have placed their broken spirits and contrite hearts upon His altar, the body will begin to function normally again. "Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar." As we have already seen, in connection with vs. 16, God does not demand sacrifices. But if the cross is not the basis of our lives, rituals have no value. It is in the fellowship of the saints, among those who live in Zion, within the confines of the walls of the city, that the whole spectrum of sacrifices, which typify the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, come to life.
1
II Sam. 12:132
II Cor. 7:10
3
See II Sam. 11, 12
4
See Luke 18:13
5
I John 1:9
6
See Matt. 25:40,45
7
John 14:9
8
John 8:7
9
Ex. 12:21,22
10
See Lev. 14:4,6
11
Acts 3:8
12
See John 3:1-7
13
See I Sam. 16:14
14
See Rev. 12:10,11
15
I Tim. 1:16
16
Num. 35:20-21
17
See Lev. 20:11,12,14
18
Ezek. 3:20
19
See Col. 1:27b
20
Ps. 40:6
21
Heb. 10:8
22
I Cor. 12:26,27