00:00 Intro music and voice over.
Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!
00:20 Speaker
Today we will journey through Psalm 51. The Psalms are the writer’s expression to God. They are rich and raw in emotion, depicting the highs and lows of life. They are song or poetry with a rhythm and pattern. The Psalms formed a significant part of Ancient Israel’s worship.
Psalm 51 is believed to be written by David, the shepherd boy who became king. Of David, God said that he was a man after His own heart. In God saying this of David, God is acknowledging David’s choice to worship only Him.
As God knows that David’s desire is to be intimate with Him, He honours David with those words. David desired to have fellowship with the creator of heaven and earth and all things good. To honour and respect Him and as a result give His total allegiance of worship to Him. Yes David through his highs and lows of this life, acknowledged God’s right to rule and reign and worshipped only Him.
Yet David, like all of humanity was born of the corrupted seed of humanity. The seed of both good and evil.
David became very aware of his need for a saviour. A saviour to deliver him from the bondage of his selfish desires and evil. David had followed his selfish desires by having a sexual relationship with a married woman. To cover up his selfish and destructive actions, David ordered the husband of the woman into the front line of the hottest battle. With the instruction that he was to be abandoned and killed.
David had regressed into the darkness of his selfish desires. As king, not only did his thoughts and actions bring destruction to his own family and that of the woman’s family that he had sexual relations with, but to the entire nation of Israel.
Yet in amongst it all God is always working. Bringing reconciliation and healing, forgiveness and freedom, salvation and life everlasting. David in his darkest hour, received a revelation of not only humanity’s need for a saviour, but God’s desire to bring that salvation to humanity. For it breaks God’s heart that humanity trapped in the destructive negative forces of our selfish desires and evil.
So for us today let us journey through the highs and lows of David’s lament and receive a greater revelation of God’s love, truth and power.
Psalm 51 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.
David the Psalmist knows that God is abounding in lovingkindness and tender in mercy.
The first time that the word that has been translated in this instance as lovingkindness in in Genesis. It is linked with salvation. It was when God saved Lot from the judgement brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
God did that because He is kind and loving.
Knowing this, David laments to God for the release of the guilt, shame. Plus the deliverance from the controlling forces of his selfish desires and evil. This Psalm was written by David in his deepest, darkest hour. Yet he is willing to to call upon God in the depths of His despair. As he has a deep revelation of God’s character. A personal covenant relationship with the living God.
David knows that only God is pure and can wash away his iniquity. His iniquity is the human condition of perversity, depravity and its consequences.
David makes an extraordinary statement in verse 4. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight.
David understands the heart of God and His love for all people. In David’s actions against the married woman and her husband, David had actually caused an offence to God.
Simply put in hurting ourselves and others, we hurt God. David abused his God given power as king. A power given to David to serve the people and lead them to God’s own heart. Instead David used his God given power as king of Israel for self gain.
In his deepest darkest hour, David took his guilt, shame and the consequences of it, humbly to God. Seeking true justice and mercy from the one who is just and rich in mercy. For only God is just and merciful. For He is never one with evil and there is no darkness. He created the heavens and the earth and all things good. In fact it everything was very good.
David knows the history. How in the beginning after God created, humanity chose to become one with good and evil. Corrupting the reproducing seed of humanity and all creation.
In verse 5 David laments and acknowledges that he was brought forth with both good and bad in him. It is from this revelation of a need for a saviour that God brings reconciliation and healing, forgiveness and freedom, salvation and life everlasting.
In verse 7 David cries out to God to purge him so he shall be clean. Purge in this context means to make clean. In the history of the Ancient Israelites, hyssop was used to sprinkle blood or water in purification rituals. Similarly, hyssop was used to spread the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts of their households, before the plague of death passed over. In doing so death passed over their household.
Knowing all this, David declares that when God takes away the guilt, shame and the offences caused, he shall be clean. Only God can make us clean. That is clean in our thoughts and desires. Free from the guilt and shame.
David knows that when God does this, he will be whiter than snow. As it is God’s heart desire to cleanse and set free. David continues to ask God to not only make him clean, but to erase or wipe away all his iniquities for all eternity.
In verse 8 David asks of God to make him hear joy and gladness, that the bones God had broken may rejoice.
David was confronted by the truth of himself. To express his emotions, he used a word picture about his bones being broken. To express that he feels shattered or crushed. Yet David knows that when God cleanses and restores him, he will receive new life. His mourning will be turned into joy and his brokenness into wholeness.
This new life and renewal can only be given by the giver of life itself. The creator of heaven and earth and all things good. So in his deepest, darkest hour David asks of God, Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Linking create and spirit together, it is reminiscent of the beginning. For the word that has been translated as create is the exact same word used in Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Also the word that has been translated as spirit is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 for the Spirit of God that was hovering over the face of the waters.
As God is spirit and God gives life, David is asking for his heart to be renewed, restored and transformed. To be given new life from the life giving God.
This is not just a transformation in emotions. This is a complete transformation of thoughts, desires, emotions and life. A new self. What David asked of God can only be given by God.
As David is overwhelmed by the guilt and shame, He continues to lament. His worst fear is that God would leave him or take His Holy Spirit from Him. For David knows that the presence of God His everything.
Even tho He knows the character of God and the truth that God would never leave him, he is so consumed by that guilt and shame that he expresses that thought.
In verse 12 David laments what he has lost. He has lost the joy of God’s salvation. Knowing that God is the source of all joy, He asks for the restoration of that joy. Again David is aware that this too is a work of God within the heart and mind. Not only salvation itself, but the joy of God’s salvation. For joy is a fruit of His Spirit and part of God’s character.
In verses 13-15 David expresses the truth that even teaching, testifying and praise is a work of God. Knowing this David asks God to open his lips, so his mouth can bring forth praise unto God. God has no need of praise for He is God. God who is self sustaining and the self existent one.
Yet David has become aware that he has the need to praise God. To be in awe and wonder of Him, for He alone is worthy of worship.
In verse 13 David declares that he knows that God does not need sacrifices to forgive or to wash clean. For God is in an eternal state of forgiveness and is pure and clean. There is no darkness or death in God, only light and life.
One of the biggest blockages to receiving all that God has given is pride. Pride in believing the lie that humanity, that is every individual throughout the ages, does not need a saviour. David has been confronted by his own brokenness and his need for a saviour. He knows in the admitting to this to God is the beginning of the removal of any blockages preventing him from receiving from God. Specifically in this instance God’s renewing, restoring and transforming work in him.
God looks to the heart and David knew this as from an early age. In choosing David to be king, God rejected the customs and traditions of men. God chose a shepherd boy of whom He said, ‘David was a man after My own heart.’
God does not look to the type of offering or form of praise given. He looks to the heart and the reasons behind the actions. If a sacrifice is made to God in sincerity of heart and honour and worship of Him, it is a sweet aroma. Yet if a sacrifice is made to God, yet inwardly in their heart they have given their allegiance to evil, it is abhorrent. It is profaning His name.
For a greater revelation of this please listen to our podcast, Cain and Abel and the Offering.
It is God’s heart desire to bring reconciliation and healing, forgiveness and freedom, salvation and life everlasting. So He wants us to be real with Him. As we surrender our destructive selfish desires and evil to Him, all blockages for God’s will to be done in and through our lives are removed. We can live in the reality of the joy of His salvation. Knowing we are cleansed and that He will complete His good work in us. Praise His mighty name.
19:40 Outro music and voice over.
For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!