The Wisdom Journey

A Song of Confession (Psalm 51)

• Stephen Davey

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SPEAKER_00:

Experience is a good teacher, but you know what? It can also be a painful teacher as you learn hard lessons from the mistakes you make. A better way to learn life lessons is from the example and experience of others. As you know, King David committed grievous sins. In Psalm 51, the aftermath of David's sins became the means of teaching us the nature and content of genuine confession. This is the wisdom journey. Stephen's lesson is called A Song of Confession.

SPEAKER_01:

Several decades ago, Catherine Power was a university student in Boston when she got involved in a rather radical or revolutionary political group with some other young people. This group made plans to rob a bank and then use the money to buy weapons. Catherine was supposed to be the driver of the getaway car. The robbery didn't go as planned after a silent alarm notified the police, and in the aftermath, shots were fired and a policeman was killed. Kathy escaped, she ended up moving to a distant state. For the next twenty three years, she became known as Alice Metzinger. She married, became a mother, she became a citizen in good standing. But at the age of forty-four, Kathy Power was tired, tormented by guilt, chronically depressed, and finally she did the only thing she felt she could do to end her agony. To the utter surprise of her family, friends, neighbors, she turned herself into the authorities and revealed that she was not Alice Messinger after all. When she was later interviewed and asked what her motive was for finally coming forward with the truth and telling the truth, she said, I was tired of living with shame and guilt. Her story reminds me of one of the most famous confessions in all the Bible. We're now at Psalm 51, and it's nothing less than David coming out of hiding and finally admitting the truth to God, admitting his sin to his family, his friends, to his entire world. Now the heading of this Psalm reads, When Nathan the Prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Well that tragic sin is recorded for us back in 2 Samuel chapter 12, where Nathan came to the palace and pointed his finger in the face of this guilty king and uttered those rather famous words, Thou art the man. In other words, we know, God knows, it's time to come out of hiding. Now, as we work through David's Psalm of Confession, I want us to understand it by highlighting four key words that come to my mind as I read this Psalm. The first word is the word petition. David makes this petition, this plea here in verse one. By the way, that's a great way to start a confession. David knows he needs the mercy of God. David's been hiding sins that included lust, adultery, a conspiracy to murder, hypocrisy, cover-up, abuse of power. I mean, without God's mercy, David doesn't stand a chance. But on the basis of God's mercy, David is going to ask God now to do three things. First, David says here in verse 1, blot out my transgressions. That expression refers to erasing the content that's been put into an accounting ledger. David is praying, Lord, erase all of those notations, erase the record of my sin, and I think David knows it's going to take a very big eraser. Secondly, he says here in verse 2, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Wash me is a Hebrew phrase that normally refers to laundering dirty clothing. He's saying here, Lord, I need the stains of sin washed out of the garments of my life. Then thirdly, David petitions God here by saying, Cleanse me from my sin. Well now he's not talking about his clothing. He's talking about his character. Only God can purify him, only God can cleanse him from sin. Well, let me tell you, this is this is really quite a petition. The second key word that comes to my mind is the word admission. Now in these opening verses, David refers repeatedly to his sins. He isn't blaming anybody else. He isn't pointing his finger at Bathsheba. He, you know, he didn't blame that palace roof that he should never have, you know, built so conveniently to her her backyard patio. I don't know how many times I've heard somebody who's guilty of sin or even a criminal act say, Well, you know, that really wasn't me. Well, who was it? Well, David is saying here, it really was me. This was me. I did this. In fact, he goes on here in verse five to say, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now David isn't saying that his mother conceived him while sinning. He's saying that from the very beginning of his life, which is that conception, fertilization, by the way, he says, Even then I was fallen, I was sinful. This is what theologians call, by the way, original sin. That's the fallen human nature we inherit from Adam, and we're all born with it. I mean, if you think you're a little newborn angel in the sinner, well just wait. You'll never have to teach her how to want her own way, you'll never have to teach him how to tell a lie. You'll never have to give him any lessons on doing any of that. You're never gonna have to teach your little boy how to be selfish with his toys, you're gonna have to teach him how to share. You're never gonna have to teach your little children how to say no. You're gonna have to teach them how to say yes. See, David is admitting here that his sin came from his sinful nature that he inherited from the very beginning. So he's telling us essentially here that he didn't fall, you know, in sin with Bathsheba. He's telling us he walked right into it. He walked into it willingly. His eyes were wide open. You know what, beloved? This is a genuine admission of guilt. Now I want to add a third key word here that's so important, and it's the word restoration. David says here in verse 7, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. We know that hyssop was a small plant that could be found growing in the in the crevices of rock, even in stone walls there in Jerusalem. It was used to make what we might call today a paintbrush. You may remember when God announced that final plague on Egypt, he commanded the Israelites to take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood of the Lamb and then paint it on the doorposts, there in Exodus chapter 12. This pictures the future death of Christ. This pictured the cleansing power of the Lord shed blood being painted, as it were, over our sinful hearts. So David isn't asking here for a quick pardon from the Lord. He's really asking for lasting purity, and he knows that only God can paint a guilty sinner clean. David writes here in verse 10, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David uses the word for creation here, by the way, that you find back in Genesis chapter 1, with God creating the heavens and the earth out of nothing. That's an astounding miracle to create something out of nothing. So when David says to God here, create in me a clean heart, he's basically saying, Lord, you've got nothing to work with as it relates to me. You're gonna have to perform a miracle of creation, creating something out of nothing in order to create in me a clean heart. Let me tell you, beloved, this is a genuine, this is this is true confession. And it happens to be why David experienced genuine restoration in his own life. Now let me give you a fourth and final key word. It's the word resolution. You know, beloved, part of genuine confession is having the resolve to make things right, to start living an honest life, to take those first steps before God and others. That's what David does. He says here in verse 13 that I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. In other words, I want my testimony to encourage others. I want to come out of hiding, I want to confess my sin. I want to teach them so they can confess their sin and live for God. Have you ever thought about the fact that David's resolution came true again today? This very moment we're reading and studying David's uh resolution here. We've been warned, we're we're being encouraged, we're being instructed how to confess our sin and walk with God. I mean, think about it. Some 3,000 years after David wrote his song here of confession, we're still using it today as a model for what it looks like to genuinely confess our sin, to come out of hiding, to get right with God. This is how to avoid living a secret life for decades. Maybe like the life of Alice Metzinger with all of its all of its devastating consequences. Let's refuse today to live like that. Instead, let's teach our world, let's teach them what it looks like to be a Christian, someone who isn't perfect. Let's teach them that a Christian is someone who knows how to make the right petition, how to approach God with honest admission, how to experience the joy of restoration, and then how to make the right resolution in moving forward as we walk with God. Well, until next time, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for listening to The Wisdom Journey with Stephen Davey. To learn more about us and access all of our Bible teaching resources, visit wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-482-4253. And you can email us at info at wisdomonline.org. Stephen developed this daily program to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life. So please join us next time to continue the wisdom journey.