51
PSALMS 51
A PRAYER FOR MEN SEEKING GOD -Followed with Explanatory Notes-
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 you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret 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, so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord, 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 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
PSALMS 51 A PRAYER FOR MEN SEEKING GOD -Explanatory Notes by John Wesley-
51:4 Thee only – Which is not to be, understood absolutely, because he had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, and many others; but comparatively. So the sense is, though I have sinned against my own conscience, and against others; yet nothing is more grievous to me, than that I have sinned against thee. Thy sight – With gross contempt of thee, whom I knew to be a spectator of my most secret actions. Justified – This will be the fruit of my sin, that whatsoever severities thou shalt use towards me, it will be no blemish to thy righteousness, but thy justice will be glorified by all men.Speakest – Heb. in thy words, in all thy threatenings denounced against me. Judgest – When thou dost execute thy sentence upon me.
51:5 Behold – Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain: and upon a review of my heart, I find, that this heinous crime, was the proper fruit of my vile nature, which, ever was, and still is ready to commit ten thousand sins, as occasion offers.
51:6 Truth – Uprightness of heart; and this may be added; as an aggravation of the sinfulness of original corruption, because it is contrary to the holy nature and will of God, which requires rectitude of heart: and, as an aggravation of his actual sin, that it was committed against that knowledge, which God had wrote in his heart.
51:7 Hyssop – As lepers, are by thy appointment purified by the use of hyssop and other things, so do thou cleanse me a leprous and polluted creature, by thy grace, and by that blood of Christ, which is signified by those ceremonial usages.
51:8 Joy – By thy spirit, seal the pardon of my sins on my conscience, which will fill me with joy. Rejoice – That my heart which hath been sorely wounded may be comforted.
51:10 Create – Work in me an holy frame of heart, whereby my inward filth may be purged away. Right – Heb. firm or constant, that my resolution may be fixed and unmoveable. Spirit – Temper or disposition of soul.
51:12 The joy – The comfortable sense of thy saving grace, promised and vouchsafed to me, both for my present and everlasting salvation.Free – Or, ingenuous, or liberal, or princely. Which he seems to oppose to his own base and illiberal and disingenuous and servile spirit, which he had discovered in his wicked practices: a spirit, which may free me from the bondage of sin, and enable me chearfully to run the way of God’s precepts.
51:14 Thy righteousness – Thy clemency and goodness.
51:15 My lips – Which are shut with shame and grief.
51:16 Not sacrifice – This is not to be understood absolutely, with respect to David’s crimes, which were not to be expiated by any sacrifice.
51:17 A broken spirit – This is of more value than many sacrifices.
51:18 Good pleasure – Thy free and rich mercy. Build – Perfect the walls and buildings of that city, and especially let the temple be built, notwithstanding my sins.
