Against You, You only, I have sinned

Psalm 51 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.

A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
³ For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
⁴ 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.

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
⁶ Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
^[h]Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.

¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
¹⁶ For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

¹⁸ By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

The psalmist declaration and revelation in verse 4 of today’s text is perhaps one of the most important things we can accept and know. It says:  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.  David’s sin affected many people. He comitted adultery with Bathsheba. Her husband, Uriah was killed in battle, by the order of David in an attempt to cover his sin. The child born of the adultery died. Yet regardless of all of the people that suffered the consequences of David’s sin, he realized that the sin itself was against God. We too need to realize that both we ourselves and many other people may suffer the consequences of our sin, but it is against God and God only that we sin. Sin is defined as: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. "a sin in the eyes of God"    Because every sin is against God; against His divine law, He is justified and blameless when He speaks and judges. We are not the ones who determine or define what is sin. God alone is the one who is judge. We can argue that what we do is legal or acceptable in our culture or society, but it is not our culture that will ultimately judge us. Hebrews 9:27 says:  It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.  God is the judge and it is by His standards; not the world’s that we will be judged.  While it may cause many consequences and have many victims, even for generations to come, sin is against God.

It is in that light that we look at the rest of what David says and also in that light that we should look at our own sin. David says:  Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.   God’s love and His grace is demonstrated and provided through the cross. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  The psalmist admits that he has sinned; that his sin is ever before him. 1 John 1:6-10 says:  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;  but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.   Jesus paid the price for our sin. But, the first step in receiving the forgiveness of God for our sins against Him is to acknowledge and confess that we have sinned. Jesus died once for all sin, but the sin that we refuse to confess as sin, is a sin which is not forgiven.  

David says:  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.  Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.  Like David, each one of us was brought forth in iniquity. Psalm 14:1-3 says:   The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. Romans 3:23-24 says:  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.   Jesus sacrifice on the cross is what purifies us and cleanses us. It is through the cross that our iniquities are blotted out. On the cross Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) When God looks at a believer, He looks at us through the cross, hearing the words of His Son.

The psalmist says:  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 sustain me with a willing spirit.   Far from taking His Holy Spirit from us, He has given His Spirit to dwell in us. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to remain steadfast.  In John 14:15-23 Jesus says:   “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you… He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

The psalmist says:  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; that too is my response to Your precious gift of salvation. I will declare Your praise. I will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. I will teach transgressors Your ways. Thank You that You do indeed sustain me with a willing spirit. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, both in and through my life.  Amen.