Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 51

[00:00:07] Welcome to Lessons From The Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this podcast we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:21] An employer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this song today.

[00:00:26] Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.

[00:00:34] I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Psalm 51, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

[00:00:51] Block out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

[00:01:00] For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

[00:01:08] 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.

[00:01:23] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.

[00:01:32] Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.

[00:01:41] Purge me with his up and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be wider than snow.

[00:01:49] Make me here, joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

[00:01:57] Hide your face from my sins and block out all my iniquities.

[00:02:03] Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

[00:02:11] Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me.

[00:02:18] Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

[00:02:26] Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you.

[00:02:35] Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

[00:02:46] O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise.

[00:02:53] For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.

[00:02:58] You do not delight in bird offering.

[00:03:02] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

[00:03:09] These O God, you will not despise.

[00:03:13] Do good in your good pleasure to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem.

[00:03:21] Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

[00:03:30] Then they shall offer bowls on your altar.

[00:03:34] For some, 51 is one of my favorite songs and it is a reminder of how damaging sin can be.

[00:03:46] Now, Psalm 51 is attributed to King David of Israel and it is entitled a prayer of repentance.

[00:03:56] And this Psalm was written directly by David, basically to God.

[00:04:03] And he is asking God for forgiveness because in this particular Psalm, David is reminding God of what he has done.

[00:04:16] This is when he committed adultery with Bathsheba after he had committed murder with one of his best friends, who was Bathsheba's husband at the time.

[00:04:32] And he was in his army and he actually had him killed.

[00:04:38] Let's break this song down with my commentary.

[00:04:42] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

[00:04:52] Blood out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

[00:05:03] Friends, these last three lines talk about transgression, iniquity and sin, and all three are primarily the same exact thing.

[00:05:17] Friends, we all sin. We all need the mercy of God. That is why Jesus had to come to earth and because Jesus came to earth, all of our sins have been forgiven.

[00:05:33] But friends, if you knowingly sin, we still need to repent of our sins, not because God or Jesus require it.

[00:05:44] But because it will cleanse us and deliver us from the guilt that we feel. Let's go to verse 3,

[00:05:53] For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

[00:06:01] Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

[00:06:09] And friends, this is a reminder. Now David committed sin against Bathsheba.

[00:06:16] He committed sin against Uriya. He committed sin against the entire country of Israel in which he was the king.

[00:06:27] But David comes to the conclusion against God and God only has he sinned.

[00:06:35] Friends, God is the one that needs to know that we feel bad about what we've done.

[00:06:44] And we need to be cleansed of our conviction and our guilt that we have whenever we sin. Let's go to verse 4.

[00:06:55] That you may be found just when you speak and blingless when you judge.

[00:07:03] Behold, I was brought forth in an equity and in sin my mother conceived me.

[00:07:12] And friends, just a reminder that ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden at the very beginning of all time in the Bible.

[00:07:23] We are all born in the sin and that is why we must be born again in the spirit, not in the flesh because our flesh is weak.

[00:07:39] When we're born in the flesh we are born with a sin nature.

[00:07:45] And we need to be born of the spirit so we can get that sin nature off of us.

[00:07:54] Let's go to verse 6.

[00:07:57] Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.

[00:08:07] Friend verse 6 is so key in the song. This is telling us that we are to speak truth at all times.

[00:08:18] And if we do that, we should have no part of line.

[00:08:23] But the second part of that verse talks about God's desire for each of us to have wisdom in our lives.

[00:08:32] Let's go to verse 7.

[00:08:35] Purge me with his up and I shall be clean.

[00:08:40] Wash me and I shall be wider than snow.

[00:08:44] Make me here joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

[00:08:51] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities.

[00:09:00] And friends, this should be a prayer for each of us as we go to God.

[00:09:07] We should have the same feeling that David did knowing that we do sin.

[00:09:15] Knowing that we've made mistakes and we need to cleanse our self of that guilt consciousness that we have.

[00:09:24] I really like verses 10 and 11.

[00:09:28] Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

[00:09:37] Friends, if you ask for forgiveness of your sins, you have a fresh start and you can begin a new each and every day.

[00:09:47] Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me.

[00:09:57] Friends, the Bible tells us that we are to be led by the Holy Spirit and not by our flesh.

[00:10:05] The last thing that we need to hold on to is that holy spirit that now resides within us once we receive Jesus as our Lord.

[00:10:17] And Savior. Look in verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

[00:10:30] Friends, Jesus is our salvation.

[00:10:35] He has saved us from going to hell by going to the cross and dying in our place.

[00:10:44] We deserved a die, but he was willing to go on that cross for each and every one of us listening today.

[00:10:55] Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, oh God, the God of my salvation,

[00:11:02] and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

[00:11:09] Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.

[00:11:20] You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.

[00:11:32] These, oh God, you will not despise and friends, God wants us to come to Him with a humble spirit, recognizing that He is God and we are not.

[00:11:50] You are good in your good pleasure to Zion and whenever we talk about Zion, we're talking about the holy city of Jerusalem.

[00:12:01] Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

[00:12:13] Then they shall offer bowls on your altar. Friends, Psalm 51 is precious. I would recommend you go over Psalm 51 several times every month as a reminder of who we are and what our nature is.

[00:12:36] And we need to always have a penitent heart asking God for His mercy.

[00:12:44] Friends, please join me again soon as we take a closer look at Psalm 52.