The raw repentance in Psalm 51
It’s the most terrible place to find ourselves.
It’s our fault. We know it’s our fault: we have sinned. But we desperately want to be good with God and to be free again.
Psalm 51 is one of the most honest and raw passages of the Bible. David, the one called the man after God’s own heart, the one who held such promise and was king, was now overwhelmed with unbearable guilt.
He had hurt God, his God.
And he needed to talk to Him.
That’s us. We find ourselves under heavy guilt, knowing we have hurt God and need to talk to him. And incredibly, we’re able to come before God in the same way as David did all that time ago, pleading to be made right with God.
It’s repentance at its fullest.
This is Psalm 51:
I deserve justice. But I ask for mercy.
I have stained my soul with sin. But I ask for God to blot it out.
I am spiritually filthy. But I ask for God to wash me.
(verses 1-2)
I know what I have done. Sin seems to always be one step ahead of me.
Despite anyone else I might have hurt, including myself, I know I’ve hurt God the most. My crime is against him.
(verse 3-4)
Behold I’m sinful.
Behold I know You teach me how to come back to You.
(verse 5-6)
So God…
Please get rid of it.
Wash me until there are no more traces of sin.
Hide your face from what I did.
And please, let me hear joy again.
(verses 7-9)
Create in me a clean heart, my Creator and Righteous One.
Renew a spirit in me that is right and good.
(verse 10)
Please don’t cast me out.
Please don’t leave me.
(verse 11)
Restore me – help me have the joy I had when I realized I was saved by you.
(verse 12)
And I won’t be able to help but tell others about how you did save me.
(verse 13-15).
I would make offerings and sacrifices that seem pleasing to you, but I know all you want is my spirit, broken in my earnest sadness for what I have done. And it’s Yours. Again. I’m so sorry.
(verses 17)
Lord, help us. We want to praise you.
(verses 18-19)
In sin, we are captives – chained to it, slaves to it, and with the illusion of control, that we are fine when in reality we’re withering away. (Romans 6)
In Christ, we are washed and able to stand before God without any fault, cherished and loved with no reminders of the past (Ephesians 5).
We renounce sin. We choose Christ.
So when we come to God in repentance with our broken spirits as our only offering we are not sent away. Instead we are indeed washed and wrapped in our Father’s loving arms, and we get to hear him say, “Welcome home. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Join us in everseeking to study through other passages and themes of the Bible (or find some copies of “Joyful endings in Psalms” in our extra inventory)!
