Pray this from the Spirit within and with your understanding every word. Feel and think what David is feeling and thinking when his sin was ever before Him and he cried out to God to not pour out His infinite wrath on him but He begged God…
“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.”
David had sinned, many times and had waited quite some time to confess his sin/sins. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had conspired to murder Uriah once he found out she was pregnant. God said the baby would die and that David would be at war with God’s enemies the rest of his life Psalm 51 records David’s confession and plea to God for forgiveness, restored joy, a sense of his presence, cleansing, washing, a willing, renewed steadfast spirit, his body to feel better, to learn wisdom, to open his lips so he could praise God and for God to be pleased with the prosperity of Zion.
You can own the text. Your heart and David’s heart are one if you are saved. David is thinking and feeling certain things. If you know those things he is thinking and feeling then you can recognize when you are thinking and feeling the same way and then read Psalm 51 as if it were you prayer to God.
Many people methodical pray the Lords Prayer and don’t mean it or even know what they are praying. They pray “Our Father who art in heaven” And they know fairly well what that means but as soon as you hit “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Now they are stuck saying something they have no clue what the meaning is. Now its okay to repeat it to learn it and memorize it and meditate on it to get more of the meaning, but you have not “owned the text” as I am calling it until you understand what “Hallowed be Thy Name” means and you as well sincerely desire for God’s Name to be Hallowed. Worship and prayer must be with our understanding in our mind as to the truth of the text.
John 4:24 “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” “truth” What is the truth in the text. No fake news here, only truth. You must have truth in your head and an affection for it in your heart. God is Holy, His name is Holy, Hallowed or Sanctified is His Name. His Name is Holy. Hallowed be Thy Name. God has no mixture of evil in Him. Hallowed be Thy Name. God is God. God created the heavens and the earth. Hallowed be Your Name. Your Name is Holy, it is so, may It be set apart as Holy in our hearts and minds. Hallowed be Your Name.
We must pray knowing what we are praying for and sincerely desire it and not just repeat word because they sound good or someone more mature than us says something. Isn’t Jesus the Best!! He is so Awesome! He taught his disciples how to pray!! Maybe I will do the Lords prayer some day but for now we do ask “Forgive us our debts..” as David also asked for forgiveness. David’s confession of sin is much more extensive.
David’s words become your words, David’s feelings about sin, to one degree or another and at various times, should be the same as yours if you are saved. David says “Have mercy on me, O God” to God when feeling he deserves the full Wrath of God because he disobeyed God but doesn’t want to get what he deserves so he asks God to hold back His Full Wrath, therefore having mercy on David because of His unfailing love.
Prerequisite knowledge and feelings in order to pray “Have mercy on me, O God. According to your unfailing love.”
- Know who God is in relation to you. “Have mercy on me, O God.”
- Your sin must be ever before you. 51:3
- Know what mercy is. Have “mercy”
- So that you know what you are asking for
- That way you can praise Him when He gives it.
- When do you cry out for Mercy
- Know the basis on which you can receive Mercy
- Where does Mercy come from
- Salvation from sin is not by good works
David cries out to God for mercy. Mercy You can sincerely pray this from your heart if you are thinking about God and you know you deserve his Wrath because you have sinned. But you can’t repeat and pray verses like 51:7 because we don’t think of hyssop as cleansing but we do know the Blood of Christ can cleanse or rather a belief in his death for our sins will cleanse the heart of guilt and cleanse from the sense of His Displeasure.
So we see that in order for you to own the text and have your heart aligned with David’s heart who was a man after God’s own heart, me must be thinking and feeling what David does when confessing sin. By the way God hates the sin but loves to hear your sincere confession of it!! Go to God, return like the prodigal son to the gracious, merciful, loving and open arms of your Heavenly Father!
Let’s look at the first verse in detail and take it step by step so we get a clear understanding of the words and can align our hearts with the Word of God to become more one with God.
Know your relationship to God
Your relationship with God is like that of a servant or slave to a king. There is a union there between the king and the servant. There is a bond. One rules with authority and the servants willing obey. To not obey means both physical death and afterward the second death in the lake of fire forever and ever. God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He created the earth and the first humans. Adam and Eve. They were one. They were one as God the Father and God the Son are One. God is the Authority. He made us and He is The King of Kings and we are the servants. We eagerly obey our most wise king/King or husband/Husband. You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love. Christ is your King. When you invite Christ into your heart as King, this means He tells you what to think and He tells you what to do. You must have right ideas of God and His relationship to you.
Consequences for severing that relationship.
Sin separates us from a joyful holy communion with God through Christ. You feel his displeasure. You sense His Wrath. The wages of sin is Eternal Death! Pain forever. No hope of ever getting out, only your despair will get worse as you forever weep and gnash your teeth, forever getting hotter with no drop of grace. Only strict Justice forever. You must think upon hell. It is what you deserve. Its what God may not give you by His Grace if He so chooses, but it is what you deserve. If you do not meditate and get clearer and clearer idea’s of hell then your love for Christ will be stagnate. Plus you can’t own the text if you don’t have a clear idea of hell. David deserved hell and he knew it, David had sinned and deserved the full Wrath of God, but David didn’t want to experience the Wrath of God, but knew a substitute would die in his place “hyssop”, so David cried out for Mercy.
Mercy is asking God to hold back what you deserve. Imagine that Your asking God Please do not give me hell, it is what I deserve but please hold back giving me the eternal lake of fire that I deserve and “Have mercy on me, O God”
Even a mature believer can still be afraid sometime of the Wrath of Jesus. John saw Jesus in Rev. 1:12-18 and was afraid of Jesus punishing him but Jesus said “Do not be afraid.” And then proceeds to share more of who He was to John. “I am the first and the last” All things came from Me and all things, emanations of my Glory return to Me. I am all in all. this would remind John that the one speaking to him that he is afraid of is God. Now that doesn’t help matters to much but that it is what God did and not just who He was that help John to not fear His Wrath. Jesus, who died for Johns sins says “I am the first and the last, the living one, I was dead and now I am alive forever and ever..”
John saw the everlasting Love of God on display in the death of God in Christ! And that the one who died and rose again holds the keys of death and the un foreseen world”
In light of offending God, David knew his need Mercy from God. “Have mercy on me, O God.”
51:3 “Your sin is ever before you.”
You know what you did. It’s on your mind and you feel guilty. You feel ashamed. Separated from God. You haven’t been sweetly in faith praying and communing with God. Your sin is ever before you. You think of it in your bed at night and you go to sleep worrying about it. Soon the next day its ever before you again. This is God convicting you that you should confess your sin as David did. When you sin is ever before you. God to Him while He is calling you. Do not run away. Think of Jesus Christ on the cross bearing your sin and shame, think of the white linen coat of righteousness you will wear in heaven, the very Righteousness of Jesus Christ our LORD. When you sin is ever before you then pray as David did “Have Mercy on me, O God”
There is a great degree of Mercy needed.
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.”
The amount and the duration of God’s love. David would like Mercy from God to a certain degree and duration. An infinite degree, according to your steadfast love. And an Eternal Duration “steadfast” love. God’s love is never ending. David is asking God to show him and infinite amount of mercy forever because God loves him. Were are not to ask out of God’s love but glorify God by asking according to His Love for us in Christ.
So when your sin is ever before you and you know you deserve the infinite Wrath of God because you offended so Great and Loving a God, ask for Mercy according to Gods steadfast Love. Cry out to Him when you sense his displeasure because you know what sin you did, it is ever before you on you mind and grieving your heart, you may even be condemning yourself although it is God who condemn us not ourselves. Our sin condemns us to the lake of fire before a Holy God. We deserve a hotter hell forever but God desiring to demonstrate His Love sent His Son to die for His Bride and cleanse her by his Blood and Word and present her a holy virgin to God.
There is a certain amount of mercy David would like to have from God. Mercy according to God’s steadfast love! Thats an infinite and eternal amount of Mercy David is asking for because David’s sin against God is an infinite offense to and infinitely Majestic Holy God. David knows his offense to God is immense, so David asks for an infinite amount of Mercy. Mercy according to God’s steadfast love.
Salvation from sin is not by good works.
When your sin is ever before you, Satan comes by to tell you every lie possible to keep you away from looking to Jesus for forgiveness. When you sin look to Jesus right away. No matter how bad your sin was and not matter how much of it you did, look now to Jesus its never to late and He is there will open hands. If you are sick with sin and are continuing in it, it is Jesus’s job to save you. He is your Savior from sin because he paid the penalty for your sin.
The devil will tell you and you will believe it that “you have to do good works to earn God’s favor” or he will send you to hell. The truth is that Jesus did the good works for us. When you feel guilty Satan will come by to get you to try to work hard to earn God’s favor and you will fail over and over again because their is no power in doing Good works to earn God’s favor, Power over sin comes from doing good works out of Love to God. You love God. God is Holy. You love the holiness of God therefore you do good works. Love to God and understanding His love to us in Christ will shatter all fear of punishment from God.
After you sin you will feel Guilty. The only way to be cleansed of that guilty shameful feeling is knowing what Jesus did on your behalf when he bore your sins. You see you just sinned. A jew in the old testament when they felt guilty would bring a goat to the high priest and lay their hand on the goat. The laying the hand on the goat signified the transfer of sin and guilt. The goat would run away symbolizing that God would soon send a substitute that would take our sins far away where you could not see them anymore.
The not seeing them anymore is the same as to not have your sin ever before you. David’s sin was ever before him and he did not want to see them anymore. He would like to believe that they were transferred to a substitute innocent lamb and be cleansed with hyssop, as we would ask to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. David was asking the same thing its just that Christ hadn’t done it yet.
“According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions”
Not only is his sin ever before him and he wants an endless and infinite amount of Grace from God according to his steadfast love, but he also add “According to Your great Compassion.” David desires his transgressions to be blotted out. As if they weren’t there. Blot them out.
Transgressions. What are transgressions? To transgress is to step across the line. To go in a forbidden area. Sin is missing the mark and transgression are when you have crossed the line. There were boundaries God had set and you crossed them. God wanted David to not sleep with Bathsheba. David crossed the line and slept with her and that sin is on his record and ever before him. Along with murdering Uriah. David asks God for forgiveness. David was a murderer and an adulterous. David had crossed the line. God said do not murder and David transgressed that command and that sin was really on Christ’s record. But still David had transgressed and it is his sin that is ever before him and David asks to have it blotted out.
You know we never stop asking for fogginess from God. Even Jesus said to pray
“Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name….forgive us our debts..” He said that to the Disciple who were already “clean” Jesus said when washing Peters feet. Our daily if not hourly cleansing from sin. We don’t lose our salvation when we sin, but it will separate us from God for the degree and length of time of His choosing. But in the mean time when our sin is ever before us, surely faith in Christ alone and repentance and continued obedience will lead to the sweetest holy communion with Christ again, along with the joy of your salvation. Note that either David was doubting his salvation or a least felt like he wasn’t saved when his sin was ever before him, because he had no joy in his salvation. You rejoice in what you are sure about and are happy to be experiencing. David didn’t rejoice in his salvation from sin and its punishment, probably for at least 9 months.
By now you should be able to own the 1st verse
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.”
Pray this when your sin is ever before you. Pray this thinking of the specific sin you did and think about Christ on the cross, not only did he die for that sin but all your past and future sins. Jesus knew He was dying for your sins. All your sins. He bore them all and he knew that he would have to drink the cup of God’s Wrath on your behalf.
Mercy- denotes the ready inclination of God to relieve the misery of sinful man out of the goodness of his Heart. There is a general mercy to all men but a special mercy to those who were in Christ before the world began.
Goodness of God=that principle in God whereby He has a propensity to communicate Himself to the creature.
Love=Love of Benevolence, as it respects the creature is that good disposition in Gods nature to communicate of his own fullness in general; such as His knowledge,holiness and happiness.
Compassion= God’s love expressing itself to someone in a miserable condition.
So when you are in a miserable condition with your sin ever before you, feeling guilty and sense you have displeased God by your transgressions then pray as David did..
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.”
“Justified” in that “sentence passed upon him: ‘The sword shall never depart from thine house,’ etc. (2 Samuel 12:10–11).”
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