2/28/2012 7:38:29 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 51
Message of the verses: It was on December 10, 2011 that we began to look at the book of Psalms and in yesterdays SD we finished the 50th Psalm, which makes us one third the way through the book of Psalms. In today’s SD we will look at another of the more famous psalms that is Psalm 51. The reason that most people have heard of this psalm is because it is one of two psalms that David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba and her husband. Psalm 32 is the other psalm that was written by David after this sin. We will look at the introduction to this psalm today.
“The occasion of this psalm was the sin of David with Bathsheba, signified by "going in to her"; an euphemism for "lying with her"; which sin was a very aggravated one, she being another man’s wife, and the wife of a servant and soldier of his, who was at the same time exposing his life for his king and country’s good; and David besides had many wives, and was also king of Israel, and should have set a better example to his subjects; and it was followed with other sins, as the murder of Uriah, and the death of several others; with scandal to religion, and with security and impenitence in him for a long time, until Nathan the prophet was sent to him of God, to awaken him to a sense of his sin; which he immediately acknowledged, and showed true repentance for it: upon which, either while Nathan was present, or after he was gone, he penned this psalm; that it might remain on record, as a testification of his repentance, and for the instruction of such as should fall into sin, how to behave, where to apply, and for their comfort. The history of all this may be seen in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the second book of Samuel.” (John Gill)
“Though David penned this psalm upon a very particular occasion, yet, it is of as general use as any of David’s psalms; it is the most eminent of the penitential psalms, and most expressive of the cares and desires of a repenting sinner. It is a pity indeed that in our devout addresses to God we should have anything else to do than to praise God, for that is the work of heaven; but we make other work for ourselves by our own sins and follies: we must come to the throne of grace in the posture of penitents, to confess our sins and sue for the grace of God; and, if therein we would take with us words, we can nowhere find any more apposite than in this psalm, which is the record of David’s repentance for his sin in the matter of Uriah, which was the greatest blemish upon his character: all the rest of his faults were nothing to this; it is said of him (#1Ki 15:5): ‘because David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.’” (Matthew Henry)
“Therefore not written for private meditation only, but for the public service of song. Suitable for the loneliness of individual penitence, this matchless Psalm is equally well adapted for an assembly of the poor in spirit. A Psalm of David. It is a marvel, but nevertheless a fact, that writers have been found to deny David’s authorship of this Psalm, but their objections are frivolous, the Psalm is David like all over. It would be far easier to imitate Milton, Shakespeare, or Tennyson, than David. His style is altogether sui generis, and it is as easily distinguished as the touch of Rafaelle or the colouring of Rubens. When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of sighs and tears. The great sin of David is not to be excused, but it is well to remember that his case has an exceptional collection of specialties in it. He was a man of very strong passions, a soldier, and an Oriental monarch having despotic power; no other king of his time would have felt any compunction for having acted as he did, and hence there were not around him those restraints of custom and association which, when broken through, render the offence the more monstrous. He never hints at any form of extenuation, nor do we mention these facts in order to apologize for his sin, which was detestable to the last degree; but for the warning of others, that they reflect that the licentiousness in themselves at this day might have even a graver guilt in it than in the erring King of Israel. When we remember his sin, let us dwell most upon his penitence, and upon the long series of chastisements which rendered the after part of his life such a mournful history.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“This is the classic passage in the OT on man’s repentance and God’s forgiveness of sin. Along with Ps. 32, it was written by David after his affair with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, her husband (2Sa. 11; 12). It is one of 7 poems called penitential psalm (6,32,38,51,102,130,143). To David’s credit, he recognized fully how horrendous his sin was against God, blamed no one but himself, and begged for divine forgiveness.” (John MacArthur Study Bible)
“During his lifetime, King David did what had pleased the Lord, ‘except in the case of Uriah the Hittite’ (1Kings 15:5, NASB). This is the fourth of the Penitential Psalm (see 6) and is David’s prayer of confession after Nathan the prophet confronted him with his sins (see 32:2; 2Sam. 11-12). This is also the first of fifteen consecutive psalms in Book II attributed to David. In his prayer, David expressed three major requests.” (Warren Wiersbe)
I think that it best to just make some opening comments on Psalm 51 at this time due to time. I have just finished watching a sermon on the internet by John MacArthur using the text of Psalm 51 that he gave before a communion service. This would surely be an great text to use because we see in the classic text on the communion serves, 1Cor. 11, that the apostle Paul tells his readers that some of them in their congregation had actually died because of the way that they had treated the communion service. Before we partake in the elements of the communion service we are to has the Holy Spirit to search our hearts of any unconfessed sin in order to confess it before the Lord so that we do not eat and drink unworthily, and that is why some of the Corinthians died.
It is good to understand who we are and how much all of us needs the salvation that only can come through Jesus Christ, for Paul says that there is none righteous, no not one, there is no one who seeks after God. David writes in Psalm 51 that he was conceived in sin, and this does not mean that his parents were not married, rather as soon as he was conceived he was a sinner. I had a friend where I use to work who whenever he did something wrong and I would ask him about it he would always say “I was born wrong.” He may have been joking but what he was saying was true for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
David was the King of Israel and David was a man after God’s own heart, but David was a sinner and he had troubles with women, something most men will confess that they have. Being a king and having a the power that went along with that he could have thrown Nathan out of his house whenever Nathan spoke to him about his sin, but because David was a man after God’s own heart he would not do that because for a year he had been sick because of this sin and now he knew that the right thing to do was to confess his sin to the Lord and be free from the sin.
I find it interesting that the passage in 1Kings 15:5 that Bathsheba is not mentioned, but only her husband Uriah. I think that this shows that neither Bathsheba nor David was innocent, but Uriah was innocent of all wrong in this sinful situation. Uriah was such a faithful man that David wrote to Joab, the leader of his army, the orders that would kill Uriah.
I am going to look at some of the Spiritual Diaries from 2Samuel 11 and twelve and post them after I post this SD to the blog so that the background to this Psalm can be seen.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Sometimes being a man causes troubles and one of the ways that it causes troubles is that most men think that they can solve all of life’s problems on their own without help. In the sermon that I watched on Psalm 51 by John MacArthur he mentioned that David knew that it was God who had to do the work in his heart to forgive his sin and I suppose that I never thought of it just like that. Being a man I think that by confessing my sins to God that I have done all that I can do and leave it at that, but I think that one thing that I may have been missing is letting God be God and do His work in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust the Lord to clean me thoroughly from my sins.
2. Trust the Holy Spirit to show me my unconfessed sins so that I may confess them to the Lord and have fellowship with Him so that He can use me for His honor and glory.
3. Continue to learn contentment in all the circumstances of life.
2/28/2012 9:38:44 AM
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