Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

There are seven penitential Psalms, but this seems to be the chief one of the seven. The language of David is as suitable to us today as it was to him. And though much was lost to the cause of righteousness by David's sin, yet the Church is enriched for all ages by the possession of such a Psalm as this. It is a marvelous recompense. Surely here the Lord reigns, bringing good out of evil, blessing generation after generation through that which in itself was a great evil!

VERSE 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness: according to the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Observe he appeals to mercy, and mercy only—to mercy, abounding mercy in its most tender and kindest aspect. "According to Your tender mercies." Note here David does not use his name. He does not say, "Lord remember David"—he is ashamed of his name. And he does not seem to want God to remember that, but to remember mercy—and to have pity upon this nameless sinner. He does not say, "Save the son of Your handmaid," or "Deliver Your servant," as he was known to do. He just appeals to mercy, and that is all. And observe it is not, "Have mercy upon me, oh my God." He is far off now. He has lost the comfortable assurance of the Covenant of Grace and so it is rather more like the cry of the prodigal when he returned and said, "I am not worthy to be called your son." Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness—according unto the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out—(or as more correctly it might be rendered, "wash out"—"wipe out")—my transgressions. The allusion is rather to a dish—wipe it out, turn it upside down and turn out all that is in it, sweep it away—wipe out all my transgressions. Or it may be as a withdrawal of a record in court when the indictment is withdrawn, "Lord be pleased to quash the indictment against me. Blot out all my transgressions."

2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Nothing about the punishment—he does not mention that. The true penitent, though he dreads punishment, much more dreads sin. It is sinfulness—sin that he would be delivered from! "Wash me." You must do it, no other washing will suffice. Wash me thoroughly, till I am perfectly cleansed. Cleanse me from my sin—mysin. I do not lay it on anyone else. Cleanse me from it.

3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is always before me. Unless sin is before us, we shall not be likely to spread it before God. But when we have knowledge of it, then we shall make acknowledgment of it to God. "My sin is always before me." He was in such a state of heart that the remembrance of sin seemed painted on his eyeballs. Even in his dreams he remembered it—he was never free from the dread remembrance of it.

4. Against You only have I sinned. Yet he had sinned against many more! But just now the thought of his sin against God swallowed up all else. All his offenses against his fellow men were trivial compared with the high treason which he had committed against his God. This is the virus of sin—that it is sin against God.

4. And done this evil in Your sight.While You were looking on. For a thief to steal in the Presence of the Judge is impudence, indeed, but yet in Your Presence, O my God, I have done this evil.

4. That You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when You judge. As much as to say, "I make this confession of sin, which is so black that if You should judge me, however severely, or sentence me to however exemplary a punishment, You will be quite clear and quite just. I could put in no plea against whatever You should command. I richly deserve all Your wrath can bring upon me."

5. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. The black stream leads him to look at the black fountain. How can we expect from parents who have sinned, that there should be born unto them pure and spotless children? No, the tendencies in us all towards evil are there at the very first. He does not at all venture to excuse himself, but rather to aggravate his sin, that he had been a sinner from his very birth!

6. 7. Behold You desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.He had seen the leper pronounced clean when the hyssop was dipped in blood and sprinkled on him—but then the leper had to be clean beforehand before this could make him ceremonially clean. He is leaping through the first process and coming to the closing one—his soul anxious to be accepted with God at once!

7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Yet what can be whiter than snow? Snow is not like a white wall that is but white on the surface—it is white all through. And yet when God washes the Believer, He makes him whiter than snow, for the snow soon becomes tainted, soon loses its purity—but we never shall if God shall wash us! There was no provision made for the cleansing of an adulterer under the Law of God. David, therefore, had to look beyond all the sacrifices of the Law to the cleansing power of the great coming Sacrifice, and he so believed in it that with a brave faith— (I know no more brave expression in all Scripture than this)—he says, "Wash me, filthy as I am, and I shall be whiter than snow."

8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have broken may rejoice. The original expression is "bones cracked," or, as one puts it, smashed. His sense of sin had been so great that he felt as one might feel whose very bones had been smashed by some terrible blow. So he seems to say, that as there may be a delightful pleasure in having every one of these broken bones restored, such would be his pleasure if God would pardon his sins.

9. Hide Your face from my sins. If we hide our sins before our faces, then God will turn His face away from our sins. If we hide our sins from our faces, God will set them before His face. But when they are always before us they shall never be before Him.

9, 10. And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. It is a creation—the very word is used which is employed concerning the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

11. Cast me not away from Your Presence: and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. I have put You away from my Presence by forgetting You, but put me not away from Your Presence. I have been filled with an unholy spirit, but oh, take not your Holy Spirit from me!

12. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me. He feels how much he needs it. The burnt child dreads the fire. "Uphold me with Your free Spirit."

13. Then will I teach transgressors Your ways: and sinners shall be converted unto You. And David has been doing that ever since, for this Psalm has been a continual sermon to sinners, teaching them God's ways in pardoning sin! And many, I doubt not, have been converted unto God by His Spirit through the language of this Psalm. When you and I find Christ, let us tell of our blessed discovery! Have you honey? Eat it not all yourself—go, tell your fellow men. Are you saved? Tarry not, but go and spread the news that others may be saved, too!

14. Deliver me from the guilt of shedding blood, O God, You God of my salvation. His faith is growing. He has humbled himself. It is the way to rise. Weaken yourself before God and you shall grow strong. Empty yourself and you shall be filled! Bow low and He will lift you up. "You God of my salvation."

14. And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. Those tongues that confess sins are the best tongues to sing with! That tongue which has been salted with the brine of penitence is fitted to be sweet with the honey of praise!

15. O Lord, open You my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. You know the leper when he was un-clean—what did he do? He covered his lips, as much as to confess that he was not fit to speak. So here the unclean David, with the covering of his lips, will not venture to speak until the Lord has taken away his sin and opened his mouth for him. It was this that Isaiah meant when he said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips"—but when it was said concerning the live coal, "Lo, this has touched your lips," then he spoke right eloquently. "Lord, open You my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise."

16. For You desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: You delight not in burnt offerings. Here we have what God does desire, and what He does not. If you turn to the sixth verse, you will see what He does desire. "You desire truth in the inward parts." Now here He does not desire the mere outward and external worship rendered by sacrifice. It was not the type alone that satisfied Him.

17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. There are some spices that are never perfect in fragrance till they are pounded with the pestle in the mortar, and so is a broken heart. If it is made to suffer and to smart, yet there is sweet pleasure to the Lord when He perceives in His people the smart concerning sin—when they hate and loathe it.

18. 19. Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: build You the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall You bepleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offerings: then shall they offer bullocks upon Your altar.Gratitude ascends when sin is forgiven, and when God appears to bless His Church, then she blesses her God.

Verse 145. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep Your statutes. It is sweet to look back upon our prayers, if those prayers were uttered with our whole heart, for it is no small work of Divine Grace to enable us to throw the whole heart into prayer! And when we get that, we may be quite sure that our prayer will succeed. The God who gives us Grace to pray with the whole heart will be sure to reply to the prayer! After prayer David uttered a resolution, "I will keep Your statutes." He was resolved upon this with his whole heart, and though a resolution is not enough, for many make resolves and break them, yet no man is likely to keep God's Word who does not resolve to do so. Therefore it is necessary, first, to cry in prayer, and then to resolve with the whole heart to walk according to God's will.

146. I cried unto You; save me, and I shall keep Your testimonies. He has got on this string, you see, and he touches it again. First he said, "I cried with my whole heart." Now again he says, "I cried unto You." When you are in trouble, if you can remember that you were much in prayer before you entered into the experience which led into the trouble, you can plead with God that you did not rush into it carelessly and prayerlessly—and you have a good argument to urge with Him why He should help you in your time of need.

147, 148. I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help. I hoped in Your Word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I might meditate in Your Word. It was not now and then that David was in a devotional frame of mind! He continued so. He began early, but he continued late. The prayer of the dawn was followed by the watch of the midnight!

149. Hear my voice according unto Your loving kindness: O LORD, quicken me according to Your judgment. He is accustomed to put these two things together, all through this judgment—as much as if he felt that he could—as if he felt that he could appeal both to the tenderness and to the justice of God for help in his time of need. For with a God who has entered into the bonds of the Covenant with us, and pledged Himself by promise and by oath, we may plead both His loving kindness and His judgment.

150, 151. They draw near that follow after mischief: they are far from Your Law. You are near, O LORD: And all Your commandments are truth.How beautiful is this! The enemies are coming near, but You are nearer. They approach me, but I abide with You, and You abide with me. I am safe!

152. Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever. Oh, Believer, what comfort there is in this for you! If you have known it all your years, it has been a blessed thing to know that God changes not—that as He spoke before the earth was, so will that Word abide when this world shall cease to be!

153. Consider my affliction and deliver me: for I do not forgot Your Law. Lord, Your Grace has helped me to remember You. I pray You, therefore, remember my affliction. Look at it with Your eyes of wisdom and deliver me.

154-155. Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to Your Word. Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not Your statutes.Salvation is near to any man who seeks it, but the ungodly, as they will not have God's Word, so shall they not have God's saving Grace They are far from it.

156. Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to Your judgments. Here again, you see, he puts judgment and mercy together—the justice and the tenderness of God—and he leans on both. It is a mark of an instructed Christian when he is able to derive comfort, not merely from the love of God, but also from the holiness and the justice of God, seeing that these are on his side through Jesus Christ's atoning blood.

157-158. Many are my persecutors and my enemies; yet do I not decline from Your testimonies. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not Your Word. O child of God, whenever you look upon the transgressors, your heart should bleed that they should transgress so good a Law—that they should grieve so gracious a God—that they should bring upon themselves so terrible a penalty. "I beheld the transgressors and was grieved."

159, 160. Consider how I love Your precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to Your loving kindness Your Word is true from the beginning: and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever. And here is the very sweetness of the Gospel—that it is not a thing of today, which will lose its efficiency tomorrow! "It endures forever." You that have got it have chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from you! All the blessings of the Covenant are everlasting blessings. They are "the sure mercies of David." And he that gets them gets an inheritance which he shall not lose.

161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause; but my heart stands in awe of Your Word. Not in awe of their word, but in awe of Your Word. The fear of God is the best cure for the fear of men! No man who is devout is cowardly. If you fear God with all your heart, you will defy all the devils in Hell, and fear none.

162-165. Irejoice at Your Word, as one that finds great spoil Ihate and abhor lying; but Your Law do Ilove. Seven times a day do I praise You because of Your righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love Your Law: and nothing shall offend them. Whatever happens, they shall suffer no ill from it. "There shall no evil befall such, neither shall any plague come near their dwelling," for they "dwell under the shadow of the Almighty."

166. LORD, I have hoped for Your salvation, and done Your commandments. Now, cannot some of you feeble people say that? You that cannot talk of full assurance and are half afraid that you are none of the Lord's people at all, yet you can say, "Lord, I have hoped for Your salvation, and done Your commandments." And, if so, you have done that which proves you to be His!

167, 168. My soul has kept Your testimonies; and Ilove them exceedingly. Ihave kept Your precepts and Your testimonies: for all my ways are before You. And no man will ever take comfort in that if he is not a renewed man, for to know that all our ways are before God is ground for great distress if we are ungodly—if we are walking contrary to His mind. But if we are, indeed, His children, we love to feel that we are always living under His eye—that there is nothing about us unknown to Him—no secret sorrow which He does not read—no invisible burden which He does not see.