Psalm 51: The Honest Sinner’s Psalm! 1. The Holy Lord God hates all sin! Psalm 51:1

 Text: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”

Psalm 51:1.

          “Behold (look deeply, and fully understand), the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”

Isaiah 59:1-2.

Good morning, honest-about-sin Christian!  The fact that you have been genuinely redeemed from sin by the Blood of Christ, and been born again of His Spirit – compels you and I to be totally honest about the sins we NOW commit daily.  If we were not genuinely saved by God’s grace, we could perhaps delude ourselves about our daily sins.  However, praise God, this is not the case with genuine Christian believers – our faith is in a pure and Holy Lord Jesus; a Holy and Heavenly Father Who detests every sin; and in God the Spirit Who is defined intrinsically as God the Holy Spirit – and therefore cannot abide the presence of our sin. 

How we Spiritually regenerate, Bible-believing, Christians honestly recognise, and deal with the sins we naturally commit daily can, in fact, be a proof positive that we are Eternally saved!

Definition of SIN: Any state, act, thought, word, or deed that comes, in any miniscule degree, short, below, less than, the impeccable standard of the true Holiness of God, as clearly manifested in the incarnate God Himself – Jesus Christ. 

Holiness is a state of Divine Perfection that fallen mankind can never, through human effort, attain – except by faith in Christ Jesus, and His full Atonement Sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross.  Such vital faith is, at all times, “By grace, through faith... the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

“Now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world might become guilty before God.” (Romans 3:19)

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (i.e. the impeccable righteousness of God the Son, Christ Jesus, is ‘the glory of God’).”  (Romans 3:21-23)

All mankind, therefore, born in Adam’s fallen image, are born natural sinners, and as such, born guilty under God’s Curse against sin; and on our way to an Eternal sinner’s Hell.

“And Adam lived (after the fall from God’s grace) an hundred and thirty years, and begat (fathered) a son in his own likeness, after his image (fallen!); and called his name Seth.  And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters.”  (Genesis 5:3-4)

“Behold (look, and fully understand), I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:5)

“This Psalm is the brightest gem in the whole Book and contains instruction so large, and doctrine so precious, that the tongue of angels could not do justice to the full development.”  (Victorinus Strigelius 1524-1569)

When we are called of God, through hearing with our hearts the Gospel message of Salvation in Christ, we are Spiritually regenerated, born again, by God the Spirit, and Eternally saved. From that time,  we who are born again must seek to be in fellowship with our Holy Lord God Who has saved us; and that necessitates our seeking to be sanctified, progressively, from the sins we commit daily as natural born sinners.  God cannot abide sin!  It comes between us and God; separates us from full and close fellowship with Him, because He is completely pure and ultimately Holy.

“Behold (look deeply, and fully understand), the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but you iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”    (Isaiah 59:1-2)

Close fellowship with our Holy Lord God is what the Psalmist, the anointed king David, deeply desired, following his gross sins of adultery and murder, as recorded in 2 Samuel, chapter 11.  Without renewed repentance from sin, confession of sin to God; and fresh sanctification – David could never ever seek to come into the Presence of our Holy Lord God.  God closes His Holy eyes to the vileness of our sin, and will not hear us, nor fellowship with us, unless we seek true forgiveness and fresh sanctification from all our sins.

“Thou (God Almighty) are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity...”  (Habakkuk 1:13)

Thus, the Psalmist David’s Psalm of true repentance; and craving for renewed sanctification.

Verse 1. “Have mercy upon me, O God.  He appeals at once to the mercy of God, even before he mentions his sin.  The sight of mercy is good for eyes that are sore with penitential weeping.  Pardon of sin must ever be  an act of pure mercy, and therefore to that attribute the awakened sinner flies.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 237)

Verse 1. “O God. I dare not say, ‘My God’, for that were presumption.  I have lost Thee by sin, I have alienated myself from Thee by following the enemy, and therefore am unclean.  I dare not approach Thee, but standing afar off and lifting up my voice with great devotion and contrition of heart, I cry and say, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God.’” (‘A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms’, by A.P. Forbes (1857)

Verse 1. “Blot out my transgressions. When you and I pray this prayer, we use inspired Scripture to give our prayer God’s approval from His own Word. “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”     (Isaiah 43:25)  The Lord cannot refuse His own Word, from the mouths of His own people.

Thought: Genuine Christians sin every day!  Genuine Christians repent, and seek fresh sanctification from sin every night!  In Christ, God’s mercy is always given.