Psalm 51:1-19 – Confession Is Good for the Soul

There are all kinds of different ways to pray. And as we go through the Bible, we’re seeing different kinds of prayer. This prayer is a type of prayer that makes us feel uncomfortable. But it’s an incredibly important one. And the example of this kind of prayer that we find in Psalm 51 is perhaps the quintessential version of this kind of prayer.

The kind of prayer is confession: acknowledging our sin to God and seeking his mercy and forgiveness. To put it simply, this is the kind of prayer in which you tell God that you were wrong, and you want him to make things right. It’s easy to see why we don’t like this kind of prayer: who wants to admit that they were wrong? Especially when you’re telling it to someone who could really make you suffer for it! We’d rather hide our faults, explain them away, pretend they’re not there, or even change the subject by pointing out someone else’s sin: “Instead of looking at what I did, why not look at what she did: it’s so much worse!”

Ignoring or concealing sin doesn’t make it go away. Sure, we don’t want to deal with it because it makes us uncomfortable and it reminds us that we’re not the people that we want to be, that God wants us to be. But ignoring something doesn’t make it go away. If you have a massive toothache and know that your mouth is full of cavities, it won’t do you any good to ignore it. Going to the dentist is gong to be painful, expensive, and maybe even embarrassing (depending on what kind of comments your dental hygienist makes about the fact that you don’t floss or brush). But your tooth rot isn’t going to go away on its own. Eventually you’re going to have to come to terms with it, or you’ll keep suffering, and it’s only going to get worse.

Soul decay, which is caused by sin, is the same thing. It’s uncomfortable to deal with, but ignoring it won’t make it go away. The sooner you address it, the quicker you can get on with the kind of life that you and God want for you. That’s why, at the beginning of each of our worship services, we share a prayer of confession, to tell God about what’s wrong in our lives. We don’t do this in order to put everyone into a guilt trip and make us feel miserable. We do it so that we can get ourselves right with God in order to clear the way for us to hear his word and offer our grateful response.

Psalm 51 is one of the most powerful prayers of confession in the Bible, and it relates to one of the most shocking sins that we find in Scripture. David, whom God had raised up from being a simple shepherd boy to the greatest king of Israel, was one of the most faithful and powerful people in the Old Testament. But, at the height of his power and glory, he did something horrible and shocking. Instead of being satisfied with the multiple wives he already had, he wanted another man’s wife who caught his eye. And because he was king, he was able to get her (we have no idea what Bathsheba, the woman, thought about all this). That was bad enough. But when David found out that she had become pregnant because of what he had done, he tried to cover up the crime. When the cover-up didn’t work, he arranged for her husband to be killed so that he could marry her. David went from being a shining example of what it means to be a faithful follower of God to becoming an adulterer and a murderer. And he thought he could get away with it. Even though his sin was rotting out his soul, he tried to pretend that all was well. It was only after the prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin (and risked his own neck in the process) that David was able to come to terms with the depths of his sin. Psalm 51 is the prayer that he lifted up as a result.

David’s prayer breaks down into five parts:

1. Verses 1-2: The introduction or “topic statement” of the prayer. David acknowledges that he needs God’s mercy because of what he’s done, and he asks God to wipe away his guilt. This frames what will happen in the rest of the prayer.

2. Verses 3-6: David confesses his sin to God. He doesn’t talk about the specific acts of misconduct that he did. For us, this is a good thing, because if he had, we’d only be able to find ourselves in David’s prayer if we are adulterers and murderers ourselves. Instead of talking about what he did, David told God about the effects of what he did. He acknowledged the depths of his sin to God, and how deeply it has affected his life. In fact, he went far beyond what he had done to Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. He recognized that these specific actions were a reflection or a result of his overall sinful condition that had been part of his life since the time he was born. By telling God this, David wasn’t pretending like he was telling God something that he didn’t already know. He was letting God know that he knew it, too. The magnitude of his crimes opened his eyes to the depths of sin in his life.

3. Verses 7-12: David pleads with God to remove his sin and the damaging effects that it has on his life, and on his relationship with God. He expresses his trust that God will bring him healing and joy, even though he knows that he doesn’t deserve any of it. He acknowledges that the only source of joy and purpose he’ll ever be able to find comes from the presence of God in his life. The happiness or satisfaction that he had hoped to find by what he had done had only disappointed him and caused damage; sin has a way of doing that. It never comes through with the goodies that it promises. David told God that he knew his life would only make sense if the Lord was a part of it. And that would never happen unless God himself was willing to make it happen.

4. Verses 13-15: David made a promise to God that he would offer praise and service when he was healed of his sin. We need to be careful in how we understand this promise, however. This isn’t a case of David making a deal with God: “If you do this for me, here’s what I’ll do for you.” Anytime we think we can make a deal with God, we’re fooling ourselves. The only time we can make a deal with anyone is if we have something to offer that they want, and we can use it to get something from them that we want. Here’s two quick examples. If we’re in the cafeteria at elementary school and I want to trade my lunch with yours, I’ll need to have something in my lunch sack that you want. I’m not going to get your chocolate chip cookie if all I have to offer you is a baloney sandwich (unless, of course, you prefer baloney sandwiches to chocolate chip cookies. If you find an elementary school kid who does, let me know). Here’s a second example: international diplomacy. One country tries to get another country to do what it wants by offering them something that they want. The back-room deal that ended the Cuban missile crisis was when the US told the Soviets that we’d take down a missile site in Turkey. It’s been hard for us to negotiate with Iran because they don’t think we have anything to offer them that they want more than a nuclear weapons program. The same thing is true when we think we can make a bargain with God. When we do, we forget that he’s God, and we’re not.

David’s promise to God wasn’t an attempt to convince God or put him over a barrel. It was simply that: a promise. David told God what his life would look like after he had been healed. He would tell other people about what God had done for him, and he would lift up his praise and thanks. Not to make a bargain, but as a natural result of what God had done for him.

5. Verses 16-19: David recognized God’s character. He acknowledged what kind of God the Lord really is. He’s not a god who wants sacrifices or empty ritual: he wants lives that are open up for him to do his amazing work in them. He wants to bless people and share a relationship with them that leads to praise for the Lord and peace and joy for the people.

If we set aside the introduction, we can find four basic moves in this prayer:

1. David confessed his sinful condition.

2. He asked for God to heal and forgive him.

3. He described what his life would like after God healed him.

4. He recognized who God is in a new and deeper way.

Each of these moves is significant. If David had stopped at any point, his process of confession would have been cheapened.

· If he didn’t acknowledge his sinful condition, he’d never be able to experience God’s healing grace.

· If he confessed his sin without asking for mercy and restoration, he’d be stuck in the depths of guilt that can lead to hopelessness and despair.

· If he asked for God’s help without recognizing how it would change his life, he’d be using God as a simple tool to get what he wanted. He wouldn’t really be any different than he had been at the beginning. The process of being forgiven would change what life looked like for him.

· If he went through all this and didn’t come away from it with a deeper understanding and appreciation for who God is, his relationship with him wouldn’t have changed at all.

Fortunately for David, this wasn’t the case. Instead:

· Because he acknowledged his sin, he experienced healing.

· Because he had been healed, he became a different person and knew God in a deeper and more intimate way.