- Chad Werkhoven
Psalm 51 - The Invitation Still Stands
God invites you to His table despite your sins to remind you of His cleansing grace.
Read / Listen
Read Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 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.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 81
Q. Who are to come
to the Lord’s table?
A. Those who are displeased with themselves
because of their sins,
but who nevertheless trust
that their sins are pardoned
and that their continuing
weakness is covered
by the suffering and death of Christ,
and who also desire more and more
to strengthen their faith
and to lead a better life.
Hypocrites and those who are unrepentant, however,
eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Summary
David's sin with Bathsheba, and the murder that it led to, is perhaps one of the ugliest sins recorded in scripture. But this ugly, terrible sin gave way to the most beautiful example in the Bible of what it means to confess and repent from sin as David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote the 51st Psalm.
This psalm is a model of the attitude that you must have as you prepare for participation in the Lord's Supper.
First of all, you must be displeased with the sin in your own life. Like David, recognize that not only have you hurt other people with your sins, but that you've especially offended God; it's against Him, and Him only that you've sinned. Realize how filthy your sins have made you, and that God is justified in His anger against you (v4).
But also trust that God will forgive your sins. Confidently ask for God's mercy, which is based on God's covenant (unfailing) love for you. He can and will blot out your transgression and cleanse you from your sin. You have the added benefit of knowing how God can forgive, because you know that your weakness is covered by Christ's suffering and death.
Finally, like David you must desire more and more to strengthen your faith and lead a better life. Pray that God creates a new heart in you, that He restores you to a spirit of joy and re-aligns your life with His will so that your tongue will sing of God's righteousness.
Dig Deeper
All of us were born into sin - not just born into it, but conceived in it! The corresponding guilt crushes our bones. Notice in v8 that it's God who is causing and using that bone crushing guilt in order to break our spirit (v17).
So don't let guilt keep you from grace. So many people stay away from church and away from the Lord's Table because they think they're not good enough. That much is true: none of us have the righteousness required to come into communion with a God who is perfectly holy and who will not tolerate sin! But if God could forgive and restore David, who's terrible sin quite likely had far worse consequences than any wrong you've ever committed, God, through Christ, can and will certainly deliver you from the guilt He's put upon you to bring you to contrition.
So make David's prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 your own and accept His gracious invitation to remember and celebrate that your sins have been pardoned by the suffering and death of Christ.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God our Father is completely holy, completely just, and completely merciful;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that God will use His ordinary means of grace to renew a steadfast spirit within you;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 21
