Psalm 51 is one of those Psalms that Bible readers might have an awareness of already. It's not as famous as Psalm 23. Psalm 23 might be the most famous of all the Psalms, but Psalm 51 might have some resonance language you've seen before, heard before. A psalm in its entirety that's meant much to you, perhaps. The reason for the composition and the language of this psalm can leave a very powerful impression. Maybe that'll happen for us today as we consider it afresh in our study in Book Two of the Psalms. In the writing of this psalm, David has sinned. And the effects of his sin have broken him. He cries out to the Lord for mercy, for pardon from his sin, for cleansing, for restoration. This Psalm has been the point of reflection for many people in the history of church and the interpretation of the saints. And throughout church history, you could pull from countless names who have made wonderful, insightful comments about this Psalm. One example would be a Presbyterian minister in Scotland in the 1700s named Thomas Chalmers. He says, this is the most deeply affecting of all the Psalms. And I am sure the one most applicable to me. So when Chalmers thinks about this Psalm, maybe you can resonate with his words. This seems an especially applicable Psalm to us. We know what it is like to sin against the Lord. We know what it is like to experience the conviction of his Holy Spirit. We know what it is like for our sin to affect other people. We know what it is like for our sin to affect our joy in God in a negative way. It's a precious psalm because it gives us words to say. It guides our hearts into truth and into repentance. 1600 years ago, Augustine taught us how to think about this psalm. Augustine says, listen to David crying out and cry with him. Listen to him groaning and groan too. Listen to him weeping and add your tears to his. Listen to him corrected and share his joy. Sixteen hundred years ago, these words are remarkably true as we are guided to see this psalm as words we can say to the Lord in our sinfulness. These are the kinds of responses we want the Lord to graciously work within us while we hear the psalm today. I wonder if you've ever considered what comes right before the psalm. We've tried this exercise from time to time in order to demonstrate the coherence of these psalms together in a series of psalms in book one and now in book two. Psalm 51's preceding psalm, Psalm 50, is a psalm of confrontation. The Lord, in his speech to the people, confronted their use of rituals of worship without a heart of worship. He confronted the emptiness of their sacrifices, the void nature of all of their offerings that they had been bringing. He confronted not only those misunderstandings, he confronted their hypocrisy. That is what led to such a vacuous demonstration of those rituals. It was void of a heart of worship. He was confronting the hypocrisy of those who lived in rebellion against God, yet they came to the place of worship with animals. Psalm 50 ends with a warning of judgment. The readers of Psalm 50 need to turn from their wickedness. The readers of Psalm 50 need to rightly worship God. The readers of Psalm 50 need to repent. They need to bring to God what's honoring to God. They need to delight in God and hope in God. Well, how appropriate that Psalm 50 is followed by Psalm 51. This is the response that we would want to have in light of the confronting voice of God heard in Psalm 50. David confesses his sin. We see that he is the author of the psalm. In the superscription, it's to the choir master reminding us that David's words were worthy of the reflection and corporate engagement of the people of Israel, that that covenant community needed to see that these words were not just true of David, but for sinners who come to God, how appropriate these words will be on our lips. The historical background, not given for every psalm, very few of them in fact, but occasionally a reference to a prior story that informs the setting. And we're told here it's a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. And that superscription connects us to an earlier passage in the history of Israel. David is king starting in around 1010 BC. And in 2 Samuel 11 and 12, David sins, and we can see the following truths of 2 Samuel 11 and 12. Bathsheba was not David's wife, yet he committed sexual sin with her. When Bathsheba became pregnant, David tried to cover up his sin because Bathsheba was married to a man named Uriah. When David's plan for covering it up failed, he made some military adjustments to ensure the death of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. Sin upon sin upon sin a prophet named Nathan confronted David and in 2 Samuel 12. Confronting David about David's sins and using a clever teaching technique of a parable where David was drawn in and then exposed as the wrongdoer. Psalm 51 is the result of that conversation. Psalm 51 is the fruit of that conviction by the Holy Spirit through the prophet to David. And he begins with a confession of sin in verses one to six. Psalm 51, one to six, a confession of sin, have mercy on me, oh God. Immediately you realize David believes himself to be in a situation where what he needs is mercy, what he deserves is judgment. David does not feel entitled. He does not look at this as mercy, something he can say, Lord, isn't it about time you give what you owe me? This is not an entitled spirit. David in this psalm is praying for God to have mercy according to God's steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. We know from the book of Exodus that God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. David believes what the Torah teaches about God. David believes that the character of God is indeed merciful and steadfast in love. If God were to judge sinners, there would be no wrongdoing found in God. If God were to show in his righteousness the perfect justice of his name against those who are iniquitous and rebellious, There's no wrong that God would commit in doing so. David is casting himself upon the mercy of God. And he is aware that if God acted according to his justice and judgment, David would be done for. The only hope David has is that God would act according to mercy and steadfast love, which are covenant terms. He needs mercy that will blot out his transgressions. So he's not only praying for mercy in some abstract sense, he is praying specifically that the effect of mercy would mean the forgiveness of his sins. That's what it means to blot out my transgressions. The imagery of blotting out, it could involve some kind of defilement on a garment that needs to be removed or expunged. To blot out could also call to mind a book of a record of sins, where you blot out something, a statement, a name, where you can blot something out and no longer see it as part of the record. It's something like this that's going on in David's mind. He believes that an accounting of his own heart is known perfectly by God. All of his transgressions. And what he needs is mercy that's greater than his sin. And he can't have mercy that just does like a halfway job of it. And he has many more sins that continue. He needs abundant mercy because he has an abundance of sin. He has great transgressions, and so nothing else will suffice but greater mercy than those great sins. One of my favorite quotes from a Puritan named Richard Sibbes is that there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us. That's our only hope. Our only hope is that in Jesus there's more mercy than the sins that we can reckon. And we've not even come to the depths of our depravity, our transgressions. He says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. So as part of this confession of sin, David is giving several prayers here. Have mercy on me. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me over and over again. Same idea underneath it all. The idea that he wants his sins not counted against him, and the only reason God would do that is out of divine mercy. It's not because God wouldn't take sin seriously. It's not because God would be found to be unrighteous. It's because in God's righteousness and covenant love, he can demonstrate mercy to sinners as they come to him in repentance. So he prays in verse two, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. It's as if sin has a staining effect. And there is a thorough washing that would need to take place. Our sin is like a stain upon our soul. And if you've ever had some kind of garment stain that you've tried to wash and unable to get it all out and you think, well, it mostly came out, but I can still see it. You know, this is what am I going to do with this garment now? Something may be on top of it. or perhaps it's not in an area where it would be easily visible, but that stain didn't get removed. When he's praying, wash me thoroughly, he is praying, Lord, deal with my sin and all of it. Leave none of my sin unaddressed. I need a thorough cleansing. Cleanse me from my sin. The only reasons David would pray these things is because he believes not only has he sinned, but that his sin deserves judgment. And that if God counts David's transgressions against him, that will mean David's undoing. So my transgressions blot them out. My iniquity, wash it. My sin, cleanse it. Why does David pray for this blotting out, washing thoroughly and cleansing? Because in verses three and four, he says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. David's prayer to God corresponds to what he comes to realize. And he realizes. I know I have transgressions and it's in my face. It's not like on the peripheral of my life somewhere where I might have to glance over to it to get attention to it. My sin is ever before me. David is saying my sin, my transgression is such that it is now preoccupying my sight. It is consuming my mind. It is ever in front of me. Anywhere I look, there it is, my sin. And against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Readers would be right to wonder, well, wait a second, doesn't he sin in his sexual sin against Bathsheba? What about the command you shall not murder in his facilitation of Uriah's death? Surely there is sinning against image bearers in David's life. Verse four is an exercise in hyperbole. Truly, David has sinned against others. But to say against you and you only is a way of saying I am focusing on the one against whom I have most offended, against whom I have come most deeply in my rebellion. It is against you, oh God, above all and beyond all, beyond all image bearers in this life, David has sinned against the Lord. So against you, this is David's focus, and that's why the language reads the way it does. He's done evil in the sight of God. David's not making excuses. He recognizes, I have sinned, and there was a pastor one time who said, David's predecessor, Saul, had plenty of sin. And if David had said, well, yes, I've sinned, Lord, but what about Saul, remember him? Instead of David saying, what about Saul? We get Psalm 51, where David says, I have said my transgressions are before me. It's against you, O Lord, and I have sinned and I have done evil in your sight. This means you never really get away with sin. Because the one for whom all things are made. Everything that is done is done in his sight. So if someone were to say, well, you think about David's cleverness and the plans he had and maybe the seclusion and the secrecy and the people who were in on it, and David might have been able to keep it to where nobody really got the word out. But see, if the evil is done in God's sight, then there's no such thing as secret sin. There's no such thing as that. It is done before the eyes of the Lord. So the question is, do you fear the opinion of man or do you fear above all the Lord who has made you, saved you, reconciles us in Christ to himself? Do you walk in the fear and reverence of God? David's act was irreverent. David's sins were the opposite of all toward God and trust in God. It was the flesh determining David's activities and sin upon sin to cover it up. So he says, not only have I done evil, it's with this result that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. I think this is David's way of saying, Lord, would you show me mercy? That's verse one. But in verse four, whatever you say, whatever judgment you give, God, you being God, will always be blameless. So if you were to judge me, Lord, if you were to bring consequences upon my life because of these sins, you are justified and you are blameless. And this is a very important affirmation from David because David has done what is wrong. He's done it ultimately against God. David deserves to be judged and God would be right to do it. He says you are justified. You've been treated unfairly in your life. We've lived long enough to recognize that someone's words or someone's actions, we've been on the receiving end of mistreatment, of unjust words, of blameworthy activity. But God can never be accused of that. He has never done what is unjustified. He's never spoken what is unjustified. He's never done what is blameworthy. His words are always justified. His judgment is always blameless. And David is humble before the Lord. He cries out for mercy, and he knows he deserves judgment. And if judgment were to be poured out on David, he says, you'd be so right to do it. David has enough sense in his mind about the holiness of God and about his own fallenness and depravity. He would never charge God rightly with being wrong in judging him. In fact, David's problem is a very early problem in his life. In verse five and six, his confession part of the psalm concludes by saying, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. I think David is saying, when you look into my heart, you didn't find what you would delight in. In fact, when I was brought forth, in my earliest days, he's reflecting on, in my conception, he says, I wanna think about iniquity and sin. In sin did my mother conceive me, brought forth in iniquity. There have been some interpreters in church history that have said maybe this is referencing the act of David's parents and that their intercourse together is about something that was sexually wrong and therefore the conception was sinful. I don't think that's the right read or interpretation of this. David was conceived by married parents. And when David is brought forth in iniquity and in sin is conceived, he's talking about the earliest part of his life. And you can't get earlier in David's life than his conception. All right, that's going all the way back to David's early life. And yet David is saying, what do I associate with my origins in the earliest moments of my life? I recognize a nature that is wrong. Iniquity, sin. He doesn't become a sinner some late period of his adulthood. Instead, he recognizes that my sinfulness is an early problem, and it's rooted in the distortion of my nature. Iniquity and sin from my earliest days. So if that's what's true inside David, what would God delight in? Well, God doesn't delight in the iniquity and the sin within us. God would rather find truth and faithfulness in our heart. He would rather have in our inward being truth, wisdom, goodness, submission, obedience. In verse 6, Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being. You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. David has been instructed. David has learned and internalized. He knows things about the scriptures. and God would delight in what would be going on in David's heart that would be true and God-honoring, that would be submissive and trusting and hopeful. So you have in verse five, behold this, and in verse six, behold this. Back-to-back verses, behold something. Behold, David says, my earliest days, how I'm rooted in sinfulness, a corrupted nature, I think we can say. In verse six, behold now this, what would you delight in? Something other than I've been practicing. Because truth in David's inward being and wisdom in the secret heart is not what David had been living out in the context of this song. He had been giving into his flesh. He had been following God dishonoring desire and then sin upon sin in response to that sinning. In verses five and six, this early problem, this confession of sin, this realization in David's humble estate is followed by a plea for cleansing in verses seven to 12. In verses seven to 12, David says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Now, how do we know that's a positive thing? A hyssop branch had an end to it that was like a spongy bush-like fabric, texture to it, that's better, and this plant could be used in ritual or sacrificial procedures and you can see it in Exodus. In Exodus 12, a hyssop branch sprinkled the blood on the doorposts and the lintel above the frame for the houses in Israel's dwelling in Egypt. And then we see after the Exodus, the Levitical priests would engage in various cleansing and washings and purifications in Numbers 19, for instance, where a hyssop branch was employed. So it was something that a representative did, and that later is especially associated with priestly activity. Consider, as one commentator pointed out, that in verse seven, David is pleading that God act as the representative and priest for him. that David is praying that you, O Lord, need to purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. The simile here. is about the purification and the cleanness and the brightness of snow. And David says, my sin has so defiled me, I cannot cleanse it myself. But I need you, oh Lord, to be as the priest of my life, the mediator that I need. I need you to do this work of cleansing. And they're used to the system of offerings in Israel where you could become outwardly unclean. And you could be outwardly unclean for a number of reasons, certain foods, and certain things and seasons of life that could render someone unclean for a period of time. And those ritual statuses were all symbolizing the deeper need for the human heart to be clean before God. When David is speaking here about clean, in verse seven, he's talking about his moral life. David realizes that the problem is not just ritual defilement, the problem is his heart, his heart problem. The cleanness that is needed, the washing that he's pleading for will lead to him being whiter than snow. It means that the effect of God's cleansing work on David, the pouring out of his mercy will have a purging effect. Let me hear joy and gladness, he says. Let the bones you've broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Verses 8 and 9, it looks as if David has been weighed down, even facing consequences for his sin. You see this in 2 Samuel 12 onward. When the confrontation with Nathan the prophet and David takes place, David experiences difficulties in his own life, hardships and suffering due to his sin. It's as if his bones have been broken. I think it's a metaphor to talk about the effect that sin has on us. The reason we want to burst any delusion that there's such a thing as secret sin and that people are getting away with sin is because we also want to know that sin affects the sinner. That pursuing what is rebellious against the Lord has a calcifying effect on our conscience and brings the fruit of folly and wickedness into the path of our lives. And David says, it's like my bones have been broken. I don't think they were actually broken. I think he's speaking metaphorically about how awful it has been that his life has been weighed down and crushed. Let me hear joy and gladness and let the bones you've broken rejoice. So even if there have been a breaking of bones, so to speak, he's hoping that those bones will be reset. He's hoping that those bones will be renewed and strengthened once more, and therefore the joy that he wants to hear is the joy from his own life. The gladness that he hopes is gonna emanate from and into the air, if you will, is gonna be from his own mouth. Let the bones you have broken rejoice. In order for this to happen, God needs to hide his face from David's sin. That's strong language, because in the Old Testament, for God to hide his face, it's a very negative thing most of the time it's used. The Israelites were warned by the prophets that they would cry out to God, but God would hide his face from them. It's a way of speaking of the removal of his blessing in favor. Instead, a meeting out of some kind of discipline and chastisement upon the people of God. But David doesn't say hide your face from me. It's very specific here. And what he says here would be a good thing. Hide your face from my sins. That means he doesn't want God to treat him according to his sins. He doesn't want God to count his sins against him, blot out all my iniquities. What does David need? He needs a renewed heart. So he calls on God as the creator of all things, who said, let there be a light. He says, create. Once more, will you, Lord, in verse 10 here, create. In me now, heavens, earth, you've done this, but in me now would you, would you let there be, would you create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me? And this is a confidence not only in the character and love of God, of his steadfast covenant faithfulness, but in the power of God as creator to do a work within David that is needed. But beyond David's ability, created me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit, a right spirit would be a disposition of life that trusts God, hopes in God, seeks to glorify God, obey God. David hasn't been operating with a right spirit in all things, has he? This psalm is the fruit of a spirit that has not been conducting itself in wisdom, but even in folly, has been living and choosing and lying and sinning. And he says, Lord, what I need is a clean heart. What I need is a right spirit. And you, O God, must do it. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. In verses 11 and 12, which complete David's plea for forgiveness and restoration, David wants God's presence and in one sense, this is not a denial of the omnipresence of God. David will never be somewhere God is not. To be cast away from the presence is language from an earthly perspective, because to draw near to the presence of God at the tabernacle is to approach God and to rejoice in His holiness, His reconciling grace, to know His blessing and favor, to experience the communal life of God with the people of God, and it's that that David has in mind. Don't exile me. I deserve it. I deserve to be cast away. So to cast me not away is to pray that you would draw me near. To cast me not away is a negative way of putting what we could say positively, Lord don't cast me away, bring me near. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. You see, King Saul knew what that was like. David knows what happened to Saul. If you read in 1 Samuel chapter 16, it says, and the Lord withdrew his spirit from King Saul. And that meant the demise of Saul, the judgment of Saul, the rejection of Saul. I don't think David is fearing that he's lost his salvation. I don't think we can lose our salvation. So when David says, take not your Holy Spirit from me, I think he has in mind the kind of thing historically that happened with Saul. David, as king, knows that his predecessor experienced the demise of that kingship and the disapproval of God and the rejection of God. The Lord withdrew his empowering presence and spirit from Saul. David says, Lord, I deserve that. Please do not do that. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. He wants restored to him in verse 12 the joy of his salvation. And I press the point here, let's distinguish. He doesn't say restore to me my salvation. He hasn't lost that. He says restore to me the joy of my salvation, the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit because to pursue sin affects our joy in God. the spiritual palate of our souls, so to speak, is burned and deadened and numbed by sin. You ever bite into a piece of pizza much sooner than you need it to, and you think, I can't taste anything after this? Or, you know, substitute any other hot food that you enjoy taking a bite into. And you think, all right, after this, the sensitivity has been damaged. And what David is saying is that the joy of his salvation has been compromised. David is the one who compromised it. David's delight in God is affected by sin. Yes, our sinning against God and against others affects our joy in God. How could it not? We're not trusting God, hoping in God, and turning to God in those moments. We're forsaking wisdom, pursuing folly, and down the path of folly is not lasting joy and peace. So when we find the taste buds of our souls deadened and numb to the things of God, consider in Psalm 51, that David must deal with his sin which has affected his joy in God. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. David needs to be upheld. And I think the willing spirit here is that which belongs to David. David has not had the kind of willing spirit he needs. He needs God to uphold him and his spirit to be characterized in a certain way. He needs a willing spirit, a desiring spirit. He needs to desire God. He needs to seek the Lord. And one of the ways we seek the Lord is repenting of sin. David's repenting of sin, which means he's turning to the Lord. You can't turn from sin and not turn to something else in its place. And David is turning from sin to the Lord. And you can't pursue sin and pursue the Lord at the same time. You must turn from the Lord to iniquity. David has done that. So David wants a willing spirit, the joy of salvation. He doesn't want to be exiled. He wants to be brought near. He wants to be upheld as the king of Israel. And in verses 13 to 17, He says, here's what I'm gonna do. This will be my response, oh Lord, show mercy to me. I'm ready to do the following things. He says, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. He is praying for mercy from God and pledging that he will tell others of what God has done. He says, I'll teach transgressors your ways. Now, if David were judged, he could teach the judgment of the Lord and the righteousness of the Lord for sure. It's not like he'd have nothing to say. He could tell transgressors of the warning of judgment upon sin. When he says, then I will teach transgressors your ways, he's talking about the kinds of ways that are like mercy and pardon of sin. That's the kind of thing that if David were to experience, he would now proclaim loudly. He says, I'll teach them because others are sinning. You see, one of the reasons David needs to repent is also because others need to repent. And part of the way the Lord will use David in their lives is by guiding them toward wisdom. David needs to repent because he has sinned against the Lord and David needs to turn to the Lord because others need to as well. That his sin affects others and so will his testimony. The testimony of the mercy of God in his life, he's going to tell people and he says, and here's what will happen after that. Sinners are going to return to you. They will hear of your great mercy. They will hear of your welcoming grace and they will be brought near. So I'll teach transgressors your ways. I will testify of what you have done and sinners will respond. Now, there might be sinners who think to themselves, well, I'm so far into this. And for so long, this has characterized my life. There's a pastor named Garrett Kell in Virginia who says, before a sin, Satan tempts you to believe repentance will be easy. After a sin, Satan tempts you to believe repentance is impossible. That's the cleverness of the evil one. I read that quote again. Before a sin, Satan tempts you to believe repentance will be easy. In our ears, it might sound like, well, it's just this or that, or I can stop whenever I want, or I can control the damage, and I can, and you can imagine yourself as the manager of your rebellion against God. And so the pastor, Garrett Kell says, Satan tempts you to believe repentance will be easy. But then after a sin, Satan tempts you to believe repentance is impossible. Oh, look at what I've done. Why would God receive me? David is saying, having experienced your mercy, I will tell others of your mercy, and they will come to you. They will turn their sin, and they will flee to you as their refuge. David says in verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Blood guiltiness, that's not about his sexual sin. You read about that in Second Samuel 11. Blood guiltiness is a reference to the shedding of blood. How did that factor into David's life? He facilitated the death of Uriah. Violating multiple commandments. Here you have David needing forgiveness, not only for his sexual indiscretion, but also from the plot against Uriah that had succeeded. David has sinned grievously. Can grievous, heinous sinners come before God? That's David's only hope that they can. It's David's only hope, it's our only hope. David is not ignorant of what he has done. He recognizes the gravity of his sin. Can heinous, gravidous, outrageous sinners, can they come before God? There's no hope for David if it's not true. So he says, deliver me. He says, my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. I think one of the fruits of that promise is Psalm 51, a song, the Psalm of David. David promises to sing, and one of the things we have from that that shows us he's keeping his word is we have Psalm 51. where David has celebrated the mercy of God. Oh Lord, open my lips, my mouth will declare your praise. David is eager for his heart to come humbly before God in his sin, to receive the mercy of God, to respond with praise and worship. He wants his lips to praise and glorify God. That's what David needs. David's heart needs right worship. True and right worship is a mighty remedy against the folly of sin and the delusions of our transgressions. David needs to worship God with his heart. He needs to know of God, praise God for all that God is and has done. He says in verses 16 and 17, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I'd give it. Doesn't that make you think of Psalm 50? They brought all of these offerings, the various bulls and goats, the oxen, the lamb. They bring these offerings in Psalm 50. And God is concerned about these offerings and rejects them because the heart of the worshipper is absent. So David's, he's hitting the bullseye here, isn't he, in verse 16. What's God really after? God's not really after a particular kind of animal. He's after the sinner. He wants the worshipper. He wants the worshipper reconciled to him. So he says, your delight is not in sacrifice. I give that. I want to give you what you want, oh Lord. So if that were a sacrifice, I'd bring it. You won't be pleased with a burnt offering. What's God want? Verse 17, perhaps the most striking part of the Psalm so far. The sacrifices of God, which means the sacrifices which God wants, are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. An Old Testament commentator pointed something out this week I'd never thought of in relation to this language that I loved and I want to share with you. He says this is the only damaged offering an Israelite was allowed to bring. Because if you read Leviticus and you read Numbers and you read Deuteronomy, the ritual offerings they were to bring were to be unblemished. Can't have things wrong with these offerings. If they're damaged offerings, they are unfit offerings. So surprise, as this writer says, the only damaged offering an Israelite was allowed to bring was this. Every animal had to be perfect, but the heart of the sinner needed to be broken and contrite, and it's the language of being crushed, but crushed by what? A heart saddened by sin, a heart ready to turn from iniquity, a heart recognizing the guilt that we possess and the judgment we deserve. It is a heart weighed down by the reality of that, and we come before God with our weighed down hearts, the burden of our iniquity, and we come that he might take our burden away. But we don't need to fool ourselves that we have no burden of sin. We don't need to act as if there is no shame and iniquity. Instead, we need to see, as David does, that the pleasing sacrifices the Lord requires are actually a broken sacrifice inwardly, a spirit and a heart that is crushed by the reality of our shame and sin. We're not trying to say something that's not true about our hearts. We're trying to agree with what God says is true about our hearts. And then we come to God and He receives the penitent. He receives those turning from sin. The spirit and the heart that God does not despise represents the whole of the person. The spirit and the heart representing in the inner life here all that we are. So we come to God with a certain kind of heart. And David recognizes at the end of the psalm in verses 18 and 19 with his prayer for some even wider restoration. that his sin doesn't only affect him and that the restoration of David's heart and the renewal of his spirit and the strengthening of God's mercy in David will also mean other things for those around him. So he says in verses 18 and 19, do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burn offerings and whole burn offerings that bulls will be offered on your altar. Talking there about those offerings in verse 19, but the doing good and building up the walls must represent in some way God's goodness in renewing the spirits of the people. Because in Psalm 50, which we must not ignore, we come to Psalm 51, having heard of the judgment of God on empty ritual offerings. So when he says in verse 19 here, you'll delight then in right sacrifices and in burnt offerings, what's happened? Animals are still the same. Well, what's happened? Building up of the walls? Are those just literal walls in Zion? If God is doing good to Zion, is it just a construction project on the walls? And just ritual animals? Of course it's not. It's pointing more deeply to a work of God within the people. David doesn't only need the work. God needs to renew David's heart. A work needs to go in the people's heart. And as David turns from sin, he wants to teach other transgressors the ways of God. Psalm 51 was important to the Apostle Paul. He writes in the book of Romans our need for a savior. In the opening chapters of Romans, he makes a strong case that both Israelite and Gentile come before God with no merit of their own, no works that they could ever present to God. It would be like bringing empty animal sacrifices. So bringing ourselves to the Lord, we see in Romans chapter three that God's faithfulness and God's justice coincide in the work of Jesus on the cross. He recognizes, Paul does, in Romans chapter three, that there were people who were rejecting Christ, even among the Israelites, who were refusing to submit to Jesus as their Messiah and son of David. So Paul says in Romans 3 verse 3, what if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? He says, by no means. Let God be true, though every one were a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you're judged. It borrows from Psalm 51 that when God is to judge sinners, Paul knows in Romans 3 what the Psalms teach. And Psalm 51 is teaching us something true about the righteousness of God. That the judgment of God is always right. And our only hope is the mercy of God. That God extends to sinners in Christ. We're not even trusting our repentance. We're trusting Jesus. We're not even examining our hearts with an obsessive navel-gazing thinking, have I repented of and have I perfectly come to know all of my many sins? We can have many a sleepless night making our repentance the basis of our trust. We should trust that the cross of Jesus is the basis and foundation for the righteousness of God counted to us by faith, so that as we turn from our repentance, turn from our repentance, so that we turn from our wickedness in repentance, we turn even as imperfect disciples. Even as those who may feel we have weak faith, but we have a strong Savior. And it's our mighty Savior and not the perfection of our repentance, it's the perfection of Jesus. We can trust that even though we may not perfectly know all of our sins, that Christ has known all of our sins. Christ didn't take sins to the cross, only those which we have come to realize. Christ perfectly knows all of our sins, even those beyond the purview of our way of life. And he has taken all of our sins to the cross. And I love the story of the leper coming to Jesus in Mark chapter one. The leper is unclean, and he has been exiled, and he has lived with his defilement. And the leper knows of Jesus in the region, and he comes up to Jesus with boldness and desperation. He knows his condition, and he knows there's only one person who can do something about it. So he comes up to Jesus, this leper does, and he says, if you are willing, You can make me clean. I think that's Psalm 51. I think Psalm 51, David is saying to the Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And if we know that that's what the Psalm is about, we can come to the Lord and we can pray with that kind of boldness and humility, that kind of desperation. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Let's pray.