Psalm 51 • Coming to God when we fail

open your Bibles please to the Book of Psalms and we are in the 51st chapter Psalm 51 this is probably one of the better-known Psalms because of its content it is the prayer that David prayed after he was confronted with his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite and actually planning the death of Uriah in battle so as to cover up his sin and and you know I thought that in order for us to really get a good sense of this prayer it would really be good for us to kind of get the backstory so keep your finger right where it is okay and turn over to second Samuel for just a minute I'm gonna get a little bit of the back story with you so second samuel chapter 11 second samuel chapter 11 turn over there please I just I want to read this because I think it will help give us the emphasis that we need to understand David's prayer second samuel chapter 11 beginning at verse 1 it says in the spring of the year the time when Kings go out to battle David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they ravaged the ammonites and besieged Rabbah but David remained at Jerusalem were not told why it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a beauty the and the woman was very beautiful and David sent and inquired about the woman and once said is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite so David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David I am pregnant so David sent word to Joab send me Uriah the Hittite and Joab sent Uriah to David when Uriah came to him David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going then David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet and Uriah went out of the Kings house and there followed him a present from the king but Uriah slept at the door of the Kings house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house when they told David Uriah did not go down to his house David said to Uriah have you not come from a journey why did you not go down to your house Uriah said to David the Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife as you live and as my as your soul lives I will not do this thing then David said to Uriah remain here today also and tomorrow I will send you back so Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next and David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of the Lord but he did not go down to his house in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah in the letter he wrote set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and died and as job was besieging the city he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men and the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell Uriah the Hittite also died then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting and he instructed the messenger when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king if the Kings anger rises and if he says to you why did you go so near the city to fight did you not know that they would shoot from the wall who killed Abimelech the son of guru Bichette did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Phoebus why do you go so near the wall then you shall say your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also so the messenger went and came and told David all that Joe Abbot's sent him to tell the messenger said to David the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field but he drove them back to the entrance of the gate then the archer shot at your servants from the wall some of the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also David said to the messenger thus shall you say to Joab do not let this matter displease you for the sword devours now one and now another strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead she lamented over her husband and when the morning was over David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord keep reading with me and the Lord sent Nathan to David he came to him and said to him there were two men in a certain city the one rich and the other poor the rich man had very many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him now there came a traveller to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guests who had come to him but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives the man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore that lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity Nathan said to David you are the man thus says the Lord the God of Israel I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you out of the hand Sall and I gave you your masters house and your masters wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah and if this were too little I would add to you as much more why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the ammonites now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife thus says the Lord behold I will raise up evil against you out of your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the son David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David the Lord also has put away your sin you shall not die nevertheless because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord the child who is born to you shall die then Nathan went to his house and the Lord afflicted the child that you riah's wife bore to David and he became sick turn over with me now please to Psalm 51 I want to read through this Psalm we'll go through the whole thing and then we'll pray and see what the Lord has for us verse 1 have mercy on me O God according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you and 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 behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold you delight in truth in the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me 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 then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness Oh Lord opened my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God you will not despise do good to Zion in your good pleasure build up the walls of Jerusalem then will you delight in right sacrifices in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings then Bulls will be offered on your altar let's pray Heavenly Father as we have looked at the background of David's prayer here in Psalm 51 and as we've read this Psalm we open now our hearts to You Father God that you would speak to us through your Holy Spirit and that you administer wisdom and understanding from this passage that we would gain a heart of understanding we pray that you would fill us with insight and that you would help us to apply your word to our lives we thank you Father for being here we thank you for your willingness to speak to us and to bring grace and insight in Jesus name we pray amen I want to go through David's prayer here because I think it's significant I think the whole thing is significant and I think that it speaks very plainly and very clearly of so many things related to our personal walk with Jesus Christ particularly when we have found ourselves in a place of sin and when we have walked in disobedience and when we have recognized how bad it has been David begins by saying have mercy on me O God according to your steadfast love and he even goes on to say in that same verse according to your abundant or overflowing mercy he prays and says please blot out my transgressions and I find it very important significant and interesting that David would begin calling upon the Lord for mercy because we need to remind ourselves once in a while what mercy means we hear about it a lot we read it about a lot in the Bible but do we really remember what mercy is and do we remember how God responds in mercy let me start with the definition on the screen of mercy and you'll remember that it is compassion or in this case forgiveness shown towards someone who is within one's power to punish or harm in other words mercy is when you know you're guilty and yet you cry out to the Lord so you're asking for God to look beyond your guilt and to respond with compassion and forgiveness alright so whenever you cry out to God for mercy you know that you deserve to be punished you have recognized your sin and you're calling out and asking the Lord to be gracious nonetheless and that's what David is doing in the very first verse of this prayer you know and this is interesting because I am assuming that this prayer was prayed after his conversation with Nathan the Prophet and Nathan had communicated to him God has taken away your sin you're not gonna die you know but he did go on to say but there will be consequences there will be issues in fact great evil will rise up even from within your own family right and so David is calling out crying aloud for the mercy of the Lord and he was convinced that mercy was something that God would give otherwise why would he cry for it and that's something that we as Christians many times forget I think David understood that God's heart is a heart of mercy we forget that when we've sinned we've become completely self condemned we usually just kind of throw ourselves into sin at that time we kind of figure well well you know whatever oh yeah you know I might as well just just go for it now instead of crying out to God for mercy it's because we don't really understand that the heart of the Lord is what it is let me show you a passage from Micah chapter 7 that is very important to under that our understanding because Micah writes who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance you do not stay angry forever and I want you to really notice this last statement but you delight to show mercy Micah had it he understood it and this is what David knew and that's why he called out to the Lord and plead for mercy because he knew God is a God of mercy and he delights to show it and it's time that we as Christians learn that too and I'm not saying we should learn it as a license to sin or to make us easy about our sin in any way shape or form but so that the enemy doesn't win the enemy of our souls knows and understands just how to push our buttons when we have failed miserably and rather than call upon the mercy of God the enemy knows to bring disappointment to bring discouragement and if he can do those things he's got you and he can paralyze you from any kind of movement whatsoever toward the Lord and yet when you understand fundamentally that our God is God of mercy and he delights to show it it changes your approach to the Lord even in those times when you failed it doesn't make your fail failure any less painful or any less difficult to deal with but it makes it easy to come to God because you know that he is a God of mercy and that he delights to show mercy as as Micah said who is it God who is it God like you who pardons sin you know it's incredible David's prayer continues look at verse 2 he says wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin this is the part of David's prayer and it's not the only time that he does it but he begins to call upon the Lord for cleansing and he's literally asking God to make him clean David wasn't asking for physical cleaning obviously he wasn't asking for ceremonial cleaning he was asking for spiritual moral cleansing before the Lord and the reason he was doing that is because he was acutely aware of how filthy he was and sometimes you know we become aware of just how filthy we can be and sometimes we can even shock ourselves with what we're capable of doing you know and then there are times when the Lord allows us to see it not just our sin he allows us to see the depth of our sin he allows us to see just how far we've gone how far we've slipped away how far we've fallen he and and and he allows us to to understand the gravity of our actions and it's at a time like that when we begin to cry out to the Lord and say God cleanse me wash me I need I need to be cleansed you know this whole idea of knowing the depth of your sin is called basically the revelation of sin and it's it's something that God gives if we're willing to receive it a revelation of our sin I say if you're willing to receive it because not everybody wants to because it's nothing fun to look at it's like looking in the mirror and seeing something very ugly very corrupted very tragic and I I guarantee you it will cause you to cry out to the Lord and I find that when I'm talking with a person and they have been given a revelation of their sin I find that they're easy to talk to in the sense that they're not kicking and fighting but we talk about the Lord we talk about the cross we talk about what he did for us on the cross and they're just all too willing to embrace it and open their hearts to it and they're very anxious to learn more about God's forgiveness but you know when I'm talking to people who have not had a revelation of sin there's not a whole lot I can say you know because if I try to convict them of their sin then I'm stepping into the role of the Holy Spirit you know only God can convict people of sin right I never forget number of years ago I had a couple in my office well it's a long time ago back when I had an office here but we were we were talking and they came in for some counseling they wanted some you know what what I was led to believe was marriage counseling and we got into the conversation and and it wasn't very long before I learned that they weren't in fact married and were living together and they wanted help with their relationship which is kind of like you know driving on four flat tires and wanting and wondering why your car isn't running very well you know and and so we were I was I was I was hoping as we carried on our conversation that they were going to say to me it's a particular point yeah I know that we shouldn't be living together I know that's wrong and but we really don't know what to do about it and then I can start to talk to him about you know where they're at we can talk about confession you know repentance and getting it right but they never brought it up in fact I finally got to the point where I got so tired of wait I finally asked I said well is there any area where you guys think that maybe you're not really walking with the Lord like you should and they kind of looked at each other hmm no no I think we're good I mean at that point like I say I don't I don't have a great deal now to pass along because there has not been a revelation of sin right so what am I gonna do throw the law Adam thou shalt not you know sort of the Loch Hills so you know we talked you know and and I basically told them but I kind of went on to say well I can't really help you because you've already shot yourselves in the feet and then you're wondering why you can't walk together you can't you can't you know can't do that but it was it was a very awkward and clumsy conversation from that point forward so this whole idea of a revelation of sin is so incredibly important because that is the work that is done by the holy spirit Jesus told us that is the work that he comes to do let me show you John 16:8 on the screen here it says and when the Holy Spirit comes this is Jesus speaking he will convict the world concerning sin and concerning and righteousness and judgment and that is the work that the Holy Spirit had done to David and that is why David cried out to the Lord and said please Lord make me clean I am filthy and I need your cleansing look what he goes on to say in verse 3 he says for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me do you see that's more of just this same expression that I have had a revelation of sin he says I know my transgressions and by the way the the word transgressions you guys know what that means that means he committed those sins with full knowledge that's what the word transgression means I knew it I knew it was wrong I did it anyway I I knew better and I did it aren't you disappointed sometimes when in your own life you do things that you know you shouldn't God has told you warn you and his word and then you go right out and do that same dumb thing and it's and and this is exactly what David is doing as he comes to the Lord he says I know my transgressions I know where I transgressed I know where the line was and I know that I walked over it I know it in fact my sin he says is ever before me it was a willful act on my part it was a willful act of rebellion now David's next statement in verse 4 might seem a little confusing but he says 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 David basically says God have sinned against you and you only and that's a really interesting statement in light of the fact that we read the story and you can to think to yourself no wait a minute first of all David you're the king of Israel Israel is God's chosen people and you're the king and the king was far more than just a political ruler at that time this man was chosen by God to lead the people anointed by Samuel himself and and he was called to be a spiritual leader every bit as much and a moral leader as much as as a political leader military leader and so forth and so on and he can't you kind of begin to think to yourself wait a minute you've betrayed you betrayed all Israel David how in the world can you say against you and you only have I sinned well then you kind of think to yourself what about Uriah good grief not only did David take the man's wife and have his way with her but then when he couldn't when he wasn't successful in covering up his sin by liquor ngey riah up and sending him back home hoping that because of you know amount of alcohol he had in his blood system he'd he'd throw off all resistance and finally go home and be with his wife so that he could cover up the pregnancy when that didn't work he sent the man to war with his own death sentence in his hand he carried the letter to Joab that said put Uriah at the place where the fighting is the worst and then pull back so that he dies man I kind of think David I think you sinned against Uriah - and what about Bathsheba you know a woman in those days if she got called by the king there's no holding back he's the king you know you we talk about the Supreme Court he was the Supreme Court at least politically speaking in Israel and if David picked a woman and of course this is the only time it happened but you know as far as this sort of a situation another man's wife but you know when the King says I want her his servants go and get her whether they have any moral qualms about it or not he's the king you'd do what the king wants and Bathsheba you know she responded to the king she was impregnated by the king and you kind of think to yourself you know this woman didn't have much choice in the situation surely David sinned against Bathsheba so we come back to this comment and we say well what is that all about when David says to the Lord it is against you and you only that I have sinned what David is doing here and please understand he is not minimizing what he has done against Israel he is not minimizing his sins against Uriah the Hittite and he is not minimizing the advantage he took over Bathsheba he is simply acknowledging that God is the ultimate judge of all and that at the end of all things it is God and God only he will stand before related to this situation he will not stand Uriah the Hittite he will not stand before all of Israel he will not stand before Bathsheba he will stand before God and whatever he may have done or not done against others the final judgment is God's and he knew it he knew that his actions were a betrayal of his relationship with God and all that God had done in his life to put him in his position as king and one of the things I love about David when he's finally confronted with his sin you'll notice he makes no excuses here related to this he doesn't call it a weakness he doesn't say it was an accident he offers no lame excuses about what happened he doesn't offer any alibis or he doesn't blame others he calls it what it is my sin is ever before me not my mistake not my indiscretion my sin my sin is ever before me I want you to notice what he says in verse 5 it's very important he says behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me you know if somebody said that today and might not use that exact language but if somebody said that very same thing you would wonder about his parentage and you would wonder if perhaps he was a he or she was a child of a of an adulterous affair or an extramarital affair or something like that but that's not what David is saying here and he by the way he's not being hard on himself this isn't David resorting to self abasement or or something like that neither is he saying in this verse that his mother was a sinful woman he is declaring here in very clear terms the reality of the Adamic sin nature and the fact that it was transmitted to him at birth and so he is making a theological statement here actually he is theologically defining for you I something that the Apostle Paul takes time many many years later to clarify for you and I in the book of Romans and that is the fact that we have received sin through the transmission of our first father go ahead and put it up there Romans 5:12 it says sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned and that is what David is saying when he speaks of his own birth I was born into sin doesn't mean my mom didn't love me doesn't mean my mom and dad weren't married doesn't mean they didn't want me it means that like all of the descendants of Adam I was born a sinner I was born with a bent and a gravitational pull toward rebellion and David isn't throwing that out as an excuse to get him off the hook he understands that he is completely culpable and he's acknowledging it before God look at verse 6 behold he says you delight in truth had David been living in truth he he'd been living for most of Bathsheba's pregnancy denying this thing and covering it up and yet now he cries out to the Lord understanding how he'd been living that deceptive lifestyle he says behold you delight in truth in the inward being and then look at this and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart you know David acknowledges here that it's the God it's it's God who teaches wisdom even though sometimes we cast that wisdom aside don't we you know when when I commit an area of sin it's not out of ignorance it's not because God hasn't taught me it's not because God hasn't shown me I can't look to the Lord and say well I didn't know that I know full well I've read through the Bible I understand you know God teaches wisdom through his word and that wisdom comes to us and we hear it and we respond and our heart rejoices in it until we have an opportunity to sin and temptation enters into my and then suddenly I cast it aside you know how dumb is that to take the wisdom of God and cast it aside and yet that's what David is basically saying here you know you teach wisdom I know that but boy I sure didn't apply it here I sure cast it away and just did my own thing so what's his response here's his prayer verse 7 he says purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow do you know what David is really saying here when he says purge me with hyssop he's saying I am a spiritual leper that's essentially what he's saying because I don't know if you remember but in the Book of Leviticus were told that they were to take hyssop and use it for the cleansing of a leper and this is what the high priest was supposed to go through let me show you this actually just very quickly from the Book of Leviticus it says the priest shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the Scarlet yarn and the hyssop there it is and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease and so David is making reference to this cleansing of the leper you know with hyssop and he says to me purge her to the Lord purge me with hyssop I need a onion a purging I need a cleansing David is expressing his spiritual condition verse 8 let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you've broken rejoice if you have a different Bible translation other than the one I'm reading here your Bible may say and let the bones that you have crushed rejoice and that's it's a good translation - but David is crying out let me hear joy again you know when you when you've gone through your you're going through that that period of mourning mourning of your sin there's that point where it's like God just let me hear joy again let me hear something positive you know I have just been in this time of darkness and morning for so long verse 9 says hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities and then verse 10 is particularly important as he says create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and this is important for a couple of different reasons first of all david has been asking to be cleansed as you noticed here right along is he asking God to cleanse his heart no he's asking God to cleanse him from his sin but not his heart his heart he needs a new one and so he says here create in me a clean heart he didn't say cleanse my heart he says I need a new heart I need a brand new heart what's kind of interesting is that this word create is the very same word used in Genesis chapter 1 when we read in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and we know how God created the heavens and the earth he created him brand new he didn't he didn't take something and and and use ingredients and then create the heavens on the earth he called them forth with his word right he created them out of nothing David is using this very same Greek word create in me bara is the Hebrew word created me a clean heart create in me this brand new heart that I need my old heart and I think David understood this and I think he's painfully aware of it now the heart of man what are we told in the scripture Jeremiah it's deceitfully wicked right it's beyond cure right it's beyond cure we're told in Jeremiah so what am I gonna do when I realize that my heart is evil ask God to cleanse it wash it up put a little perfume on it make it look nice you know maybe we'll do a piercing here and there and it'll you know a few danglies that's all we need no he says I need a new heart I need a brand new heart create in me a clean heart it's very important that we read that there and understand it he also God for a right spirit did you catch that created me a clean heart Oh God and renew a right spirit within me instead of right spirit some translations say a steadfast spirit and that's actually a good translation too because the the Hebrew word means to be firm so he's saying created me a firm or a steadfast you know spirit and what he's asking for is a strong Constitution to stand against the temptations of sin you know we we pray the same thing we might use slightly different words you know and we're asking God to keep us from falling repeatedly into an area of sin lord help me to stand against this onslaught of temptation David simply said it this way renew a steadfast spirit within me that I can look at temptation in the face and say no I'm not going there verse 11 cast me not away from your presence no doubt David is thinking about King Saul right now because he watched King Saul go through a time of disobedience that ended up making him crazy and the Lord did cast Saul away in a sense from his presence but look what David goes on to say and take not your Holy Spirit from me and that also happened to Saul God removed his holy spirit from Saul and you'll remember he replaced his holy spirit with a tormenting demonic spirit then only music usually that David was playing could calm him from he would get so agitated and upset David's probably remembering how Saul slowly went out of his mind over that period of time and he's crying out to the Lord and there's a lot of things in this prayer that you and I can take from a personal standpoint but this one statement that David makes take not your Holy Spirit this is one area where David's prayer does not translate into New Testament understanding and here's why as Christians you see we receive the Holy Spirit differently than David did you got to remember some of these people David did not have the Holy Spirit living in him like you and I do the indwelling presence of God's Spirit did not happen until resurrection evening when Jesus breathed on the disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit now let's not say the Holy Spirit wasn't active in their lives obviously he was obviously David is afraid of the Spirit being removed but the Holy Spirit was not living in men at that time he was living with and upon in fact those words are even used and they're very important and very specific prepositions related to the Holy Spirit's relationship to people God's Holy Spirit was with them in the Old Testament God's Holy Spirit would come upon them in the Old Testament and he would empower them for service or he would empower them to prophesy the Spirit of the Lord is upon me an Old Testament prophet would say and he would begin to speak the word of the Lord he didn't ever say the Spirit of the Lord is within me that's unique to the New Testament you say well why didn't the Holy Spirit come in to live inside of people in the Old Testament because the class of the vessel had not been cleansed Jesus had to die on the cross to cleanse the vessel by faith so that the Spirit could take up residence within and here's the difference between you and David the Holy Spirit that is given to you and I when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior is not removed due to sin and that's good news for you and I God's Holy Spirit does not get up and move when you and I sin otherwise he would be moving in and I'm moving out all the time right in fact I don't know that he would ever move in our sin does not cause the Holy Spirit to vacate our okay and the reason is is because the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from sin there is a perpetual forgiveness that completely refreshes itself always in our lives even after we sin it's an ongoing work of the Spirit work of faith through the the work that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross and that is that is the good news for you and I so so we don't we don't pray this to the Lord don't take your Holy Spirit from me he's not going to do that related to our sin he says in verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit notice he says God I said i willfully sinned against you I want to have a willing spirit Lord do this work in me restore to me joy and uphold me in other words strengthen me with a willing spirit I want to be willing to do your will and to walk in righteousness he says then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you isn't that an interesting thing for somebody to say who is just earlier in this very same prayer confessed his own transgression he's already talking about teaching other transgressors and you kind of think yourself whoa don't get ahead of yourself here bud you're still in a period of mourning you're still crying out to the Lord no no no David is already looking beyond this situation to see how the Lord is going to use it in his life to help other people and this is what you and I miss so often we forget that the things that we've been through give us a unique voice to speak into the hearts of other people who are going through similar sort of situations I'm not saying you have to go through exactly what somebody else is going through in order to relate to them you don't sin is sin is sin but sometimes to be able to know what it is to have fallen so desperately to the temptations of sin and to become so dirtied in your own heart and in the eyes of the Lord to have cried out to the Lord and then to have been risk David is already looking forward to that time when I can take this situation and use it for good I do not want this to be the end of this story I do not want to be the story that says David lived David sinned David cried out to God and that's the end I want the end to be and David turned around and strengthened those who are going through that same sort of agony and strengthened their hearts and their minds and their spirits and said God is a forgiving God our merciful God and you can turn to him and he will forgive and we got to remember that you guys you know when people come to me and they and and they're they're always usually when somebody's talking about their sin they're doing it in a very kind of a shamed sort of a way you know well pastor Paul you know boy I tell you know some of the stuff I went through you know and I'm just thinking to myself man you got something to say you got something to say to people because see you're on the other side of it now you're walking in the grace mercy and forgiveness of the Lord do you know how incredible that is and now you've got something to say you've got a piece to give and you can look to that person and say there's hope there's hope in Jesus Christ there's hope in my god there's hope in the mercy of God you know verse 14 deliver me from blood-guiltiness oh man he says o God O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness and this is one of those times again in this Psalm where the the enormity of his sin just rises to the to the top again notice he doesn't just say forgive me of my sin he says forgive me from blood-guiltiness do you know what that means that means I should be the one dying what David is saying here is I and this is the truth you got to understand this he committed a capital crime okay and I'm not just talking about murder yeah sure adultery to capital crimes both of them he deserved to die and he knew it and so he's crying out Lord deliver me from blood-guiltiness Wow Oh Lord he says in verse 15 open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice sir I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering you know what David is saying here you guys get it there's no burnt offering for a capital offense God never said okay now here's the deal if you commit murder grab two Lambs a goat a ram and a bull No the murderer will die if you commit adultery here's what I want you to do you're gonna have to take half of your flock no there's no sacrifice and that's what David is saying here he's saying oh you know Lord you're not pleased it's not a sacrifice you're looking for or I'd give it I mean believe me David had plenty of animals at his discretion if there was a sacrifice that was going to make this thing all better wonderful I'd give it but he says that's not what you want what does the Lord want verse 17 very important that you and I see this here the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart he says that o God you will not despise and that's what God's looking for you know that's why that's why the Lord instituted the sacrificial system in the first place that when they did sin providing it was not a capital offense that they would go through the sacrificial ceremonial system and they would see all the blood you know we talk about the sacrificial system the sacrificial we don't see it happening we don't we don't see the the animal dying we don't see them draining the blood we don't see them splattering the blood on the side of the altar we don't smell the smoke you know rising we don't see it all happening we don't see the priests blood-red hands from holding the blood and holding the animal and and all the the the guts and the stuff that go along with it it was it was gruesome the sacrificial system was gruesome I'm glad that I was not born a Jewish priest back then I just got to tell you I'm not big on that kind of stuff you know but it was meant to elicit a sense of what David is talking about here this is a big deal this sin stuff this is a big deal it takes a death it takes blood and guts and and pain and gore that's exactly what Jesus did for us right on the cross and what God is looking for when you and I sin is that we would understand the gravity of what we've done to such a point that our hearts are broken before God and that's what he's looking for real brokenness and real Brooke because the person who is truly broken I'm telling you is ready for a change when real brokenness takes place the person who's been committing that sin is ready for a change no matter what I only want to change and then David ends this song by saying in verse 18 do good to Zion and your good pleasure build up the walls of Jerusalem then will you delight in right sacrifices in burnt offerings and hold burnt offerings and then bulls will be offered on your altar and you kind of think yourself that's kind of an interesting couple of last verses why does he just end his prayer by praying for a blessing upon Zion and Jerusalem and building up the walls and stuff like that it's like that doesn't seem to fit oh yes it does you got to remember who David is he's the king and David understands and and at a time like this is very aware that there is a connection between his personal holiness and God's blessing upon the nation of Israel he's the king he represents the people in a very unique sort of a way and what he is basically saying here is character does count and I know it and I know what I've done I've cast a shadow on all of Israel through my sin I have cast a shadow on all of Israel and what David is doing is he's responding in the understanding of what it is to be a leader and the very profound effect that our leading can have on other people and every leader needs to understand that whether you're a leader in business whether you're a leader in your home as a mother and father whether you are a leader in the church the body of Christ wherever you may be a leader to understand this is an important thing in our lives because we have to remember there's I can't compartmentalize my sin cause my sin you know doesn't affect my family it's just my sin oh yes it does affect your family you bet it affects them big-time and David understood that it affected the whole nation so he ends this prayer praying interceding for the nation Lord may your blessing be upon this nation that I have cast a shadow over with my sin may your blessing may your good pleasure build up our walls may you delight in us doing things right for once so a pretty powerful prayer huh I mean pretty amazing prayer a prayer of great sorrow great humility great brokenness we're gonna stop there let's pray father in heaven we thank you so much for the power of your word Lord it moves our hearts and it reveals so much that we need to understand about our relationship with you Lord we are reminded in very clear way that you are a holy God were it not for the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on the cross we would all be lost because Lord as David said we were born into this mess and we have confirmed it by our actions and what we deserve is not what we get for we have found mercy and forgiveness from the God that we serve the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who delights to show mercy praise the Lord thank you for your incredible goodness fill our hearts with it Jesus teach us your ways that we may walk in your truth in Jesus powerful and mighty name we pray amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 53,332

Rating: 4.8672199 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Repentance, Failure, Sin

Id: 2Wl7VEXajNU

Length: 52min 45sec (3165 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 24 2019