SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/28/2012 7:38:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
51
Message
of the verses: It was on December
10, 2011 that we began to look at the book of Psalms and in yesterdays SD we
finished the 50th Psalm, which makes us one third the way through
the book of Psalms. In today’s SD we
will look at another of the more famous psalms that is Psalm 51. The reason that most people have heard of
this psalm is because it is one of two psalms that David wrote after his sin
with Bathsheba and her husband. Psalm 32
is the other psalm that was written by David after this sin. We will look at the introduction to this
psalm today.
“The
occasion of this psalm was the sin of David with Bathsheba, signified by
"going in to her"; an euphemism for "lying with her"; which
sin was a very aggravated one, she being another man’s wife, and the wife of a
servant and soldier of his, who was at the same time exposing his life for his
king and country’s good; and David besides had many wives, and was also king of
Israel, and should have set a better example to his subjects; and it was
followed with other sins, as the murder of Uriah, and the death of several
others; with scandal to religion, and with security and impenitence in him for
a long time, until Nathan the prophet was sent to him of God, to awaken him to
a sense of his sin; which he immediately acknowledged, and showed true
repentance for it: upon which, either while Nathan was present, or after he was
gone, he penned this psalm; that it might remain on record, as a testification
of his repentance, and for the instruction of such as should fall into sin, how
to behave, where to apply, and for their comfort. The history of all this may
be seen in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the second book of Samuel.” (John Gill)
“Though David penned this psalm upon
a very particular occasion, yet, it is of as general use as any of David’s
psalms; it is the most eminent of the penitential psalms, and most expressive
of the cares and desires of a repenting sinner. It is a pity indeed that in our
devout addresses to God we should have anything else to do than to praise God,
for that is the work of heaven; but we make other work for ourselves by our own
sins and follies: we must come to the throne of grace in the posture of
penitents, to confess our sins and sue for the grace of God; and, if therein we
would take with us words, we can nowhere find any more apposite than in this
psalm, which is the record of David’s repentance for his sin in the matter of
Uriah, which was the greatest blemish upon his character: all the rest of his
faults were nothing to this; it is said of him (#1Ki 15:5): ‘because David did what was right in the
sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him
all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.’” (Matthew Henry)
“Therefore not written for private
meditation only, but for the public service of song. Suitable for the loneliness of individual
penitence, this matchless Psalm is equally well adapted for an assembly of the
poor in spirit. A Psalm of David: It is a marvel, but nevertheless a fact, that
writers have been found to deny David’s authorship of this Psalm, but their
objections are frivolous, the Psalm is David like all over. It would be far easier to imitate Milton,
Shakespeare, or Tennyson, than David. His style is altogether sui generis, and
it is as easily distinguished as the touch of Rafaelle or the colouring of
Rubens. When Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to
Bathsheba. When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and made
him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his
psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his
spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment
of sighs and tears. The great sin of David is not to be excused, but it is well
to remember that his case has an exceptional collection of specialties in it.
He was a man of very strong passions, a soldier, and an Oriental monarch having
despotic power; no other king of his time would have felt any compunction for
having acted as he did, and hence there were not around him those restraints of
custom and association which, when broken through, render the offence the more
monstrous. He never hints at any form of extenuation, nor do we mention these
facts in order to apologize for his sin, which was detestable to the last
degree; but for the warning of others, that they reflect that the
licentiousness in themselves at this day might have even a graver guilt in it
than in the erring King of Israel. When we remember his sin, let us dwell most
upon his penitence, and upon the long series of chastisements which rendered
the after part of his life such a mournful history.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“This is the classic passage in the
OT on man’s repentance and God’s forgiveness of sin. Along with Ps. 32, it was written by David
after his affair with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, her husband (2Sa. 11;
12). It is one of 7 poems called
penitential psalm (6, 32, 38, and 51,102,130,143). To David’s credit, he recognized fully how
horrendous his sin was against God, blamed no one but himself, and begged for
divine forgiveness.” (John MacArthur
Study Bible)
“During his lifetime, King David did
what had pleased the Lord, ‘except in the case of Uriah the Hittite’ (1Kings
15:5, NASB). This is the fourth of the
Penitential Psalm (see 6) and is David’s prayer of confession after Nathan the
prophet confronted him with his sins (see 32:2; 2Sam. 11-12). This is also the first of fifteen consecutive
psalms in Book II attributed to David.
In his prayer, David expressed three major requests.” (Warren Wiersbe)
I think that it best to just make
some opening comments on Psalm 51 at this time due to time. I have just finished watching a sermon on the
internet by John MacArthur using the text of Psalm 51 that he gave before a
communion service. This would surely be
an great text to use because we see in the classic text on the communion
serves, 1Cor. 11, that the apostle Paul tells his readers that some of them in
their congregation had actually died because of the way that they had treated
the communion service. Before we partake
in the elements of the communion service we are to ask the Holy Spirit to
search our hearts of any unconfessed sin in order to confess it before the Lord
so that we do not eat and drink unworthily, and that is why some of the
Corinthians died.
It is good to understand who we are
and how much all of us needs the salvation that only can come through Jesus
Christ, for Paul says that there is none righteous, no not one, there is no one
who seeks after God. David writes in
Psalm 51 that he was conceived in sin, and this does not mean that his parents
were not married, rather as soon as he was conceived he was a sinner. I had a friend where I use to work who
whenever he did something wrong and I would ask him about it he would always
say “I was born wrong.” He may have been
joking but what he was saying was true for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.
David was the King of Israel and
David was a man after God’s own heart, but David was a sinner and he had
troubles with women, something most men will confess that they have. Being a king and having a the power that went
along with that he could have thrown Nathan out of his house whenever Nathan
spoke to him about his sin, but because David was a man after God’s own heart
he would not do that because for a year he had been sick because of this sin
and now he knew that the right thing to do was to confess his sin to the Lord
and be free from the sin.
I find it interesting that the
passage in 1Kings 15:5 that Bathsheba is not mentioned, but only her husband
Uriah. I think that this shows that
neither Bathsheba nor David were innocent, but Uriah was innocent of all wrong
in this sinful situation. Uriah was such
a faithful man that David wrote to Joab, the leader of his army, the orders
that would kill Uriah.
I am going to look at some of the
Spiritual Diaries from 2Samuel 11 and twelve and post them after I post this SD
to the blog so that the background to this Psalm can be seen.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Sometimes being a man causes troubles and one of
the ways that it causes troubles is that most men think that they can solve all
of life’s problems on their own without help.
In the sermon that I watched on Psalm 51 by John MacArthur he mentioned
that David knew that it was God who had to do the work in his heart to forgive
his sin and I suppose that I never thought of it just like that. Being a man I think that by confessing my
sins to God that I have done all that I can do and leave it at that, but I
think that one thing that I may have been missing is letting God be God and do
His work in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust the Lord to clean me thoroughly
from my sins.
2. Trust the Holy Spirit to show me
my unconfessed sins so that I may confess them to the Lord and have fellowship
with Him so that He can use me for His honor and glory.
3. Continue to learn contentment in
all the circumstances of life.
2/28/2012
9:38:44 AM
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