Psalm 51 — Psalms 51

0:00 Let's commit our time to the Lord. Father, come before you now. We thank you for this time that we have together to open your word. We ask that you would open our hearts to hear the things that you would have to say, And that you would speak through me. And that I might stay out of the way, and that others might hear what's on your heart today.

0:25 We ask that you bless this time. In Christ's name, amen. As we continue our look at the book of Psalms, today I'm going to be spending some time on Psalm 51. Psalm 51 being the Psalm that was written by King David after the issue with Bathsheba. It is, we can think of it as a sinner's guide to repentance, if you may.

1:01 It's very interesting to see a man like David, who God said was a man after his own heart, and a man who messed up so badly, not that we're any different, but you see a man who is esteemed so highly and who fell so far. And then what we see in Psalm 51 is his process of confession, repentance, and restoration. So, it's something that we can study today and look at and learn how is the believer supposed to respond to our sin when we sin? Because we still sin daily, whether in thought, word, or deed as James tells us, and sin is a regular struggle that we have, and once a sin has been committed and we are convicted of that sin, this can be an example, a very convicting example of what's involved in the process. It's not just a, God I'm sorry I messed up, please forgive me.

2:07 You know, what we have here is something very detailed and something very expansive about a process, and it's something that's very convicting and something we can learn a lot about and strive to apply in our own lives when we sin. This is a very tremendous passage concerning this confession and forgiveness, and it's like I said, it's a mold. Something that, that's something we can look at and try to follow. Bringing back the believer to full communion after a sin that separates us, and hinders the Holy Spirit, and hinders our service to God, following this mold can help us in that process. There's a couple different ways we can break this down.

3:06 This Psalm has 19 verses, and so in the forty minutes I have that gives me two minutes per verse, which is pretty... It's not very much time. When I started preparing for this, came up with a whole page of notes on the first verse and decided that that wasn't going to work. I wanted to try to get through the whole thing. All that just to say a lot more could be said about these 19 verses and I started getting a lot more and I wanted to make sure that we covered the entire Psalm and at least had an idea of what needs to be applied here.

3:39 So the first 12 verses of this Psalm contain David's confession and his plea for pardon. The last seven verses are his anticipatory gratitude and the way in which David is resolving to display his gratitude after experiencing God's forgiveness and salvation. So if you want to break it into two sections, that's what you have. But to break it down a little bit more, we see at the beginning David's very godly sorrow for his sin. Before he even mentions the sin, first thing he does is ask God for mercy.

4:22 He hasn't even mentioned the sin yet, but he knows he he knows the expanse of it. Okay? So in verses one through six, we see the the sorrow for his sin and and the fact that the sin being judged by God. David's verbal confession, that's verses one through six. You get into verses seven through 10, and that's talking about the forgiveness that's experienced and the cleansing through the blood.

4:48 Verses eleven and twelve get into the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit comes into play and the spirit filled joy and power that believers have. In verse 13 we see this restoration to God's favor and how it applies to service. The restoration of our service. Sin separating us from God and hindering our work and how after confession and forgiveness we get that restoration. Verses 14 through 17 are a rejoicing.

5:20 Now after we've been through the confession and forgiveness bit, we get to the joy that we can experience and that David experiences after knowing he's forgiven, and so his worship and rejoicing in salvation. And we see a willingness to testify to others about the grace of God. After, you know, he's experienced the goodness of God here in God's mercy and God's grace and in restoring him, we see David wanting to share that same grace and mercy with others. I'm trying going electronic for the first time today. We'll see how this goes.

6:01 So, let's read through the 19 verses. I always like to read the entire passage before we get into it just to kind of give us a very general sense and read through the whole thing before we delve into it. Psalm 51, I'm reading from the New American Standard. Be gracious to me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. According to the greatness of thy compassion blot out my transgressions.

6:54 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

7:08 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from thy presence and do not take thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and sustain me with the willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will be converted to thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.

7:31 Then my tongue will joyfully sing of thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare thy praise, for thou dost not delight in sacrifice otherwise I would give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God or a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. By thy favor do good to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem, then thou wilt delight in righteous sacrifices and burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

8:00 Then young bulls will be offered on thine altar. Alright, let's turn back and let's start looking at verse one here. Like I said, I'm going to try to get through this quickly because I do... It is important, I think, to get through the whole Psalm and see all the steps that David goes through. So, like I said, there's a lot more that we can get out of this, but I'm trying to get through it today.

8:22 So, first one. As I mentioned, the very first item is an appeal. Before the sin has been mentioned, David recognizes that pardon for sin is only accomplished through an act of mercy. And so, David, and when I'm talking about David in here, we can also insert our own names because this is just as applicable to us now even the even though we are under grace already and not under the old covenant. And all of this still applies.

8:54 And it's very fascinating that, and as we'll see a little bit later, that David at this point already recognizes the insufficiencies of the old covenant, and that the method of sacrifices don't actually take away the sin. David has seen that. David has been made wise by the Lord. The Lord has allowed him to see the picture that the old covenant is. So, this pardon for sin that's only accomplished through an act of mercy.

9:27 Mercy is to where David flees. He flees into the mercy of God knowing that that's the only place that the sin would be pardoned. The sinner needs mercy, not justice. He recognized what was due to him as we recognize today what's due to us from our sin, but we need God's mercy and not his justice. Something of note here in the first verse, Be gracious to me, O God.

10:01 There are very few Psalms of David where he uses the phrase, O God. Very often he uses, My God. So, I found this an interesting point where maybe he's using Oh God partly to illustrate the separation. He's recognizing God as his God, but he feels maybe that he can't claim my God anymore. That fellowship's been broken.

10:34 That his relationship with God was lost and that he's been alienated. Maybe that's something we can get from it. If you look at the other Psalms you see my God all the time. O God by contrast is not used very often. According to the greatness of thy compassion blot out my transgressions.

10:55 So, he's admitting to the guilt here and he's also acknowledging perhaps the record of his sins. So, the sin he's committed, there's a record of that somewhere. You know, God has a record of the sins and he's, you know, perhaps this is a Psalm so there is literary meaning to this and being a Psalm there are some liberties that can be taken, but, we have some some analogies and and, so he's acknowledging the the record of sins and guilt and pleading for them to be written over. Blot out my transgressions. He didn't say throw it away.

11:33 He didn't say tear it up. He said blot them out. And a way we can look at that in reference to the New Testament and the New Covenant is that our sins are blotted out, they're written over through the blood of Jesus Christ. That it's, as was mentioned during the breaking of bread this morning, that it's the blood of Jesus and that our sins need to be covered. And there's that record of sin and David is pleading that his transgressions be blotted out.

12:11 We get to verse two, he says, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. So, now he's transitioning from the record of his sin to how the sin affects his person. And he must be washed. It has to be complete. It has to be thorough.

12:29 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Some other translations have have other words there, but it might be more than once. It might need washing more than once. That... What we can maybe get from this is that sin stains deeply, and that David felt that his sin really affected him deeply, and it went more than just on the surface, that it affected his body, soul, his heart.

12:57 You know, this was a big deal. Sin is a big deal to God and the separation how it inhibits the spirit is a really big deal. He recognized that the ceremonial cleansing wasn't enough. Because he committed a sin. Okay, there's a list of, in Leviticus we see the law and all the processes that were required for various things.

13:25 Know, ceremonial cleansing, for certain sins, they were just to be stoned. But David recognizes that it's... That's not enough. Ceremonial's not enough. God is needed.

13:34 God's mercy is needed. We need something better to cleanse us from sin than some ceremonial process. And no, we're not under the law anymore, and so we aren't offering sacrifices, but if we had some sort of ceremonial confession process, this written out prayer that we pray every time, that doesn't quite cut it. We need God to do the washing. There's nothing we can do to accomplish that.

14:05 And he uses this terminology a little bit later, and I'll mention it again, but when wash is used here, there's a couple of Hebrew words for washing and cleansing. There's one type that's referring to something like skin, where that's a very, you can only clean skin on the surface. So there's a Hebrew word that's used for cleaning something on the surface and there's another word that's used for cleaning, a thorough cleansing, for something like clothes. Something where you can clean inside, outside, and through. And that's what kind of words are used here.

15:06 It was a mess up, but he committed adultery first and then murder. But it's not just that, it's all his sins from before that. And we deal with the same thing. We have our sins from today and we have our sins from yesterday. You know, we have sins throughout our life.

15:26 Sin is a part of our life. It's a struggle that every Christian, it's a struggle that we all have. David David owns his sin. He recognizes this. I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

15:41 He owns it. It's something interesting to think about is that sin is our only natural wealth. If we think about all the gifts we receive from God, everything that has been given to us by God, what do we possess on our own? Sin. That's the only thing that we actually have.

16:05 And, are steeped in it and we are born into it. If we think about confession of the sin can be an acknowledgement. Okay? So, if we were to just confess to God our sin, okay, we're acknowledging it, but David's going further here. He says that it's always before him, so that's conviction.

16:28 That's, you know, he messed up really big. Okay, just like we do, but it wasn't just, oh yeah, I did do that, didn't I? It was, you know, this was in front of him all the time. Once Nathan pointed this out and he was convicted, you know David really struggled here. And this was always at the front of his mind and that he did this.

16:54 So this was ever before him And it was with him continually. That's that's how he viewed it. And and it bothers him and affects him in his... And and is always present on his mind. And so something we can think about here is if if sin doesn't bother us very much and if it's not always on the front of our mind when it's been committed and when we're convicted of it, if it's not on the front of our mind like that, how can we give it to God?

17:27 If it doesn't bother us and it's not really a big deal to us, how are we supposed to... How is this supposed to go back to God? How are we supposed to give it to God and work through this process? Verse four, Against thee, thee only, I have sinned and done what is evil in thy sight so that thou art justified when thou dost speak and blameless when thou dost judge. So we've got a couple things here that we could spend a lot more time on.

18:03 Obviously, he sinned against God, but he also sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah. And so, what he's not saying here is that Uriah didn't count. But, some things I came across in my study and some statements that I found were that the virus of sin lies in opposition to God. And so the Psalmist sense of sin toward others rather tended to increase the force of this feeling of sin against God. So, yes he sinned against human beings, but his sense of sin towards them, you know, this sin was this heinous towards them, how was it towards God?

18:55 And so, it was, know, maybe it's that he's feeling that this was so heinous that in comparison, you know, really he's getting at God was the one he sinned against. And all of this sin, it centered, it culminated, it came to a climax at the foot of the Lord, and obviously sinning against our fellow men is a crime, but mainly in doing so we violate and are filled with a sense of wrong about what the Lord has done. And that David's confession was perhaps swallowed up in a broken hearted acknowledgement of the offense against the Lord himself. David says, The only have I sinned and done what is evil in thy sight. David feels that this sin was committed while God himself was looking on.

20:26 God is omnipresent. And that's a very humbling thought when we are convicted of our sin to realize if we care to realize that God was watching the whole time and that He knows what was going on and He's aware of it. That's a very humbling sobering thought that it's not, you know, Oh God, I realized I sinned, but you know, you didn't realize I did it. You know, we do this sometimes to our family or friends where, you know, maybe we sinned against them in our mind or something and if we make that confession, you know, hey, I was thinking this about you, you know, you didn't realize I did this, but I did do this and I'm sorry. You know, sins are not that way with God.

21:10 He's always there, he's always watching. And, David's recognizing that. And the second part of that verse, that thou art justified when thou dost speak and blameless when thou dost judge. He could... David could not present any argument against the divine justice if it proceeded at once to condemn him and punish him for his crime.

21:39 And so David's own confession and the judge's witness of the whole transaction places that transgression beyond all question or doubt. So the iniquity was indisputably committed. David's recognizing, you know, and he's speaking of God as the judge here. There is... There's no debate.

22:03 There's nothing to be said about it. And it was unquestionably a sin. And therefore, the course of justice was incontrovertible as far as David was concerned. David recognizes again, here's the severity of his sin and here's the severity of the consequences. Verse five, Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.

22:32 I don't think we should take from this that David is blaming his parents for what he committed, okay? His parents weren't the medium for transmitting his elements of moral evil, okay? But it's more likely that he's referring back, not that he's sin now, but he's going back and saying he was steeped in sin. He was born in sin. And that his very nature is fallen.

23:05 And that's what we all were. We all were the same thing. And like I said, sin being our only natural wealth, that's the only thing that we actually possess that God did not give us, okay? We are naturally at enmity with God. And that's what trying to get here that he was born in sin.

23:29 In sin his mother conceived him. And so he's... David is is sinking lower. He's he's pulling himself even lower. The water is not just dirty in the pool, but the river and from the source, that's dirty.

23:42 So he he hasn't just muddied up the pool, but but the whole source from the very very beginning, it's dirty. Verse six. Behold, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part thou wilt make me no wisdom. So, something maybe we can get from this is that God desires not only outward holiness, but inward purity. That shouldn't be a concept that's new to us, okay?

24:13 Holiness is not an action, it's a direction. Holiness is not just how we appear before men. Holiness, I'm gonna paraphrase here, think something I heard at some point years ago. Holiness was what we do when we're by ourselves. And that's a really rough paraphrase, but maybe you get the idea that holiness is spirituality is not what we do necessarily just in front of other people, but it's what we do when we're alone in our thought life, in our actions.

24:59 Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being and in the hidden part, thou wilt make me no wisdom. So, it's not just the pretense of purity but the heart, the mind, the soul, and the reality, sincerity, true holiness, the fidelity of the heart. This is what God desires. This is what David's getting at. He recognizes what's important to God.

25:23 That it's not just, you know, I'll behave like this when everyone else is looking. This is a real inward. Holiness comes from within. It's not a set of deeds that we do that that make us holy. It's it's what comes from within and he will get into this a little bit later.

25:47 Where are we? And in the hidden part, thou wilt make me no wisdom. So here David feels that God is teaching him. He's recognizing that God is the one that teaches him about David's nature, David's inner being. We need to be taught by the Spirit.

26:06 We need wisdom that only the Spirit can impart about ourselves, about our own sin. There's things that only things that we can know that only God can reveal to us. God has to show us the mirror because we can't see on our own everything that's inside. And David's recognizing here also God teaching him about himself. Verse seven, we get to an analogy here.

27:04 We can see that in Leviticus 14. You don't have to turn there, but you could read about it if you like. This purification process. And so, recognizing a ceremonial process here. I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

27:25 So David here is showing faith in the divine cleansing power. Not that no ceremonial washing is sufficient. He needs God to do it. He needs the divine cleansing power. As foul as I am, David's saying, You will cleanse me.

27:49 David has that faith. He knows that as heinous as his sin is, that he has just spent six verses describing, as heinous as that is, he has the faith that God can cleanse him. No sin is too big to be forgiven. And here again the word that he has here, this wash me, this cleansing, again this Hebrew word is the one that's a total cleansing. The one that they use when they're washing clothes.

28:18 It's not a wiping off of something that's on the skin. This is a thorough cleansing. This is complete Inside, outside, all the way through. Total. Okay.

28:29 Verse eight. Maybe this is another reference possibly to the leper. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. For the leper, part of that purification process, the ear was to be touched with the blood of trespass along with the thumb and the toe of the right side.

28:54 We can see that in Leviticus. That was to show that your faculties were restored and ready for service. Maybe this is a reference to that, but David is saying here, make me to hear joy and gladness. So perhaps David's ears might be sanctified by the hearing of joy and gladness. Which his unsanctified heart, which prior to his confession and forgiveness, prior to that his unsanctified heart could not receive.

29:35 So, after being forgiven and cleansed, now his ears can now receive and hear the joy and gladness. This reference to bones being broken, It's a painful process for any of us who have broken bones. It's a very painful long process. And he's saying here that the bones which thou hast broken, let them rejoice in their healing process. Verse nine, Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

30:15 So he's repeating the prayer here from verse one. He said, According to the greatness of thy compassion, blot out my transgressions. Now he says, Blot out all my iniquities or transgressions. So he's adding a word here. He's making it a little bit more significant.

30:36 In verse three David said that his sins were always before him. He needs that he needs the Lord to put them away from his sight and put them away from David's sight. David has his sins ever before him. He needs God to remove them. There's a Latin saying, that says, The sin from which man turns not, God looks to it.

31:06 And if he looked to it, God, assuredly he will punish it. Verse 10. Let's keep going. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Again, David recognizes the source and the need for inner cleansing.

31:31 Sin begins in the mind and pollutes, and it pollutes what's coming out. We had what Jesus said that it's not from what goes in a man that makes him unclean, it's what comes out. So, David again recognizes the source. Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit. We need God to work in us a clean mind.

31:56 He uses the word create here, and we see this also in the New Testament about the new man. We don't need something to be fixed. This isn't something that can be fixed. We don't need, you know, we don't need to try to cleanse the old self. We don't need to try to cleanse the old heart.

32:21 We need to create something new. This is beyond repairable. That's in Ephesians four twenty four, and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. It's putting on something new, something that's been created. This isn't just fixing something that's old.

32:50 It's beyond repair. You can't do anything about it. God has to create something new in its place. If the fountain is clean, the stream that comes from it is clean. Recognizing the source and how we need God to do it.

33:10 That we can't do this ourselves. He pleased with God to create in me a new heart. Give me a clean heart. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Verse 11, Do not cast me away from thy presence and do not take thy holy spirit from me.

33:49 This sin, it separates. It breaks the fellowship. We would be cast aside, thrown out. We are unfit for the kingdom because of our sin. And something we need to be careful about here is that, of course, the new covenant in the church age, God will not take the Holy Spirit away.

34:14 That was something that could be experienced. Saul experienced it. If we look at one Samuel 16, you don't have to turn there again, I'll probably misquote it. First Samuel 16 and verse 14, Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. So that was something very real at that time.

34:42 But under the new covenant, when we are under grace, we know we have been told that the Holy Spirit will not be taken away. Nothing will separate us from the love of God. We can look at John fourteen sixteen, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, the Holy Spirit, that He may be with you forever. Also we have Ephesians four thirty, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. We were sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.

35:20 Sealed. So, in this present, you know, under the law of grace, we don't have to fear that the Holy Spirit will be taken away. However, we can still experience, as I've mentioned before, this separation and hindrance of the Spirit. Paul talks about that as well, that our sin hinders the Spirit's work, and that's a very real thing. That's a real thing that we need to be afraid of Now, not that he's going take the spirit away, but that the spirit won't be able to do its work in our lives.

35:58 Verse 12, restore to me the joy of thy salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. David had lost his song. Not his soul, he lost his song. He didn't lose his salvation, but he lost the joy of it. And he's crying for this restoration.

36:18 It wasn't anything David could do. He needed God to do it. He needed the Spirit. The Spirit is what provides our strength to follow God. So no, the Spirit's not going to get taken away from us now, but the hindrance of the Spirit without the Spirit providing strength, it's more difficult for us to follow God because we can't do it on our own.

36:41 That's why the Holy Spirit's been given to us. We aren't enough. We aren't strong enough. We aren't capable enough on our own. We can think about as with little children that are learning to walk and we allow them to fall.

36:58 It's okay, falling is not a bad thing, but when they fall and then they or they fall, they stumble, they hurt themselves, and what do they want to do? They want to be picked up. They know that they can't, they need help, and that's what we need to do. That's the picture of what we need to do. God lets us fall, It's okay.

37:20 It's a part of the process, but we have to recognize that we can't sustain ourselves on our own. We need the Holy Spirit. That's why the sin, which separates us from the Spirit, is such a serious thing. David no longer has any confidence in himself. Verse 13, Then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners will be converted to thee.

37:43 It's a lot harder to teach something if you haven't actually experienced it yourself. Yeah, we can read all sorts of things and have a sort of head knowledge about a topic or a subject, but without having experienced it, it's a lot harder to teach it. And and and David has this desire to impart to others and reveal to others the grace and mercy that he's been shown. I have to move faster. We have three minutes.

38:39 He had been the means of death of Uriah, the Hittite, a faithful and attached follower, and he now confesses that fact. Besides, his sin of adultery was a capital offense, and he puts himself down as one worthy to die the death. Honest penitents do not fetch a compass and confess their sins in an eloquent peripherisis, I can't say that word. Periphesis. But they come to the point, call a spade a spade, and make a clean breast of it all.

39:09 What other course is rational in dealing with the omniscient? The next part, O God, Thou God of my salvation. He had not ventured to come so near before. It had been, O God, up till now, but here he cries, Thou God of my salvation. Faith grows by the exercise of prayer.

39:29 He confesses sin more plainly in this verse than before, and yet he deals with God more confidently. Growing upward and downward at the same time are perfectly consistent. None but the king can remit the death penalty. It is therefore a joy that God is king and that he is the author and finisher of our salvation. And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

39:56 One would rather have expected him to say, I will sing of thy mercy. But David can see the divine way of justification, that righteousness of God which Paul afterwards spoke of, by which the ungodly are justified, and he vows to sing, and to sing lustily and that righteous way of mercy. After all, it is the righteousness of divine mercy which is its greatest wonder. Note how David would preach in the last verse, and now here he would sing. We can never do too much for the Lord to whom we owe more than all.

40:32 If we could be preacher, doorkeeper, pew opener, foot washer, and all in one, all would be too little to show forth all our gratitude. A great sinner pardoned makes a great singer. Sin has a loud voice and so should our thankfulness have. We shall not sing our own praises if we be saved, but our theme will be the Lord of our righteousness in whose merits we stand righteously accepted. I wish I had time to read that again, but I don't.

41:03 Let's keep going. Verse 15, O Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare thy praise. Again, sin inhibits that God... Sorry, David is asking God that God would direct his tongue by the spirit to make to make him, David, fit for his God's praises. David so is fearing himself at this point and has no confidence in himself at this point that he commits even his speech to divine care.

41:38 He wants God to fill his mouth with praises. In verses sixteen and seventeen, we get into some of the old covenant and references to that. For thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God or a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

42:04 So David again, he sees past the symbolic ritual of the old covenant. It's not our actions. It's not about our actions. It's not about what we do. And I spoke of this a little earlier.

42:20 Our heart towards God is what should determine the holiness in our lives. It's not our actions that make us holy, and this is things that we've heard before. It's tricky to get our minds around and I admit I don't always fully get it and I'm able to fully apply it, but the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. It's not about what we try to do. Do we come to church on a Sunday morning because we feel indebted to and we feel that, well, I better go to church this morning or else.

43:03 You know that's not why we should be doing it. We're doing it in obedience. Should be doing it out of the outpouring of what's in our heart. Leading a holy life should be should be something natural. It's stuff that it's what comes from within.

43:20 Actions that come from within. Not saying, well I better do this that way I can show or be more holy. It needs to come from within rather than the actions. We don't we can't perform any actions that make ourselves any better. It's not services so that we look better in God's sight.

44:08 You have to crush it. And our hearts are the same way. God can't... He can't use it until it's been crushed, until we get to that point where we're completely broken and then he can extract and then he can work with it. He can't work with it in its whole hard state.

44:27 It needs to be broken. Metal has to be purified. Metal has to get broken down. Iron is broken down to make certain alloys. Know, you have to put it under fire first.

44:38 It has to be melted down. Our hearts are the same way. To be truly used, we can't have a shred or a strand of pride remaining. We have to get to this point, and this is where David is now, that we have no confidence in ourselves to carry out the demands that he makes. Verse eighteen and nineteen are a little bit different and don't seem to quite follow what's been going on depending on how you look at it.

45:07 There are some interpreters or some people who say that these last two verses were added after the Babylonian captivity. There's not really any good ground on which to argue that point. I don't believe that's the case, but you might come across that in study. Neither the Jerusalem Walls or the buildings of Zion which were the palace and the temple, those hadn't been built yet, obviously. Those were not built during David's lifetime.

45:45 And so we know that David had contemplated a place for the temple. You see that in second Samuel. They weren't completed during his reign and were only done under the reign of Solomon. What we see in verse eighteen and nineteen then, by thy favor do good to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem, then thou will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering. So perhaps, the prayer in 18 might have a particular reference to the completion of the buildings, of the temple, and building of the walls around Jerusalem.

46:25 Perhaps David's fears suggest to him that his crimes might prevent the building of the temple, which God had promised would be erected. I don't know. That's speculation on my part. The king also does not, David does not forget to ask for mercy for the people as well as himself. So, that neither his sins or their sins would prevent the building and flourishing of the temple and Jerusalem.

46:55 That's the take I have on those last few verses. I welcome any other interpretations of those, but that's a possibility that I thought of. So, wrapping up, we're seven minutes past here. So, there's a lot of conviction in this Psalm and a lot of ways that we can take this Psalm and try to apply it in our own lives. As we sin on a daily basis, as we go through this confession and forgiveness process, thinking about you know, David saw how extensive this process really is.

47:45 We see in that one verse, as long as we confess that He's faithful. Okay, Is it that quick and easy or do we need to be taking a more serious route with that? That's what I was convicted of when I was studying for this is that maybe I need to take a step back and think a little bit more about you know, the the weight of my sin and the effect that it has. And, you know, how serious it is even no matter how small it is. Even though maybe I haven't committed adultery or murder, it doesn't matter.

48:18 It's the same thing. It should be the same process. So, true repentance, and to summarize the points of this psalm, true repentance is marked by confession and is plea for God's mercy, and a worshipful response to God's steadfast love and abundant mercy in our lives. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this time that we've had to open your word and examine, this Psalm of David and seeing into David's heart and and how he dealt with sin in his life.

48:59 And we just ask that you would help us to apply these things, that you would speak to us and teach us what we need to do and how to deal with sin in our lives. And we ask that you would bless us on our way home. In your son's name, amen.