Psalm 51: 1-6….The background to this Psalm is given in great detail!

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, 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.

Comment: In the original text written at the beginning of this Psalm is recorded the conditions which led to its being composed. ‘To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.‘

Many if not most people know the story as recorded in the Bible. In the second book of Samuel, we read of King David’s adulterous act and the planned murder of the husband of the wife whom he ‘used’. God faced the king with the horror of his action in His sight using the prophet Nathan as His mouthpiece. David, definitely one of God’s people, is shown up as wicked in spite of God’s mercy and steadfast love being showered on him (as it is on all of us!) David acknowledges the depth of his wickedness and, unless we are going to charge him with the most gross hypocricy, he displays deep repentance and absolute openness of his evil. It is and was true that he had sinned against Bathsheba and her husband (in stealing his wife and murder[ng him) and the army leaders (causing his company to suffer defeat and to allow one of their finest soldiers to unnecessarily die). I don’t feel as if he excuses himself for doing this to them, but he recognizes his first duty is to his God! In extreme moral agony, David cried out ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight‘. Personally I don’t think that he was accusing his parents of having been sinful in conceiving him. He is owning his own failure for his whole life from the beginning through to all his present actions. It is certain that we don’t understand the absolute goodness of God!

Prayer: Protect me from hypocrisy and help me to be open and honest to You, My Father God.