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Commentary on Psalms 51 verses 7–13
I. See here what David prays for. Many excellent petitions he here puts up, to which if we do but add, "for Christ's sake," they are as evangelical as any other.
1.He prays that God would cleanse him from his sins and the defilement he had contracted by them (Psa 51:7): "Purge me with hyssop; that is, pardon my sins, and let me know that they are pardoned, that I may be restored to those privileges which by sin I have forfeited and lost." The expression here alludes to a ceremonial distinction, that of cleansing the leper, or those that were unclean by the touch of a body by sprinkling water, or blood, or both upon them with a bunch of hyssop, by which they were, at length, discharged from the restraints they were laid under by their pollution. "Lord, let me be as well assured of my restoration to thy favour, and to the privilege of communion with thee, as they were thereby assured of their re-admission to their former privileges." But it is founded upon gospel-grace: Purge me with hyssop, that is, with the blood of Christ applied to my soul by a lively faith, as water of purification was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop. It is the blood of Christ (which is therefore called the blood of sprinkling, Heb 12:24), that purges the conscience from dead works, from that guilt of sin and dread of God which shut us out of communion with him, as the touch of a dead body, under the law, shut a man out from the courts of God's house. If this blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, cleanse us from our sin, then we shall be clean indeed, Heb 10:2. If we be washed in this fountain opened, we shall be whiter than snow, not only acquitted but accepted; so those are that are justified. Isa 1:18, Though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
2.He prays that, his sins being pardoned, he might have the comfort of that pardon. He asks not to be comforted till first he is cleansed; but if sin, the bitter root of sorrow, be taken away, he can pray in faith, "Make me to hear joy and gladness (Psa 51:8), that is, let me have a well-grounded peace, of thy creating, thy speaking, so that the bones which thou hast broken by convictions and threatenings may rejoice, may not only be set again, and eased from the pain, but may be sensibly comforted, and, as the prophet speaks, may flourish as a herb." Note, (1.) The pain of a heart truly broken for sin may well be compared to that of a broken bone; and it is the same Spirit who as a Spirit of bondage smites and wounds and as a Spirit of adoption heals and binds up. (2.) The comfort and joy that arise from a sealed pardon to a penitent sinner are as refreshing as perfect ease from the most exquisite pain. (3.) It is God's work, not only to speak this joy and gladness, but to make us hear it and take the comfort of it. He earnestly desires that God would lift up the light of his countenance upon him, and so put gladness into his heart, that he would not only be reconciled to him, but, which is a further act of grace, let him know that he was so.
3.He prays for a complete and effectual pardon. This is that which he is most earnest for as the foundation of his comfort (Psa 51:9): "Hide thy face from my sins, that is, be not provoked by them to deal with me as I deserve; they are ever before me, let them be cast behind thy back. Blot out all my iniquities out of the book of thy account; blot them out, as a cloud is blotted out and dispelled by the beams of the sun," Isa 44:22.
4.He prays for sanctifying grace; and this every true penitent is as earnest for as for pardon and peace, Psa 51:10. He does not pray, "Lord, preserve me my reputation," as Saul, I have sinned, yet honour me before this people. No; his great concern is to get his corrupt nature changed: the sin he had been guilty of was, (1.) An evidence of its impurity, and therefore he prays, Create in me a clean heart, O God! He now saw, more than ever, what an unclean heart he had, and sadly laments it, but sees it is not in his own power to amend it, and therefore begs of God (whose prerogative it is to create) that he would create in him a clean heart. He only that made the heart can new-make it; and to his power nothing is impossible. He created the world by the word of his power as the God of nature, and it is by the word of his power as the God of grace that we are clean (Joh 15:3), that we are sanctified, Joh 17:17. (2.) It was the cause of its disorder, and undid much of the good work that had been wrought in him; and therefore he prays, "Lord, renew a right spirit within me; repair the decays of spiritual strength which this sin has been the cause of, and set me to rights again." Renew a constant spirit within me, so some. He had, in this matter, discovered much inconstancy and inconsistency with himself, and therefore he prays, "Lord, fix me for the time to come, that I may never in like manner depart from thee."
5.He prays for the continuance of God's good-will towards him and the progress of his good work in him, Psa 51:11. (1.) That he might never be shut out from God's favour: "Cast me not away from thy presence, as one whom thou abhorrest and canst not endure to look upon." He prays that he might not be thrown out of God's protection, but that wherever he went, he might have the divine presence with him, might be under the guidance of his wisdom and in the custody of his power, and that he might not be forbidden communion with God: "Let me not be banished thy courts, but always have liberty of access to thee by prayer." He does not deprecate the temporal judgments which God by Nathan had threatened to bring upon him. "God's will be done; but, Lord, rebuke me no in thy wrath. If the sword come into my house never to depart from it, yet let me have a God to go to in my distresses, and all shall be well." (2.) That he might never be deprived of God's grace: Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. He knew he had by his sin grieved the Spirit and provoked him to with draw, and that because he also was flesh God might justly have said that his Spirit should no more strive with him nor work upon him, Gen 6:3. This he dreads more than any thing. We are undone if God take his Holy Spirit from us. Saul was a sad instance of this. How exceedingly sinful, how exceedingly miserable, was he, when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him! David knew it, and therefore begs thus earnestly: "Lord, whatever thou take from me, my children, my crown, my life, yet take not thy Holy Spirit from me" (see Sa2 7:15), "but continue thy Holy Spirit with me, to perfect the work of my repentance, to prevent my relapse into sin, and to enable me to discharge my duty both as a prince and as a psalmist."
6.He prays for the restoration of divine comforts and the perpetual communications of divine grace, Psa 51:12. David finds two ill effects of his sin: - (1.) It had made him sad, and therefore he prays, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. A child of God knows no true nor solid joy but the joy of God's salvation, joy in God his Saviour and in the hope of eternal life. By wilful sin we forfeit this joy and deprive ourselves of it; our evidences cannot but be clouded and our hopes shaken. When we give ourselves so much cause to doubt of our interest in the salvation, how can we expect the joy of it? But, when we truly repent, we may pray and hope that God will restore to us those joys. Those that sow in penitential tears shall reap in the joys of God's salvation when the times of refreshing shall come. (2.) It had made him weak, and therefore he prays, "Uphold me with the free Spirit: I am ready to fall, either into sin or into despair; Lord, sustain me; my own spirit" (though the spirit of a man will go far towards the sustaining of his infirmity) "is not sufficient; if I be left to myself, I shall certainly sink; therefore uphold me with thy Spirit, let him counterwork the evil spirit that would cast me down from my excellency. Thy Spirit is a free spirit, a free gent himself, working freely" (and that makes those free whom he works upon, for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty) - "thy ingenuous princely Spirit." He was conscious to himself of having acted, in the matter of Uriah, very disingenuously and unlike a prince; his behaviour was base and paltry: "Lord," says he, "let thy Spirit inspire my soul with noble and generous principles, that I may always act as becomes me." A free spirit will be a firm and fixed spirit, and will uphold us. The more cheerful we are in our duty the more constant we shall be to it.
II. See what David here promises, Psa 51:13. Observe,
1.What good work he promises to do: I will teach transgressors thy ways. David had been himself a transgressor, and therefore could speak experimentally to transgressors, and resolves, having himself found mercy with God in the way of repentance, to teach others God's ways, that is, (1.) Our way to God by repentance; he would teach others that had sinned to take the same course that he had taken, to humble themselves, to confess their sins, and seek God's face; and, (2.) God's way towards us in pardoning mercy; how ready he is to receive those that return to him. He taught the former by his own example, for the direction of sinners in repenting; he taught the latter by his own experience, for their encouragement. By this psalm he is, and will be to the world's end, teaching transgressors, telling them what God had done for his soul. Note, Penitents should be preachers. Solomon was so, and blessed Paul.
2.What good effect he promises himself from his doing this: "Sinners shall be converted unto thee, and shall neither persist in their wanderings from thee, nor despair of finding mercy in their returns to thee." The great thing to be aimed at in teaching transgressors is their conversion to God; that is a happy point gained, and happy are those that are instrumental to contribute towards it, Jam 5:20.
After this white robes were given to you as a sign that you were putting off the covering of sins and putting on the chaste veil of innocence, of which the prophet said, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.” For one who is baptized is seen to be purified according to the law and according to the gospel: according to the law, because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop; according to the gospel, because Christ’s garments were white as snow, when in the Gospel he showed forth the glory of his resurrection. One, then, whose guilt is forgiven is made whiter than snow. Thus God said through Isaiah: “Though your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.”
I need not go through the lives of the saints or call attention to the moles and blemishes that mark the fairest skins. Many of our writers, it is true, unwisely take this course; however, a few sentences of Scripture will dispose alike of the heretics and the philosophers. What does Paul say? “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all”; and in another place, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The preacher also who is the mouthpiece of the divine Wisdom freely protests and says, “There is not a just person on earth, that does good and sins not,” and again, “When your people sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin,” and “who can say, I have made my heart clean?” and “none is clean from stain, not even if his life on earth has been but for one day.” David insists on the same thing when he says, “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”; and in another psalm, “in your sight shall no man living be justified.” This last passage they try to explain away from motives of reverence, arguing that the meaning is that no human being is perfect in comparison with God. Yet the Scripture does not say, “in comparison with you no one living shall be justified” but “in your sight no one living shall be justified.” And when it says “in your sight” it means that those who seem holy to people are by no means holy to God in his fuller knowledge. For “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” But if in the sight of God who sees all things and to whom the secrets of the heart lie open no one is just; then these heretics, instead of adding to human dignity, clearly take away from God’s power. I might bring together many other passages of Scripture of the same import; but were I to do so, I should exceed the limits not of a letter but of a volume.
But we, according to the epistle of James, “all stumble in many things,” and “no one is pure from sin, no not if his life is but a day long.” For who will boast “that he has a clean heart? or who will be sure that he is pure from sin?” And we are held guilty after the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Hence David says, “Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And the blessed Job, “Even if I were righteous, my mouth will speak wickedness; even if I were perfect, I will be found guilty. If I wash myself with soap and make my hands ever so clean, yet you will plunge me in the ditch, and even my own clothes will abhor me.”
"Turn Thou away Your face from my sins, and all mine iniquities blot out" [Psalm 51:9]. For now bones humbled exult, now with hyssop cleansed, humble I have become. "Turn Thou away Your face," not from me, but "from my sins." For in another place praying he says, "Turn not away Your face from me." He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, would that God's face be turned away from his sins. For to sin, when God turns not Himself away, he adverts: if he adverts, he animadverts. "And all mine iniquities blot out." He is busied with that capital sin: he reckons on more, he would have all his iniquities to be blotted out: he relies on the Physician's hand, on that "great mercy," upon which he has called in the beginning of the Psalm: "All mine iniquities blot out." God turns away His face, and so blots out; by "turning away" His face, sins He blots out. By "turning towards," He writes them. You have heard of Him blotting out by turning away, hear of Him by turning towards, doing what? "But the countenance of the Lord is upon men doing evil things, that He may destroy from the earth the remembrance of them:" He shall destroy the remembrance of them, not by "blotting out their sins." But here he does ask what? "Turn away Your face from my sins." Well he asks. For he himself does not turn away his face from his own sins, saying, "For my sin I acknowledge." With reason you ask and well ask, that God turn away from your sin, if you from thence dost not turn away your face: but if you set your sin at your back, God does there set His face. Do thou turn sin before your face, if you will that God thence turn away His face; and then safely you ask, and He hears.
God does not listen to sinners. When he was beating his breast, he was punishing his sins; when he was punishing his sins, he was associating himself with God as judge. God, you see, hates sins; if you too hate them, you are beginning to join God, so that you can say to him, "Turn your face away from my sins." Turn your face away—but from what? From my sins. "Do not turn your face away from me." What's the meaning of "your face from my sins"? Don't see them, don't look at them; overlook them instead, so that you can pardon me.
So all past sins are forgiven people on conversion; but for the rest of this life there are certain grave and deadly sins, from which one can be released only by the most vehement and distressing humbling of the heart and contrition of spirit and the pain of repentance. These are forgiven through the keys of the church. If you start judging yourself, you see, if you start being displeased with yourself, God will come along to show you mercy. If you are willing to punish yourself, he will spare you. In fact, all who repent and do penance well are punishing themselves. They have to be severe with themselves, so that God may be lenient with them. As David says, "Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities." But on what terms? He says in the same psalm, "Since I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me." So if you acknowledge it, God overlooks it.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 51:9 captures King David's profound and earnest plea for divine cleansing and complete removal of his transgressions. Following his grievous sins with Bathsheba and Uriah, David expresses a desperate yearning for God to not merely overlook his wrongdoing, but to radically obliterate the record and stain of his iniquities from divine remembrance. This verse powerfully articulates a deep understanding of God's absolute holiness, His aversion to sin, and His boundless capacity for comprehensive forgiveness and restoration for the truly penitent heart.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 51:9 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey David's profound contrition and fervent desire for divine cleansing. Metaphor is central to the phrase "Hide thy face from my sins." God does not literally possess a physical face that can be turned, but this metaphor vividly portrays His holy aversion to sin and David's plea for God's merciful non-reckoning of his transgressions. The powerful imagery of "blot out" also functions as a potent Metaphor, drawing on the common ancient practice of erasing written records to convey the complete and irreversible removal of sin and its accompanying guilt. Furthermore, the verse exhibits clear Synonymous Parallelism, where the two clauses express similar ideas using different but reinforcing language. "Hide thy face from my sins" and "blot out all mine iniquities" both convey the desire for divine non-remembrance and the complete removal of sin, with the second clause intensifying and clarifying the comprehensive nature of the desired cleansing. The treatment of "sins" and "iniquities" as entities from which God can turn or which He can erase subtly employs Personification, emphasizing the tangible weight, defilement, and culpability of David's transgressions.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 51:9 stands as a profound testament to the biblical truth of God's character as a merciful, just, and forgiving God who is willing to completely pardon and cleanse those who genuinely repent. David's plea for God to "hide His face from my sins" and "blot out all mine iniquities" underscores the radical nature of divine forgiveness, which transcends mere overlooking to a complete obliteration of the record of sin and its associated guilt. This concept is foundational to the covenant relationship between God and His people, demonstrating that despite human failure, God's grace can restore and purify. It speaks to the hope of a fresh start, where the past is truly put behind, and the guilt and condemnation of sin are removed. This profound desire for complete cleansing foreshadows the ultimate and perfect solution to sin found in the New Covenant through Christ.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 51:9 offers profound comfort and instruction for believers today, reminding us of the unfathomable depth of God's mercy and His unwavering readiness to offer complete forgiveness when we approach Him with a truly repentant heart. David's raw honesty and profound desire for not just leniency but a divine erasure of his transgressions serves as a timeless model for our own confession. We are assured that through sincere confession and repentance, God offers a full pardon, removing the guilt and shame associated with our past actions, and restoring our relationship with Him. This verse encourages us to pursue not just relief from the consequences of sin, but a deep, divine cleansing that grants us a fresh start and a clear conscience, enabling us to walk in renewed fellowship with our holy God. It calls us to trust implicitly in God's power to make us truly clean, regardless of the magnitude or nature of our past failures, and to extend such grace to ourselves and others.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does God literally "hide His face" or "forget" our sins when we repent?
Answer: The phrases "hide thy face from my sins" and "blot out" are powerful anthropomorphisms and metaphors used to convey the completeness of God's forgiveness. God, being omniscient, does not literally forget in the human sense of losing memory or awareness. Rather, "hiding His face" signifies that He chooses not to acknowledge or reckon the sins against the penitent individual, averting His holy gaze from the defilement. "Blotting out" means that the sins are removed from His record, annulled, and no longer held against us for condemnation. It signifies a complete legal and spiritual erasure of the guilt and condemnation associated with those sins, as if they never occurred in terms of their power to separate us from Him. This is a promise of divine non-remembrance in the context of judgment and relationship, as powerfully affirmed in Hebrews 8:12.
What is the difference between "sins" (H2399, chêṭᵉʼ) and "iniquities" (H5771, ʻâvôn) in this verse?
Answer: While often used interchangeably in English translations, the Hebrew words convey distinct nuances that enrich our understanding. "Sins" (H2399, chêṭᵉʼ) broadly refers to a crime or its penalty, an offense, or the act of "missing the mark"—failing to meet God's standard, often implying an act of transgression. "Iniquities" (H5771, ʻâvôn), as discussed in the Key Word Analysis, carries the connotation of perversity, moral evil, or the moral distortion inherent in the sin. It emphasizes the crookedness, twistedness, or deviation from God's righteous path, and the resulting culpability and burden of guilt. By asking God to "hide His face from my sins" and "blot out all mine iniquities," David is making a comprehensive plea for the removal of both the specific acts of transgression and the deep-seated moral corruption and guilt associated with them. He desires a total cleansing of both the outward actions and the inward stain.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 51:9, with David's desperate plea for the complete removal and obliteration of his sins and iniquities, finds its ultimate and perfect fulfillment in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. David's profound longing for God to "blot out all mine iniquities" is precisely what God accomplished through the atoning sacrifice of His Son. While David could only pray for divine amnesia concerning his transgressions, Christ's death on the cross actually paid the full penalty for sin, satisfying divine justice and making true spiritual erasure possible. The New Testament powerfully declares that God, through Christ, has "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us...nailing it to his cross" in Colossians 2:14. The precious blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7). David's prayer for God to "hide His face from my sins" is answered in Christ, who became sin for us, allowing God's righteous wrath to fall upon Him instead of us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Through faith in Jesus, our sins are not merely covered, but truly blotted out, remembered no more by God, and we are granted a new heart and a right spirit, fulfilling David's deepest desires for cleansing and restoration (Hebrews 10:17).