Psalms 51:1-15

Psalm 51 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ² 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ³  your loyal love!

Because of ⁴  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ⁵ 

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ⁶ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ⁷ 

51:3 For I am aware of ⁸  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ⁹ 

51:4 Against you – you above all ¹⁰  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ¹¹  you are just when you confront me; ¹² 

you are right when you condemn me. ¹³ 

51:5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ¹⁴ 

51:6 Look, ¹⁵  you desire ¹⁶  integrity in the inner man; ¹⁷ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ¹⁸ 

51:7 Sprinkle me ¹⁹  with water ²⁰  and I will be pure; ²¹ 

wash me ²²  and I will be whiter than snow. ²³ 

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ²⁴ 

May the bones ²⁵  you crushed rejoice! ²⁶ 

51:9 Hide your face ²⁷  from my sins!

Wipe away ²⁸  all my guilt!

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ²⁹ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ³⁰ 

51:11 Do not reject me! ³¹ 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ³²  away from me! ³³ 

51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!

Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! ³⁴ 

51:13 Then I will teach ³⁵  rebels your merciful ways, ³⁶ 

and sinners will turn ³⁷  to you.

51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ³⁸  O God, the God who delivers me!

Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ³⁹ 

51:15 O Lord, give me the words! ⁴⁰ 

Then my mouth will praise you. ⁴¹ 

[51:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ² tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ³ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁴ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁵ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[51:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ⁷ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[51:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”

[51:4]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.

[51:4]  ¹² tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).

[51:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[51:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Look, in wrongdoing I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The prefixed verbal form in the second line is probably a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive), stating a simple historical fact. The psalmist is not suggesting that he was conceived through an inappropriate sexual relationship (although the verse has sometimes been understood to mean that, or even that all sexual relationships are sinful). The psalmist’s point is that he has been a sinner from the very moment his personal existence began. By going back beyond the time of birth to the moment of conception, the psalmist makes his point more emphatically in the second line than in the first.

[51:6]  ¹⁵ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ¹⁶ tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[51:7]  ¹⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ²¹ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ²² tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ²³ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[51:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ²⁵ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ²⁶ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:9]  ²⁷ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ²⁸ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[51:10]  ²⁹ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[51:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ³² sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ³³ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[51:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:13]  ³⁵ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. This may be a vow or promise. If forgiven, the psalmist will “repay” the Lord by declaring God’s mercy and motivating other sinners to repent.

[51:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “your ways.” The word “merciful” is added for clarification. God’s “ways” are sometimes his commands, but in this context, where the teaching of God’s ways motivates repentance (see the next line), it is more likely that God’s merciful and compassionate way of dealing with sinners is in view. Thanksgiving songs praising God for his deliverance typically focus on these divine attributes (see Pss 34, 41, 116, 138).

[51:13]  ³⁷ tn Or “return,” i.e., in repentance.

[51:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.

[51:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).

[51:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “open my lips.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and my mouth will declare your praise.”