Psalms 51:1-8

Context

Psalm 51¹

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 of³ your loyal love!

Because of⁴ 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 of⁸ my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin.⁹

51:4 Against you – you above all¹⁰ – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So¹¹ 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 desire¹⁶ integrity in the inner man;¹⁷

you want me to possess wisdom.¹⁸

51:7 Sprinkle me¹⁹ with water²⁰ and I will be pure;²¹

wash me²² and I will be whiter than snow.²³

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

May the bones²⁵ you crushed rejoice!²⁶

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

[51:1] ³tn Or “according to.”

[51:1] ⁴tn Or “according to.”

[51:1] ⁵tn 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] ⁶tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2] ⁷sn 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] ⁸tn Heb “know.”

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

[51:4] ¹⁰tn 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] ¹¹tn 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] ¹²tn 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] ¹³tn Heb “when you judge.”

[51:5] ¹⁴tn 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] ¹⁵sn 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] ¹⁶tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

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

[51:6] ¹⁸tn 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] ¹⁹tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7] ²⁰tn 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] ²¹tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

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

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

[51:8] ²⁴tn 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] ²⁵sn 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] ²⁶tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.