I'm going to read for us scripture now.
We're going to read from the book of Psalms, Psalm 51.
I'm going to read the passage and then David's going to come up.
He's going to preach to us from this passage.
This is Psalm 51.
To the choir master, a psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet went to him after he'd gone into Bathsheba.
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 and the inward being
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore me to the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God.
O God, my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it.
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God.
You will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.
Build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then will I delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Amen.
This is God's holy word.
I've decided not to make the long climb to the pulpit this morning.
It's good to be with you.
My name is David Court.
I'm the associate minister here.
We're going through in the mornings a series in the Psalms.
And we turn this morning to Psalm 51.
Let me take you back in time to the summer of 1974.
It was my first boys' brigade camp.
And if you don't know what the boys' brigade are, then you can speak to me at the end.
It was my first extended period away from home and family.
And the campsite that we were located on was situated on a farm near Kirkcaldy in Fife.
I was joined at the camp by a number of my school friends.
Among them was John.
His father owned the local chip shop in the village.
But unfortunately for John, the camp was not a great experience.
One afternoon, he found himself escorted back to camp by two police officers.
He'd been caught shoplifting in Kirkcaldy.
Now, it transpired that there was a single in the charts by the perils.
It reached, I think, number 10 in the charts in June of that year.
And it had just a one-word title.
And that title was this, Guilty.
And that song, with its chorus, reverberated all around the campsite.
It played on the radio.
It even had a record player.
It was listened to there.
Its chorus was sung repeatedly all across the campsite.
The words of the song simply could not be avoided.
You have been found and convicted of a serious crime
because you're guilty, guilty, guilty.
And just as all those years ago, my friend John could find no hiding place
from those accusing words, guilty.
So, that was surely true of the author of Psalm 51.
That man, of course, was David, King David.
And even though no one had been singing those words to him,
he had heard them nonetheless.
Because you're guilty, guilty, guilty.
It wasn't that David had been caught shoplifting in Woolworths.
No, his theft had been on a far grander scale.
Indeed, for a long time, his crime or crimes had gone unnoticed.
He had appeared to have…
He'd got off scot-free.
So, what brought him to this point,
to this famous prayer petition, Psalm 51?
Well, we can read the story more fully for yourself.
2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
We didn't have time to do that this morning.
It began with a careless and lustful glance at a beautiful woman.
Bathsheba was her name.
And unfortunately for David, she was already married
to one of his own army officers, Uriah the Hittite.
And perhaps David only meant it to be a brief fling,
a one-night stand.
But Bathsheba fell pregnant by him.
And that's when things really started to get complicated.
Uriah was away from home.
He was serving in the armed forces.
A scandal was sure to break.
And so, David sought to cover things up.
He had Uriah sent back home to his wife.
But Uriah wouldn't play ball.
And because his fellow soldiers were still on the front line and fighting,
he did not go to his wife.
And so then David conspired to have Uriah killed in battle.
And David's operation cover-up went really smoothly, without hitch.
And it wasn't long before Uriah was just another casualty of war.
With the husband out of the way, David was free to marry the grieving widow,
adopt her unborn son as a royal prince,
and they could all live happily ever after.
I have little doubt that David hoped that his catalog of sin, adultery, deceit, lies, murder,
would all end there.
He may have broken at least four of the Ten Commandments,
but at least he hadn't broken the eleventh.
Thou shalt not get found out.
He'd covered his tracks well.
The few that were in the know could be relied upon to keep their mouths shut.
It had been an unfortunate episode, but it was now over and done with.
It was in the past.
It could be forgotten.
Life goes on.
And so David, as it were, shut the cupboard door,
turned the key, walked away,
hoping to leave this festering skeleton of sin out of sight and out of mind.
But in doing that, David made a great mistake.
Because in reality, sin cannot be dealt with in such an easy and painless fashion.
It cannot really be locked away in the cupboard and forgotten.
Even if it's not penalized by the law,
even if it's not exposed by the press,
even if it's buried and hidden away from prying eyes,
even if we continue as if nothing had happened,
as I suspect David himself did,
the skeleton still remains,
rotting away in the cupboard.
And sooner or later,
the stench seeps out under the door,
through the cracks,
and begins to suffocate us.
It's impossible to cover up the skeleton of your sin and guilt.
No matter how hard you try,
it cannot be done.
The smell lingers,
and before long,
the odor permeates every room in the house.
There's only one thing to do with that skeleton.
You need to get someone in to clean out the cupboard.
And there's only one person who has the power to do that.
There's only one person who can clean out the skeleton of our sin,
erase the stench of our guilt,
and disinfect our hearts.
And that was the lesson that David had to learn.
He learned it through the ministry of the prophet Nathan.
One day, Nathan confronted David
with what was lurking behind the cupboard door.
And Psalm 51 is the song he wrote
in the wake of that door being flung open
for all to see in his guilt being unmasked and uncovered.
It's an intensely personal composition.
Unlike some of the Psalms,
it's not as carefully crafted and structured.
It's raw.
It's emotional.
In the light of his sin being exposed,
a torrent of different feelings cascade to the surface.
Here is David facing up to what he has done,
to the kind of person he really is.
And it turns out to be an excruciating discovery.
Here is David casting himself,
throwing himself on the mercy of God.
Thomas Chalmers,
one of the founding fathers of the free church,
observed,
this is the most deeply affecting of all the Psalms.
And I am sure the one most applicable to me.
Psalm 51 is perhaps the most famous of the seven,
they're known as the seven penitential Psalms.
It was written because David wanted others
to learn from his experience.
Look at verse 13.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways
and sinners will return to you.
Here is what we need to do
with our own festering skeletons of sin and guilt
that we're often tempted to bury and forget.
Here is David teaching us
the path of true repentance.
And I want to summarize, really,
the message of the Psalm under three headings,
three things from the Psalm
that David wants us to learn.
And the first is this.
There's something that we need to acknowledge.
Something we need to acknowledge.
What is that?
It is our own sin and guilt before God.
I know my transgressions, verse three,
my sin is ever before me.
Before, David had covered it up.
He'd concealed it.
He'd buried it.
But now it has been exposed.
His sin is before him.
He cannot avoid it.
The cupboard door has been flung open.
And he's been forced to acknowledge what lies within.
And in the opening verses of the Psalm,
you'll notice David uses a whole variety
of different words to describe the truth about himself.
He talks, verses one and three,
about his transgressions.
It's a word that conveys the idea of rebellion.
He speaks of iniquity in verse two and five.
That word suggests something of being twisted out of shape
or made crooked.
He mentions sin in verse two and four.
That word means to miss the mark, to fall short.
And then again in verse four,
he uses the word evil.
He openly and publicly acknowledges
the uncomfortable truth
that he had discovered about himself.
And what was that?
It was this.
It was he was a sinner.
I came across this quote from the late Professor MacLeod.
He says,
evangelicalism is not first and foremost
about belief in an inerrant Bible.
Rather, it begins with a certain kind of self-understanding.
The knowledge of our own guilt,
our own depravity,
our own alienation from God.
Before David's guilt could be dealt with,
he had to acknowledge,
admit what he had done.
He had to look into his own heart.
He had to face the awful reality of what he found there.
Now, that's not an easy thing for us to do
because it calls for brutal honesty.
It can be an uncomfortable,
a profoundly unsettling experience.
It can be a shock to ourselves
to see ourselves naked in our sin,
to see ourselves warts and all,
to see who and what we really are.
I've discovered over the years
that people will go,
frequently go to enormous lengths
to avoid acknowledging the truth about themselves.
Why?
Because it's a painful thing to do.
We much prefer to make our excuses,
to rationalize our behavior,
anything to avoid facing personal responsibility.
Did David do this?
Well, I suspect he probably did.
It's what we all do.
I mean, how could Bathsheba have been so careless
as to get pregnant?
How could Uriah have been so honorable?
If only they had done things differently,
it would all be okay.
It's really their fault, not mine.
How readily and easily we spray our excuses
to cover up our sin.
And of course, today we live in a culture
where people are increasingly encouraged
to move responsibility away from themselves.
Huge attitude shift in the past couple of generations.
We are now a society of victims.
It's always someone else's fault.
Now, I'm not saying there are not victims,
and I'm not saying that on occasion
it is someone else's fault,
but it's always someone else's fault.
And that's a very dangerous way of thinking.
Why is that?
It's because without an acknowledgement
of personal responsibility,
there can be no repentance.
There can be no change.
You can't repent of that
which you don't feel responsible for.
And if people continually believe themselves
to be innocent victims
rather than guilty sinners,
then their repentance is impossible.
But then, of course,
perhaps there are others of us here
who are more inclined to take the moral high ground,
to bolster our sense of self
by telling ourselves how much better we are than others.
We run down others.
We assassinate their characters,
all to enhance our own feelings of moral superiority.
It makes us feel a little cleaner.
And who of us here has not done that?
Indeed, David himself exhibited this very characteristic.
On that occasion,
when the prophet Nathan told him the story,
the famous story of the poor man
who had his ewe lamb taken from him
by his rich neighbor,
we're told there in 2 Samuel 12, 5,
David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.
He said to Nathan,
as the Lord lives,
the man who has done this deserves to die.
Friends, how often we do the same.
Our anger is greatly kindled
against this and that and the other.
And yet much of it is a smokescreen
to deflect from our own sin and guilt.
It was Robert Burns who famously said,
Oh, what some power the gift of Gias
to see ourselves as others see us.
But what about the power to see ourselves
as God sees us?
This is what happens to David.
He comes to see his sin as God sees it.
He comes to acknowledge it
for the awful thing that it really is.
Verse 4,
Now that may at first glance appear
a very strange thing for David to say.
I mean, what about Bathsheba?
What about Uriah?
Hadn't he sinned against them
in a most despicable manner?
Well, yes, of course he had.
But what David came to realize
and acknowledge was that ultimately
his sin was against God himself.
That's a really important thing to understand.
Sin is not primarily a sociological
or psychological category.
It is theological.
It is to do with our relationship with God.
Our guilt before God is something
real and objective.
It is something that stands
between us and God.
When we sin,
we are doing more than just
flouting a social convention.
We are offending the living God
who made us.
We are expressing a rejection
of the one who created us
and the one to whom,
in the final analysis,
we are ultimately accountable to.
Sometimes you hear people saying,
you know,
I've let myself down.
Or, you know,
I'm angry with myself.
I should have done better.
It's never enough
just to be angry with ourselves.
We have to realize
that God Himself is angry.
Our sin has injured Him,
provoked Him,
placed us under His
just judgment and condemnation.
And so we need to take sin seriously.
We need to understand it
as an offense against a holy
and righteous God.
And unless we're prepared to do that,
we can never be free from it.
Because the God of the Bible
desires truth in the inner parts.
Verse 6,
Behold,
you delight in truth
in the inward being.
You teach me wisdom
in the secret heart.
Here is where we need
to be made clean.
Here is where we need
to be renewed.
And for that to happen,
the truth must be acknowledged.
What lies within
must be exposed
and opened up
so that God Himself
might deal with us.
There's something
we need to acknowledge.
I wonder this morning
if you acknowledged
that you're a sinner.
And secondly,
I think we have here
something we need to ask for.
What is it that David asks for
in this psalm?
Look at verse 1.
And 2,
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,
cleanse me from my sin.
A little later on,
verse 7 and following,
Purge me with hyssop,
I shall be clean.
Wash me,
I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones
that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart,
O God.
Renew a right spirit within me.
There's something to ask for.
Most of us,
by nature,
don't like asking for things.
It's often a kind of last resort.
We sense that in some way,
asking can be viewed
as an admission of weakness.
In asking for help,
we're tacitly admitting
that we don't have the resources
to cope with
or manage on our own.
Asking, therefore,
can often be a sign
that we've come
to an end of ourselves
and an end of our resources.
And here in Psalm 51,
David asks,
what does he ask for?
Well, having acknowledged
the reality of his sin
and guilt before God,
he asks God
to clean him up.
He doesn't ask God
to make him feel better
about himself.
He asks God
to deal with the heart
of the problem.
Clean out the cupboard
of my sin.
Remove that rotting,
festering skeleton of guilt.
And what David
had come to realize,
of course,
was that his sin
went far beyond
the particular circumstances
of his affair
with Bathsheba,
his conspiracy
against Uriah.
Look at verse 5.
Behold,
I was brought forth
in iniquity,
and in sin
did my mother
conceive me.
As you see,
sin is no minor flaw
in his character.
It's something
deeply embedded
in his heart
and mind.
And friends,
that's true
for all of us.
Sin
is the moral defect
that we're all born with,
a corruption
of our nature,
the very heart
and core
of our human personalities
are twisted
and misshapen
by sin.
There is no part
of us
that remains
unaffected.
It is an all-pervasive
influence
in our lives.
This is what the Bible,
this is what theologians
talk when they talk
about human depravity.
It's not that we're all
as bad as we could be.
It's rather that sin
has tainted
and touched
every aspect
of us.
And this idea,
again,
a common one today,
that all human beings
are intrinsically good,
is one that is
fundamentally flawed.
I think it was
the American preacher,
Dale Ralph Davis,
who commented
that he was always glad
when he had,
it was in American context,
when he had members
of the highway patrol
or local police
in his congregations.
Why?
Well, he said,
because you don't need
to convince them
of the depravity
of human nature.
You see,
if we don't understand this,
we're going to be
destined to experience
disappointment
and disillusionment.
Sin is the great problem
we have as human beings.
The evil habits
we cannot break,
the selfish desires
we must gratify,
the weight of guilt
we cannot escape.
By nature,
we stand in opposition
to the purposes of God.
We're in rebellion
against His authority
as our Creator.
We're in defiance
of His will.
We're in disobedience
to His law.
And before a holy God,
we all stand
stained,
dirty,
and unclean.
That is the extent
of our human plight.
And so,
it's not a minor
repair job
that's required.
It's a complete overhaul.
We need renewal,
total renewal,
and regeneration.
David asks in verse 10,
create in me
a clean heart,
O God,
renew a right spirit
within me.
He's asking for
heart transplant surgery.
He's asking the Lord
to give him
a renewed heart,
a clean heart,
a pure heart.
He's asking God
to wash away the dirt
and change him
from within.
I wonder,
have you ever
asked for that?
Have you really,
ever really asked God
to change your heart?
Truth is that
many people
don't want to take
those words
on their lips.
Why?
Because they're radical.
They're scary words.
I mean,
we don't mind God
sticking a little bit
of spiritual elastoplast
on our lives.
We don't mind
Him patching us up
a bit
or giving us
a religious tonic
to pep us up.
But a new heart?
That's way too radical.
Why,
that might mean
everything would have
to change.
Who knows where
all of that might lead?
That's scary.
We much prefer
our cover-ups.
We like things
the way they are.
We like to be
in control.
We don't really
want to change.
And if truth be told,
we don't really
want to be clean.
We're often much
happier wallowing
in our own filth.
for even the smell
from the cupboard
isn't that bad
when you get used to it.
I remember visiting
in a flat
in WrestleRig
many years ago.
And
this guy's flat
was in a horrific state.
It was the smell,
the stench
that made me wretch.
The smell
was unbearable.
He,
however,
was utterly
oblivious.
He'd become
accustomed to it.
For him,
it was
absolutely
normal.
friends,
the desire
to be clean
is something
that God alone
can give us.
Only when
His Holy Spirit
is active
in our lives
can we ever
come to the place
of asking
for a cleansed
and renewed heart.
Will you dare
to ask God
for a new heart
this morning?
Will you dare
to ask Him
to cleanse you
and wash you
and forgive you
and change you?
Something to acknowledge.
Something to ask for.
And then thirdly here,
something
to accept.
Something we need
to accept.
What is that?
Well,
we need to accept
the promises
that God has made
to us
on the basis
of His own character.
We have to take
God at His word.
We have to believe
what He tells us
about Himself.
We have to trust Him
and throw ourselves
upon His mercy.
Look at what David says.
The sacrifices
of God,
verse 17,
are a broken spirit,
a broken
and contrite heart,
O God,
you will not despise.
How could David
be so sure?
How did he know
that God wouldn't
just kind of slam
the door in his face
and tell him
to take a hike?
How did he know
that God would hear
and answer
his prayer?
After all,
God would have been
quite justified
in telling him
to get lost.
So, maybe there's a clue
in the words
of verses 11 and 12.
Cast me not
away from
Your presence
and take not
Your Holy Spirit
from me.
Restore to me
the joy
of Your salvation
and uphold me
with a willing spirit.
God
was no stranger
to David.
In the past,
he had enjoyed
a deep,
a real,
a vital relationship
with Him.
And deep down,
David knew
that God's character
was one of steadfast love
and abundant mercy.
And it's only
on that basis
that he is able
to speak to God.
Yes,
David knew full well
that God
in His righteousness
and justice
could have banished him
forever,
cast him into hell.
But he also knew
that a broken
and contrite heart
he would not despise.
And so,
in faith,
he casts himself
on the mercy
of God
and turns
towards God
in repentance
and faith.
Friends,
that's what we need
to do as well.
If our sin and guilt
are to be cleansed
and forgiven,
if we're to be made new
and stand in a right
relationship with God,
there is no other way.
Repentance,
you see,
occurs not only
when we see
the horror
of our own sin,
but also when,
if I can quote
the words
of the Shorter Catechism,
we have an apprehension
of the mercy
of God
in Christ.
Turning from sin
and towards God
involves us
seeing
that with Him
there is forgiveness.
How can we be sure
that if we come
to Him in repentance
that He will
welcome us,
receive us,
forgive us?
How can we be sure
He will accept us?
Notice how
in the opening verse
David speaks
of God's steadfast love
and abundant mercy.
That's the very
basis and foundation
of His request
for cleansing,
for forgiveness,
for renewal.
Have mercy on me,
O God,
according to
Your steadfast love,
according to
Your abundant mercy.
Blot out
my transgressions.
It's not,
have mercy on me
because I'm important,
I'm very religious,
because of my social
standing,
because of all,
look at all the good
things I've done.
It's,
have mercy on me
according to
Your steadfast love.
And friends,
in this regard,
we have far more
to go on
than did David
because we have
nothing less
than the cross
of Jesus Christ
because it's at the cross
we see most clearly
a God of steadfast love
and abundant mercy.
One of his books
may have told this story
before,
I can't remember,
can never remember
where I've told him
stories,
these stories,
but anyway.
In one of his books,
David,
a man called David Redding,
he relates a story
told to him
by a prison warden
and it involved
a friend of his,
a fellow warden
traveling by train
in the United States
and he's,
the person next to him
is in a pretty poor condition,
very shabby,
very woebegone
and as he got into
conversation
with this young man,
the young man confessed
that he just,
he just got out of prison.
And he,
his whole life
had cast a shadow
over his family,
his criminal record
had brought them shame
and his grace
in the community.
And over the years,
he'd almost lost
complete contact
with them.
And he'd hoped
that the silence
of the years
meant that they were
just too poor,
maybe too illiterate
to write.
So before his sentence
was up,
he hatched a plan
to find out
how they really felt
about him.
And he wrote a letter
explaining,
home explaining
that he would be
on a train
past their little farm
on the outskirts
of town.
And in the letter
he said,
if they were able
to forgive him,
they were to hang
a white ribbon
on an old apple tree
near the tracks.
If it was not
hanging there
when his train
went by,
he wouldn't bother them.
He'd never see them again.
And so as the train
approached the familiar
haunts of his childhood,
the suspense,
the anxiety,
was more than
he was able to bear.
And so he exchanged
seats with his companion
and asked him
to watch and to report
what he saw.
Within a few minutes,
the tree came into view
and his companion's eyes
filled with tears.
He placed his hand
on the young man's shoulder.
In a hoarse whisper,
he said,
it's all right.
The whole tree
is white with ribbons.
And friends,
isn't that what the cross
of Jesus Christ tells us?
Isn't that the message
that this table
this morning
proclaims to us?
The cross is the tree,
white with the ribbons
of God's grace
and forgiveness.
A tree that shouts
to us to come home.
A tree of steadfast love
and abundant mercy.
A tree that tells us
of God's welcome
for prodigal sons
and daughters.
Because here is the God,
you see,
who blots out
our transgressions,
who hides his face
from our sins,
who washes us
and cleanses us,
who restores us,
who doesn't cast us away,
but welcomes us
and embraces us.
We see this God
and his love for sinners
in the cleansing blood
of Jesus Christ.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing.
Nothing but the blood
of Jesus.
Here is a cleansing
deeper than that
of any ritual
or ceremony.
Because on the cross,
Jesus was pierced
for our transgressions
and crushed
for our iniquities.
There the Lord
laid on him
the iniquity
of us all.
Can you believe
and accept that
this morning?
That the God
of the Bible
delights to welcome
sinners?
That he is a God
rich in mercy,
abundant in grace?
Do you really believe
that God is like this?
Well, here's the test.
If you do,
you won't run away
from him.
Instead, you will run
towards him.
And in Jesus Christ,
you will come to discover
for yourself
the God who is running
towards you.
Augustine says
of this psalm,
listen to David
crying out
and cry with him.
Listen to him
groaning and groan too.
Listen to him
weeping and add
your tears to his.
Listen to him
corrected
and share his joy.
What is that joy?
It's the cleansing joy
of divine forgiveness
and salvation.
What are you doing
with your sin?
what are you doing
with your guilt?
Are you one of those
who's just content
to bury it,
cover it up,
hide it away,
pretend it never
happened,
point the finger
at other people?
Or are you going
to learn from David?
Will you acknowledge
that you're in the wrong,
that before God
you're a sinner?
Will you ask God
to forgive you,
cleanse you,
change you?
Can you accept
that he really is
a God of steadfast love
and abundant mercy?
Have you come
to understand
that while your sins
are many,
his mercy
is so much
more?
Will you take
and travel
the path
that David outlines here,
the path
of true repentance?
Let's pray together.
Lord, our prayer
is simply this.
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.
And we pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.