Study on Psalm 51

Psalm 51

 

          Every Psalm has history – but in the case of Psalm 51, we know what the history is. 

          We find this history in the Old Testament book of II Samuel, chapters 11 and 12.

          In verse 11 of chapter 12, we read this:

11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

² It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. ³ David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

You probably know what happens next – David has a sexual affair with Bathsheba.  She becomes pregnant.  But Uriah, being at war, would know that it is not his child, so he orders Uriah back to Jerusalem for a report from the battle field.  It is the perfect plan.  Uriah would have sex with Bathsheba and would think this is his child.
Verse nine picks up with this:

But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.”

Uriah is such a faithful person – he doesn’t have a clue that his wife AND his king are being unfaithful to him.

So David makes arrangements for Uriah to go back to battle and to be killed by friendly fire.  

Bathsheba mourns the death of Uriah, and then after a suitable time has passed, David brings her into his house and the baby boy is born.

And then in verse 27, chapter 11 of II Samuel, we pick up the story:

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, 
 12 ¹ and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very many flocks and herds; ³ but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” ⁵ Then 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; ⁶ he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

And continuing in verse 13, after a lengthy sermon by Nathan, we pick up with this:

 ¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

It is within this context that Psalm 51 was composed.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.

          This is a great prayer of confession.  It opens with three points.

1^st, there is the approach for mercy

2^nd there is a request to blot out the past

3^rd, there is the request for a change in personality.

          First – there is the approach for mercy.  The word for MERCY here in Hebrew is the same as the Hebrew word for womb.  The implication here is that David is appealing to the motherly type of love.  He may be influenced here by the deep grief of Bathsheba in the death of the child.  He is appealing to that feminine side of God that we occasionally, but not frequently see in the Bible.

          Second, there is the request to blot out the past.  He does not want it to be remembered.  

          Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.

          Similar verses are in Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 and elsewhere.

          It is not that God has amnesia, but God so removes it from the ledger that it is as if it never happened.  

          There is the story of a woman who claimed to have dreams at night in which she conversed with Jesus, and she believed that these were real communications with the Lord.  Her priest did not believe her, so he put her to the test, and asked the woman – next time you have that dream, ask Jesus what great sin I committed before becoming a priest.

          The next day she came back to him and said, “I talked to Jesus in my dream and asked him about your sin. And the Lord said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

          Notice that phrase, “according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.”  God is not stingy when it comes to mercy.

          Psalm 103:12, “As far as East is from West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

          Third, there is the request for a change in personality.  “Wash me thoroughly from my sin and create a clean heart within me.”  David is not asking only for forgiveness.  He is seeking to repent – to turn away from sin and to live a new life.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
    and blameless when you pass judgment.

There is a hymn that I remember singing that is probably the worst hymn ever –

If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, Forgive.

IF?  No if about it.  We have sinned.

Forgiveness begins by saying, “I have sinned, no ifs ands or buts.”  

David does that, “I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.”

There is that great verse from John’s epistle, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty,
    a sinner when my mother conceived me.

Sin is not a crime, it is not a single act or a series of acts – it is out nature.  It is in our DNA.

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being;
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

What David is talking about here is a sense of integrity.

          This psalm moves toward those things that help a person truly repent and live a new life.

Verse six has the first step – “Teach me wisdom in my secret heart.”  We need to be able to see reality as it is and to be wise in our actions.  Had David possessed wisdom, he would have looked beyond his sexual passion and foreseen that no good is going to come out of this.  Had he been wise, he would have known that when he commanded a member of his own army killed in battle, that would have eventually have gotten out.

Verse 7 has an interesting element of repentance:

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

What do you know about hyssop?  It is a plant and it recalls the need for a blood sacrifice.

From the Christian point of view, this business of being purged with hyssop is a recollection of the blood of Christ shed for the redemption of our souls.

It comes from Exodus 12

²¹ Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover lamb. ²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood in the basin. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. ²⁴ You shall observe this rite as a perpetual ordinance for you and your children. ²⁵ When you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this observance. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ ²⁷ you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed down and worshiped.
²⁸ The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

The next element of repentance is joy

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

Another element of repentance is to be able to move on and to let go of the past.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.

We can’t forget the past, we can’t literally blot it out, but knowing that God does not recall our sins helps us to let go and live.

Verse 10 emphasizes that repentance is not only receiving forgiveness, it is a true act of changing one’s lifestyle.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and put a new and right spirit within me.

In verse 11 we see that repentance is something that is not done apart from God, but in the presence of God.

¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.

The more we are aware of God’s presence with us, the less likely we are to fall back into the sins we have committed.  It is when David is not aware of the presence of God that he is able to yield to his passions for Bathsheba and commit adultery.

Another element of repentance is that it should move one away from grief and sadness toward joy. 

¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.

How did David respond when the baby he conceived with Bathsheba died?  He got up from his prayers and his grief and got on with life.  His joy returned.

Another element of repentance is that it should result in our calling others to experience what we have experienced.  

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

          Lastly, repentance should involve praise.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.

         

Study of Psalm 139

The following notes were used in a Bible Study at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Orlando FL, on September 4, 2013.

I was with someone not long ago and we were in a public place, but at a private setting – we were in a restaurant sitting at a table and next to us was another table and at that table was a very young woman who seemed to have some sort of mental health issues.  While this other person and I were sitting at our table having a low, confidential conversation, this young woman was sitting at her table, her body turned toward us, and she was obviously hanging on our every word.

How do you feel when you think that someone is watching you and listening to your every word?

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.

1. God sees us

This is the first point of this psalm – God sees us.  He is watching over us.  We are under constant surveillance by God.

The second point is that God knows us.

2. God knows us

³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

The woman in that restaurant was listening to every word we were saying, but she did not know us at all. 

God listens to our every word and he knows us deeply.

Verse 2, “You perceive my thoughts.”

Verse 3, “You discern my going out and lying down and are familiar with all my ways.”

It is one thing for God to see all, but to know us, to truly know us, is something else entirely.

Anyone here watch Rizzoli and Isles?  One of the actors on that show was 29 year old Lee Thompson Young.  Now to watch him on the show, he seemed young, healthy, happy, competent, likeable.  But to watch him on the television is NOT to know the actor.  The actor committed suicide a few weeks ago. 

Now we can say – but he was an actor.  Yet, the world is a stage and we are all actors on it.  It is one thing for us to see and watch someone, but something else to really know an individual.

God sees us, and knows us intimately.

How many people do you believe know you – the real you?

⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.

I have to share that one book I read in researching Psalm 139 the writer said, “I don’t know what I say until after I say it, and here is God who knows my words before I say it.”

3. God is with us.

God is not a distant God – he is in our lives and in our midst.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

Anyone remember the poem, THE HOUND OF HEAVEN?

I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

This poem is about a sinful man who is pursued by a loving God who will not let go.  It shares with Psalm 139 the common element – there is no running away from God.

Have you ever wanted to get away from God or flee from him?

I had a Sunday School teacher who used to say that one should use the term AMEN only in a public prayer.  In part because AMEN is a word of agreement.  A person leads in a prayer and the term AMEN is the congregation’s way of saying, “We agree.  That person’s prayer is our prayer.”

But more than that, says my old Sunday School Teacher, the term AMEN is a way of hanging up the telephone.  It is a way of disconnecting from God so that our thoughts now become our thoughts.  When you pray a personal prayer and you do not say AMEN, then there is an increased awareness that God is still listening.

In verse 13, there is a shift from the watchfulness of God, to the creative nature of God.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

I remember when my wife had an ultra sound and we could see our unborn child.  That was new technology back then and we had never heard of such a thing before.  I remember thinking at that moment about the words of Psalm 139,

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

With verse 17, there is another shift – from our thoughts being known by God to God’s thoughts that we can never understand.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

Most of us want a God we can comprehend and explain.  Few of us are comfortable with being able to say, “I have no idea what God is up to and I can’t explain God.”  But the Psalmist is very comfortable with that – because comfortable with it or not, like it or not – God is a God we cannot comprehend.

Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor? Isaiah 40:13

"Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Romans 11:34

"Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. I Corithians 2:16

Now in verse 19, we glimpse the humanity of the psalmist.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.

These words sound like a vengeful prayer. 

Verse 22, “I have nothing but hatred for them,” is rendered in the RSV as “I have nothing but perfect hatred for them.”

Powerful and strong words, but the theme here is a prayer in which God would set the world right – the elimination of evil.

Finally, the psalm closes with these words:

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

This brings the prayer to a full circle.  The one who begins

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me,

Now moves to the request, “Search me, God.”

There is not a desire to flee from the hound of heaven who knows us so well, but to be nurtured, forgiven and loved by the God who created us.

How the Presbyterian Church is Like the Space Shuttle.

I have decided that the Presbyterian Church is like the Space Shuttle.

There are many people who remain upset - or at least disappointed - that the Space Shuttle has been mothballed.  A few even think NASA went out of business.  On the contrary, shutting down the Space Shuttle was a good and necessary thing.  The Shuttle fleet was getting old.  AND it limited us to low earth orbit.  It is time for us to have the ability to go back to the moon, to Mars and to asteroids.  As long as we had the Space Shuttle, all we were going to do would be within the confines of low earth orbit.

The problem is that we are in a lull.  The Orion is still being developed, but it is an exciting program. New Horizons spacecraft is still on its way to Pluto but it won't be much longer!  Private industry is doing amazing work on developing low earth orbit vehicles as well as asteroid and lunar explorers that will send people where no one has gone before.

So what does this have to do with the Presbyterian Church?  Our membership is declining.  Same is true with the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal and all other mainline churches.  Things that worked decades ago no longer work.

The Presbyterian Church, and other mainline churches, have been comfortable in low earth orbit.  It is time to move forward.  We serve a living God that is doing amazing things.  The fact that we don't fully comprehend what God is up to should not bother us or fill us with anxiety.

Denominationalism is changing and the structures we have now may soon be mothballed.  The church will continue.  We are built on the rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

How we do mission, how we create new churches, how we provide for pastoral leadership -- everything is changing.

And it will be okay.  The church will continue in new structures and organizations, but it will continue.  We were, after all, built on that rock :)

Remember Ezra, chapter 3?  Ezra is a book of the Old Testament, and in chapter three the people have rebuilt the Temple.  When the builders laid the foundation, there was a ceremony.  The priests show up in vestments.  The  musicians start playing their trumpets and banging their cymbals.  People started singing. 

Now here's the thing - the text says, "many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy."

Get the image?  The people who remembered how it was "back in the day" when the Space Shuttle was flying and Synods in the Presbyterian Church actually had a reason for operating were sad that the past was past.  The younger generation not bound by the way things used to be and work were happy.

And the strange thing comes with verse 13:  "No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away."

Do you understand what verse 13 is telling us?  

Me neither. 

But I know this.  We can grieve at the fact that a new Presbyterian Church is emerging,  Or we can rejoice.  The world will hear our noise and it will sound the same to them.  

As for me, I think I will do a little of both - shed a tear and shout with praise.

The Presbyterian Church Is Losing Members - So What?

There are people today who are in a state of panic! 

Me?  I think we are living in the most exciting time in Christianity since the Protestant Reformation.

Others are in panic because the Presbyterian Church (USA) is losing members!  The same is true for any other denomination, but since I’m Presbyterian, this is what concerns me most J

Me?  I’m excited.  I think God is doing something new, and just because I don’t have a clue what God is doing doesn’t bother me a bit.  Most of the time I have no idea what God is doing – so I’m used to it.  I just trust that he knows something I don’t, which I don’t think is that hard.

So while others are in fear and anxiety, I say, “so what?”  It is not that I don’t care about the Presbyterian Church, USA.  I love this church.  I am fiercely loyal to my church.  I am sinfully proud to be part of this church.  Do I care that it might not exist when my great great grandson is born?  No, not really.

You remember that list of churches in the Book of Revelation – there were seven of them and there were letters sent to each of the angels of those churches. 

Those churches don’t exist in the 21^st century.  So what?

That church that met in the home of Aquila and Prisca – we don’t even know where the house was located. 

All those other churches in the New Testament?  Gone. 

BUT – the church survived. 

Of course it did, Jesus built the church upon a rock and told us the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

We’ve been around for 2,000 years, and we are probably young compared to what we will be when “earth’s last picture is painted, and all the tubes are twisted and dried.”

The United States of America?  Founded in 1776.

ATT&T?  Founded in 1885.

IBM?  Founded in 1911.

Google?  1998.                           

The church?  We’ve been here for 2000 years and we will be around a lot longer, because Christ built the church on a rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

Not to say that the church will be the same.  It won’t be.  Thank God I don’t have to sit in one of those uncomfortable frontier pews from 1801 listening to some preacher ramble on without Power Point for 45 minutes.  Yes, I do like those old hymns, but please give me a little bit of Praise Music that feels like that old time Rock and Roll, the music that soothes my soul.

The church is the most adaptive organization of all history.                                                                        

Some organizations are like that – take IBM.  International Business Machines built typewriters.   

We got one in our church office – I’m not even sure it works, but we’ve found it is good for piling stuff on top of it.  IBM went from typewriters to computers.  Why, because they weren’t in the business of making typewriters, but business machines.

Or take AT&T.  The American TELEGRAPH and Telephone?  Does anyone other than Boy Scouts use Morse Code?  Are there any operating telegraph machines?  Maybe.  But my point is that AT&T wasn’t in the telegraph business, but the communication business.

Then there is Kodak.  If you bought their stock in 1997, it’s worth 96% of what you paid for it.  They made film and equipment and chemicals I used to use in a dark room.  If you don’t know what those things are, my point is made.

Blockbuster?  Back in ancient times one had to rent a movie by going to a store, looking to see if they had the video TAPE you needed, you paid for it and had it for a day or two.  Then you had to return it.  Yes, they did adapt to DVD.  But who rents DVDs today?  One MIGHT go to an automated machine at the local CVS or Walgreens, but most of us watch the movies over the Internet or other service that goes straight into our phones or TVs. 

But the church?  We adapt. We change.

“Reformed and always reforming” would make a great motto for our church.  Oh wait – that is the motto of our church. 

Whither the Presbyterian Church, USA?  Of course.  Because God is at work, not at rest.  We can either journey with him, or crawl into the grave and think about how things used to be. 

Does the Church Need a Church Building?

In Ezra 3, ministers wore vestments.  In the Temple, there were candles.  In the Psalms, there were instruments of music and great choirs.  In the book of Acts, there was an election for a new Apostle – go Mathias! 

One thing I don’t find is real estate?

OK, there was that Temple thing going on, but other than that, churches met where two or three were gathered.  They met in homes.  They didn’t go out and buy property.

Every church I have served has had property, and it has been nice property.  At Chapel by the Sea I got to preach in a boat.  That was cool.  At Good Shepherd we had an awesome youth building.  Here at Grace Covenant, we got the gym!  There is something about our culture that makes churches more comfortable having a PLACE to call home.  It’s not a bad thing, not at all.

However, for those churches meeting in store fronts that have grown large enough to start looking for property, I want to say, “Don’t do it!” 

Mortgage.  Repairs.  Dirty carpet that has to be replaced!

As a pastor, much of my time has been spent on property issues.  Yes, there are advantages to owning property, but if you are a church that isn’t there yet, don’t go there.  Stay real estate free for as long as you can!