FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST SEPTEMBER 16, 2001
Psalm 51:1-20
Title: “Confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness.”
This is the best known of the seven traditional penitential psalms, 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143, and one of the most moving prayers in the Old Testament. Unlike Lament Psalms there is no complaint about enemies, no prayer for their defeat or punishment or death, and no appeal to motivate God to act because of his fidelity. There is simply a confession of sin verses three to seven, wherein the problem of evil is internalized and a prayer for forgiveness verses eight to eleven, and restoration of innocence verses twelve to fourteen, so that the renewed one may praise God authentically and acceptably verses fifteen to twenty-one.
The beginning and end of this psalm have presented problems for commentators. The beginning, the Title or Heading, verses one and two, associates the psalm with David and his confrontation with the prophet Nathan after committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging for the death of her husband, Uriah in 2Samual 12. Titles which appear on many of the psalms, 116 of them in the Hebrew text, are generally accepted as later additions, added at different stages of Israel’s history and liturgy. Thus, the ascription “to David” does not necessarily mean he actually wrote the psalm. Likewise, the historical notes attached to some psalms are not necessarily historically true, but are usually educated or edifying guesses to give the psalm a setting from which the reader can reflect and apply to one’s own life. Such is the case here. There is no doubt that the sentiments expressed in this confession of sin fit David and Bathsheba. There is also no doubt that David himself could not have composed the psalm since most of the theological perspectives come from the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah, long after David, at the time of the Exile. Yet, understanding this psalm in the light of David’s sin helps the reader to identify sin in his or her own life sin, as heinous as David’s, confess it and experience forgiveness and restoration of zeal for God and his house. David’s sin was not only a sexual violation against Bathsheba) or murder against Uriah, but pride against Yahweh, imagining he was autonomous and could live without regard to God’s commandments. David did not write the psalm but he most certainly could have prayed it and identified with it.
The end of the psalm, verses twenty to twenty-one, where the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and acceptable sacrifice are mentioned, has caused another problem. This one is not about authorship but the dating of the psalm. Most commentators take the anti-cultic statements of verses eighteen and nineteen, to be part of an original psalm whose date of composition is unknown but back as far as Amos in the eighth century and verses twenty and twenty-one, pro-cultic, to be added to correct verses eighteen and nineteen, during the period of return from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple and walls about 538-444BC. While all this may be correct, the thesis is unnecessary. If this psalm were written in the post-exilic period, that is, before, during or after the rebuilding of the Temple, it would be quite possible for a Jew to maintain that God wants moral behavior to back up cultic sacrifices for authenticity sake and at the same time engage in such cultic practices. A sincerely devout Jew always lived with that tension. There is really no need to affirm or assume the existence of these final two verses as being tacked on to an earlier original. The psalm was sung as part of a penitential rite wherein the animal sacrifice was offered after the confession that it was not, in and of itself, sufficient to effect forgiveness. Sung in the liturgy, it was also appropriate to be recited privately, even by a sick person whose sickness has made him or her more conscious of sin, who cannot get to Temple and must be content with “a clean heart and broken spirit” as his or her sacrifice.
In verses one and two, a psalm of David: See the remarks made above.
In verse three, have mercy on me: The verb in Hebrew, hanan, comes from the root meaning, “grace,” undeserved favor from a superior to an inferior.
In your goodness: When a Hebrew praises God he gives the reason for it. When he asks for a favor he does the same. Both use the Hebrew ki, “for,” and this verse is no exception. Thus, it is “because of” or “according to” God’s hesed, covenant love and loyalty, here “goodness,” that the psalmist dares to ask. He has no other claim on God than God himself and the kind of God he knows him to be. There is no appeal to God as such in order to motivate him to act, merely this recognition of God’s character and nature.
In your abundant compassion: The word translated as “compassion” is the plural of the Hebrew word for “womb,” rechem. Compassion, then, is described as proceeding from the feeling a mother has for a baby in her womb and after birth, from her womb. Also, in the plural, the word can mean “bowels,” the seat of the emotions, one’s deepest feelings for a person.
Blot out my offense: The verb is used for erasing writing from a scroll; the idea being that sins are pictured as written in some accounting book. “Offense” translates one of three words the psalmist uses for sin. This one, pesa`, means both advertent and inadvertent violation of law, commonly a rebellion against authority.
In verse four wash away my guilt: “Guilt” translates the Hebrew `awon, whose root idea is bending or twisting. This is always a deliberate act, never accidental or inadvertent. Here the metaphor of thoroughly washing clothes and not merely removing a spot or stain, is used to indicate the psalmist’s need for a complete work-over by God. He is not talking about a small sin or fault.
From my sin cleanse me: A third word for sin, Hebrew hattia’t, by far the more common, has the root idea of “missing the mark.” However, the word does not connote an accidental failure to hit the target or reach the goal, but a deliberate one. All three words seem to be used here synonymously for both a specific action and the long-term, lingering guilt which results from it. The psalmist is haunted by it.
In verse five, I know my offense: The sense here is stronger than acknowledgement or confession; it is a personal knowledge, a sense of continual awareness rather than an occasional consciousness. This sort of awareness produces continuing tension within because of fear and shame. To break through the denial and admit such is the beginning of recovery from any addiction.
In verse six, against you alone have I sinned: This is the heart of the confession. Like David, who in 2Sam 11 was concerned only with covering up his sin, the psalmist, if not David himself, now comes clean, admits his gnawing guilt, and realizes that when all is said and done, no matter what the sin or sins, it is God who has been the innocent and undeserved recipient of his rebellion, whether overt or covert.
You are just in your sentence: He completely accepts God’s version of things and his verdict upon them. Sin, humankind’s injustice, serves to expose, highlight, and bring out even more, God’s justice. Confession of sin actually, if unintentionally, gives glory to God by accepting his justice.
In verse seven, true, I was born guilty: Lit, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity (`awon).” Present sin has roots. It does not just crop up out of nowhere. If traced far enough the roots of sin go all the way back to conception and beyond. Thus, a person is born with a propensity to sin, an inherited weakness for it, and into an environment of sin which further establishes conditions whereby personal sin is all the more likely. Although this statement can easily be explained by referring to David’s illicit intercourse with Bathsheba, its meaning is much more general than that. Without going so far as to over-interpret it, as has been done down through the ages, it is possible to say that it describes the human condition, and, as such, reflects the Old Testament idea of “corporate personality.” However, clearly here, the psalmist is not confessing personal sins of his mother or ancestors, but his own. It is just natural for a Semitic thinker to see himself in a larger context and take responsibility for it, even absent personal guilt. The psalmist is not philosophizing on “original sin” as Christians understand it, but simply stating “that’s the way it is.” A person is a “sinner” simply by virtue of the fact of being human and living in the human condition. Which many Christians refuse to accept or admit.
In verse eight, you insist on sincerity of heart: “Sincerity of heart” is more an interpretation than a translation. The word in Hebrew is ‘emet, commonly translated as “truth” but really meaning “reliability, fidelity.” It is a fundamental characteristic of God, which God also wants humans to exhibit.
In my inmost being: This phrase translates the Hebrew tuhot, “that which is covered up or over, hidden, concealed.” The idea is that the body “covers up” the inner self. The word is poetically equivalent to both “heart” and “human spirit” used in verse twelve..
Wisdom: The Hebrew hokmah has a wide range of meaning. Here it refers to the ability to cope with life in healthy and constructive ways.
In verses nine, Cleanse me with hyssop: A whisk of branches from the hyssop bush, unknown, possibly marjoram or oregano, was used to sprinkle blood on the door posts at Passover in Exodus 12: 22, in rituals, using water instead of blood, for cleansing lepers Lev. 14:4, 6, 49-52, and in purifying a person defiled by contact with a corpse Numbers 19:6, 18. The verb “cleanse” translates the intensive verbal form of the root commonly used for sin, h-t-‘. Here it means “unsin me.” This verse clearly has a ritual in mind, an ancient ceremonial of cleansing, and may mean that such a ritual was enacted as part of a penitential liturgy. However, the verse can easily be taken as metaphorical, as an expression, rather than the ritual itself, for the forgiveness of sin.
Wash me…whiter than snow: This is clearly metaphorical and in its poetic position of being synonymously parallel with the first colon of this verse strengthens the metaphorical interpretation of sprinkling with hyssop. Snow is an infrequent occurrence in Palestine and its color, white, was seen as symbolic of forgiveness just as scarlet was of sin Isaiah 1: 18 and black symbolic of sickness, sadness and mourning. To be whiter than snow would be to be completely cleansed of sin and prepared to enter the divine presence.
In verse ten, let the bones you have crushed rejoice: “Crushed bones” can have a physical reference, an illness causing the suppliant to become aware of personal sin, or a metaphorical reference, mental and spiritual distress caused by guilt. Recognizing the psychosomatic effect guilt has on a person, the “crushed bones” may refer to both.
In verse eleven, turn away your face: Ordinarily, God would turn away his face, that is, withdraw his presence, as a sign of displeasure. Here, the prayer is that God would do so not to the sinner as such but to his sin only.
Blot out all my guilt: This is a re-phrasing of the first colon of this verse. See verse three, for a discussion of “blot out.”
In verse twelve, a clean heart create for me: The word for “create, Hebrew bara’, is used in the Old Testament only for the creative work of God who brings forth something new and astonishing, never in reference to a human undertaking. Here, only an act of God can turn things around for the psalmist. No rite, no human behavior can create the clean heart for which he prays. “Heart” was a metaphor for reason, will and intellect as well as emotion. In other words, it stood for all that was uniquely human, not merely the irrational or emotive. Here the stress would be on “will.”
Renew in me a steadfast spirit: Hebrew ruah can also mean “wind” or “breath.” The psalmist sees God’s power like a “second wind” suddenly and inexplicably enlivening a completely spent human spirit, not fickle and unreliable or expendable, but “steadfast.” The “spirit” of a person would mean much the same as “heart.” The moving air of the “wind” and the living air of the “breath” provided good metaphors for the invisible yet perceptible atmosphere of energy or lack of it, which surrounds a person and out of which a person expresses him or herself more or less effectively, the “animating factor,” if you will. “Spirit,” like its synonym “heart,” captures the intellectual, volitional and emotional aspects of being a human.
In verse thirteen, do not drive me from your presence: Those deprived of the presence of God lose the source of joy and even life itself.
Nor take from me your holy spirit: The spirit of God is never implanted within a person in the Old Testament; it is poured out upon them, a force from outside. It is an overwhelming experience, endowing a person with a power to do what he or she could not do otherwise. Yet, it is not an impersonal force. It is God’s spirit, and so, God himself in spirit or “second wind” form. That is what “holy” incomparable, inexplicable refers to here and in Isaiah 63: 10 & 11, the only other time the expression is used. The psalmist asks for a continuing experience of the creative, life-giving, joy-producing presence of God himself.
In verse fourteen, sustain in me a willing spirit: This is not the spirit of God but the person’s spirit affected by and effective because of God’s spirit. God spirit is poured upon and into a person and produces “willingness.” The Hebrew nedibah carries the idea of “willing, voluntary,” thus making a person an enthusiastic volunteer for God and his causes. It also connotes “nobility,” thus making the person a moral aristocrat.
In verses fifteen to seventeen: The mood has changed. It is as though some assurance has already been given. The hanan, hesed and rehem requested in verse one, have, perhaps, been granted, or experienced as granted.
In verse fifteen, I will teach transgressors your ways: Restoration leads to ministry. Testimony and praise flow from the new creation and the presence of the spirit. Confession and forgiveness are a necessary prelude to mission. However, confession without mission is abortive and ends in an apathetic spiritual state. The “ways of God” involve both what humans should do and what God can do for them.
In verse sixteen, rescue me from death: “Death” translates the Hebrew damim, “bloods” meaning “bloodguiltiness” or “bloodshed,” murder involving both bloodguilt and blood vengeance. In David’s case this would refer to his murder of Uriah and the subsequent legal punishment for it by his own life and blood and death. While it may have that meaning it also has the figurative sense of guilt for sins which ordinary ritual sacrifice cannot cleanse. Sins such as adultery and murder, David’s sins, are not provided for in sacrificial rubrics. There are no sacrifices prescribed to atone for them, only death. The psalmist is talking about that kind of sin from which only the direct, case-specific mercy of God can forgive him. Note that in 2Sam 12:13 David is forgiven on the basis of his confession alone; no sacrifice is mentioned. The figurative, extended sense of this term would refer to the conscious and or subconscious state of sin which produces a kind of death even while one still is living. It robs one of the joy of living. It need not be a specific act, but rather a haunting awareness of not being right with God. The psalmist is not trying to escape the material consequences of his sin, but to be relieved of the guilt.
That my tongue may praise: “My tongue” stands for the whole person under the aspect of “singing aloud” the praise of God.
In verse seventeen, open my lips: God’s forgiveness breaks the seal of guilt his conscience has shamed him into silence about God and godliness and enables the psalmist to sing genuinely, as opposed to merely “mouthing the words” of the praise of God. It also empowers one’s speaking ability to teach authentically because having experienced the forgiveness of God. The psalmist prays for the inspiration, the “second wind” of God’s spirit to do such, now that he has experienced God’s forgiveness.
In verse eighteen, you do not desire sacrifice: The meaning here is the same as for all the prophets. This is a Semitic way of making a comparative statement: something is better than something else, “not that but this,” “this rather than that,” “not that without this.” Real sacrifice, a humble. contrite heart, is better, by far, than empty sacrifice, mere ritual for ritual sake. The best of gifts is unacceptable unless offered with and by a contrite heart.
In verse nineteen, my sacrifice is a broken spirit…a broken, humbled heart: One cannot ask for “lips of praise” until one has engaged in a profound yielding and emptying. That is because God does not want mere religious conventions, externals, or pretenses. The dismantled self- psychological, economic, political stepping away from power- requires a shattering of one’s spirit, a brokenness of one’s heart, a yielding of self to begin again on God’s terms.
Rituals are not automatically effective as means of forgiveness. There are “spiritual” conditions right attitudes and patterns of behavior prerequisite to the ritual requirements and so superior to them that forgiveness can be obtained without the ritual. The reverse is not true. The person who offers this sacrifice of humble, contrite heart, accompanied by burnt offerings or not, can be assured of divine acceptance.
In verse twenty, make Zion prosper…rebuild the walls: This could well have been a slogan after the return from exile before the Temple and walls of the city were rebuilt. As such it would fit at the end of any public gathering or prayer service. It was the shared and conscious, urgent even, hope of all the people. No individual would pray, even privately, without including this prayer. Indeed, there was really no such thing as strictly “private” prayer for a Jew.
In verse twenty-one, then you will be pleased: “Then” can refer to the time when the Temple is rebuilt and the liturgy restored in all its proper splendor. However, given the sentiments in verses eighteen and nineteen,, it more likely means that God will be even more pleased when a contrite, humble heart, now the only sacrifice possible, is enhanced by the newly restored Temple liturgy.
Proper sacrifice: This would mean sacrifices according to the appropriate ritual prescriptions, the rubrics, if you will. Given verses eighteen and nineteen, it would also mean sacrifices offered in the right spirit and right relationship with God.
Burnt offerings and holocausts: These are two terms for the same kind of sacrifice, one not eaten or shared by the people but totally burnt, offered to God alone, on the altar. The root idea of both terms is that of wholeness, completeness, totality.
Sermon
The sentiments of this psalm- awareness of sin, need for forgiveness, restoration to the joy of living- are so universal that, unless they are attached to a specific example- the profundity of this psalm can be missed. Thus, the composer looked back to David’s experience as a means to bring home what the words were really meant to say. Reflection on David’s specific sins- adultery and murder- do not seem, at first, to apply to most people. Yet, as one goes deeper one realizes that sin does not come out of nowhere. We are born into a sinful condition. It has infected the air we breathe and the genes we have inherited. Indeed, adultery and murder, or any other heinous crime have their motivation and are possible because of this sinful condition. Jesus said as much when he spoke of adultery in the heart or angry words and thoughts as tantamount to physical adultery and murder in the Sermon on the Mount. We Christians call it “original sin.” And it is not surprising that so many people have seen in this psalm the beginnings of expressing that notion. It is that sin- not so much the personal sins which flow from us deliberately, but the pervasive atmosphere of sin- which really gnaws at us. It gnaws all day long and all night. It is there when we are aware of it and there when we are not. It is a sense that we are not really okay, that we have done more wrong that we can even honestly admit to, and, at the same time, because of this gnawing, that we cannot dare to admit to the wrong we actually are aware of.
The psalmist began with admitting, to God, at least, what he had done wrong and knew about. He asked for forgiveness without trying to butter God up by reminding of how God had forgiven in the past. He knew he had no claim on or right to God’s mercy. He just asked for it on the basis of it. God is merciful. That’s the only reason to ask him for forgiveness. It is his nature to forgive when asked sincerely. Once he had gotten that far- admitting what he was aware of- he could go deeper and ask for forgiveness of all the sins, even from the time of his conception.
After taking a full and complete inventory of his moral failures- deliberate and otherwise- he turns to the forgiveness side of the equation. He knows that sincerity, a broken un-proud attitude is not only acceptable to God, not only restores access to God, but opens up again the joy of living, the enthusiasm for life and witnessing, through teaching and example, which amount to the same thing, to God’s love, the willingness to be generous, spontaneous and unguarded in the expense of one’s energy.
Knowing the forgiveness of God is much more powerful than knowing the constraints of sin. The experience reverses the direction of one’s life, one’s outlook and one’s spirit. Forgiveness is the experience of a “second wind,” the spirit of God. It, He, cannot be explained on the basis of one’s own energy. It, He, boosts, bolsters, buoys us up, empowering us to do with ease and gracefully what we otherwise could not do or do with great difficulty.
This psalm is both a plea for forgiveness and so a penitential psalm, a subcategory of Lament and a celebration of the benefits of forgiveness and so a psalm of anticipated thanks and praise for forgiveness sure to be given.
One is responsible for sin, be it personal or inherited, committed by the self, be it voluntary or unconscious.
The degree of responsibility varies, depending on how willful the sin is.
Sincere, specific and unqualified apology brings forgiveness.
All real forgiveness is undeserved and says more about the forgiver and the forgiven.
The Twelve Steps of AA: Two recovering alcoholics, Bill and Bob devised The Twelve Steps, after a long period of experimenting with what works. They were Christians familiar with the treasury of Sacred Scripture, and familiar with this psalm. Convinced that they and all of us, addicts or not were powerless before Sin, especially trans-generational or inherited Sin, they threw themselves on the mercy of God or a power greater than themselves, as they put it in the Steps. They asked for forgiveness for the past, freedom from sin in the present or sanity as they put it, and help in the future Steps 1 & 2 and backed it up by turning their will over to God Step 3. Having begun to feel better now that the monkey of guilt, shame, obsession and compulsion was off their backs, they asked God to keep them from relapsing and retracting their surrender to him and backed it up by practicing the Steps every day. They did this by taking a specific, detailed and thorough moral inventory of their lives Step 4, confessing it all to another trusted human being Step 5, and continuing on a daily basis to examine their consciences with brutal honesty Step 10. They recognized that no amount of effort on their own power would remove the defects of character that triggered their addiction, so they asked God, their Higher Power, to do for them what they could not do for themselves Step 7. They apologized to others and made amends where possible Steps 8 & 9. They sought conscious contact with God through intense prayer at regular times and recall of his Presence at all times Step 11. And they became missionaries of the message and the results of forgiveness, freedom from addiction, inherited and acquired Sin, to all who would listen, Step 12. The Twelve Steps have their basis in the conversion process delineated in the New Testament, especially in Matthew five to seven, but they found its prayerful expression in Psalm 51. Amen.
