Title: My Prayer
Text: Psalm 51: 1-19
Date: September 12, 2010
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
How can one who beholds himself the chief of sinners even open his mouth to teach anyone? How can one whose heart is so full of sorrow over his own sin speak of the joy of God's salvation? How can one so insufficient find the words to declare the sufficiency of God's grace?
I stand here as one that God has called to minister to you. My chief desire is to be a helper of your joy. Yet, as I try to speak to you of the joy of God's salvation, I find my own heart so overwhelmed with sorrow over my own sin that I find it impossible to do what I long to do for you.
I have searched the scriptures for the word for you for this hour. This doctrine came to mind, that doctrine came to mind, but it is as if the heavens have been locked tight before me.
These are the words that I keep praying to God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51: 10) Have you ever been that helpless? Have you ever begged God for such a thing? That was the prayer of King David.
Psalm 51: 1: «To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.»
He was called of God and sent to minister to God's people in Zion--to teach transgressors--those who oppose themselves--that they might be converted unto God. That was his hearts desire--yet here he is an adulterer, a pre-mediated murderer, and all he could do was beg for God "to restore unto him the joy of God's salvation." As I read the 51st Psalm, David's petitions jumped out at me, "Have mercy upon me; Wash me; Purge me; Make me to hear; Create in me in a clean heart and so on."
All David could do was beg God to do the things which David could in no way do for himself. As honest as I know how to be with you, this is all I can do. Let's look at these petitions together.
I. HAVE MERCY UPON ME
Psalm 51: 1: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
I need mercy. Do you need mercy? I need mercy because I have no merit in me. I need mercy not because God is obligated to me or even because of my misery--but according to HIS lovingkindness. God's lovingkindness is his free, sovereign, distinguishing, unchangeable love in Christ--that is the lovingkindness I need. I beg God to have mercy on me because my only hope is his Son--according to his lovingkindness.
And I need a multitude of his tender mercies. I have not merely committed one sin, but a multitude of sins. It is not merely sins I have committed but I need mercy for the vast wretchedness I am. I need for God, according to the MULTITUDE of his tender mercies to blot out my transgressions.
II. WASH ME AND CLEANSE ME
Psalm 51: 2: Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3: For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4: Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6: Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
My sin is my own: mine iniquities, my sin, my transgressions. And my sin is against God and God only. Wasn't David's sin against Bathsheba? Against her husband? Even against the people he was sent to lead? Yes. And so is mine. But CHIEFLY--Against God, God only, have I sinned, and done this evil in God's sight. The thoughts I hate are the thoughts that I can not stop. The words I hate--boasting and reviling--are the words I speak. The deeds I hate are the very things I do. Worse, it's not just what I do, it what I was conceived in.
Psalm 51: 5: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Sin was not just imputed--charged--to all men. But death by sin passed upon all men--was imparted--by natural generation. I was shapen in iniquity. My mother was impregnated with sin, sin grew in her womb and she gave birth to sin.
John 3:6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
These three words signify "what I am by my first birth" and by my own rebellion: "Transgressions, iniquity and sin." God is justified when he speakest, God is clear when he judgest.
All I can do is cast myself on God's mercy and beg God, according to HIS lovingkindness, according to the multitude of HIS tender mercies to: blot out my transgressions, and to wash ME thoroughly from MY iniquity, and to cleanse ME from MY sin.
Do you acknowledge this about yourself? Is this your confession to God? Is this your only hope and plea to God?
III. THIS THIRD PETITION IS ACCOMPANIED WITH FAITH IN WHAT ONLY GOD IS ABLE TO DO TO THE UTTERMOST.
Psalm 51: 6: Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: (how can I have this?) and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
We must be born--regenerated--recreated--made a new creature--by the Spirit of God. Our Lord told Nicodemus:
John 3: 6:…and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8: The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
But wasn't David born of the Spirit of God already? Yes, once born of God this is the plea of faith?
Psalm 51: 7: Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8: Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9: Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Hyssop was a plant used to sprinkle blood of the slain lamb on the door post the night the LORD delivered Israel out of bondage. It was used in the ceremony to cleanse lepers. But David knew that this was a shadow of good things to come by Christ Jesus.
How God can justly hide his face from my sin? How can he blot out mine inquities? Because my Savior, my Substitute, hung on the cross in my place and cried.
Psalm 22: 1: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?...3: But thou art holy…
The curse of the law was due to my sin but he was made a curse for me, Christ Jesus his own self bore my sins in his own body on the tree. And God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" hid his face from my redeemer.(Hab 1:13.) But he hath redeemed me from the curse of the law. And now God can justly hide his face from my sin and blot out all mine iniquities.
But how often we find our bones are broken. How often is my sin ever before me! I acknowledge it before God, I justify God in his judgment of what I am. I cry in desperation: Purge me, O God! Wash me, O my Lord! Make me to hear joy and gladness, that I may rejoice! This is our earnest petition:
Psalm 51: 10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13: Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14: Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Through the Holy Spirit, like that winged seraphim to Isaiah, he flies with a coal from Christ our sanctifying Altar and he lays it upon your mouth and says,
Isaiah 6:7:…Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
And he restores the joy of our salvation reminding us:
1 John 1: 7:…the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
That still small voice whispers the joy of our salvation into our inward parts saying "Your sins and iniquites I remember no more."
Is your spirit within you broken? Is your heart broken and contrite before God? Draw near and confess your need of his mercy?
THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF THIS BROKEN SINNER TO YOU HERE TO DAY!
Psalm 51: 16: For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
A heart of faith, thanksgiving and praise unto God for his free salvation in Christ this is the sacrifice of righteousness which God accepts from his children in Christ our Altar.
BEING MADE ONCE AGAIN TO KNOW MY UTTER INSUFFICIENCTY FOR THIS WORK, THIS IS MY PRAYER TO GOD FOR YOU!
Psalm 51: 18: Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19: Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.