Bible Study Psalms C51 V2

Blotting out our Transgressions (Psalm 51:2)
David starts his prayer of repentance with an urgent appeal for forgiveness and inner cleansing (v1-2). First, he bases his request entirely on God’s mercy, not his own merits. v1a: “Have mercy upon (be gracious to) me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies…” Then describes his sin in 3 ways, and ask God to do 3 things with his sins, v1b-2: “(1) BLOT OUT my TRANSGRESSIONS. (2) WASH me thoroughly from my INIQUITY, and (3) CLEANSE me from my SIN.” In calling them ‘MY transgressions’, ‘MY iniquity’ and ‘MY sin’, he takes full responsibility and ownership for it, and does not try to minimise it, by acknowledging it in its fullness. He is honest and transparent with God. This is true repentance. He does not name it, for God knows it, and this makes the Psalm more applicable generally.
*The 3 words that David uses to describe his sin are the same he uses in the parallel Psalm 32:1-2: “Blessed is he whose TRANSGRESSION is forgiven, whose SIN is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute INIQUITY.” All 3 words are used in Exodus 34:7, Ezekiel 21:24 and Daniel 9:24. *(1) TRANSGRESSIONS are acts of rebellion, not just breaking a rule, but defiant rebelling against the rightful authority, a deliberate crossing of a boundary set by God’s Commandments, as Nathan said to David: “Why have you despised the Commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?” (2Sam 12:9). David broke a number of the 10 Commandments. *(2) INIQUITY (twistedness, perversion, opposite of righteousness, which means ‘straight’) describes our sin-nature, and its effect on our soul, when we yield to it. This means that we don’t just do wrong things, but we are wrong in ourselves. David’s sin came from his sin-nature, for he was conceived in iniquity. *(3) SIN means missing the mark, falling short of expressing God’s nature, glory, love, for which we were created (Rom 3:23). He uses all 3 words to describe his sinfulness and sin in its full horror, rather than minimising it.
David also used 3 words to describe what he wanted God to do about his sin. *(1) “BLOT OUT my transgressions” (v1b). He reaffirms this request in v9: “Hide Your face from (cover) my sins, and BLOT OUT all my iniquities.” This refers to the legal side, in which God forgives and forgets our sins, and remembers them no more (Jer 31:34, Heb 8:12, 10:17). God our Judge keeps a Record Book of all our sins, His debt-book. He asks God to erase all his debits, to wipe his slate clean, to blot out everything written against him, as you might wipe out writing in a book. This can only be done by the Blood of Christ (Col 2:14, see also Isaiah 43:25, 44:22). God will blot out our sins, when we repent (Acts 3:19). Other verses say God will blot the names of the unrepentant out of His Book of Life, God’s Family Album (Exodus 32:32-33, Ps 9:5, 69:28, 109:14, Rev 3:5). If our sins are not blotted out (covered) by the Blood of Christ, then we stand guilty before God and will be condemned to Hell. So, either God will BLOT OUT your sins (if you repent), or He will BLOT OUT your name from His Book of life. Therefore, David makes his urgent appeal to God for his sins to be blotted out from God’s record Book. *(2) “WASH me thoroughly from my iniquity” (v2a). This refers to the inner washing of our soul, to remove guilt, shame, cleansing our conscience and the unrighteous stain of our sin (1John 1:7,9), otherwise we will be prone to sin in the same way again. He reaffirms this request in v7b: “WASH me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” ‘WASH’ is a laundry term, used of washing clothes to rid them of any ingrained dirt or stains. The soul under sin is like a soiled garment, and sin is like ingrained dirt on the soul, and this stain hinders our fellowship with God. We must bring our soul and sin to the light, and then God can cleanse us by His Blood (1John 1:7, Eph 5:13: “all the things exposed by the light are manifested, for everything that is manifested is light” YLT, v25-27). If we hide and bury our sin, we keep that part of our soul in darkness, so that it stays under the power of the sin-nature and the curse, resulting in further sin and increasing corruption. This washing is necessary for our fellowship with God to be restored. Therefore, David makes his urgent appeal to God for his soul to be washed clean from his sin. *(3) “CLEANSE me from my sin” (v2b). This request was reaffirmed in v7a: “PURGE (de-sin) me with hyssop (which applies the sacrificial blood), and I shall be CLEAN.” This word ‘CLEANSE’ was used for ritual cleansing, as in Leviticus 13-14, which also mentions hyssop, and which describes the CLEANSING of an unclean LEPER, through the sacrificial Blood of Christ applied to the leper. In the Bible, leprosy is a picture of sin (it’s like an infectious, spreading, corrupting, and terminal disease).....

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