Sermon Psalms 51:1-12 The Vocabulary of Guilt
Dr. Mickey Anders
Mr. Brown was the hardest teacher in our school, and I had him for 10th grade biology. He always assigned a term paper that everybody dreaded. That year I chose to do my paper on something about the sense of smell. I can’t remember the exact title, but I do remember spending hours in the library looking up all things olfactory. I worked hard on that term paper, and was eager to see what grade I made. When Mr. Brown handed out the term papers, mine had an “A” on the top, but then it was scratched out! Instead he had written a “C” and the words, “I smell something fishy.”
To this day I am not quite sure what he meant. I assume that he meant that he suspected me of cheating, but couldn’t quite prove it. He either thought I had copied the paper from someone else or that I had quoted too much from sources without footnotes. I was shocked. To my knowledge I had done nothing wrong. I certainly had not copied from anybody, but I might not have documented as well as I should. After all, it was my first term paper! But I assumed I must have done something terribly wrong if Mr. Brown said so. I never asked him just what he meant. I didn’t have the emotional strength to do such a thing. I just assumed I deserved the lesser grade, but I still don’t know what for. I felt guilty and ashamed. And I never mentioned it to anybody. In fact, until today day I have never told anybody about that incident. Guilt, whether real guilt or a false guilt, can stay with us for a lifetime.
Our text for today is one of the classic texts of the Bible in dealing with guilt and shame. The superscription for Psalm 51 says that it relates to a terrible incident in David’s life, yet the text of the psalm itself is lacking any detail that would reinforce that claim. Although some doubt David’s authorship of this psalm, it certainly fits the situation.
The story behind the psalm is told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. It’s a sordid tale of adultery, intrigue, and murder. David had deliberately taken another man’s wife, Bathsehba, and committed adultery with her. Using his authority as king, he had sent Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to the front line of battle, where he was killed. Then he had taken Bathsheba as his wife. In due time, they had a child, but the child died shortly after he was born. David apparently thought nothing of his crime until the prophet Nathan accused him to his face. Then in tears, David confessed. David was the greatest king in Israel’s history, but he acted like the worst.
Even though this is the traditional setting for Psalm 51, the language is so universal that it speaks to all of us. This psalm is filled with the vocabulary of guilt.
The psalm opens with a plea for God to have mercy, to forgive, and to cleanse him. David does not claim any special status or any moral worth but can only cast himself upon the love and mercy of God. In verses 1-3 we read, “Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.”
Repentance is the door into the presence of God’s grace. To find forgiveness we begin with an acknowledgment that we have done something wrong. We know that we have missed the mark. We acknowledge that our load is too heavy and that we cannot bear it alone. Our awareness of sin opens the way for us to experience forgiveness. The best word to sum up David’s attitude is “contrition,” a word I seldom hear outside of church. It means a “feeling of remorse for sins or earnest repentance.”
David then uses three terms for his wrongdoing. The first word is “transgression.” A transgression means to go beyond the boundary line; it is a rebellion against authority. The second word is “iniquity.” Iniquity is a wicked, unjust or unrighteous act. And finally he says, “My sin is ever before me.” Sin means to break a religious law or moral principle; it means to do wrong.
Also in this brief paragraph David uses four terms for removing his sin. He asks, “Have mercy on me.” David knows he needs mercy and not justice. He asks for God to “blot out” his transgressions. This image suggests the idea of a book in which one’s activities were recorded. Nehemiah spoke of such a book in which his good deeds were recorded. He prayed, “Remember me, my God, concerning this, and don’t wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its observances.” (Nehemiah 13:14)
Secondly, David asks that he be washed thoroughly from his iniquity. This image suggests a stain that has become ingrained in him. Our sin can stain us so that we have difficulty feeling clean again.
Shakespeare has Lady McBeth say those words which are so well-remembered: “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” (1) We remember this line so well because it tells the truth about our sin. It causes a stain that is impossible to remove except for the grace of God.
I don’t know how many conversations I have had with people who felt unworthy to take the Lord’s Supper. But I always say that if sin kept us from the Table, then none of us would dare to go. We come to the Table because we are sinners and in need of God’s grace.
In verses 4-5, David confesses his sin to God, “Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.”
Here he openly confesses his sin to God. He sees his sin as primarily a matter between him and God. When he says, “you only,” he is not trying to imply that humans do not sin against one another. But he is saying that all sin is basically an affront to God. His sin has broken his relationship with God, and that is foremost on his mind.
He offers no excuses. He does not attempt to escape the reality or the consequences of his sin. He says that God is justified in his sentence and judgment against him.
He ends by acknowledging that his very nature is sinful in its orientation. His phrase “I was brought forth in iniquity” says that sin is a universal and deeply rooted part of human nature. This assertion is about as close to a doctrine of original sin as there is to be found in the Old Testament.
The writer of 1 John reminds us, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).
The Psalmist then continues his plea before God by saying, “Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities” (51:6-9).
David ends with these words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence,
and don’t take your holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit” (51:10-12).
David requests renewal and re-creation. To be forgiven is not to return to some former status quo. Rather to be forgiven is to be changed. It is to slough off the old and put on the new, to exchange the heart of despair for a heart of service of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” This can only happen by the grace of God.
One of the harshest words of the vocabulary of guilt is the word “disgraced.” It’s a word implying humiliation, loss of favor, loss of respect and public dishonor. But the very construction of the word points to the real problem with guilt. Dis-graced is to be without grace, and that is a sad state to be in. Apart from the grace of God we are absolutely incapable of dealing with the problem of human evil.
I heard a review of the movie “Casino” on Siskel and Ebert a few years ago. They showed a clip of Robert DeNiro saying “Las Vegas has a way of washing your sins away.” DeNiro’s character was saying that everyone in Las Vegas has a past they would just as soon leave behind. Nobody there is too interested in a close moral scrutiny for others or for themselves. The implication is that amid all the glitz and glitter, along with the shows and gambling, people can almost hide their sins or hide from their sins. But it doesn’t really wash away your sins. Only Jesus Christ does that.
We affirm that the cross of Jesus Christ provides us with God’s forgiveness and restoration in a way that we cannot find anyplace else. God has taken the initiative in bringing us forgiveness. What God has done for us at the cross of Jesus Christ is to restore our broken relationship with him and bring us back into fellowship with him.
Jesus came to bring us the grace of God. Grace is the antidote for dis-grace. And such grace is truly amazing.
Philip Yancey says, “All nations have heroes. But Israel may have been alone in making heroic literature about its heroes’ failings.” (2)
The fact that David confessed his failures openly made him unique in his day. He knew his place before God, and more than anything in life he wanted his relationship with God to be right.
In the final analysis, David was remembered fondly by all the people of Israel. They looked forward to a Messiah who would be “a son of David.” They admired him more for his humility before God than they did for all his military achievements. David shows us that we can move from dis-grace to grace with God’s help.
Finally, David shows us the perfect model of grace in verse 17 when he says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Oscar Thomas Olson once told this story. As a boy he begged and pleaded for an air rifle, until his father finally bought one for him. One day he was up in the barn loft, shooting his new gun, when he heard the breaking of glass. He remembered that the old-fashioned storm windows from their housethe wooden-sash type that are removed in the spring and reinstalled in the fall–were stored in the loft. Sure enough, there they were, piled together in a vertical stack against the wall. The pellet from the air rifle had broken the panes in every window except the last one. Quickly young Oscar Thomas moved the unbroken window to the front of the stack, to hide the evidence.
His summer was ruined. He got no joy from his new air rifle. Every day brought him closer to autumn and the day the windows would be brought out to be installed on the house. To make matters worse, his father seemed to go out of his way to brag on him, to tell all their friends and neighbors and relatives what a good boy his son was and how proud he was of him.
Finally the boy could stand it no longer. He went to his father and told him how he had broken all the windows.
“Oh, I knew that,” said his father. “I was just waiting for you to tell me.”
“I never felt so close to my father in my whole life as I did right then,” Olson said.
God uses broken things to bring us back and to bring us close–broken bread, broken relationships, broken bodies.”(3)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Endnotes:
1) Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 34 – 39.
2) The Student Bible, p. 604.
3) John Robert Mc Farland, Now That I Have Cancer I am Whole. Andrews and McMeel. Kansas City. Page 251-258.
Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.
Copyright 2003, Mickey Anders. Used by permission.