Psalm 51 meaning

Psalm 51 is the best-known prayer of repentance in the Bible. John MacArthur calls it the classic Old Testament text on human repentance and God’s forgiveness, and it is one of the seven psalms Christians have long called penitential. In Orthodox and older Catholic Bibles it is numbered Psalm 50, because they follow the Greek numbering of the Psalms; most other Bibles call it Psalm 51.

The story behind the psalm

The heading ties the psalm to one of the darkest moments in David’s life: the time when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had taken Bathsheba. The story is told in 2 Samuel 11. While his army was at war, King David slept with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers. When she became pregnant, David tried to cover it up and finally arranged for Uriah to die in battle.

Then God sent Nathan, who told the king a story about a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. David was furious at the rich man, and Nathan answered that David was that man (2 Samuel 12:1–12). David did not defend himself.

And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

2 Sam 12:13 · King James Version (1769)

Nathan told him that God had put away his sin, though the consequences would remain: the child born to Bathsheba died (2 Samuel 12:14–18). Keil and Delitzsch read Psalm 51 as David’s struggle to grasp inwardly the forgiveness Nathan had announced. Albert Barnes adds that the heading hands the psalm to the chief musician: David was willing for his confession to be sung in public worship.

The psalm, part by part

A cry for mercy. David begins not with his own record but with the character of God.

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Ps 51:1–2 · King James Version (1769)

He appeals to God’s mercy and steadfast love. MacArthur notes that even after such terrible sin David knew forgiveness was possible because of God’s love. Keil and Delitzsch explain the three pictures: sin as a debt to be blotted out of the record, as dirt ground into a garment that must be scrubbed, and as leprosy that must be declared clean.

Honest confession. David no longer hides or explains.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 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.

Ps 51:3–4 · King James Version (1769)

David had wronged Bathsheba and Uriah terribly, and Barnes stresses that he knew it. The words against God alone mean, as MacArthur puts it, that his crime was at root rebellion against God and His holy law, and that God’s verdict is just. Paul quotes this verse when he speaks of God being proved right (Romans 3:4). David goes on to admit that his sin runs deep in his nature, from the very beginning of his life (Psalm 51:5). Keil and Delitzsch call this a confession of inherited sin as the root of his actual sin, not an excuse but a deeper self-accusation. God, meanwhile, desires truth in the inward being (Psalm 51:6).

A request for cleansing.

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

Ps 51:7 · King James Version (1769)

Hyssop was the plant used to sprinkle water or blood in the rites of cleansing, for example for a healed leper (Leviticus 14:4). Barnes points out that David is not relying on the rite: he asks God Himself to do what the sprinkling only pictured. He also longs to hear joy and gladness again (Psalm 51:8) and asks God to hide His face from his sins (Psalm 51:9).

A new heart. Keil and Delitzsch see the prayer turning here from forgiveness to renewal.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Ps 51:10–12 · King James Version (1769)

The word for create is the one used in Genesis for God’s creating the world. Barnes concludes that only God’s power can change a heart. David also prays that God would not take His Holy Spirit from him. Keil and Delitzsch connect this with the Spirit given at his anointing (1 Samuel 16:13) and with Saul, whom God had rejected (1 Samuel 16:14). Matthew Henry notes that David knew he had grieved the Spirit and dreaded His withdrawal more than anything.

A changed life. Forgiveness is not the end of the prayer. David promises to teach sinners God’s ways so that they will turn back to Him (Psalm 51:13). He calls his sin by its name, bloodguiltiness, and asks to be delivered from it so that he can sing of God’s righteousness (Psalm 51:14–15).

The sacrifice God wants.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Ps 51:16–17 · King James Version (1769)

David is not rejecting the sacrifices God had commanded. Ritual without true repentance is worthless, but sacrifices offered with a right heart were accepted, as the closing verses show (Psalm 51:18–19). Henry writes that God accepts a broken and contrite heart, though men despise what is broken.

Commentators differ on those last two verses with their prayer to build the walls of Jerusalem. Some scholars cited by Barnes thought they were added during the exile, when the walls lay in ruins. Barnes and Keil and Delitzsch hold that David himself could pray this, since the city’s walls were still being completed in his time.