This Psalm is the first of eighteen Psalms bearing the name of David, which appear to have been taken from some earlier collection by the compiler of the Elohistic Psalter. Eight of them have titles connecting them with historical incidents in the life of David. Most recent commentators find the con... [ Continue Reading ]
_Have mercy upon me_ Or, Be gracious unto me, as the word is rendered in 2 Samuel 12:22. It suggests the free bestowal of favour rather than the exercise of forgiving clemency, and is connected with the word rendered _gracious_in Exodus 34:6. Cp. Psalms 4:1; Psalms 56:1; Psalms 57:1. _thy lovingkin... [ Continue Reading ]
Prayer for forgiveness and cleansing: its ground, God's grace; its condition, man's repentance.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I acknowledge_ Lit., _I know_. The pronoun is emphatic. His sins have all along been known to God. They are before His eyes (Psalms 90:8). But now he has come to know them himself; they are unceasingly present to his conscience. Such consciousness of sin is the first step towards the repentance... [ Continue Reading ]
David's confession to Nathan was couched in the simple words (two only in the Heb.), "I have sinned against Jehovah." The additional words "thee only" have been taken as a proof that the Psalm cannot have been written by David. But they need not, as we have seen already, be pressed with such extreme... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, I was shapen_ Better, Behold, I was born. Acts of sin have their root in the inherited sinfulness of mankind. It does not appear, as some have thought, that the Psalmist pleads the sinifulness of his nature as an excuse for his actual sins. Rather, in utter self-abasement, he feels compelle... [ Continue Reading ]
He has inherited a sinful nature; and yet, so he is confident, God can and will make it conform to His desire. The emphatic -Behold!" marks the beginning of a new stanza.... [ Continue Reading ]
_truth in the inward parts_ In the most secret springs of thought and will, unseen by man but known to God, He desires _truth_, perfect sincerity, whole-hearted devotion, incapable of deluding self, as David had done, or deceiving man, as he had endeavoured to do by his attempts to cover his sin and... [ Continue Reading ]
The verbs in these verses may be regarded as optatives (_mayest thou purge me_), but it is preferable to render them as futures: Thou shalt purge me … thou shalt wash me … thou shalt make me hear. They thus give utterance to the Psalmist's faith that God can and will cleanse and restore him. In Psal... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hide thy face from my sins_ Cease to gaze upon them in displeasure. Cp. Psalms 32:1; Psalms 90:8. This use of the expression is unusual. Generally God is said to hide His face when He withdraws His favour (Psalms 13:1; Psalms 44:24, &c.). _blot out_ See note on Psalms 51:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
Repeated prayer for pardon, cleansing, and renewal. The change from the future to the imperative (see above) indicates that a fresh division of the Ps. begins here.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Create in me_ Rather, Create me, i.e. for me. The word is used of the creative operation of God, bringing into being what did not exist before: and so in the parallel line _renew_should be rather make new (Vulg. _innova_better than Jer. _renova_). It is not the restoration of what was there before... [ Continue Reading ]
The upright "behold God's face" (Psalms 11:7): He admits them to His presence for ever (Psalms 41:12). The spirit of Jehovah came upon David, as it departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:13-14). Did David fear that he might share the fate of Saul, banished from God's presence and deprived of His favour, de... [ Continue Reading ]
_Restore_&c. For sin has destroyed that assurance of God's help which is ever a ground of rejoicing (Psalms 9:14; Psalms 13:5; Psalms 20:5; Psalms 35:9). He prays for that deliverance which he is confident (Psalms 51:8) that God can and will grant him. with thy _free spirit_ Rather, with a free, or... [ Continue Reading ]
Having experienced the joy of penitence and restoration, he will endeavour to instruct transgressors in the ways of Jehovah in which they have refused to walk (Isaiah 42:24), those commandments which they have refused to keep, so that they may return to Him from Whom they have gone astray. Psalms 32... [ Continue Reading ]
Resolutions of thanksgiving.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Deliver me from bloodguiltiness_ From the power and the punishment of my sin. Cp. Psalms 39:8; Psalms 40:12. No doubt -bloodguiltiness" may include all -mortal sin," for which death was the punishment (see Ezekiel 18:13; Psalms 9:12, note); and the word is applicable enough to the nation which is r... [ Continue Reading ]
_open thou_ Lit. as P.B. V., _thou shalt open_, i.e. when thou openest. Not the occasion for praise only, but the power to praise aright is the gift of God. Cp. Psalms 40:3. In this verse and the preceding one there may be an allusion to the public worship of God. Cp. Psalms 26:6-7. He may be tacitl... [ Continue Reading ]
_For thou desirest not sacrifice_ R.V., For thou delightest not in sacrifice. The verb is the same as in Psalms 51:6_; Psalms 51:19_, and Psalms 40:6. _For_gives the reason for the nature of the thank-offering which he proposes to offer: not material sacrifice which God does not desire, but the sacr... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sacrifices of God_ Such as He desires and approves. _A broken spirit_and _a contrite heart_are those in which sorrow and affliction (Psalms 51:8) have done their work, and the obstinacy of pride has been replaced by the humility of penitence. Cp. Psalms 34:18; Isaiah 57:15. The P.B.V. _a trou... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Psalms 102:13 ff.... [ Continue Reading ]
Prayer of Israel in exile for the restoration of Jerusalem and the renewal of the Temple worship. Reasons have already been given for thinking that these verses are not part of the original Psalm, but an addition by the exiles who adapted it to their own needs.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then shalt thou be pleased with_ R.V., Then shalt thou delight in, as in Psalms 51:16. _the sacrifices of righteousness_ Those offered in a right spirit. Cp. Psalms 4:5; Deuteronomy 33:19. _with burnt offering and whole_burnt offering] R.V., in burnt offering &c. The term - _ôlâh_, -burnt-offering... [ Continue Reading ]