Alright, we will continue to look at the Psalms. So please turn with me to Psalm 51 this morning. Psalm chapter 51. So listen as I read this psalm. Psalm chapter 51: “To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”. Verse 1: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight— that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart— these, O God, You will not despise. 

Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. That You may be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.”. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we are so blessed and privileged to come once again this morning and to open up Your Word. Lord, we pray that You will indeed help us not to fall in the sin of taking this for granted. And even as we come, we want to draw near to You. And we pray and plead that You will draw near to us and instruct us and help us to understand Your marvellous truth. And so be with us this morning, for this, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, we are looking at Psalm chapter 51, and I’d like to point out from the outset that this psalm is an impassioned plea for mercy. It is an impassioned plea for mercy. Now you might remember the Lord Jesus who said in Matthew chapter 11: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden”. Now the phrase “heavy laden”, laden with what? Laden with sin. The phrase refers to the burden of sin. It refers to people who are being weighed down by their sins, and Jesus gave that invitation: O you who are laden or weigh down by your sin, come. Come to Me.

Now here in this psalm, David is under the burden of his sin, and the sin is in question, it’s already mentioned in the title of the psalm. If you look at the title or the superscription, it is said there that this psalm is “a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”. That sin is recorded for us in Second Samuel. And for those of you who perhaps are not so familiar, now turn with me to Second Samuel chapter 12. Second Samuel chapter 12, and here we have the account of David being met by the prophet Nathan after he had sinned against Bathsheba.

So in Second Samuel chapter 12 and here beginning in verse 7, we are told: “Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.”.

And then David when he heard that, he responded in verse 13: “So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.””. I have sinned against the LORD. You see, David here is under the burden of his own sin, and I want to begin by asking you this morning: Have you ever in your life, at any point in your life come under the burden of your own sin where you would cry out like David: “I have sinned against the LORD”? 

Do you have that ever the experience of that deep concern for your soul because of your sin that you will cry out like David, that you will cry out like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 where he said: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of sin?”. Or that man Jesus mentioned in Luke chapter 18, the publican who beat his breasts dare not even to look up to heaven and cry: God, be merciful to me a sinner! Be merciful to me a sinner! Have you ever cried out to God, ever in your life saying to Him: “Be merciful to me, a sinner!”? 

This is what Psalm 51 is about. It is David’s cry for mercy. It is his impassioned plea for mercy because he was under the weight and burden of his own sin. So what did he do? What did you do the time when you were under the burden of your sin? Where did you run to for help? What did you do? Let us perhaps this morning learn from David. And perhaps this morning if some of you have felt that burden (the weight of sins) on your life, Jesus is calling out to you: “Come. Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”. 

Now, this is what David did as he came under the burden of his own sin. Now there are four things I like to highlight here in this psalm about David as he pleaded for mercy. Number one, the first thing David did was to cry out to God for mercy. When he was under the weight of his own sin, the first thing that David did was to cry out to God for mercy. And that is the first thing we all should do to cry out to God for mercy. Look at verse 1. David cried out and say: “Have mercy on me, O God”. Have mercy on me, O God.

You see, David had committed two sins for which there were no provisions in the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. There was a sacrifice for every other sin, for sins that are committed unintentionally. But for intentional, deliberate, premeditated sin against God, there was no provision in the Old Testament. And David had committed these two sins- the sin of adultery. A deliberate, intentional sin of adultery and a pre-mediated murder. And David knew that there was nothing he could do about this to rid himself of this sin. And that’s why he wrote in verse 16: “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.”. 

So David knew that he was doomed. He was damned because he has committed a sin where there was no provision in the system that he could not find any way to resolve his problem. But then David remembers something. He remembers something in verse 17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.”.

Yes, there was nothing that David could look to solve his problem, but then he remembers. He remembers his God. He remembers his God and he remembers this God who will receive people who are broken in their spirit, who are contrite in their heart, that who would come to God in his brokenness. And David remembers. I can come to God in that fashion. There’s nothing I can find that can solve my problem, but I know Him. 

Do you know this God, the God of David? So where did he learn this from? How did he know that this is his God? Perhaps he learned it when he learned it from Moses. Perhaps he learned it when he read Exodus chapter 33. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 33, and look at verses 12 and 13. Exodus 33:12-13, and here: “Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring this people up.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’

Now (Moses said) therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.””. Moses is saying to God that I need to know really who You are. I want to have a fuller knowledge of this God. Let me know You. Let me see who You are. And then in verse 17: “So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name. And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.””. Show me who You are, what kind of a God You are. 

And then He said in verse 19: “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”. Now, this is the God of David as God reveals Himself to Moses, as God showed to Moses His glory. What is the glory of God? What is so glorious about this God? It is this: that He will have mercy and that He will show compassion. He is a merciful God. 

Have you learned that? Do you know of this God? Well, today we can learn this. We can know it from the Scripture. We can know it from the New Testament. We can learn it when we read the story of the leper who came to Jesus remember and the lepers cry out: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! That is what the leper knew of Jesus. Have mercy on me because Jesus is a merciful God. Our God, His glory is that He will have compassion. He will have mercy and people will come to Him. 

That’s why Jesus issued the invitation: Come to Me, come to Me because I’m a compassionate and I’m a merciful God. And we see all through in the New Testament and people coming to Jesus and they recognise that He is such a God. And that’s why the Bible says in the gospel of John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever comes to Him, He will not reject. He will not push away. Whoever comes to Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He will bless. He will receive. He will not reject. Come. Come to Jesus. Come to this God that David knew, a God who is merciful.

And then back to Psalm 51. And now in order to emphasise the glory and the importance, the significance of this attribute of God, this mercy of God, now David now uses three words to try to press home that this is God. This is the mercy of God. Do you know something of the mercy of God? David uses three words here to try to bring home this, and the first word is the word ‘mercy’ itself. Mercy. “Have mercy upon me.” That’s what David cries out because He is a merciful God. And mercy means that He is ready to help those in need, and David is in need. 

He is in his greatest need of his life, not need for money and not a need for education. It’s not a need for possessions. It’s not a need for health. His need is to be delivered from his sin. It’s to be plucked out in his doom that he is heading towards eternal damnation. He needs help. He is in great need. And here he has a God who will show mercy to people who are in such a need. And so he uses that word ‘mercy’, and he says that is God. That is the glory of God. 

And then he uses another word, according to your ‘loving kindness’. Your loving kindness. I say this is a very special word in the Bible, or sometimes translated as ‘steadfast love’ or ‘unceasing love’ or ‘unfailing love’. But that is what David is thinking about that this God is mercy. He is a kind God. He will help those who are in need and He is a God who is filled with kindness- loving kindness or steadfast love, unfailing of faithful love or faithfulness. That’s the idea there. You see, that is our God- merciful and faithful or steadfast in His love. 

And then the third word he uses here, according to the ‘multitude’ of your tender mercies. The multitude. In other words, the abundance of God’s mercy. He says it’s not just mercy. I know there are some merciful people around, but they are just about mercy and being merciful. But God, He is filled. He’s full of mercy and full of tenderness. It’s a different word here, and the idea here is compassion. A feeling of pity. He’s not only ready to help, He’s not only faithful to help but He is a God who is filled with emotion. 

Now do not think that our God is a God without feelings, without emotion. You see, God has emotion- the emotions of love, the emotions of pity upon us. What do you think God is doing as He sees this Earth in chaos, as He sees us humans dying of all kinds of things and suffering because of all kinds of things because we are living in the cursed world? And God stared down from Heaven and upon the Earth. Yes on the one hand He’s sad and perhaps even angry because we have rebelled against Him. But yet on the other, He is filled with emotions of pity. Oh, pity humans. Look at them. Look at them. They are like sheep without shepherd. They are lost. 

That is the picture the Bible uses to describe us. We are lost. We are like sheep wandering about, don’t know where we are going. And God looks down and He says He has compassion. That feeling of pity, that is God. That is the God that David turns to in time of his great need where he has nowhere to turn to. And when he has no one to turn to, he said I am doomed. I’m finished. I have sinned. I’m heading for hell, but then there is a God. There is a God, a merciful God, a wonderful God. 

You see, the most important thing I believe that a sinner can ever know about God is that He is a merciful God. Do you know that? Do you know that He is the wonderful, merciful Saviour, precious Redeemer, and Friend? That is what David is saying here. Oh, there is a God. I am in need, but there is a God who will listen to me, who will hear my humble plea. So this psalm is an impassioned plea for mercy. The first thing David did here was to cry out to God for mercy and he knows that He is a merciful God.

Secondly, the second thing he did was to confess his sin- to confess his sin. And we see here alright in the second verse onwards: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is (ever or) always before me. Against You, and You only, have I sinned, and done this evil thing in Your sight—that You may be found when You speak, And blameless when You judge. For behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceived me.”.

There are two things here that David does as he confesses his sin. You see as he confesses his sin, he tells us something about the sin that he is confessing. He tells us something about sin, some important truths about sin, and the first is: What is sin? David here is confessing his sin, but what is sin? Do you know what is sin? People perhaps hear the word a lot. You have seen this word somewhere. You have perhaps hear people mentioning that, but what is sin? 

Well, David tells us here in verses 2 and 3. He tells us in verses 2 and 3, and here he tries to help us understand something about sin- something about sin. He uses three words to describe sin. He uses three words to describe sin, and the first word is in the last part of verse 1: “Blot out my transgressions”. I know some translations have other words for it, but that is the word. There are three different words in the original.

The first is in English could be translated as ‘transgression’, but the meaning of this word is this: to transgress is to cross the line. That is the meaning alright. That’s the idea of the original word. It means to cross the line or to cross the boundary. Now, remember there is a line we must never cross. God has drawn a line. God has drawn the boundary. God says that this is what you can do and this is what you cannot do. In life that is something that we need to grasp, and that is what David is saying here. 

Now that is sin. Remember it is to transgress or to cross the line. When you cross the line, you are transgressing. For David, taking someone else’s life is crossing the line. You are not supposed to do that. “Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.” You have crossed the boundary that God has drawn. The problem with people today is that they don’t understand. They want to draw their own line. They don’t understand that God has drawn the line which we must never, never cross. And David has transgressed because he took someone else’s wife.

The second word is the word ‘iniquity’. Verse 2: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity”. And the word in the original simply means perversion or being twisted. Now sometimes we say: Look at that pervert, twisted mind, or depraved. And David said that’s what sin is. Sin is crossing the line that we ought not cross. But sin is also being perverted, being twisted, being depraved in our hearts.

And you see, when David when he was standing on the rooftop staring down at the naked woman, that is perversion. That is called pornography. That has been twisted. He ought not be staring at a naked woman from his rooftop. And David says: I have sinned against the LORD because I have crossed the line and because I’m a pervert. I’m a pervert if you have done that. But that’s what the Bible is saying about you. You are twisted. You are depraved. You are perverted. That is sin. 

And then there is the third word, and the third word is simply this. Verse 2, the end part: “and cleanse me from my sin”, is the word ‘sin’ that we are more familiar with. But again in the original, the word ‘sin’ simply means to miss the mark or to fall short. To miss the mark or to fall short. That is the standard. There is the standard that God requires of us, and David was falling short of God’s standard. He was falling short of God’s high calling of him as a husband, of him as a man. Now he has fallen short of God’s calling of him as God’s leader, the king. He’s not living up to God’s high calling. 

When we are not the husband we ought to be, when we are not the wife we ought to be, when we are not the children we ought to be, when we are not the church members we ought to be, we have fallen short of God’s high calling for us. And you know what? That is sin. That is sin. And the consequence of sin is eternal damnation in hell. And that’s why David felt that. He said: I have sinned against the LORD. I have transgressed. I’m a pervert. I’ve fallen short of the standard of God. I am doomed. I need help. And that is sin.

You see, all these words tell us that sin is not just about offending people. You see there is a vertical focus here. All these words tell us as David points out in verse 4: “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight”. Yes though he has sinned against Bathsheba, he has sinned against Bathsheba’s husband, he has sinned against humans, but he understands all sin finally speaking is sin against God. 

Who said that you cannot commit adultery? God, not people, not humans. Who said that you cannot steal? God. And today we have all this argument and debate about transgender and LGBT and all kinds of issues. You think that we are supposed to set the standard? It’s not us; it is God because sin is sin against God, not just human. And then next, so that is the first thing he tells us about sin- what is sin? 

And secondly, but why? Why did David sin? Why do we sin? Do you know why you sinned? Have you ever asked yourself the question? We know that we all sinned. We all sinned. No one here dares say that I have not done anything wrong. But why? Well, David tells us in verse 5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceived me.”. In other words, David is saying I sinned because I’m born a sinner. We sin because we are sinners. 

You see, our evil actions spring from our evil hearts or our evil nature. That is the explanation. You know David begins to see in greater depth his problem, his true problem. He said that is me. Inside, we are helpless. David is saying I’m helpless. There’s nothing I can do to break free from sin. Do you think you can break free from sin, from your sin? No! We are all dead in our trespasses and sin. We are trapped. We are bound. We are slaves to sin, and David understands that. And that’s why he says: “Behold, I was brought forth”. That is the way I’ve been born. I’m born a sinner. I’m conceived in sin. 

And so remember, sin, it’s not just an occasional problem of ours. So most of the time we are good people, now once in a while we are tempted and we fall into temptation, and then we, you know, we kind of sin a little here and there. No! Sin is deep-rooted. Sin is part of our nature. Sin is what we do as humans, as men and women, as boys and girls. That is what we do. We sinned against God every day because we break His law. We don’t care about Him. We don’t listen to Him. That is sin, and that is what we are. An explanation? That is the way we are born. We are born sinner. It is not an occasional problem. It is our whole nature. Our whole nature is evil. 

The problem David says in verse 6 is the inward parts. “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts You will make me to know wisdom.” It is the inner part or the hidden part. It is the heart, in other words, the secret. It is all deep-seated, and the heart is beyond cure. You realise that your heart is evil beyond cure. There’s nothing. You can go to the Sunway hospital and do a heart surgery, that will never improve your heart (spiritually speaking). Never because we are born with an evil heart that cannot be cured by ourselves or by anyone in the world.

But God desires the heart. But God said this is what I want. I do not want just your external righteousness. I do not want just your external actions, just all the things you should do externally. I want your heart and your heart is evil, and that is your problem. And now you see how David is thinking about himself, how he sees his problem. He said I have sinned and I will sin and I will continue to sin because I’m a sinner. I need help. And that’s why he came to God. He said I need help.

And there’s a third thing about David here as he came under this weight of his own sin, as he cries out to God for mercy, as he confessed his sin, his hopelessness and helplessness to God, and then the third thing we learn from David is this that he trusts in God’s remedy for his sin. There is nowhere as he has come to this point, he sees that he’s true and true wicked, true and true a sinner, born sinner, conceived as a sinner and will continue to sin and he will be doomed. But then he remembers there is hope.

I want to impress this upon you this morning that if you’re under this state, this weight of your sin, I want you to know that there is hope. There is no hope in this world. There is no hope in yourself. There is no hope in the educational system. There is no hope anywhere, but there is hope. And here’s the hope: David trusts in God’s remedy, not human remedy but trusts in God’s remedy for his sin. In other words, how is that possible that he will ever be saved? How is it ever possible for his sin to be removed, for his sin to be dealt with, for his sin to be forgiven? How is it ever possible for your sin to be removed?

David said the answer? Verse 7: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean”. The answer David said is hyssop. If you have your Bible, you might want to underline that or circle that. That is the solution. That is David’s hope, and that is our hope- hyssop. But that’s only a picture. Do not think that we go out and find whether in the supermarket there’s some hyssop, we can buy and then we bathe tonight and we clean ourselves from all our sin. So what is this hyssop? What is it a picture of? What is the significance of it in the Old Testament?

Now if you turn to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12:21-23. Exodus chapter 12, and here we have the time of the Passover. And here in verse 21, we are told: “Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop””. Now that is the hyssop that David is referring to as he thought about his own sin, as he thought about his hopeless situation. He sees hope here- hyssop. 

And so Moses said here: “take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel on the two doorposts with blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through and strike the Egyptians; when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”. 

That is the purpose of the hyssop. You see, hyssop is actually made of plants, brush where it was used in the Old Testament to dip in the blood of innocent animals for protection. So in this case, they were being protected from the destroyer, the angel of death. They need the hyssop to dip in the blood of an innocent animal. Of course in the Old Testament later on this hyssop was used as an instrument to sprinkle on lepers and other purification rights. So it’s a symbol of cleansing- symbol of cleansing.

Now in saying this in verse 7 of Psalm 51, in saying: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean”, in saying this, David is acknowledging that the only way he could be forgiven is through the shedding of an innocent blood or animal. See, that is the only way. I need hyssop dipped into the blood of this animal and sprinkled upon me. And now turn with me to the New Testament in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 9.

You see, the New Testament writer picked this up and then said in Hebrews chapter 9 beginning in verse 19. Beginning in verse 19 which says: “Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people”. So using hyssop to sprinkle.

Verse 20: “saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (of sin). Therefore it was necessary that the copies”. Those are only copies. The hyssop is only a picture. Picture of what? 

They said those “the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”.

In other words, the Hebrew writer is saying that that right (that purification right), that cleansing right where the Old Testament used a hyssop to sprinkle blood on people is pointing to Jesus Christ who now sacrificed Himself, and His blood is now being used to sprinkle upon people as it were, to cleanse us from our sin. In other words, David is saying that I trust in God’s only remedy for my sin, and the only remedy for my sin is the blood of Jesus Christ. It’s the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s only remedy for you if you are under the burden of your sin. There is only one remedy. There is only one place to run to. Run to Jesus Christ, and there is hope for you. 

And finally, we see David’s response. You see, there is always this response- a response to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Always a response. We find David’s response here. And his response was a determination- a determination to proclaim to sinners the wonderful mercies of God. He has experienced mercy. He has come to this God, his Lord. The burden is being lifted. Jesus has given him rest, and now he could not but to proclaim- but to proclaim that message. 

Verse 13: “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways”. I will go out and tell sinners, and sinners shall be turned or converted to You. I will go and I will sing of Your mercy. I will sing of the mercy of the LORD. I will proclaim the gospel of the glorious mercy of God. Now that is the effect upon David as he experienced the grace and the mercy of God in his own life, as he has been free, as he had been delivered. As he now receives hope, he wants to tell the whole world how wonderful and merciful God is that He is a God willing to forgive a horrible sinner like himself. 

Paul had experienced that. He said: “I am the chief of sinners, but God has shown me grace and mercy.”. And Paul could not keep his mouth shut, for he says I’m not ashamed of the gospel. Why should I be ashamed of the gospel that proclaimed the mercy and the goodness of God that God has saved me from the depth of my sin, from the lowest pit of hell? Why should I be ashamed to proclaim such a wonderful message? And that’s why Paul cry out and said: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”.

Have you ever cried out that way? No? Then perhaps you have not experienced them. You have not got that experience before. You are not known like David, like Paul, like the many people in the Bible, and like the many people in the world who have experienced such an experience and cry out: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound; That saved a wretch like me!”. These are the words of people who have had such an experience, or else he could never have penned words like this: “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”. 

That’s why it’s a wonderful hymn, and that’s why when you sing hymns where it proclaims wonderful truth like this, you cannot but to proclaim as you sing at the same time. You will sing it differently. You will sing it with your heart. You will sing it as you mean it, and then you will want to go out and you want to shout outside and tell people. Tell people what? You see what David says here: “I will want to tell people (transgressors) Your ways.”. God’s way of salvation. 

And I will tell them in verse 14 “your righteousness”. I would want to tell them about God, not about me, not about myself. No, I want to tell them of this God that I have come to know, it is God. It is the gospel. It’s the forgiveness through Jesus Christ. It is to tell them in verses 16 and 17 though God does not desire sacrifice, but then verse 17 he says: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, this God will not despise.”. 

Is there a broken and a contrite heart here this morning? Is there someone who would come to God and beg for mercy? You know what the Bible says? This God will not despise. He will welcome. He will receive. He will save to the very end. That is what Psalm 51 is about. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we pray that this morning that we might learn to self-examine, to look at ourselves in light of these passages of Scripture, to consider whether we have at any point in our life ever came under the burden of our own sin. If not, we pray O Lord that You’ll help us. Open up our eyes to see that we are born in sin, and in sin did our mother conceived us. 

Help us to see that we are evil by nature and in life, we sin against You daily. And we know that this is dragging us into eternal damnation. Help us to see the hopelessness of our situation, and help us to see that there is hope in Jesus Christ, and help us all turn to Him. And help us like David to have that determination to go out and proclaim such a glorious news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for this, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.