A Crying King

[0:00] Well, good morning again and welcome to faith as we are here today this morning. We're going to be looking in the 51st Psalm a very Touching Psalm what has been called a penitential Psalm. It's a psalm where King David is pouring out his heart to God It's been some time since his sin with Bathsheba And he was confronted by Nathan the prophet And he is reaching out to God and asking he's confessing And I believe this is the psalm With which we can all identify. I believe there have been times in our life where where we've sinned against God and we have Maybe harbored that sin or trying to hide it And we come to the point where we we can handle it no longer and we Fall on our face before God and we we confess and say yes, I did it and we feel horrible and We ask God's forgiveness and we ask God to

[1:00] To cleanse our heart cleanse our mind and restore unto us as David did the joy of our Salvation because we know according to Romans chapter 3 verse 23. We're all what?

[1:12] We're all sinners. We know that we've sinned We know that Adam sinned in the garden of Eden and from Adam all have been born sinners and It is not unusual for us to disobey God for us to sin or for us to fall prey to to pride or lust or whatever May may come before us and we succumb to that that temptation and we sin Sometimes we're quick to confess sometimes we we wait a period of time and hoping nobody Will will find it out and then someone does and we're caught in sin and then we Confess and I hope that we're not sorry that we were caught but that as we see David here Truly penitent truly sorry and realizes that it's against God And a God and God only that we've sinned and the hurt that sin causes the heart of God and and what sin Has the the pain that it

[2:13] Placed upon our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ because he had to Divest himself of the glory that he had with God in heaven and come to the earth and take upon himself the form of human flesh and And become a man and suffer and ultimately eventually die on the cross for our sin Buried then rise again on the third day all that Because of mankind's sin so when we sin All we have to remember that it is it's sin that led Jesus To the cross and we're all in need of mercy and we're all in need of cleansing This is what paints the the sad but touching scene before us that we see in the 51st psalm David is confessing his sin and he's crying out to God for Cleansing Matthew henry the commentator says though the heart Is overwhelmed yet it may be lifted up to God in prayer

[3:15] There are times when we don't feel like praying But that is the time where we need to pray the most and we know that God will come to us meet us in our time of need He will be there for us and we know That he will provide for us and as we're going to see in psalm 55 Next week when david was in a time of of great trouble because a close friend had betrayed him He knows that God will be there for him he trust in God and his prayer was continual But here we see a a prayer of penitence We see first of all that it's a cry for Cleansing we see that in verses 1 and 2 of psalm 51 psalm 51 verses 1 and 2 We see have mercy upon me oh god according to your loving kindness according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions

[4:20] We see the king is painfully aware Of his sins we know that david is realizing That he has sinned because nathan the prophet has come to him and let him know that He in fact Had sin and We see here that the conscience of king david has been awakened And it may have been a period of a year or so Since this happened because we know that the young child That was a result of that sin has died and nathan the prophet comes to To david so there's a period of time that david may have been trying to hide his sin or to think that He can get over it get beyond it without Going to god and without taking time to To go before god and confess to god his sin so his conscience has been awakened and he says wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin so so it's a cry where king david wants cleansing he needs cleansing he feels dirty he feels that he has let his god down and we see here that the convicting work of the holy spirit is doing what bearing its fruit it's the holy spirit that convicts us yes nathan the prophet confronted him yes nathan the prophet told david david you're the man you're the one that did this to this very innocent individual and you know that would have been enough for you know in in in other things but when it comes for god and our sin it's not enough for us to simply be confronted with our sin we have to realize that it is sin and how we have hurt god and david realizes his need for cleansing and so that's what he is asking for that is what he is crying out for he senses his need for cleansing spurgeon said pardon of sin must always be an act of pure mercy and therefore the awakened sinner flees to his pardoning lord pardon for sin must always be an act of pure mercy we know that because jesus died on the cross for us that our sin is forgiven but it still must cause us to flee to him to run to him and realize that we need that cleansing because you see we need to face our sins before we can seek forgiveness before we can confess to him so david realizes that he has sinned now when we sin how quick are we to confess and come before him do we wait a year do we wait months do we wait days and we we see in david's writings not only here in psalm but we see in second samuel where this this account is given of nathan the prophet and what transpires between the time of david's sin and subsequently after his confession but we see that david has suffered emotionally he's suffered spiritually and he's also suffered physically because of this period of time that's transpired when he has been trying to either hide his sin or to not think about it or to to internalize it and just not deal with it at all so it comes to the point where david realizes he needs this cleansing wash me thoroughly wash me through and through inside and out

[8:22] from my sin from my iniquity cleanse me from my sin our realization of the sinfulness of sin ought to drive us to our heavenly father rather than pull us away it ought to drive us to him because we know that he is a forgiving god and he is rich in mercy and it's it's god's he what he does in verse one have mercy upon me oh god according to your loving kindness he he appeals to the loving and compassionate god knowing that god will hear him and knowing that god is going to forgive him so we need to face our sin before we seek forgiveness and then secondly what we see in verses three through verse nine we see the confession we see david reaching out to god and confessing what he's done we see in verse number three through verse nine for i acknowledge my transgression and my sin is always before me against you you only have i sin 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 part and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom he says purge me with hyssop speaking of ceremonial cleansing 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 sin and blot out all my iniquities he says in verse number three i acknowledge my transgressions and that's what god expects of us he simply wants us to own up to our sin is it easy for us to do that at times no not always because even though we know god knows even though we understand that god is aware of everything it's still difficult for us to name the sin and why is that well because hopefully because we're ashamed of it hopefully because as paul said some of the sins that are committed they're not even spoken of in in in general company in mixed company so sometimes we need to be so aware of our sins so aware of the sinfulness of our sin and so ashamed of our sin that we know we need to be clean we know we need to be cleansed and this is the way we come to god i acknowledge my transgression and we see david holds nothing back he lets it all out before god god i've done this god this is horrible he says i acknowledge my transgressions verse three now what do we see in verse number three when he says my sin is always before me what do you think he's saying what happens when you go to bed you're not asleep yet and you're alone with your own thoughts can't get to sleep what happens we mull over we go back over those things that are troubling us that are bothering us and david even though it's been possibly a year david said it's always there it's like the the proverbial albatross that we that's that tongue around our neck that it's there

[12:24] until it rots and falls off stinks horrible you know the story of the albatross about the neck as the punishment so sin was like the albatross around david's neck the unconfessed sin always before him always when he was least expecting it it came back to him and i'm sure that night or that afternoon came back to him or that decision and hearing the news that her husband had been killed in battle because of what david had ordered all of these things i'm sure came thundering back or flowing back into david's mind over and over and over again my sin is always before me verse 4 against you you only have i sinned what is what does david realize it's about god and he disobeyed god and he says and i've done this evil in your sight he says that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge what's david saying there you're right god i'm the one that's wrong not you i want you to know god that i believe that everything you say is right and when you speak and when you judge it's correct but what do we often do as human beings we try to rationalize our sin we try to say well god i don't know that you really meant that or god i don't agree with that every time god speaks in his word every time god speaks through his holy spirit through our mind and our spirit god's just and god's right and so if something seems wrong guess what probably wrong and it's this holy spirit trying to bring it back to us you know verse 5 i was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold you desire truth in the inward part and in the hidden part will you make me to know wisdom he bears his heart to his forgiving lord i think that's a very good model for our confessing prayer when we pray not just the quick oh god forgive me but god i feel so horrible for what i've done god i know that that you are right and i know that when i did this i grieved your heart and i know that if i would have done what you said it would have been best from the beginning and i know lord that this is horrible this is terrible what i've done and so you know sometimes we we tend to categorize sin and we tend to say well you know what that was just a white lie that was just a minor sin well what is sin sin is sin sinfulness is our problem and sin the things that we do is simply an outgrowth of what we are we are sinners saved by grace and while we are still on this side of heaven we are still prone to disobeying god we still have the old human nature that is still within us redeemed though it is we know that it's still prone to disobeying god and to re-enthroning ourselves and saying i just like just like lucifer did i will i will i will i want i want i want and so so david understands this bears his soul to god and we have to understand that confession is always the route

[16:24] to forgiveness we see in first john one nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we know that because of what jesus did on the cross of calvary god's just and forgiving us he doesn't just sweep sin under the rug he doesn't just simply say well you know that's okay i will give you a pass on that one i'll give you a buy or anybody here plays golf you know that's a mulligan go ahead no he is just in saying it's forgiven because it has been paid jesus christ paid the penalty for our sin on the cross of calvary sin confesses our sins forgiven he says in verse 4 against you you only have i sinned he is totally and brutally honest in verse 6 behold you desire truth in the inward parts he doesn't want us to play around with well rationalize this no he wants truth he wants us to be honest with ourselves and honest with him and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom here's the thing we need to be completely honest with god he was why not he knows anyway he knows us better than we know ourselves so why not be totally brutally openly honest with him when we confess our sin and i think psalm 51 bears reading from time to time when when we find ourselves having succumbed to temptation and we sin and to read that psalm and read that psalm as a prayer of confession before god honest confession brings complete cleansing we see that in verse number 7 he says urge me with this and what i shall be clean that again as we said earlier that goes to the ceremonial cleansing to which david was referring it was where god is able to pronounce someone clean or cleanse someone ceremonially so that they are able to go into the temple and to be able to partake with or partake in the time before god that the jews would be before him he says wash me and i shall be whiter than snow this is referring to a judicial cleansing this is where he says i've sinned but because you forgive me the slate will be wiped clean it won't be held against me so we have a ceremonial cleansing and we have a judicial cleansing it is expunged it is no longer there someone tries to say well david you before god he will remember our sin his sin no more he will separate our sin as far as what jesus from the west he says satan if he tries to get you on he tries to call you on that don't worry because i won't remember it and i'll tell satan that i won't remember it because i will remember your sin no more and then we see next that it was also lastly a cry of submission david had wrestled with his guilt and his sin for possibly a year maybe a little over a year and it has hurt him emotionally it's hurt him spiritually it's hurt him physically he has been physically sick because of it and so he confesses it he bears his soul before god and then what david does is david commits himself to serving

[20:25] god verses 10 to verse 13 he says create in me a clean heart oh god and renew a right or renew a steadfast spirit within me he says in verse 11 do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me david remember what happened to saul david remember that saul was deposed as king david remembers that god took the holy spirit away from saul and so david says don't cast me out from your presence and please god don't take your holy spirit from me he says restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit then verse 13 then god when i am thoroughly completely cleansed and i am back in right back in your graces thanks to your generous grace and mercy he says then i will teach transgressors your ways i will take it upon myself god to tell others about the sinfulness of sin i will take it upon myself god to serve you with my life i will make it my life's mission to let everyone else know that you better be right with god i will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you isn't that a positive result we say what can be the positive result of sin you know we think well you know we sin it's horrible but sin can have a positive result when it drives us back to god and when it causes us to renew our commitment to him now sin is never right we say well well i'll sin so therefore i can have more grace like like paul's argument was that he figured the world would say no what did he say god forbid may it never be don't sin so you can get more grace don't sin so it'll maybe help you but no but if we do let's at least redeem that experience and say god i will or help me to use this failure as a catalyst to commit myself to you completely share the gospel and to be able to to warn others about the sinfulness of sin the confessing king wants a clean heart to see that he was a crying king but he was also a confessing king he didn't allow himself to wallow in self-pity oh woe is me i wish i could go back and undo he used this experience to reach out to god and confess to him david was sick of his sin he said the bones of me which you have broken david according to spurgeon this is another quote from spurgeon david is sick of sin as sin his loudest outcries are against the evil of his transgression and not against the painful consequences of him let me read that again david is sick of sin as sin his loudest outcries are against the evil of his transgression and not against the painful consequences of it as human beings are we not so prone to say god oh the consequences are more than i can bear and we spend time or we waste time belly aching about the

[24:25] consequences rather than mourning the sinfulness of our sins and saying god no matter how bad this is not as bad as it could be because what did david when he was confronted at another time with his sinfulness numbering the people when david had sin in other ways and it was presented to him well what should we do david said well i'll tell you what i'm going to lay myself upon god's mercy and let god choose the consequence because david realized that god was the best one to determine what the sentence should be it could always be worse so david was david was distraught over the sinfulness of his sin and he didn't waste his time lamenting the consequences of it and saying oh this is terrible this is not fair we use that word sometimes it's not fair what i did wasn't so bad and so why should i have this consequence he said david was spending his time crying out against the sinfulness of sin rather than the painful consequences of it david determined that his cleansing will result in a commitment a commitment to share the gospel a commitment to share that god's way is right and he will teach sinners god's ways and he said in turn sinners will turn to god he says then i will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you so what do we get from all of this from psalm 51 well i believe that god and i know that god meets sinners where they are he meets us wherever we are david realized his sinfulness although he had to be confronted with it and i think that might have been impetus for him to lay it out before god he already knew it was wrong he was wrestling with it i know because david was a man after god's own heart and if david's heart was so soft for god i think it would have been difficult for david not to have his inside completely all knotted up for this period of time because he knew what he had done was wrong even though he was trying to get along go and try not to deal with it he realizes that this was something that he needed to do so god meets sinners where they are so my question this morning is where are you are you harboring something maybe the nation in your life hasn't come to you maybe the prophet hasn't come to you and said you're guilty of this but maybe it's the holy spirit that's saying that's nagging in the back of your mind you remember when that's sin that's holding you back so where are you and my encouragement to you this morning is confess your sinfulness to god to confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and when you do don't stop there let's use david's model here as always commit serving god in your life commit to serving him but use your mouth to say

[28:26] trust god obey god consequences are not worth it turn to him and i think that when we share the gospel we are fulfilling god's mission for us that he's given us on this side of california he has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation that we go to someone and say hey god wants to get god wants you in his family god says you can be right with him god says you can have your sins forgiven god says you can have a brand new life and i think there's so many people that are walking planet earth today that would want nothing more than to have this late wife clean and have a brand new life so they can sleep at night we have that answer let's deliver the good news let's live our father this morning we are we are so very thankful that you use the lives of your people to teach us and we know lord that that you have recorded things in your word for our example for us to be able to see and to learn from others experiences help us to learn from the experience of david lord that we do not harbor sin that when we do disobey you we commit we are quick to confess and then commit our life to you father this morning i pray for each one here today maybe for any needs cares concerns worries and lord may we just simply rest on you lean on you to know that while we are not in control you are nothing takes you by surprise while it may seem a burden to bear whatever it is whether it's physical ailment or financial or relational father we know that you are in control nothing takes you by surprise and you can provide the grace to make it through father you can provide miracles help us to pray continually help us to pray convinced or help us to know that you will provide the answer father we thank you for what you're going to do in our lives we trust you we pray this in jesus name for his sake amen