Psalms 51 #2

July 30, 2021 (Friday)

 

I would like to circle back to something from the last study. Romans 5:20 states, “The Law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more.” [CEB] Two things come into play in this verse. First there is an “amplifier” for our failure. Technically the word indicates a multiplier and could be translated “super abound.”

 

The counter to the amplifier is grace. While our sense of failure is multiplied, grace is multiplied by infinity. The image is of a river overflowing and flooding its plain. This flood brought renewal and refreshing. It filled desperately needed reservoirs of water needed during the dry season. It brought nutrients to the soil desperately needed for growing crops.

 

In Psalm 51:1 David pleads for mercy, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” [ESV] After mercy, David asks that God would blot out his rebellion. Remember he has been convicted as a sexual predator and murder. He has started with God’s mercy, which is abundantly extended to all. Based on that mercy, he begs for God to wipe the record clean. Literally to obliterate the record.

 

Notice God does not do this, the record stands against the king. David also did not escape divine justice for his actions. God is not in the habit of covering up people’s sin. What God does do is change the sinner. There is no sinner God cannot save! I think David understands that, we will get to it later.

 

Getting back to the flood of grace mentioned in Romans 5:20, David continues “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” [Psalms 51:2 ESV] He uses two words from sin in this verse we need to understand. Iniquity means perversity. Sin, our English all-purpose word for all these categories, stands for the corrupt nature and the unpayable debt it incurs.

 

The expression “wash me thoroughly” literally is “multiply to wash me.” (Barnes) When David asks “cleanse me” he is wanting it to be removed entirely (Barnes). David is not concerned about his guilt, at this point. He desperately wants to be purged from his rebellion and perversity. It’s kind of like when you take out the trash and something has been rotting in it for days. You open the lid and it’s everything you can do to not vomit. The stench invades your nose and you continue to smell the rot for the rest of the day. Or has David admitted, “For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.” [Psalm 51:3 NLT]

 

David is revolted by his sin, in retrospect. He took Bathsheba in a moment of weakness. Okay, no excuses, not weakness… this is outright rebellion. He murdered Uriah in a panic to cover his sin. I can’t imagine the perversity of what drives a man to murder a close friend and a brother in arms. There is a lot going on, not just the behavior.

 

At this point, we need a robot to jump out of hiding and declare “Danger!!!” If you look up the “dog returning to its vomit,” you will find it in Proverbs and 2 Peter 2:22. What gets my attention is the two verses before. Let this get your attention, “If people escape the moral filth of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, then get tangled up in it again and are overcome by it, they are worse off than they were before.” [2 Peter 2:20 CEB]

 

No theological twisting can explain away the clear meaning of this verse. It is what it is. Seconds anyone?