Daily Reader for Day 284: Psalms 51 - 56


by Dave Moore

The Psalms today are attributed exclusively to David.  In the first three Psalms God’s dealings with the wicked provide a connecting thread, while in the second three it’s God’s protection against David’s enemies. 

Yesterday I invited you to read Psalm 45 closely and note your observations.  I encourage you to do the same with Psalm 51 today.  Since the Psalm is attributed to David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba, it might be helpful to revisit that occasion from 2 Samuel 12:

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.  And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.  Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites… David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”  2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13

Read Psalm 51 closely.  What do you notice?  How does it line up with the events that led to it?  As with Psalm 45, what is it that makes this Psalm part of the worship canon?  What do you learn about repentance and worship?  And most importantly, what do you learn about the LORD through it?

As I’ve stated before, the in-the-moment expression of human reflection is one of the Psalms most beautiful attributes.  What you are reading today is one man’s response to getting caught – to finding that his own sin has trapped him, and that his only hope for salvation is to turn to the LORD.  Remember the rest of David’s story – especially how, because of his sin, the sword would never depart from his house.  Allow the marriage of the story with this Psalm to guide your meditation on sin, repentance, and restoration.

Our verse for this week is 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Psalms 51 through 56.  Now let’s read it!

Psalms 51 - 56

51:1   Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
  according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!
  For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
  Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
  so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
  Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
  Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
  Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
  Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.
  Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
  O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
  Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    build up the walls of Jerusalem;
  then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

52:1   Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
  Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
  You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
  You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.
  But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
  The righteous shall see and fear,
    and shall laugh at him, saying,
  “See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
  but trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
  But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
  I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
  I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
  I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly.

53:1   The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
    there is none who does good.
  God looks down from heaven
    on the children of man
  to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.
  They have all fallen away;
    together they have become corrupt;
  there is none who does good,
    not even one.
  Have those who work evil no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and do not call upon God?
  There they are, in great terror,
    where there is no terror!
  For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
    you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
  Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God restores the fortunes of his people,
    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

54:1   O God, save me by your name,
    and vindicate me by your might.
  O God, hear my prayer;
    give ear to the words of my mouth.
  For strangers have risen against me;
    ruthless men seek my life;
    they do not set God before themselves. Selah
  Behold, God is my helper;
    the Lord is the upholder of my life.
  He will return the evil to my enemies;
    in your faithfulness put an end to them.
  With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
    I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
  For he has delivered me from every trouble,
    and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

55:1   Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
  Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
  because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
  For they drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
  My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
  Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.
  And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
  yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
  I would hurry to find a shelter
    from the raging wind and tempest.”
  Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
    for I see violence and strife in the city.
  Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
  and iniquity and trouble are within it;
    ruin is in its midst;
  oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.
  For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
  it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
  But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
  We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in the throng.
  Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
  But I call to God,
    and the LORD will save me.
  Evening and morning and at noon
    I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
  He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for many are arrayed against me.
  God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
  because they do not change
    and do not fear God.
  My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
  His speech was smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
  his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were drawn swords.
  Cast your burden on the LORD,
    and he will sustain you;
  he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.
  But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the pit of destruction;
  men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
  But I will trust in you.

56:1   Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
    all day long an attacker oppresses me;
  my enemies trample on me all day long,
    for many attack me proudly.
  When I am afraid,
    I put my trust in you.
  In God, whose word I praise,
    in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can flesh do to me?
  All day long they injure my cause;
    all their thoughts are against me for evil.
  They stir up strife, they lurk;
    they watch my steps,
    as they have waited for my life.
  For their crime will they escape?
    In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
  You have kept count of my tossings;
    put my tears in your bottle.
    Are they not in your book?
  Then my enemies will turn back
    in the day when I call.
    This I know, that God is for me.
  In God, whose word I praise,
    in the LORD, whose word I praise,
  in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?
  I must perform my vows to you, O God;
    I will render thank offerings to you.
  For you have delivered my soul from death,
    yes, my feet from falling,
  that I may walk before God
    in the light of life.

(ESV)


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