Seder 72: Psalm 51---Prayer for Forgiveness and Renewal

 Psalm 51, one of the seven "penitential psalms," is also one of the few psalms connected to a specific episode in the life of David.  The superscription associates it with the time when David is confronted by Nathan about his sins of adultery and murder (2 Sam 12).  

Ben Witherington points out in Psalms Old and New that there are some verbal links between 2 Sam 12 and this psalm.  In 2 Sam 12:9 Nathan declares that David has done "evil in his [i.e., God's} sight," something that David confesses in Psalm 51:4.  David admits in in 2 Sam 12:13 that he has "sinned against the Lord", which he also goes on to confess in Psalm 51:4.

When David came to a full realization of the magnitude of what he had done, he knew that he had no recourse but to throw himself upon God's mercy, relying upon the merciful nature expressed in Ex 34:6-7.  He knew that God's judgment delivered to him by Nathan was right.  

David also knew that his problem ran deeper than a handful of specific sins.  Human sin can be pervasive (v 5), and a moral cleansing from God would be needed to restore David's relationship with his Creator.  "Create in me a clean heart," David prayed in verse 10.  The word for "create", bara, is a kind of creating that only God can do.  David did not want to end up like Saul, who had lost the "spirit of a sound mind" after he had failed to obey God as king.  

David looked forward to praising God and helping in the restoration of others after his own renewal.  He also prayed for spiritual renewal in Israel.  For him and for the nation, he knew that humble repentance was a prerequisite for the offering of acceptable sacrifices.

Paul quoted Psalm 51:4 in Romans 3:4 in support of God's reliability.  Richard Hays has proposed that in the early chapters of this epistle, Paul was playing a Nathan-like role, with the reader as David.  At the end of Romans 1 Paul detailed how pagans had strayed far from God.  But lest the reader become too smug, Paul went on to add that all of us have sinned and need God's forgiveness. 

Psalm 51 is associated in Jewish tradition with Shabbat Shuvah, the special Sabbath of repentance that falls between the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement.  In 2021, that Sabbath fell on Sept 11.  At Church of the Messiah, Kyle Kettering spoke about the meaning and importance of repentance, referring also to Matt 4:12-17 and Hosea 14.