David does not merely long for certain spiritual excellences; he goes to
God for them. And his reasons for doing so are plain. If you will look
at the former verses of this psalm, you will see that he had found out
two things about his sin, both of which make him sure that he can only
be what he should be by God's help. He had learned what his crimes were
in relation to God, and he had further learned what they indicated about
himself. The teaching of his bitter experience as to the former of these
two matters lies in that saying which some people have thought strange.
'Against _Thee only_ have I sinned.' What! Had he not committed a crime
against human law? had he not harmed Uriah and Bathsheba? were not his
deeds an offence to his whole kingdom? Yes, he knew all that; but he
felt that over and above all that was black in his deed, considered in
its bearing upon men, it was still blacker when it was referred to God;
and a sadder word than 'crime' or 'fault' had to be used about it. I
have done wrong as against my fellows, but worse than that, I have
_sinned_ against God. The notion of _sin_ implies the notion of God. Sin
is wilful transgression of the law of _God_. An atheist can have no
conception of sin. But bring God into human affairs, and men's faults
immediately assume the darker tint, and become men's sins. Therefore the
need of prayer if these evils are to be blotted out. If I had done crime
against man only, I should not need to ask God for pardon or cleansing;
but I have sinned against Him, and done this evil in His sight,
therefore my desires for deliverance address themselves to Him, and my
longings for purity must needs break into the cry of entreaty to that
God with whom are forgiveness and redemption from all iniquity.
And still further, looking at the one deed, he sees in it something more
than an isolated act. It leads him down to its motive; that motive
carries him to the state of mind in which it could have power; that
state of mind, in which the motive could have power, carries him still
deeper to the bias of his nature as he had received it from his parents.
And thinking of how he had fallen, how upon his terraced palace roof
there the eye had inflamed the heart, and the heart had yielded so
quickly to the temptations of the eye, he finds no profounder
explanation of the disastrous eclipse of goodness than this: 'Behold! I
was shapen in iniquity.'
Is that a confession or a palliation, do you think? Is he trying to
shuffle off guilt from his own shoulders? By no means, for these words
are the motive for the prayer, 'Purge me, and I shall be clean.' That is
to say, he has learned that isolated acts of sin inhere in a common
root, and that root a disposition inherited from generation to
generation to which evil is familiar and easy, to which good, alas! is
but too alien and unwelcome. None the less is the evil done _his_ deed.
None the less has he to wail in full consciousness of his individual
responsibility: 'Against Thee have _I_ sinned.' But the effect of this
second discovery, that sin has become so intertwisted with his being
that he cannot shake off the venomous beast into the fire and feel no
harm, is the same as that of the former--to drive him to God, who alone
can heal the nature and separate the poison from his blood.
Dear friends! there are some of you who are wasting your lives in
paroxysms of fierce struggle with the evil that you have partially
discovered in yourselves, alternating with long languor, fits of
collapse and apathy, and who make no solid advance, just because you
will not lay to heart these two convictions--your sin has to do with
God, and your sins come from a sinful nature. Because of the one fact,
you must go to God for pardon; because of the other, you must go to God
for cleansing. There, in your heart, like some black well-head in a
dismal bog, is the source of all the swampy corruption that fills your
life. You cannot stanch it, you cannot drain it, you cannot sweeten it.
Ask Him, who is above your nature and without it, to change it by His
own new life infused into your spirit. He will heal the bitter waters.
He alone can. Sin is against God; sin comes from an evil heart;
therefore, if your longings for that ideal perfectness are ever to be
fulfilled, you must make prayers of them, and cry to Him who hears,
'Create in me a clean heart, O God! take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.'
III. Finally, observe that prayers for perfect cleansing are permitted
to the lips of the greatest sinners.
Such longings as these might seem audacious, when the atrocity of the
crime is remembered, and by man's standard they are so. Let the criminal
be thankful for escape, and go hide himself, say men's pardons. But here
is a man, with the evil savour of his debauchery still tainting him,
daring to ask for no mere impunity, but for God's choicest gifts. Think
of his crime, think of its aggravations from God's mercies to him, from
his official position, from his past devotion. Remember that this cruel
voluptuary is the sweet singer of Israel, who had taught men songs of
purer piety and subtler emotion than the ruder harps of older singers
had ever flung from their wires. And this man, so placed, so gifted, set
up on high to be the guiding light of the nation, has plunged into the
filth of these sins, and quenched all his light there. When he comes
back penitent, what will he dare to ask? Everything that God can give to
bless and gladden a soul. He asks for God's Spirit, for His presence,
for the joy of His salvation; to be made once again, as he had been, the
instrument that shall show forth His praise, and teach transgressors
God's ways. Ought he to have had more humble desires? Does this great
boldness show that he is leaping very lightly over his sin? Is he
presumptuous in such prayers? God be thanked--no! But, knowing all his
guilt, and broken and contrite in heart (crushed and ground to powder,
as the words mean), utterly loathing himself, aware of all the darkness
of his deserts, he yet cherishes unconquerable confidence in the pitying
love of God, and believes that in spite of all his sin, he may yet be
pure as the angels of heaven--ay, even holy as God is holy.
Thank God we have such an example for our heartening! Lay it to heart,
brethren! You cannot believe too much in God's mercy. You cannot expect
too much at His hands. He is 'able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think.' No sin is so great but that, coming straight from
it, a repentant sinner may hope and believe that all God's love will be
lavished upon him, and the richest of God's gifts be granted to his
desires. Even if our transgression is aggravated by a previous life of
godliness, and have given the enemies great occasion to blaspheme, as
David's did, yet David's penitence may in our souls lead on to David's
hope, and the answer will not fail us. Let no sin, however dark, however
repeated, drive us to despair of ourselves, because it hides from us our
loving Saviour. Though beaten back again and again by the surge of our
passions and sins, like some poor shipwrecked sailor sucked back with
every retreating wave and tossed about in the angry surf, yet keep your
face towards the beach, where there is safety, and you will struggle
through it all, and though it were but on some floating boards and
broken pieces of the ship, will come safe to land. He will uphold you
with His Spirit, and take away the weight of sin that would sink you, by
His forgiving mercy, and bring you out of all the weltering waste of
waters to the solid shore.
So whatever thy evil behaviour, come with it all, and cast thyself
before Him, with whom is plenteous redemption. Embrace in one act the
two truths, of thine own sin and of God's infinite mercy in Jesus
Christ. Let not the one blind you to the other; let not the one lead you
to a morbid despondency, which is blind to Christ, nor the other to a
superficial estimate of the deadliness of sin, which is blind to thine
own self. Let the Cross teach thee what sin is, and let the dark
background of thy sin bring into clear prominence the Cross that
bringeth salvation. Know that thou art utterly black and sinful. Believe
that God is eternally, utterly, inconceivably, merciful. Learn both, in
Him who is the Standard by which we can estimate our sin, and the Proof
and Medium of God's mercy. Trust thyself and all thy foulness to Jesus
Christ; and, so doing, look up from whatsoever horrible pit and miry
clay thou mayest have fallen into, with this prayer, 'Create in me a
clean heart, O God! and renew a right spirit within me, take not Thy
Holy Spirit from me, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.' Then the
answer shall come to you from Him who ever puts the best robe upon His
returning prodigals, and gives His highest gifts to sinners who repent.
'From all your filthiness will I cleanse you, a new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will put My
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes.'