Psalm 51:18-19
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Reflect
If you are a parent, you know what it is like to be hurt even by those you love. I heard a man tell about a time when his daughter had disobeyed. They had a family meeting on the matter, and her dad and mom decided that she would be deprived of going to a party on the weekend.
The more she thought about it, the more unhappy she became about the punishment. Finally, she said an abusive curse word at her father, and it just cut him to the heart. The father sat there and suffered for a little while trying to get over what she had said.
Moments later, he felt her presence behind his back. He felt her finger tips reach around his chin. Through her tears, she cried, “Daddy, I hurt you a little while ago, didn’t I?”
He said, “Yes, Darling, you really did.”
Her tears flooded his head as she wailed and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry I hurt my daddy. I’ll never do it again.”
On this last day of looking at Psalm 51, ask yourself this question: “When was the last time I told God that?” If we knew how much God loved us and how much He suffered when we sin, then we would quickly come clean with God and deal with any unconfessed sin in our life. Confession is a rough, rugged process. David finally came to that understanding because when he got ready to confess his sin, his mind abominated his sin, his heart abhorred his sin, and his will abandoned his sin. David learned the high cost of committing sin, of confessing sin, and of cleansing sin.
As I stated earlier in the week, it is interesting to note that in Psalm 51, there are three different pictures that David paints for sin. In the first verse, he says, “…blot out my transgressions.” In that picture, we see that sin is like debt. The word “blot” means “to obliterate,” “to wipe the record clean,” or “to take the debt off of the books.” What David is saying is, “Oh God, wipe Heaven’s record clear. Wipe my sin off the books of Heaven” (paraphrase). And the Bible says that when Jesus Christ came, on the cross he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us (Colossians 2:14). Sin is like debt.
Sin is also like dirt. Notice that David said in Psalm 51:2, “Wash away all my iniquity…” It is the picture in those days of taking the dirty clothes down to the river, putting those clothes on the rocks, and getting boards to beat the dirt out of the clothes. David is saying here, “Oh God, I have dirt in my heart. I have dirt in my soul. I have dirt in my mind. I have dirt in my body. Oh God, beat the dirt out of my life” (paraphrase). Sin is like debt. Sin is like dirt.
But also, sin is like disease. That is why David said in the second verse, “…and cleanse me from my sin.” He said in the seventh verse, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
The word “cleanse,” or in some translations, “purge” is a very interesting word. It has, as its root, the very word for “sin.” You could translate it this way: “De-sin me,” or “Decontaminate me.”
David also requests that he be cleansed with hyssop. What in the world is hyssop? You might be wondering, “You know, I have been reading this passage all week, and I wonder what hyssop is. I hope he will tell us.”
Well, since you asked, I will be glad to tell you. In the Bible days, hyssop was a slender, leafy bush that grew out of the cracks in the walls. Its texture was such that it made it a good brush or applicator. When you follow hyssop in the Bible, you will see that it was used as an application brush in a series of circumstances. For instance, the night of the Passover, when the death angel was to pass over, they were to take that hyssop, take the blood of the lamb, and brush it over the doorposts. When the death angel saw the blood applied by the hyssop, it passed over that house. That is a pretty basic description of hyssop.
However, the most significant thing to me about hyssop is the beautiful picture of the cleansing of the leper that we find in Leviticus 14. Of all the diseases in the Bible, there is no disease that so graphically portrays the terrible, devastating results of sin as the disease of leprosy. Leprosy starts with just a little white spot on the skin somewhere. Then it gallops all over the body until the body finally collapses. There really was no cure for leprosy in those days. Spiritually speaking, sin is the leprosy of the human soul. It is the cancer, the Ebola, or the COVID-19 of humanity’s spiritual experience.
God had an unusual method for the cleansing of the leper when he/she had been miraculously healed from this disease which had no cure, and it is beautifully portrayed in Leviticus 14. Lepers who had been healed were required by law to go and present themselves before the chief priest. (That is why Jesus told the ten lepers that he healed to go and show themselves to the priest in order to do the lawful thing, fulfilling the Levitical Law requirement—Luke 17:14). The priest went on a spiritual scavenger hunt: he would get two living birds, an earthen vessel, some cedar wood, some scarlet, and some hyssop. With the wood, he would take the scarlet thread and tie the hyssop to the wood in order to make a brush. And all of this is a beautiful picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ came down to this earth and stuffed himself in a clay vessel of humanity. The bird that is killed over the running water is a beautiful picture of the death and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The living bird where the blood is applied and let loose in the open field, is a beautiful picture of our resurrected and ascended Lord who takes the blood back into the Holy of Holies in Heaven. And it is with this hyssop that the blood that had been shed was applied.
It is the statement of an eternal principle in the Bible that only Jesus’ blood makes atonement for the soul. That is the only way David got his sin cleansed and the only way we can get our sin cleansed. There had to be the shedding of blood.
Every time I think of Jesus shedding his blood for my sin, I am reminded that Zechariah prophesied, “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zechariah 13:1).
Many years ago, at the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco, in connection with the festivities, they had a religious service. And in that service, they had a minister speaking, and it became very apparent that he was not in sympathy with the Faith. He did not contend for the truth. At the conclusion of his message, he delivered a blistering attack on the blood of Jesus. And when he sat down, a little lady stood alone in that crowd, and she began to softly sing William Cowper’s hymn:
There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
By the time she finished that verse, several hundred were on their feet singing…
The dying thief rejoice to see,
That fountain in his day;
And there, may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
By the time they finished that verse, thousands were on their feet singing…
E’er since by faith, I saw the stream,
Thy flowing wounds supply;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
The author indicates that the singing of this hymn was a defiant reaction from the attack of the speaker.[1]
But not only did the blood have to be shed, but the Scripture teaches that the blood had to be sprinkled. Hebrews 9:22 says, “…and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 1 Peter 1:2 says, “…to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood….”
And the priest would take the blood that had been shed, and with that hyssop, would sprinkle it seven times on that leper. There stood that blood-splattered, blood-sprinkled leper on whom the blood had been applied, and he knew that, not only was he cured, he was declared clean.
When you received the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, miraculously the blood of Jesus was applied to your heart. The Bible also teaches that as we continue to repent of our everyday sins, our sins are forgiven and our relationship with the Lord is always restored. Let us never forget that the road to forgiveness and restoration leads us right through the middle of the valley of repentance. There is no detour. We must pass this way.
[1] Rubel Shelly, The Names of Jesus: An In-Depth Exploration of the Christ. 1999, West Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing Co., Inc. pp 51-52.
Respond
It is not possible for any human being to know the extent of the love that God has for us. We know he loves us, but the extent of his love is unfathomable. If you were able to know how much God loved you, would have a different result in how you respond to his leading in your life?
David paints the picture of sin being like debt, dirt, and disease. Are there any other analogies you can think of that sin represents? In what ways have you seen those in your life? What have you done about them?
Regarding committing, confessing, and cleansing of sin, what have you learned this week from Psalm 51 about your own sin?