Psalm 51 — Confessing Sins

Below is an excerpt of the sermon “Psalm 51 — Confessing Sins” from Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Wednesday Evening, 5/19/2021.

Open your Bibles, if you would please, for a moment to Psalm 51. Psalm 51.

It is said of one of my heroes, Charles Spurgeon, the great pastor in London. They said one day, he was walking with a group of people that were crossing a street in London, carriages coming, horses coming, people walking. And he stopped and knelt in the middle of the street, took his hat off, and just prayed silently for a few moments. Then he put his hat back on and crossed the street. Someone said, “Mr. Spurgeon…” (That’s what they called him — “Mr. Spurgeon”) “…What were you doing?” He said, “Couldn’t you have waited to cross the street and pray? I mean, why in the middle of the street?” He said, “I sensed a cloud came between me and my Savior, and I aimed to not even cross the street until it was removed.” That was one of the secrets of the great Spurgeon. Nothing between him and his Savior.

It’s interesting — there are two natures that God compares us to. God’s people are compared to sheep. He compares us to sheep. The sheep gets dirty. It does not like the dirt. You do not see sheep wallowing in the mud. When they get dirty, they want to get clean. That’s the new nature that God gives us after we get saved. Will we get dirty? Oh, yes. Will we step in the mud? Yes. Will we slip and fall? Yes. Will we get dirt on us? Yes. But the nature before we get saved is the nature of a pig. You can bathe the pig, put a ribbon on his tail, spray that Jovan Musk cologne on it. You can spray all that on the pig, and he’ll go right back to that mud puddle and jump right in. It’s his nature. And that’s one of the signs if you really got saved — not if, but when you sin, it bothers you. And so, that’s this chapter here. That’s why this Psalm 51 is such a dynamic chapter. It is David getting right with the Lord. That’s the whole chapter and it’s such a great chapter.

If anyone feels like they are not right with the Lord or they’re not really close to Him now, anyone could pray this psalm out loud sincerely from their heart, and when they finish, they would have to say, “I just got right with the Lord.” It is thorough. It is tremendous. So, I want you to see some of it here. Of course, it is written by David, and you see the little title “To the Chief Musician, of Psalm of David.”

Let’s pray, then. We’re just going to jump in. It’s just kind of verse by verse, and you’ve got your little answer sheets there. And I appreciate it if you want to fill them out. I got a couple of stories, and that’s what we’ll do here. Father, bless at this time the reading of Thy Word. Thank you for people in the middle of the week — some come straight from work, some have not had supper yet, some have had a long day. They got hot, they sweated, they labored, some raised kids, some worked around their house somewhere on the phone all day or computer all day. But they’re here and they made You a priority. So, please give them something. You said, blessed is he that hungers and thirsts after righteousness for they shall be filled. Please fill our soul and give us something. And on the way home, help us say, “I’m glad I was here. I heard something I needed to hear.” In Jesus’ name, amen.

So here it is. Look down just for a moment in your notes. It takes place after David and Bathsheba. So, that’s where this chapter comes in chronologically — after David was immoral with the neighbor, Bathsheba. Also in the notes, it says God expects honesty, not perfection. You’ll find that some of the great Christians in the Bible, there were simply great confessors. Simon Peter — he cussed, he had pride. But when he confessed, then God used him. Jacob took advantage of his dad, lied to his dad, took advantage of his brother. He was called the trickster or the supplanter, or the deceiver. And he reaped. But when he confessed and got things right, he limped afterward. But God called him a Prince of God. He was a different man. So that’s what is happening here in this passage.

By the way of the introduction here. I just said if a Christian would sincerely pray this psalm, it would get them right with God. You’ll see it in just a second. So, here are the nuggets. Let’s look at some of them. Verse number 1, he says in Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy upon me, O God…” Mercy is asking this: “Don’t give me what I deserve.” David says, “I know You ought to kill me. You ought to just wipe me out. You ought to just burn me. Lord, have mercy!” And so, David didn’t want his rights. He was unlike a lot of people in America. He wasn’t protesting for his rights. He said, “Don’t give me what I have coming to me.” That’s the first thing he says. “Have mercy upon me, O God.” He says, “…according to thy lovingkindness…” Notice that long word — God’s “lovingkindness.” I hope someone says that about us one day. “…lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” And notice there, he uses the word “transgressions” plural. He said, “I didn’t just have one sin.” It was more than one sin. Not just one, it was more. And in this passage, you’ll see he names different ways that he sinned against God. All of them have a little bit different connotation — transgressions. It simply means to cross the line. Maybe you’ve had someone talk rudely to you, and you said, “You just crossed the line.” And so, David says, “I know I crossed the line. I crossed the boundary I never should have crossed.”

So, why does he say transgressions plural? Well, I thought he’s confessing the sin he had with Bathsheba. No, there were other sins. One, he was idle. While the warriors were off in the battle, David took the night off, took the day off. Nothing wrong with a day off. But when all his workers were on the front line, that’s probably not the time to take the day off. He was idle. Next, he looked and didn’t turn away from looking at the neighbor bathing. One thing to see someone, another thing to stare at someone. Then what else did he do? He kept crossing lines. He was curious. Who is this? He got curious about who she was. Her husband is here in town. Does she have any kids? Who is she related to? He got curious, and he never should have even been looking at her. Then she came over, and then he’s talking to her. He couldn’t text. He couldn’t use social media. And then there’s immorality. Then he has her husband taken out mysteriously during the battle, and everything’s “okay.” He says, “I didn’t just transgress. I had transgressions.” When we confess to the Lord, when we see our sin as big, God forgives us big. When we see our sin as a little, (“Well, it wasn’t that big. Wasn’t that big of a deal.”) then God reveals it as a big deal. When we make it a big deal, then God forgives it.

Notice David’s heart. No wonder he’s called the man after God’s own heart. Mercy is withholding what I do deserve.

You can listen to the rest of this sermon on our website, Or, you can watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook or Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.