Show Don't Tell: Psalm 51

Instead of saying "David repented after his sin with Bathsheba," feel the desperate cleansing. A psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." Three words for sin, three requests for removal: blot out, wash away, cleanse. "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me." Always there—can't escape it. "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." Against Bathsheba, against Uriah, against the nation—but ultimately against God. "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Deep-rooted corruption. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Hyssop—used for purification rituals and at Passover. "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice." Crushed bones—guilt felt physically. "Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Create—the word from Genesis 1. Only God creates. "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." David watched this happen to Saul. "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." Then: "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you will not despise."