Psalm 51:1

Psalm 51:1

Have mercy on me, O God

Jesus borrowed from this verse! In Luke 13:9-14 he tells the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the penitent tax collector who both prayed in the Temple Courts. The first of these men publicly congratulated himself on his religious achievements and that he was not like other people who were robbers, evil-doers and adulterers. The tax collector, at a distance, looked down to the ground and beat his breast and cried, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” David appeals to God’s mercy, His loving kindness and His great compassion and dares to beg that if the Lord has all of these qualities, surely, He might be willing to forgive and restore His penitent king! 

It is perhaps a good moment to reflect on the difference between fake and genuine penitence. It is easy to exhibit remorse, as did Judas after he had betrayed Jesus. Remorse and regret are close allies and even the hardest of sinners must feel some sense of guilt on occasions. We all have moments or episodes in our lives where, in retrospect, we wish we had acted or spoken differently. It is normal and human to rue those events and even to try to repair any damage. None of that is true repentance. Repentance is when we acknowledge our sin and failure before God and see ourselves for what we really are; we see what the Pharisee could not see, we are robbers, evil-doers and adulterers! Repentance does not end with sorrowful self-pity, it confesses sins, repairs the damage and truly desires to not repeat the error, to get up and live differently before God. 

A transgression is a deliberate breaking of God’s moral laws, it is rebellion, it is shutting out the voice of rebuke and “doing it anyway.” It is wilful disobedience. David knew that what he was doing was wrong. Throughout every twist of this lurid tale, his conscience spoke to him and he ignored that inner voice – he knowingly broke the rules, and the Charge Sheet was looking very grim. That is why he appeals to the Lord God to blot out his transgressions or trespasses. What an unhappy man he had become!

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