Chapter Fifty

The superscription of the psalm indicates the occasion of its writing – the rebuke by the prophet Nathan of David for his transgression with Bathsheba and Uriah, and the whole content is a penitential prayer.

O Lord! Forgive and cleanse according to Your great mercy my sin, which weighs upon me. I deeply recognize my guilt before You (3-6). I was conceived and born in sin. You have given me revelations, loved me. Show Your mercy by cleansing and forgiving my sin and make me joyful from the forgiveness received (7-14). Open my mouth for the proclamation and praise of You. Such worship is more pleasing to You than external sacrifices (15-19).

Psalm 50:3. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy, and according to the multitude of Your compassions blot out my transgressions. Psalm 50:4. Wash me thoroughly from my transgression, and cleanse me from my sin, Psalm 50:5. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. David’s consciousness of his sin and his guilt before God was so profound that he, in praying for forgiveness and his cleansing, appeals only to God’s great mercy. These verses characterize to us very vividly David as a man with a highly developed moral sense: every sin of his awakened in him profound self-condemnation and tormented dissatisfaction with himself. David fell low in his own eyes and judged himself so strictly that in this case he remembered only one thing – how deeply he had fallen, how greatly he had offended God and how unworthy he was before Him. This force, the height of moral feeling and the strictness of self-analysis show that David’s fall, possible as it was for him as a man, could not be a manifestation in him of a bad “disposition,” the dominion in him of “sinful and lustful desires,” could not be a “conscious” offense against God and violation of His commandments, but a moment of passion, a temporary infatuation, after which there followed a period of prolonged repentance and self-chastisement (which we mentioned earlier; see (Ps 24)). This consciousness of his sinfulness prompts David to ask God to wash him and cleanse his soul, since sin before Him is “always.” By this cleansing David understood, as is evident from what follows, not merely the forgiveness of sin, but the cleansing of his spirit with the bearing of “punishment,” to satisfy that Divine Justice of which His law speaks in the commandments of Moses. David’s longing for cleansing before God is expressed very clearly in the Hebrew text, where Ps 50:4 is read as: “Wash me thoroughly from my transgression.”

Psalm 50:6. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your verdict and pure in Your judgment. Psalm 50:7. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother bore me. The gravity of David’s sin lies in the fact that he sinned against God “only” and did “evil in His sight.” This does not mean that David did not regard himself as guilty before Uriah, for below he prays to God for forgiveness of the sin for shedding blood (the slaying of Uriah), and does not mean that he approved of the means used for that, but that these actions of his were grave chiefly in that they offended God. In His law are given direct commandments forbidding deceptions, murders and violations of the purity of family life. By this commandment of the law such phenomena were driven from community and private life which before this commandment all the eastern peoples not only did not regard as crimes, but ranked as virtues. For instance, lewdness was illumined by religious cult, deception for the achievement of one’s purposes was considered cleverness, and the life of a person, if he hindered another’s personal well-being, was valued as nothing (for instance, the customs of tribal revenge, military glory measured by the number of slain enemies). God gave a law by which these phenomena were declared crimes, which is why David says that he was chiefly and especially guilty before God alone. For the sin committed by David, God through the prophet Nathan imposed punishment upon him (2 Sam 12:10-14). David considers such a verdict over himself fully deserved by him (“The Lord is righteous in His verdict... and pure in His judgment”), since his sin is an offense against God requiring retribution to teach the guilty party and to maintain the authority of the Law given in His commandments before men. Such a prayer for cleansing, with confession and acknowledgment of the deserved punishment, besides a desire to ease his conscience by bearing the latter, could be prompted by another motive – on the example of David, punished by God for his sin committed, to show to all the people the importance of observing God’s commandments and the necessity of care for the purity of their lives. However, the sin committed by David is not an intentional and conscious desire to offend God, but is a consequence of the temporary dominion in him of that sinful inclination which was implanted in him from birth, that is, of inherited original sin.

Psalm 50:8. Behold, You have loved truth in the heart and inwardly have made known to me wisdom. “You have loved truth in the heart,” that is, spiritually illuminated me, communicated that revelation through a prophet which I could not have learned by my own strength. – “Behold, You have loved truth.” The Lord loves only truth, which is why He desires to see this truth also in people. To maintain in them the inclination toward truth, revelations are given to people by Him.

Psalm 50:9. Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 50:10. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Psalm 50:11. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Psalm 50:12. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 50:13. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 50:14. Return to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. To serve truth and be worthy of subsequent revelations from God, David prays for the cleansing of his sin, as by sprinkling with hyssop (juice of a plant) garments and objects and faces that had been defiled were made fit for use (Lev 14:6-7), and for that moral enlightenment which would make him whiter than snow. Such mercy from God filled him with joy and gladness. For the restoration in himself of purity and former righteousness (12), for the drawing near and reconciliation with God, David prays to God. By “the Holy Spirit” can be understood either generally the good will of God toward David, or the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity (13). – “Let me hear joy and gladness” – give me the ability to rejoice in salvation, in forgiveness from You. – “With a willing spirit” – the same as with the Holy Spirit (14). “Uphold” – make me steadfast in following Your commandments.

Psalm 50:15. I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. The cleansing of David from sin will serve as an incentive for him to take care of the conversion to God of the wicked and sinners.

Psalm 50:16. Deliver me from blood, O God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. Psalm 50:17. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise: Psalm 50:18. For You do not desire sacrifice – I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. Psalm 50:19. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. “Deliver me from blood, O God” – from the sin of shedding blood, the murder of Uriah. – “My tongue will sing of Your righteousness,” so that David might praise God with clean lips for the justification sent by Him (“righteousness”). For such a clean prayer and reconciliation with God, it is not enough merely to bring sacrifices – David brought very many – for this it is necessary to have the corresponding disposition “a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart,” that is, a consciousness of one’s sin, grief and suffering for it and “contrite,” submissive before the judgment of God heart. David here clearly indicates in what case the ritual law is sufficient for appeasing God: what is important is not the kinds of sacrificial animals and the abundance of sacrifice, but it is also necessary to have the corresponding penitent disposition in the one offering them; in this very spiritual disposition of the one offering does the special value of the sacrifice consist. This same indication shows that the ritual law of Moses is not an eternal, unchanging and forever and for all binding form of worship of God, but that it can and will be replaced by a higher kind of service to God – service in spirit, that is, here is predicted the replacement of the Old Law by the New. We saw this same truth in a clearer and more precise exposition in the 39th psalm.

Psalm 50:20. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem: Psalm 50:21. Then they will delight in sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offering and whole offering; then they will offer bulls upon Your altar. These verses were probably appended to the psalm during the Babylonian exile, since their content does not correspond to the historical situation of Jerusalem and the Hebrew people during the reign of David. At that time the walls of Jerusalem had not been destroyed and the worship in the temple had not ceased. The Hebrews experienced such a condition only during the captivity. This psalm, representing the penitent and prayerful contrite state of David, reminded the captive Hebrews of their past sinful life and could awaken in them repentance for their sins, so they could pray with the words of this psalm, adding to it a petition for their return to their homeland and for the restoration of the former greatness of the Jerusalem temple. This psalm, like Ps 37, is called penitential and is used more frequently than others in worship, being part of the small compline, the midnight office and the third hour. It depicts very vividly both the penitent state of a sinner, which every person is, and the feeling of humility with which every one praying should turn to God. The power of humility expressed in it and the depth of repentance have contributed to such widespread use of the psalm.