The Trails Church

In the final stretch of Psalm 51 David anticipates how he will respond to God’s mercy. The psalmist first approached the Lord in a spirit of repentance as he confessed his sin (1-5). Next, he prayed for restoration (6-9) asking to be washed and purified. This led him to pray for complete renewal from within and a clean heart (10-12). The last lyrics in verses 13-19 are written from the perspective of his response to the grace of God in his life. David endured the dark night of the soul because of his sin but awakened to new morning mercies and ready to tell of all God has done.1 We will study his response under three headings: 1. Proclamation and Praise, 2. Wonder and Worship, 3. Edification and Restoration.

In Psalm 51:10-12 we come to the very heart of this Psalm and hear firsthand how the cry of David’s heart was not for forgiveness alone, but for complete renewal from within. This trio of verses are a prayer of complete dependence built of six verbs – each one pleading with God to do a deep, redemptive, restorative work in David’s life. We will organize our thoughts around those verbs as we pray with the Psalmist for God to do a renewing work in us.

As we began our exploration of Psalm 51 with genuine repentance of sin, when God’s Word exposed David’s sin – his eyes were opened. Rather than blame shifting or any excuse making, he felt conviction, he experienced deep contrition, and he confessed his sin to the Lord. David was transformed from a calloused sinner to a penitent man. In Psalm 51:6-9 the prayer of David moves from honest confession to earnest consecration. His desire is to be holy. These verses contain a serious diagnosis of sin along with a heartfelt plea for its only cure: for the Lord to cleanse entirely from sin’s stain and consequence. From the heart of this passage beats the prayer, “Wash Me White As Snow." We will focus our attention on two aspects: 1. The Sinner’s Condition (5-6), 2. The Sinner’s Petition (7-9.)

Psalm 51 is the prayer of a soul that is aware of its depths of sin and desperate need of God’s grace. These first four verses cast every hope of forgiveness on God’s mercy in ‘repentant faith.’3 The lyrics remind us about the trappings of sin, instruct us what to do with our sin, and teach us how to restore fellowship with God. As we will hear, the theme of this song is not sin. The theme of this song is mercy. I have entitled this first sermon on Psalm 51, “Have Mercy on Me, O God.” We will divide the text into three sections: 1. The Story Behind the Song, 2. The Heart of God Toward Sinners, 3. The Heart of Genuine Repentance.

In our reading of Psalm 50, we will see God shine forth and make a declaration to His people about the nature of their worship towards Him. We will also see a warning to those who do not call upon the name of the Lord. Today’s sermon is titled “TRUE WORSHIP”.

I’ll be in after that Our passage today is like a commentary on “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” 2 We find in Psalm 49 a song filled with wisdom, teaching us where to and where not to find our worth. By contrasting two ways to live and die, we learn the futility of trusting in wealth and the blessedness of trusting in in Christ. I pray each of us would hear through the lyrics of this song that our true worth is not in what we own or anything we’ve done; our true worth is found in Christ. We will divide the chapter into three sections: 1. A Call to All, 2. The Great Divide of Death, and 3. A Call To Us to Trust in the Lord. Psalm 49 is like a commentary on “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” We find in it a song filled with wisdom, teaching us where and where not to find our worth. By contrasting two ways to live and die, we learn the futility of trusting in wealth and the blessedness of trusting in Christ. Through the lyrics of this song, we are reminded that our true worth is not in what we own or anything we’ve done; our true worth is found in Christ. We will divide the passage into three sections: A Call to All (1-6), The Great Divide of Death (7-15), and An Exhortation For Us to Trust in the Lord (16-20).

Psalm 47 is a call to worship the Lord for his perfect rule and reign as King of the Nations. This song is an evangelistic invitation that welcomes the peoples of the world to join the people of God in bringing praise. These lyrics also point forward to the work of Christ the King who condescended to save us through his work of redemption, then ascended to the highest throne to reign forever. The chorus of this song is a command to “Sing to the King.”