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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 51:7-13

I. See here what David prays for. Many excellent petitions he here puts up, to which if we do but add, ?for Christ's sake,? they are as evangelical as any other. 1. He prays that God would cleanse him from his sins and the defilement he had contracted by them (Ps. 51:7): ?Purge me with hyssop; that is, pardon my sins, and let me know that they are pardoned, that I may be restored to those privileges which by sin I have forfeited and lost.? The expression here alludes to a ceremonial... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 51:14-19

I. David prays against the guilt of sin, and prays for the grace of God, enforcing both petitions from a plea taken from the glory of God, which he promises with thankfulness to show forth. 1. He prays against the guilt of sin, that he might be delivered from that, and promises that then he would praise God, Ps. 51:14. The particular sin he prays against is blood-guiltiness, the sin he had now been guilty of, having slain Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon. Hitherto perhaps he had... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God ,.... Which was now defiled with sin, and of which being convinced, he was led more and more to see the impurity of his heart and nature, from which all his evil actions flowed; and being sensible that he could not make his heart clean himself, and that this was the work of God, and a work which required creating power, he entreats it of him: for as the first work of conversion is no other than a creation, or a production of something new, which was not... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:11

Cast me not away from thy presence ,.... As abominable; as a vessel in which he had no pleasure; with indignation and wrath; as one that is angry with another, cannot bear him in his sight, but bids him be gone from him. Nothing is more desirable to a child of God than the presence of God; and nothing gives him more sensible pain than his absence; and even to be deprived of or denied the means of enjoying his presence the word and ordinances, makes them very uneasy: to be utterly, and for... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:12

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ,.... Not temporal, but spiritual and eternal; and designs either Christ himself, who is God's salvation, of his appointing and providing, in the view of whom, as such, David had much spiritual joy; or the salvation he was to work out, which God the Father had contrived the scheme of in him, had covenanted with him to do, and had appointed his people to: salvation itself is a sure thing, and can never fail, being founded upon the purpose and counsel... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:13

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways ,.... David was a prophet as well as a king; see Acts 2:30 ; and taught men the fear of the Lord, Psalm 34:11 , and instructed them in his ways, as he here promises he would; by which are meant, either the ways which God prescribes and directs men to walk in, as the paths of faith, holiness, and truth, and the ways of his commandments; or which he himself has walked in; meaning not the ways of his providence, which are sometimes past finding... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:14

Deliver me from blood guiltiness ,.... Or "from bloods" F17 מדמים "de sanguinibus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Vatablus, Musculus; so Ainsworth. ; meaning not the corruption of nature; see Ezekiel 16:6 ; though to be rid of that, and to be free from the guilt and condemnation of it, is very desirable, Romans 7:24 ; but either from capital punishment in his family, the effusion of blood and slaughter in it, threatened him on account of his sin, 2 Samuel 12:10 .... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:15

O Lord, open thou my lips ,.... The Targum adds, "in the late"; which were shut with a sense of sin, with shame of it, and sorrow for it; and though they were in some measure opened in prayer to God for the forgiveness of it, as appears by various petitions in this psalm, yet he still wanted a free spirit and boldness at the throne of grace, which the believer has when his heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ; and especially his lips were shut as to praise and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:16

For thou desirest not sacrifice ,.... Legal sacrifice; for there was no sacrifice appointed under the law for murder and adultery; else would I give it ; he would gladly have offered it up; thou delightest not in burnt offering ; at least such kind of sacrifices, though they were of divine appointment, and at that time in full force and use; yet they were not the only and principal sacrifices God desired and delighted in; nor were they at all acceptable to him without faith in... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ,.... That is humbled under a sense of sin; has true repentance for it; is smitten, wounded, and broken with it, by the word of God in the hand of the Spirit, which is a hammer to break the rock in pieces; and that not merely in a legal, but in an evangelical way; grieving for sin as committed against a God of love; broken and melted down under a sense of it, in a view of pardoning grace; and mourning for it, while beholding a pierced and wounded... read more

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