Psalms 51

Have mercy—according to steadfast love and abundant mercy blot out transgressions. Wesley heard lovingkindness and the multitude of tender mercies as the ground of the plea after Nathan exposed David. The king does not bargain; he begs blot-out.

Mercy is true and must be sought. Grace that can blot also summons confession. David’s aggravated sin does not undo the invitation to ask; it deepens the need for rich mercy received.

Calvin: David begins by praying for pardon with unwonted earnestness—ordinary kindness would not suffice for so great a sinner. He piles loving-kindness and multitude of compassions because the stain felt deep.

Pardon is God’s work according to His compassions, not David’s worth. The plea rests on who God is. Common confession: blot out is needed; neither camp softens Bathsheba’s aftermath.

Wesley: cleanse me a leprous creature by grace and by the blood signified in ceremonial washings. Filth is inward; washing must go through.

The request is earnest cooperation with grace that washes. David does not scrub himself into pardon; he asks God to wash—and means it.

Calvin: multiply to wash me—the stain felt deep, needing multiplied washing. Sin pollutes; remission is aptly compared to washing. The more aggravated the sin, the more earnest the desire for deliverance from terror of conscience.

Only God can wash away sin. Both readings hold: thorough cleansing, not a light rinse.

I know my transgressions; my sin is constantly before me. Wesley: acknowledge—confession that keeps the sin in view rather than burying it. Honesty before God is the doorway of mercy.

Knowledge here is owning, not mere data. Grace enables confession that can still be refused in self-excuse.

Calvin: he is subjected to constant anguish that only reconciliation relieves. Prayer did not proceed from dissimulation; many praise grace who never felt bitterness of divine displeasure. He knows inwardly with keenest anguish.

True penitents are wounded and restless until mercy is assured. Both agree: sin before the eyes; no shrug.

Against you, and you only, I have sinned—evil in your sight—so you may be justified. Wesley: comparatively: nothing more grievous than sin against God; severities will glorify His justice, not blemish it.

Guilt before the Judge is primary even when neighbors were wronged. The confession does not erase Uriah; it ranks the offense rightly.

Calvin: whether the world pardons or not, God is the Judge; conscience hails him to that bar. Cited in Romans 3: God’s righteousness stands even in human sin. David charges himself and justifies God.

Acquittal among men cannot quiet an accusing conscience. God justified in judgment.

Brought forth in iniquity; conceived in sin. Wesley: the filthy stream leads to a corrupt fountain—this crime the fruit of a vile nature still ready to sin as occasion offers.

Original corruption is earnest and aggravates guilt; it does not excuse the adultery. Nature’s bent is confessed so that grace’s need is plain.

Calvin: not one sin only—born in iniquity, nature entirely depraved. He aggravates guilt, not excuses it. Against Pelagius: sin is hereditary disease, not mere imitation. Corruption extends to every part of the soul.

Original sin is confessed to deepen need of new creation. We are not blank slates.

Wesley: uprightness God requires; original corruption and actual sin both contradict that holy will and the knowledge written in the heart.

God teaches wisdom inwardly—truth is not only outward law. The heart can be taught; neglect of that teaching worsens the fall.

Calvin: God desires truth in the inward parts—secret as well as gross sins displease Him. David cannot plead ignorance; wisdom was closely brought home. Privilege aggravated the offense.

Inward truth is God’s delight and gift. Agreed: heart-deep honesty, not costume piety.

Purge with hyssop; wash—whiter than snow. Wesley: as lepers were purified by appointed rites, cleanse me by grace and by Christ’s blood those rites signified.

Cleansing is authentic and available to the contrite who ask. Ceremonial shadow points to blood that actually cleanses.

Calvin: he alludes to legal rites as seals of grace, not trust in the symbol. He asks God to accomplish what the rites signified. The Spirit sprinkles the conscience with Christ’s blood.

Atonement is God’s application of Christ’s satisfaction. Whiter than snow is gift.

Joy and gladness; bones you have broken rejoice. Wesley: by the Spirit seal pardon on the conscience; the wounded heart comforted.

Joy is restoration of sensed grace, sought and received. Broken bones name discipline that mercy can reverse into praise.

Calvin: joy of the Lord reanimates; it comes by hearing the word that pardons. No solid peace except reposing on God’s promises. Bones broken = extreme grief under displeasure.

Assurance grows as God speaks peace. Joy returns after the breaking.

Hide your face from my sins; blot out all iniquities. Parallel to v. 1—pardon reiterated. Wesley’s silence on the verse still fits the blot-out theme: remove the record from sight.

Hide and blot are requests faith keeps making until peace settles. Grace invites the ask.

Calvin: hide face from sins = pardoning; blot out explains it. Justification as God’s voluntary forgetting of iniquities. Reiteration shows depth of anxiety for a hard-won favor.

Free pardon cleanses completely. Both hear: no leftover ledger with God.

Create a clean heart; renew a right spirit. Wesley: work an holy frame that purges inward filth; firm, constant resolution; temper of soul fixed and unmoveable.

Create names God’s work; renew names a spirit that must be kept steadfast. Grace that creates also calls for a fixed will cooperating with the Spirit.

Calvin: he moves from pardon to sanctification. Create expresses that nothing less than a miracle reforms; repentance is God’s gift. Sophists who leave a middle free will rob God of glory. Renew a right spirit—restoration after fall is still creation-grace.

Clean heart is new creation, not self-rehab. God must make the heart clean.

Cast me not away; take your Holy Spirit from me. Fear of exile from presence after gross fall. Wesley leaves the verse terse; the plea is retention of the Spirit’s presence.

The Spirit can be grieved and the sense of presence lost; the prayer treats that loss as danger for a believer who has fallen hard.

Calvin: Spirit not altogether taken—gifts obscured, not reprobate mind. Elect may fear loss yet hold that grace is incorruptible seed. Against those who say mortal sin alienates the elect entirely.

Cast-away language is the saint’s fear; perseverance holds underneath. Dread of Spirit withdrawn is holy.

Restore joy of salvation; uphold with willing spirit. Wesley: comfortable sense of saving grace; free/ingenuous spirit opposed to base servile spirit in his wicked practices—freedom from bondage of sin to run God’s precepts.

Joy restored and a willing spirit upheld—grace that frees for cheerful obedience, not forced drudgery.

Calvin: grief remains until peace with God. Free spirit = free and cheerful, not enslaved by guilt; some hear princely courage for kingship. Either way, divine grace alone recovers it.

Joy of salvation is restored gift. Willing spirit is not self-generated pep.

Then teach transgressors; sinners return. Mercy received becomes mission. Wesley’s economy: restored joy overflows into teaching that others may convert.

Teaching and return are aims—grace that saved David aims at others’ turning, which they must still do.

Calvin: gratitude constrains helping others into the same grace. He speaks sanguinely of converting others; we forget God can crown such attempts.

Recovered saints become instruments. Pardon fuels witness.

Deliver from bloodguiltiness; tongue sings righteousness. Wesley: righteousness = clemency and goodness. Bloodguilt names Uriah and more.

Deliverance from blood-guilt is begged from the God of salvation; praise follows mercy received.

Calvin: bloods may mean capital guilt/death-sentence felt; he celebrates God’s righteousness as faithfulness to promise and help. The God of my salvation—trembling yet trusting.

Only mercy clears murder’s stain before heaven. Both see: bloodguilt is not minimized.

Open my lips; mouth declares praise. Wesley: lips shut with shame and grief. Praise needs God to open what shame closed.

Praise is enabled response—God opens; the mouth then actually declares.

Calvin: God afford matter of praise; mouth shut until pardon extends. New song after mercy—not mere eloquence tips.

Praise is answer to grace. Undisputed: shame-closed lips need God.

You don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. Wesley: not absolute denial of sacrifice, but these crimes not expiated by any ritual offering.

No bargain of bulls for adultery and murder; mercy and contrition, not payment theater.

Calvin: confidence of pardon though he brings no compensation—relies on riches of mercy. Against those who treat sacrifices as purchase price; rites point to Christ, not self-redemption.

Reconciliation is a free gift. No dispute here: burnt offering cannot buy this clean.

Broken spirit; contrite heart God will not despise. Wesley: more value than many sacrifices.

Contrition is the offering God receives—humility that can be presented or withheld; grace softens what pride resists.

Calvin: sacrifices of God = broken spirit enough without pretended satisfaction. Broken spirit emptied of vain-glorious confidence; contrite heart has no dealings on exchange. Does not exclude faith; shuts out merit.

Penitence is not a wage but the empty hand. God does not despise the crushed heart.

Do good to Zion; build Jerusalem’s walls. Wesley: free rich mercy; perfect the city and especially the temple despite my sins.

Personal pardon widens into prayer for the people—David’s fall must not ruin Zion; he intercedes.

Calvin: from private prayer to the Church—he had nearly ruined it by his fall. Restores by free good pleasure, not others’ righteousness. God builds the spiritual temple.

Church’s standing is God’s good pleasure. Zion on the penitent’s lips.

Wesley: then God pleased with sacrifices of righteousness. Order: mercy and contrition first; public worship gladly follows.

Restored fellowship renews right offering—not bribes, but grateful obedience in the assembly.

Calvin: sacrifices of righteousness = warrantable, according to commandment, with reference to their proper end. Not empty form. Thanksgiving joins heart disposition to solemn worship.

Accepted offerings flow from prior mercy. Both affirm: altar after blot-out.