David was perhaps his very lowest when he penned Psalm 51. He had committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and then when he found out she was pregnant from their union, he had Uriah placed in the heat of a battle so that he would be killed. Thinking he had hidden his sin, he took Bathsheba as his wife. But sin never remains hidden and David’s found him out. Nathan, the prophet, brought God’s word to David and it was not a good word. The sword (turmoil) would become a staple of David’s family and the child conceived in adultery would die. God did not take David’s life; he would live amid the destruction brought by his sin. [1 Samuel 11-12]
It was at this lowest point of David’s life that he cried out for mercy from God in Psalm 51. David recognized that his sin was not just against Uriah, it was against the God who had been so faithful to him, who had blessed him abundantly and would have given him even more had he but asked.
The verses in Psalm 51 that always gets to me are verses 10-11, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
David recognized two things. First, he saw that his heart had become tainted, blackened by sin that had weakened his fervent spirit for God. No longer was he steadfast in following after God. He asked for God to create a clean, pure, heart within him, knowing that was something only God could do.
Second, David recognized that he was in a dangerous spot. If he persisted in his sin, he would find himself removed from the very presence of the God he loved so much. He was in danger of going through the rest of his life without the Holy Spirit of God leading and guiding.
Sin, if ignored, will flourish. It will stain our heart, our entire life, and move us far away from the presence of the LORD. “Create in me a pure heart, O God!
