Psalm 51
No doubt this psalm is the cry of the awakened and repentant remnant of Israel. And the answer to that cry may be read in Eze. 36, almost word for word. But our object at present, in this paper, is to look at the grace of God to David. Here is a man, then—an adulterer, a cruel murderer, and deeply sensible of his terrible sins—a man to whom God gave this testimony, and said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” (Acts 13:2222And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. (Acts 13:22).)
The skeptic scoffs at this. The cross of Christ surely forbids the thought that sin is after God’s own heart. His wrath against it has been fully revealed. When the wicked hands of men committed a still more fearful murder, there was one man to whom the heart of Jesus immediately responded; that man was the dying but repentant thief! The broken, contrite heart is ever welcome to God.
Yes, it was terrible, having sinned so sadly against Uriah, to see that man laid out on the steps of David’s house, and delivered unto death. What a weight of guilt pressed upon the conscience of David—a murderer and an adulterer before the most holy God! —everything else forgotten at the moment. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” Thus crushed, we learn the righteousness of God—His just judgment of our sins—in providing an infinite Sacrifice. And mark, there is not only the confession to God of these terrible sins, but also the full sense and owning of the deep corrupt nature which has done the sins. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
The reader may say, “But I have not been guilty of such terrible crimes as these.” That may be; you may not have sinned against Uriah, and then, after he has laid his head on your steps to sleep, cruelly murdered him. But has there not been One on this earth, full of grace and truth, and though the Maker of all things, visible and invisible, yet He had not where to lay His head? What has the world, to which we all by nature belong, done to Him? Was there ever such cruel, deliberate wickedness as the crucifixion of the Son of God? The whole world was there represented. And how have you treated the Son of God? Has He been left out on the steps, or received to your heart? And have we not all had the same evil desires, the same lust, that led to these dreadful results? Is not our very nature in which we were conceived as utterly vile and corrupt as David’s? See man brought before God, and in His sight all are guilty and under judgment. (Rom. 3) Now David took this place before God, in the full confession of his sin and guilt. Yet what a contrast to Judas! There was not one thought in Judas after God’s own heart. His was the repentance of dark, hopeless remorse—a forecast of endless woe. And yet one of these—the repentance of David or of Judas—must be yours.
Two things meet in David, considering who he was—enormous guilt, and amazing faith. Sin, in its true nature, before God, and yet surpassing faith in God. Each verse would afford matter for a paper, but we desire to call especial attention to verse 7: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be”—what, almost as white as snow? No. As white as snow? No; faith rises higher still—“whiter than snow.” Compare this with the faith of multitudes now, and their faith would be 100 below zero. One may be heard to say, Yes, I repent, and confess my sins; and I pray to be washed, but I am left so black, that I shall have to be purified in purgatory! Another will say, I am not certain whether I am washed from my sins, or not; and I must wait until the day of judgment to know. Can this be faith? Surely not.
Let us now turn to the words of David: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”
It may be very difficult to determine what plant or shrub hyssop may be. The efficacy of cleansing, or purging, does not seem to be so much in it, as in that with which it is connected; or, as we shall find, that which it was used to convey. We will turn to a few scriptures which will show this. First, at the passover: “And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood, that is, in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin” &c. (Exod. 12:2222And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. (Exodus 12:22).) It is not, then, the hyssop, but “the blood shall be unto you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you,” &c. The hyssop, then, was simply used in connection with the blood. They were to take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood of the lamb. They believed the word of the Lord about that blood. Is it not as though David had said, I am a born slave of sin—nothing can deliver me, nothing can shelter me but that bunch of hyssop dipped in blood? The blood of the paschal lamb must be shed. Israel must take shelter beneath that hyssop-sprinkled blood, before they can be brought out of the iron furnace of slavery. On the principle of law they must have been condemned with the Egyptians. They were sheltered from judgment by faith in the blood. Can the reader take that place? Can you say, I am a miserable slave of Satan and sin; nothing could shield me from divine wrath but the blood of the Lamb? Yes, the precious blood of Him to whom they gave vinegar, putting it on hyssop. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” But we will now look at the second scripture—the cleansing of the leper. (Lev. 14)
In these words, then, “Purge me with hyssop,” David seems to say, I am a moral leper, full of the vile, incurable leprosy of sin—not fit for the society of men, only fit to lay my hand on my mouth, and cry, Unclean. What a picture is that loathsome disease of the wretchedness that David felt. Yes, David there stood before the Lord as a vile leper. But mark, the active course of sin was stopped. It was not that he felt deep remorse that his sin was found out. He may have felt that. But now he earnestly desires complete deliverance and cleansing.
Thus was the leper brought to the priest in the day of his cleansing. “Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds, alive and clean, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel, over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.”
Now, here the hyssop is connected with two things for the cleansing of the poor wretched leper—death or blood, and life; a most striking type of the two things necessary for the cleansing of the heavy-burdened sinner—the death of the Lord Jesus, who was delivered for our offenses, and His resurrection, who was raised again for our justification. Mark, it is again the blood that is applied. “And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times.” The hyssop and the living bird are dipped into the blood of the dead bird. The very foundation of his cleansing, then, is the blood. Is it not so with the sinner? We shall see that by-and-by.
The repentant, burdened soul may say, All that is plain enough; but how am I to know that I am cleansed from my leprosy of sin in the sight of God, as He knows me? How was the leper to know that he was cleansed? What was the priest to do to give this assurance? He shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed, “and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.” There was no uncertainty; the live bird let loose gave assurance of the efficacy of the blood.
What, then, does God pronounce by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead? Read carefully the proclamation: “Be it known unto you, therefore.... that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things.” (Acts 13:3838Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: (Acts 13:38).) Is there not as great certainty in one ease as in the other? That live bird has been dipped in the blood of the dead bird. The hyssop has been dipped in the blood. The blood has been sprinkled seven times (the perfect number) on the leper: the priest declares him clean, and lets fly the live bird. What greater certainty can he need?
Jesus has died, the propitiation for sins. You believe this? Yes. God has raised Him from the dead. God proclaims forgiveness of sins to you through Jesus. God declares all who believe are forgiven, are justified from all things. The assurance is the testimony of God in raising Jesus from the dead. The living Christ is not now in death, but raised from the dead for our justification. Can we want a greater or more complete answer than this? Do you say, I believe God “ who raised up Jesus our Lord from among the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justificationיי? Then what follows with infallible certainty? “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How much, then, is there in that cry, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean!” Have I been the wretched slave of sin? Oh, the bunch of hyssop was dipped in the blood. Let me take shelter beneath that blood. Do I know and own myself a vile, loathsome, leprous sinner? Then let that hyssop be dipped in the blood, and sprinkled on me. Purge me with hyssop!
Do not these two scriptures, then, set before us in type the cleansing efficacy of the blood of Jesus? We will notice one more scripture in the Old Testament, and then go on to the testimony of the New Testament, to the blessed certainty that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” C. S.