THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF SIN PSALM 51 MAIN IDEA Sin causes us to be alienated from God, from others, and from ourselves. Truly the wages of sin is death. I. ALIENATES US FROM GOD (VS 1-6) Sin separates us from experiencing the rich peace and joy of being in a relationship with God. A. CONTEXT OF THE PSALM (SUBTITLE) B. THE NATURE OF GOD (1-2) C. OUR NATURE (3-5) D. THE NATURE OF RELATIONSHIP (6) II. ALIENATION FROM OURSELVES (VS 7-12) Sin separates us from our true selves. A. FEELING DIRTY (7-9) B. FEELING BROKEN (10-12) III. ALIENATION FROM ONE ANOTHER (VS 13-19) Sin causes problems in the community. A. PUBLIC CONFESSION FOR PUBLIC SIN (13-15) B. REPAIRING RELATIONSHIPS (16-17) C. REPAIRING THE COMMUNITY (18-19)
The Destructiveness of Sin Psalm 51 This psalm falls under the heading of Penitential Psalms. There are 7 psalms that fall under this category; Psalms 6, 32, 28, 51, 102, 130, and 143. We don t often preach about how destructive sin is; so when we come across passages like these, we need to let the full force of the consequences of sin weigh us down with grief. Sin really is destructive. The Bible is clear on that point, The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). I want to remind us that death in the Bible does not mean something ceases to exist. Death in the Bible means separation. When we die on this earth; our physical bodies are separated from our eternal spirits. When we spiritually die; we are separated from God. The main idea of this morning s text is this. SIN CAUSES US TO BE ALIENATED FROM GOD, FROM OTHERS, AND FROM OURSELVES. TRULY THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. Even though this psalm is one of gloom; it is also filled with the promise of the second half of Romans 6:23, But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In other words, it is true that sin brings death; it alienates us from God, from ourselves, and from others. However God, and only God, can bring healing, restoration, redemption, and salvation. Jesus is the answer to the sin problem. Last week we said that God didn t find the worship format, style, or sacrifices offensive. What He does find offensive is when we go through religious motions without truly contrite and loving hearts. The problem is not the method of worship; the problem lies with our hearts. I. ALIENATES US FROM GOD (VS 1-6) David points out that sin alienates us from God in verses 1-6. SIN SEPARATES US FROM EXPERIENCING THE RICH PEACE AND JOY OF BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. I think this is worth explaining. It is not as if God leaves us or forsakes us when we sin. God is steadfast and His love for us is steadfast. Sin prevents us from feeling and experiencing the love God continually sends in our direction. God doesn t withhold His love; we just can t experience when we are in sin. The subtitle of this psalm is very interesting in that David gives us the context for this psalm. When David was running for his life from King Saul, he acted very righteous. He was careful to obey the laws of God. God called David a man after His own heart. However, when David was crowned king and living in the safety of his palace, he had some moral lapses. One night, he was walking on the roof of his palace, and he noticed a beautiful woman naked, while she was taking a bath. He had his servants bring her to the palace where he seduced her and got her pregnant. What made this worse was that she was the wife of one of his most loyal and trusted soldiers. So not wanting to get caught, David sent for Uriah to come home from the fighting to take a break. His hope was that Uriah would have sex with his wife Bathsheba and he would not suspect the pregnancy was from any other man. However because Uriah was such a dedicated soldier, he refused to go into his house and have sex with his wife while his commanding officer, fellow soldiers, and the Ark of the Covenant were in the field fighting the enemy. He slept outside where everyone could see him. Since that didn t work, David got him drunk and tried to get him to go home and have sex with his wife. Again, Page 2
Uriah refused and slept outside with David s other servants. Everyone knew that Uriah did not go home and have sex with his wife. Uriah would live in solidarity with all his other soldiers by not going home. All of David s plans backfired. If Uriah s wife Bathsheba was found pregnant by another man, she would be accused of adultery and sentenced to death. When she revealed that King David was the father in order to save her life; David would be greatly embarrassed. Actually according to Hebrew law, both he and Bathsheba would have to be executed. David couldn t have that so he wrote a note to Uriah s commanding officer Joab. The note instructed him to put Uriah on the front line. When the enemy attacked, all the soldiers except for Uriah were to fall back; leaving Uriah all alone. Joab obeyed orders and Uriah was killed. David brought Bathsheba to the palace and married her. She gave birth and no one suspected anything. Now David is guilty of adultery and murder; both which are capital offenses that carry the death sentence with them. There should be no reprieve from this. God sent Nathan the Prophet to confront David. Nathan told David the story of a man in his kingdom who was rich and had plenty of livestock. There was another man who was poor and only one little lamb. The lamb had become almost like a child to this poor man. It was all the poor man had. One day, a friend came to the rich man s house and the rich man stole the poor man s only lamb, killed it, and ate it. Let s pick up the Bible account right there: 5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity. 7 Then Nathan said to David, You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master s house to you, and your master s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. 11 This is what the Lord says: Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel. 13 Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied, The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. Page 3 2 Samuel 12:5-13 / Today s New International Version It seems that at this time, David felt the weight of his sin. In verses 1-2, he starts the psalm by reminding himself and us as to the nature of God. He goes to the only being that can deal with sin; God. As he falls down on his face before God, the first word out of his mouth is grace. The second word is God. David knows that the only way he can even hope to live is by asking God for grace and mercy. This is something that we must constantly remind ourselves of; there is nothing good in us, there is nothing that we have done that is so good or so religious that would allow us to approach God as if He owed us some grace or mercy. When we come before God, we would always do well to remember that humility is what moves God s heart. Even though David is king; he comes with all humility before God.
David now appeals to God for grace and mercy not based on his own righteousness; he appeals to God s unfailing love and great compassion. These are two very interesting words. You are already familiar with the word Ḥesed. We have been defining this word as God s unconditional, passionate, and intimate lovingkindness. This word comes up over and over again in describing how God approaches us. But then David gives God this tender feminine touch. The word for great compassion is the Hebrew word raḥam which describes a mother s love. It comes from the same root word as a mother s womb. The love described here is an extension of this womb love. David is appealing to God s passionate love for us. In the last phrase of verse one and verse 2, David uses 3 nouns that describe sin caused by our perversity and depravity; transgressions, iniquity, and sin. They cover all kinds of sin from accidentally sinning to intentional rebellion. He asks God to accomplish 3 things because of His love; blot out, wash away, and cleanse. David is asking that God wipe away and obliterate his sin and to make him clean and whole again. David wants to be in a relationship with God in which God sees him as if he had never sinned. In New Testament theology, we call this justification. God now looks at us through the blood of Christ and He sees us as if we had never sinned; not on our own merit rather on the merit of Christ. We ve already discussed a bit of our nature but in verses 3-5 David goes on to describe our nature in depth. In these three verses we see the theology of original sin and how it works together with our willful participation in sin. In verse 5 he describes original sin. In other words, we are born into a history of sin that dates back to Adam and Eve. We are born into this world with a natural bent towards sin. This bent is strong because it is a dominate part of life and death passed on to us by our parents since the beginning of humanity. In verse 3 David reminds us that we are not only guilty because we have this natural bent towards sin; we are guilty because of our own participation in sinful thoughts, words, and behaviors. We give into this natural bent towards sin and rebel against God. In verse 4 David acknowledges that he is guilty both of being born into sin and acting out in sin; which played itself out in adultery and murder. God s judgment is valid; David deserves to die on both counts. When the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of God s glory, David s life and our lives prove that assessment to be correct. And when God says that sin brings death; God is also correct in that assessment as well. David is feeling alienated from God, from himself, and from others. I get a little bit confused as to what he means in the first line of verse 4 when he says to God, Against you, you only, have I sinned. What?! What about Uriah? You had sex with his wife, got her pregnant, and killed him to cover up the affair. I would say that you sinned against Uriah as well. Sin also has devastating effects on those around us as well. We ll discuss that later. But I guess when we are experiencing the consequences of sin; we become a bit narcissistic in our view. We are absorbed in our own pain. Nevertheless, David realizes and confesses that he is a sinner in the generic sense that all of us are sinners from birth; and a sinner in the particular sense that he committed adultery and murder. In verse 6 he describes the nature of being in a relationship with God. God desires faithfulness from us. The word for faithfulness in the Hebrew here is the same word used for truth. God wants us to live honestly and openly before Him; without pretense and without arrogance. Genuine humility is simply acknowledging the truth about ourselves. He wants us to love Him from our Page 4
very inward parts. The word translated womb here can refer to the depths of our being; our guts and our souls. Look at the second half of verse 6. As we live truthfully before God; He gives us wisdom in the most hidden and secret parts of our being. As we give God full access to every hidden thought and secret we have; He blesses us with wisdom. Remember wisdom to the Hebrew meant living out God s will and commands in everyday life situations. The Apostle John said this: 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:8-10 / New Living Translation SIN SEPARATES US FROM EXPERIENCING THE RICH PEACE AND JOY OF BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. It s important for us to recognize that. It s important for us to acknowledge our sin as we live openly, honestly, and humbly before God. Sin does separate us from experiencing God s love but genuine confession and repentance allows us once again to experience the peace and joy of being in a right relationship with God. II. ALIENATION FROM OURSELVES (VS 7-12) In verses 7-12, David continues on with this theme of restoration as he describes the alienation we feel from ourselves. SIN SEPARATES US FROM OUR TRUE SELVES. We are created in the image of God and we were created for the purpose of fellowshipping with God. Jesus pointed that out when He said: 37 You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment/ Matthew 22:37-38 / New Living Translation God loves every human being and desires to be in a passionate, intimate, personal, and ongoing relationship with each one of us. Sin prevents us from enjoying that. In verses 7-9 David describes feeling dirty as a result of sin. He feels as if his bones have been crushed, that he is too dirty to even come into the presence of God, and that he has lost all joy and gladness in life. When we sin, we often feel dirty and hideous. That is how Satan works. He tempts us to sin by enticing us and making the sin look glamorous. I m sure Bathsheba looked really good to David and that having sex with her would be exciting. And having her husband killed in the line of duty seemed like a foolproof plan. However, when sin is exposed for what it is and we are exposed, Satan then comes along and accuses us as being stupid and dirty. That s how he operates. In these three verses, David is begging God to cleanse him from this filth, to remove all the stain, and to restore and repair his crushed bones. It s as if he is standing before God with mud and dirt all over him with broken arms and legs. He is asking God to clean him up and heal him. David realizes that God is the only One Who can fix this. We have to remember there is no religious Page 5
ceremony or sacrifice that can take care of these two sins. David should be put to death. However, he still has hope that God will forgive Him and cleanse him. We must remember to never let Satan complete his cycle in us. If he does succeed in getting us to sin; we must not let him come and cause us to feel helpless and beyond cleansing and repair. The Bible is clear that when we come to God and confess our sins; we are cleansed thoroughly by the blood of Jesus. We are cleansed, healed, and restored. Verses 10-12 continue on with feeling broken. In verse 9 David asked God to turn His face from his filth. However, he did not ask to turn his face away from him. That s the thought in verse 11. David wants to remain in God s presence. He can t imagine living life without God s Holy Spirit. Look at verse 10. The poet wants God to create a pure heart in him. The word for create in the Hebrew is only used with God as the Subject. Only God creates. Further, God is not in the business of fixing up old stuff. He is not in the business of sin management. God is in the business of creating new and clean hearts. We become new creations when we come to Christ in faith. The Apostle Paul put it this way: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Page 6 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 / Today s New International Version God is in the business of providing us with new and clean hearts. He gives us a firm, fixed, solid and willing spirit. God s Holy Spirit works within and together with our spirits giving us the desire and the ability to obey Him and please Him. God continually empowers us so that we can recognize and resist sin. He has also provided us with the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, enable us to confess, and repent of sin. God the Father created us. God the Son recreates us through His death and resurrection. God the Holy Spirit renews us continually. The point we are making is this. SIN SEPARATES US FROM OUR TRUE SELVES. Sin makes us temporarily insane. You all know the story of the Prodigal Son. He ran away from home, got crazy with wild living; wine, women, and song. He ended up in a pig pen jealous of the pigs he was feeding. There is a turning point in the story that goes like this: 17 When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. Luke 15:17-18 / Today s New International Version Don t miss that phrase, When he came to his senses. We are children of God and when we get caught up in sin, it is not that we are no longer children of God; that never changes. What it does mean is that we temporarily forget who we are. We need to come to our senses and go back to our father with humble and contrite hearts. We will talk more about contrition in this next section. Verses 13-19 remind us of the terrible fact that sin alienates us from one another. SIN CAUSES PROBLEMS IN THE COMMUNITY. As we begin this section, I want to point out that there is no such thing as private or personal sin. Our sin affects the whole community. A man named Achan stole a robe and some valuables that
no one knew about; no one except for God. The next day in battle 36 soldiers were killed in battle because of his so-called private sin. 36 households lost a husband and father. To be sure, even though Achan confessed and was forgiven, he and his family were put to death. Because of David s sin described here, his son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar. Her brother Absalom then killed Amnon. Absalom was then at constant war with his father David. Absalom set up a tent on the palace roof where everyone could see. Then he had sex with all of his father David s concubines one after the other. Finally, David s trusted General Joab killed Absalom. Even then David went into mourning but Joab told David to man up and thank his troops for being loyal to him. David was forgiven of his sin but the violence in his family remained as a consequence of his sin. On another occasion, David took a census of Israel which was a direct violation of God s command. God forgave David of this sin as well. However, because of this sin, God sent a plague on Israel in which 70,000 people died as a result. We must never ever come to think of sin as our own personal sin that carries its own personal consequences. My sin and your sin affects and infects that entire community. What you do in your private life affects me and what I do in my private life affects you. When we stop to think that our personal sin could kill a local church, we can see how serious sin is. III. ALIENATION FROM ONE ANOTHER (VS 13-19) That s why in verses 13-15 we can see that public confession for public sin is necessary. David is guilty of bloodguilt. He murdered one of his most trusted, loyal, and elite soldiers; all because he couldn t control his own lust. He is guilty of bloodguilt and two capital offenses; adultery and murder. He should be put to death; but who is going to put the king to death? In his public confession of sin and repentance, he will provide a model genuine guilt, confession, and repentance. It would have been more convincing had he pronounced the death sentence on himself. He asks God to give him the words to confess and give glory to God. In the Achan incident Joshua tenderly said this to Achan before they executed him: 19 My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me. 20 Achan replied, It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. Joshua 7:19-20 / Today s New International Version Nevertheless, Achan was executed along with his family. King David should have been executed but perhaps this public humiliation served God s purpose. Verses 16-17 describe the importance of repairing relationships. David realizes there is no designated sacrifice to cover these two sins. There is nothing in the sacrificial system to atone for adultery and murder. Nathan the prophet told David that God would forgive him and so it becomes important to David to repair his relationship with God because he really does love God. As the psalmist pointed out in Psalm 50, God doesn t need bulls, goats, lambs or birds to eat. He is not hungry. God doesn t need wine. He is not thirsty. What s so interesting about this case is that not even a thousand bulls, goats, etc. would be enough. Really what God is looking for is a broken and contrite heart. In Christian theology, there is a big difference between the Latin words for Page 7
attrition (attritio) and contrition (contritio). They both have to do with being sorry. Attrition is being sorry for the mess sin has gotten us into. Usually this kind of sorrow comes when we are caught and our sin is made public or we are suffering the consequences of our sin. We could see how David could easily be sorry in this sense. However, David makes it clear that God desires contrition. Contrition is sorrow that is caused because we have hurt the God we love. David did love God with a passionate heart. His desire was to serve, to please, to love, and to honor God. David loved to worship God. God wants our love and when we sin He is not looking for a pound of flesh. God s desire is to have our relationship with Him repaired. Humble, honest, genuine confession and repentance is what brings us back into that right relationship with God. God desires that and has provided the blood of Jesus to atone for, cover, and cleanse our sins. And let s not forget community. Repairing the community is described in verses 18-19. Some scholars say this psalm had to written after the Jews returned from their Babylonian Exile around 539 BC. That would put this psalm about 500 years after David died. However, I think the more normal reading of verse 18 is that whenever King David sinned in such a horrific manner as committing adultery, murder, and outright disobedience of God as in taking the census; he put the entire community of Jerusalem and the entire nation at risk. We know that when Israel sinned, God let foreign nations come in and conquer them. When they repented, God would raise up a leader to deliver them once again to prosperity and freedom. As long as David lived in unrepentant sin, the nation was in danger of being conquered by a foreign nation or in the case of the census, in danger from a plague or other forms of God s judgment. Once David s heart is right and once our hearts our right, worship is a beautiful thing. Worship is our individual and corporate demonstration of our genuine love for God. Sin is extremely destructive. Covering up sin is even more destructive. Pretending that all is well is yet even more destructive. SIN CAUSES PROBLEMS IN THE COMMUNITY. Many churches have died because of the sins of the leaders. Many people may be suffering, sick, or dying because of sin. Please do not take sin lightly. SIN CAUSES US TO BE ALIENATED FROM GOD, FROM OTHERS, AND FROM OURSELVES. TRULY THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. Lectio Divina Psalm 51 (TNIV) Page 8