Teks -- Psalms 51:1 (NET)

Psalm 51

51:1 For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts!

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

JFB: Psa 51:1-4

On the occasion, compare 2Sa 11:12. The Psalm illustrates true repentance, in which are comprised conviction, confession, sorrow, prayer for mercy, and purposes of amendment, and it is accompanied by a lively faith. (Psa. 51:1-19)

A plea for mercy is a confession of guilt.

JFB: Psa 51:1-4 - blot out

As from a register.

JFB: Psa 51:1-4 - transgressions

Literally, "rebellions" (Psa 19:13; Psa 32:1).

Clarke: Psa 51:1 - Have mercy upon me, O God

Have mercy upon me, O God - Without mercy I am totally, finally ruined and undone

Clarke: Psa 51:1 - According to thy loving-kindness

According to thy loving-kindness - Mark the gradation in the sense of these three words, Have Mercy on me, חנני chonneni ; thy Loving-Kindness, חסדך chasdecha ; - thy Tender Mercies, רחמיך rachameycha , here used to express the Divine compassion. The propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation

The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they respectively make over them

The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former

The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks called splagcnizesqai, that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which nature is susceptible. See Chandler

Clarke: Psa 51:1 - Blot out my transgressions

Blot out my transgressions - מחה mecheh , wipe out. There is a reference here to an indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the mercy, loving-kindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.

Calvin: Psa 51:1 - Have mercy upon me

1.Have mercy upon me David begins, as I have already remarked, by praying for pardon; and his sin having been of an aggravated description, he prays with unwonted earnestness. He does not satisfy himself with one petition. Having mentioned the loving-kindness of the Lord, he adds the multitude of his compassions, to intimate that mercy of an ordinary kind would not suffice for so great a sinner. Had he prayed God to be favorable, simply according to his clemency or goodness, even that would have amounted to a confession that his case was a bad one; but when he speaks of his sin as remissible, only through the countless multitude of the compassions of God, he represents it as peculiarly atrocious. There is an implied antithesis between the greatness of the mercies sought for, and the greatness of the transgression which required them. Still more emphatical is the expression which follows, multiply to wash me Some take הרבה , ²⁵⁸ herebeh, for a noun, but this is too great a departure from the idiom of the language. The sense, on that supposition, would indeed remain the same, That God would wash him abundantly, and with multiplied washing; but I prefer that form of expression which agrees best with the Hebrew idiom. This, at least, is certain from the expression which he employs, that he felt the stain of his sin to be deep, and to require multiplied washings. Not as if God could experience any difficulty in cleansing the worst sinner, but the more aggravated a man’s sin is, the more earnest naturally are his desires to be delivered from the terrors of conscience.

The figure itself, as all are aware, is one of frequent occurrence in Scripture. Sin resembles filth or uncleanness, as it pollutes us, and makes us loathsome in the sight of God, and the remission of it is therefore aptly compared to washing This is a truth which should both commend the grace of God to us, and fill us with detestation of sin. Insensible, indeed, must that heart be which is not affected by it!

Defender: Psa 51:1 - Have mercy upon me

Psalm 51 tells of David's repentance, confession and plea for cleansing following Nathan's rebuke after his sin with respect to Bathsheba and Uriah (2Sa 12:1-15). Psa 32:1-11 tells of his joy after God forgave him (Psa 51:12)."

TSK: Psa 51:1 - after // O God // multitude // tender // blot

after : 2Sam. 11:2-27

O God : Psa 25:6, Psa 25:7, Psa 109:21, Psa 119:124; Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7; Num 14:18, Num 14:19; Dan 9:9, Dan 9:18; Mic 7:18, Mic 7:19; Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21; Eph 1:6-8, Eph 2:4-7

multitude : Psa 5:7, Psa 69:13, Psa 69:16, Psa 106:7, Psa 106:45; Isa 63:7, Isa 63:15 *marg. Lam 3:32

tender : Psa 40:11, Psa 77:9, Psa 145:9

blot : Psa 51:9; Neh 4:5; Isa 43:25, Isa 44:22; Jer 18:23; Act 3:19; Col 2:14

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Psa 51:1 - Have mercy upon me // According to thy loving-kindness // Blot out

To the chief musician ; to be sung by him and other sacred musicians publicly in the temple through all ages; that his repentance might be as manifest and public as his crime and scandal was. When Nathan the prophet came unto him : after his conscience was awakened by Nathan’ s words, 2Sa 12 , and Nathan was gone, David falls very seriously upon the practice of sincere repentance, and digested his meditations into this Psalm.

David prayeth to God for the remission of his original and actual sins, Psa 51:1,2 , whereof he maketh a deep confession, Psa 51:3-5 ; and for the renovation of his Holy Spirit, to support himself and instruct others, Psa 51:6-14 ; promising him also unfeigned and sincere thankfulness, Psa 51:15-17 ; with a prayer for the good of the whole church, Psa 51:18,19 .

Have mercy upon me pity, and help, and answer me, in the desires I am now spreading before thee.

According to thy loving-kindness: I pretend to no merit, but humbly implore thy free grace and mercy. Thy mercies are infinite, and therefore sufficient for my relief, and such indeed do I need.

Blot out either,

1. Out of my conscience and soul, where it hath left a stain and filthy character. Or,

2. Out of thy book of remembrance and accounts, in which all men’ s sins are written, and out of Which all men shall be judged hereafter, Rev 20:12 ; which is spoken of God after the manner of men. See Poole "Isa 43:25" ; See Poole "Isa 44:22" .

Haydock: Psa 51:1

David condemneth the wickedness of Doeg, and foretelleth his destruction.

Gill: Psa 51:1 - Have mercy upon me, O God // according to thy lovingkindness // according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions

Have mercy upon me, O God,.... David, under a sense of sin, does not run away from God, but applies unto him, and casts himself at his feet, and upon his mercy; which shows the view he had of his miserable condition, and that he saw there was mercy in God, which gave him hope; and upon his bended knees, and in the exercise of faith, he asks for it;

according to thy lovingkindness; not according to his merits, nor according to the general mercy of God, which carnal men rely upon; but according to his everlasting and unchangeable love in Christ; from which as the source, and through whom as the medium, special mercy comes to the children of men. The acts of special mercy are according to the sovereign will of God: he is not moved to mercy neither by the merits nor misery of men, but by his free grace and favour; it is love that sets mercy to work: this is a most glaring gleam of Gospel light, which none of the inspired writers besides, except the Apostle Paul, saw, Eph 2:4;

according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions; for his sin was complicated, attended with many others; and, besides, upon a view of this, he was led to observe all his other sins; and particularly the corruption of his nature, his original sin, which he mentions, Psa 51:5. These he desires might be "blotted out"; out of the book of account, out of God's debt book; that they might not stand against him, being debts he was not able to pay or make satisfaction for; and out of the table of his own heart and conscience, where they were ever before him, and seemed to be engraven; that they might be caused to pass from him, and he might have no more conscience of them; or that they might be blotted out, as a cloud by the clear shining of the sun of righteousness, with the healing of pardoning grace in his wings; or that they might be wiped away, as any faith is wiped from any person or thing: and all this "according to the multitude of his tender mercies". The mercy of God is plenteous and abundant; he is rich in it, and various are the instances of it; and it is exceeding tender, like that of a father to his children, or like that of a mother to the son of her womb; and from this abundant and tender mercy springs the forgiveness of sin, Luk 1:77. The psalmist makes mention of the multitude of the mercies of God, because of the multitude of his sins, which required a multitude of mercy to forgive, and to encourage his hope of it.