Psalm 51:14

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

     In Psalm 51, David is tore up by the sin that he has committed. After living in a partial sense of denial, David comes face to face with his sin when Nathan preaches to him. Seeing how greatly he has sinned against the Lord, David laments to the Lord in this prayer. He makes not pretense at righteousness or even self-justification. Instead he just plainly admits that he is the one who is in sin. He even goes so far to say that when the Lord brings jdugment against Him, it is the Lord that is just.

     After coming completely clean about his own sin, David then asks the Lord for forgiveness. He asks that the Lord make Him to become completely clean. Here David shows his confidence in the Lord. While still showing humility, he tells the Lord that his desire is to be cleansed. He is not commanding the Lord to do so much as he has a full expectation of the Lord doing so. There is no doubt in his mind that if he comes before the Lord with a penitent heart that the Lord will indeed forgive him.

     Knowing that the Lord will forgive him, he also states what he will do in response. Earlier in the Psalm, he states that his bones were crushed. Yet with forgiveness his spirit will be uplifted. Rather than just being content with the fact that the Lord has forgiven him and that he feels better, he goes and proclaims the Lord’s greatness. He wants to share how the Lord has been so merciful to Him. When we find ourselves in sin, no matter how great or small it may be, we need to go to the Lord with confidence that he will forgive us. We then use that certainty of our redemption as motivation to tell all those around us how great a God we serve.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.