Part 25: Getting Back To The Joy Of Jesus - Sermon 1: The Promise And Power Of Confessing Our Sins Series

Great Prayers of the Old Testament

Part 25: Getting Back to the Joy of Jesus

Sermon 1: The Promise and Power of Confessing Our Sins

Psalm 51:1-10

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared June 29, 2025)

BACKGROUND:

*Anyone who has read a good portion of God's Word knows that there are a lot of prayers provided for us in the Bible. The Dake Annotated Reference Bible lists 222 different prayers in the Bible: 176 prayers in the Old Testament, and 46 prayers in the New Testament. (1)

*Today we start a series of three sermons to cover three great themes in Psalm 51. In this Psalm King David confessed his horrible sins against Bathsheba, her husband Uriah the Hittite, and most of all, against the LORD our God. Many of us are familiar with the dark story of David's adultery with Bathsheba, and his cover-up conspiracy with general Joab to murder Bathsheba's faithful husband Uriah the Hittite.

*Remember that King David was a saved man. GotQuestions.org tells us that "we can learn a lot from the life of David. For example, 1 Samuel 13:13-14 and Acts 13:22 both tell us that King David "was a man after God's own heart." (2)

*King David was a saved man, but he was also a sinful man. And we could try to take false comfort by saying, "Oh, I'd never sin like that." But that smug attitude doesn't get us off the hook. We are all sinners. And the truth is that we are a lot worse than we usually think we are. Every moment that we spend doing something wrong is a wasted moment when we could have been doing something right. Every moment we spend not loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is a moment in sin. Every moment we spend not loving our neighbor as we love our self is a moment in sin.

*We are all sinners, and there are many ways to sin. In fact, human beings can be experts when it comes to sin. Maybe that's why God used 15 different words in the Old Testament to describe our sins.

*And David used four of them here in vs. 1-5. Please listen again, where God's Word says:

1. To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

4. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight -- That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

5. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

[1] The first word for sin in these verses is "transgression:" That's harsh defiance, revolt, open rebellion against God. It's the "Get out of my face!" attitude. "I'm gonna do what I want to do!" That's transgression.

[2] Then there is "iniquity." That's something warped, bent, crooked, twisted, or perverted. It might just be a warped outlook on life, or something much worse.

[3] Next is the original word for "sin" in vs. 1-4, plus a sister word in vs. 5. The root word for "sin" in these verses means to miss the goal or pathway of righteousness and duty, to incur guilt, or get the just punishment you deserve for it. King David was guilty of at least two terrible sins that called for the death penalty under God's Old Testament Law: Both adultery and murder.

[4] Finally, "evil" in vs. 4. This original word means something that can be vicious. It's something that can cause adversity, affliction, distress, and exceedingly great grief. It's something malignant, something that can cause the worst kind of pain, unhappiness, and misery. (3)

*Those 4 words cover a lot of ground! Unfortunately, there are many ways for us to sin, and sometimes we will, so we need to confess our sins to the LORD! Jon Allen told about a grandmother who was teaching her little grandson about Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. That little boy said, "If I had been in the Garden of Eden, and the devil offered me an apple, I wouldn't have eaten it. I don't even like apples!" "Yes," said his granny, "but suppose he had offered you some candy?" Her grandson thought about it for a moment and wisely replied, "Oh well." (4)

*The devil knows just where to hit us. He knows where we live. He knows where our weak spots are, -- so sometimes we will stumble into sin. King David did too. He was a saved man, but he was also a sinful man. That's why the king lost his peace, and David shows us that trying to cover up our sin brings more pain.