John Calvin Commentary Psalms 51:7

"Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." — Psalms 51:7 (ASV)

You shall purge me with hyssop. He still pursues the same theme of supplication; and the repetition of his requests for pardon proves how earnestly he desired it. He speaks of hyssop, in allusion to the ceremonies of the law; and though he was far from putting his trust in the mere outward symbol of purification, he knew that, like every other legal rite, it was instituted for an important end.

The sacrifices were seals of the grace of God. In them, therefore, he was anxious to find assurance of his reconciliation; and it is highly proper that, when our faith is disposed at any time to waver, we should confirm it by using such means of divine support. All that David here prays for is that God would effectually accomplish, in his experience, what he had signified to his Church and people by these outward rites; and in this he has set us a good example for our imitation.

Undoubtedly, it is to the blood of Christ alone that we must look for the atonement of our sins; but we are creatures of sense, who must see with our eyes and handle with our hands; and it is only by using the outward symbols of propitiation that we can arrive at a full and assured persuasion of it.

What we have said of the hyssop applies also to the washings referred to in this verse, which were commonly practiced under the Law. They figuratively represented our being purged from all iniquity, in order to our reception into the divine favor. I need not say that it is the unique work of the Holy Spirit to sprinkle our consciences inwardly with the blood of Christ and, by removing the sense of guilt, to secure our access into the presence of God.

In the two verses that follow, the Psalmist prays that God would be pacified towards him. Those who have suggested that, in praying to hear the voice of joy and gladness, he requests some prophet to be sent who might assure him of pardon, put too restrictive a meaning on the words.

He prays, in general, for testimonies of the divine favor. When he speaks of his bones as having been broken, he alludes to the extreme grief and overwhelming distress to which he had been reduced. The joy of the Lord would reanimate his soul; and this joy he describes as obtained by hearing; for it is the word of God alone that can first and effectually cheer the heart of any sinner.

There is no true or solid peace to be enjoyed in the world except by resting on the promises of God. Those who do not resort to them may succeed for a time in hushing or evading the terrors of conscience, but they will always be strangers to true inward comfort.

And, granting that they may attain to the peace of insensibility, this is not a state that could satisfy any man who has seriously felt the fear of the Lord. The joy that he desires is that which flows from hearing the word of God, in which he promises to pardon our guilt and readmit us into his favor.

It is this alone that supports the believer amid all the fears, dangers, and distresses of his earthly pilgrimage, for the joy of the Spirit is inseparable from faith.

When God is said, in verse 9, to hide his face from our sins, this signifies his pardoning them, as is explained in the clause immediately following—Blot out all my sins. This represents our justification as consisting in a voluntary act of God, by which he condescends to forget all our iniquities; and it represents our cleansing as consisting in the reception of a gratuitous pardon.

We repeat the remark already made: David, in thus reiterating his one request for the mercy of God, shows the depth of the anxiety he felt for a favor that his conduct had made difficult to attain.

The man who prays for pardon in a merely formal manner is proved to be a stranger to the dreadful judgment sin deserves. As Solomon said, Happy is the man that feareth alway (Proverbs 28:14).

But here it may be asked why David needed to pray so earnestly for the joy of remission, when he had already received assurance from the lips of Nathan that his sin was pardoned (2 Samuel 12:13)? Why did he not embrace this absolution? And was he not chargeable with dishonoring God by disbelieving the word of his prophet?

We cannot expect that God will send us angels in order to announce the pardon that we require. Was it not said by Christ that whatever his disciples remitted on earth would be remitted in heaven (John 20:23)? And does not the apostle declare that ministers of the gospel are ambassadors to reconcile men to God (2 Corinthians 5:20)?

From this it might appear to indicate unbelief in David that, notwithstanding the announcement of Nathan, he should show remaining perplexity or uncertainty regarding his forgiveness. There is a twofold explanation that may be given for the difficulty. We may hold that Nathan did not immediately make him aware that God was willing to be reconciled to him.

In Scripture, it is well known, things are not always stated according to the strict order of time in which they occurred. It is quite conceivable that, having thrown him into this situation of distress, God might keep him in it for a considerable interval for his deeper humiliation, and that David expresses in these verses the dreadful anguish he endured when challenged with his crime and not yet informed of the divine determination to pardon it.

Let us consider the other supposition, however. It by no means follows that a person may not be assured of the favor of God and yet show great earnestness and persistence in praying for pardon. David might have been much relieved by the announcement of the prophet, and yet he might have been visited occasionally with fresh convictions, influencing him to turn to the throne of grace.

However rich and liberal the offers of mercy that God extends to us may be, it is highly proper on our part that we should reflect upon the grievous dishonor we have done to his name and be filled with due sorrow on account of it. Then, our faith is weak, and we cannot at once grasp the full extent of divine mercy; so it is not surprising that David repeatedly renewed his prayers for pardon, all the more to confirm his belief in it.

The truth is, we cannot properly pray for the pardon of sin until we have become persuaded that God will be reconciled to us. Who can venture to open his mouth in God’s presence unless he is assured of his fatherly favor? And since pardon is the first thing we should pray for, it is plain that there is no inconsistency in having a persuasion of the grace of God and yet proceeding to supplicate his forgiveness.

In proof of this, I might refer to the Lord’s Prayer, in which we are taught to begin by addressing God as our Father, and yet afterwards to pray for the remission of our sins. God’s pardon is full and complete; but our faith cannot comprehend his overflowing goodness, and it is necessary that it should distill to us drop by drop.

It is due to this weakness of our faith that we often find ourselves repeating the same petition again and again, surely not with the view of gradually softening the heart of God to compassion, but because we advance by slow and difficult steps to the necessary fullness of assurance.

The mention made here of purging with hyssop, and of washing or sprinkling, teaches us, in all our prayers for the pardon of sin, to have our thoughts directed to the great sacrifice by which Christ has reconciled us to God. As Paul says, Without shedding of blood is no remissions (Hebrews 9:22); and this, which was indicated by God to the ancient Church under figures, has been fully made known by the coming of Christ.

The sinner, if he is to find mercy, must look to the sacrifice of Christ, which expiated the sins of the world, looking also, at the same time, for the confirmation of his faith, to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; for it would be vain to imagine that God, the Judge of the world, would receive us again into his favor in any other way than through a satisfaction made to his justice.