Guarding Against Guilt

Now David turns his attention to the issue of cleansing.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:2)

Five verses later, he adds, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Have you ever been out after a day’s outdoor work in the summer heat, and you long for a bath or shower more than anything else? David feels that way inside. He knows the full extent of his filthiness, and he knows that only God can wash the filth deep within.

“Blot out all my iniquities,” he pleads in verse 9. Again and again he repeats this idea. This is more than lip service—this is genuine, remorseful petition. He speaks of his sin and God’s forgiveness with the same depth of intensity. If moral degradation is unthinkable, then forgiveness is all the more blessed. David is humble, honest, and wholehearted. Sin is a stain to the soul, and the king uses the same Hebrew word for cleanse that might have been applied to the cleansing of a leper—serious cleansing indeed. “I’m a leper of the soul,” he says of himself with relentless honesty. “Make me clean again.”

In verse 7 we find this word hyssop. An interesting Old Testament custom is worth relating here. Purity, as we know, was a crucial issue to the Jews. The law required that when a person came into contact with a corpse, he had to be ceremoniously cleansed with hyssop. David is thinking of Uriah. He has been dealing in death, and he must be cleaned to satisfy the fullest demands of the law.

“Lord,” he continues, “blot out all my iniquities.” Why blot? Most sins were handled in the manner of transactions. If you committed some offense, you could perform some kind of sacrifice to make atonement. But there were two sins with no remedy: adultery and murder. David had committed both of these, and they were written in God’s great book in red letters. There was nothing David could do, no sacrifice to make, no atonement to seek. The accusing page was beyond his reach. All he could do was fall upon the mercy of God to blot out that red ink. Wipe it away completely, Lord!

No priest, of course, could do that. Only God had the solvent, then and now.

David Jeremiah, Slaying the Giants in Your Life (Nashville, TN: W Pub., 2001), 81–82.

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