Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:6-12 ESV

In 2 Samuel 12, David heard words that he probably shuttered to hear from the prophet Nathan, “You are that man.” David was the man. He was the man who had committed adultery with Bathsheba, conceived a child in that affair, attempted to cover up the pregnancy by manipulating Bathsheba’s husband, and when that failed, he orchestrated the murder of Uriah. He did all of this without any mention of a second thought. Now his sin that was done in secret would suffer consequences publicly (2 Samuel 12:11-12). He was the man in need of repentance and salvation, and in King David we can see the state of men’s souls even today.

It was in this state of repentance and brokenness before the Lord that King David wrote Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. He was a sinner, and according to God, he did what was evil in His sight (2 Samuel 12:9-11). David had despised the word of the Lord, the commandments under the Mosaic law, by his actions against it, and under the law, he deserved the death penalty (Exodus 21:12, Leviticus 20:10, 24:17). Yet one man’s exposed sin for generations to read and to ponder lays bear upon the pages of our precious Bibles as a beacon of the penitent state. These two psalms help us to understand more than any other actions of David what it means to be a man after God’s heart. Psalm 51:17 states it well, “The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” David asked God to forgive him and to cleanse him of sin committed against God and God alone. He asked God to cleanse him from his spiritual leprous state of defilement, and only the High Priest could do this.

There is a brokenness in the acknowledgement of sin against God that mines out the truth in the inward being, bringing delight to God. True repentance will rejoice in the brokenness of the bones that once danced because the Savior makes all things new, and He restores to us the joy of our salvation. From what are we saved? Romans 5:9 tells us that we are justified by His blood and we are saved by him from the wrath of God. Believers in Christ are broken by sin while rejoicing in the repentance before a holy God who alone cleanses and clothes in righteousness while the Holy Spirit sanctifies and conforms ever more that adopted coheir with Christ into His image. What a beautiful transformation completed by Christ in transforming us from children of wrath to children of God.

In these psalms, David shows us a type and shadow of believers in Christ who come before the Lord in repentance and brokenness. He shows us an example of true change in thinking and actions. He publicly acknowledges his transgressions against God, and he models for us how a Godly leader truly belonging to God should posture themselves when faced with sin. God extended grace to David, and David saw the justice and the mercy of God in that moment with Nathan’s rebuke and the Lord’s judgment. He deserved death and yet God forgave him and spared him of death. However, there were consequences of his sin that were unavoidable in this life, and David and Bathsheba would suffer the loss of their child because of their sin.

We too are like David in the way which we do not relish. We are sinners in need of mercy and restoration that only a steadfast and loving God can provide. We are all brought forth in iniquity. We are all in need of cleansing that only the High Priest, Jesus Christ, can bring and has already provided by His sacrifice once for all. We are in need of the Holy Spirit to indwell us and conform us to the image of Christ. We are to recognize that God is justified and blameless in His judgment against us, and that the penalty was paid by Christ to bring us guiltless before the Living God when we repent and confess Him as our Lord and Savior.

As a believer in Christ who is being sanctified day by day, we will hate the sin we once loved and turn those affections once squandered and directed elsewhere to the One who is to be exalted and worshiped above all things. We will not live in habitual sin as sojourners in the world, but we will deal with the flesh that is hostile to the things of the Spirit. We will endure times of conviction by His Spirit and grief from sin against a holy God, and in this we understand that we can come before the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). God does not despise the broken and contrite spirit. There is no sacrifice to be given by us that has not already been perfectly offered by Christ for us.

Like David, when we understand the vast riches of God’s mercy and unmerited grace, we will desire to glorify the Lord and to teach transgressors His ways so that other sinners will return to Him (Psalm 51:13). The joy of our salvation in Christ alone should never find us silent in telling of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this gospel contains wrath and mercy, grace and justice. There is too much good news in His coming. It is good news that the wrath of God abiding upon enemies of God, as we once were, offers repentance and a beautiful exchange because Christ Jesus was beaten, mocked, crucified, buried, and resurrected. He is the King of glory who drank the cup of God’s wrath to the dregs. He gives us the promise of eternal life by trusting in Him as Lord and Savior.

The merciful message of repentance has not changed. This is the state of men’s souls. May we be reminded that God truly delights in truth in the inward being.