Big Idea: God delights in the spiritual transaction of repentance that begins in the human heart.

Understanding the Text

Bernhard W. Anderson calls Psalm 51 “one of the pearls of the Psalter.”1Among the seven penitential psalms,2this one, in Weiser’s estimation, is the most important because it “demonstrates the essence of true penitence.”3This psalm falls generally under the classification of the individual lament, and more specifically, to use Kraus’s subcategory, “Songs of the Sick and Anguished.”4As a confession of sin, it is unparalleled in the Psalter, with only a few brief comparisons in Psalms 32:5; 38:18; 41:4; 69:5; and 130:1–8.

Both Psalms 50 and 51 have an eye on the sacrificial system, but the focus is different. Psalm 50 raises no objections to sacrifices, even though Go…