We once called out a carpet cleaning company to remove a stain on a rug. When done, it looked fine, but a couple of days later the stain reappeared. My wife, being a chemist, identified a key ingredient of the shampoo as a temporary bleach! The stain of sin in our lives requires permanent cleansing, not temporary hiding.

After being confronted by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1–14), David recognised his sin and prayed this psalm. He makes no excuses but, relying on God’s unfailing love and mercy, he asks God not to simply overlook his transgressions but to ‘blot them out’ (v 1). Sin needs to be removed and the sinner cleansed (v 2). 

In saying his sin is only against God (v 4), David does not deny the dreadful things done to Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11) but acknowledges that all sin stems from rebellion against God. 

Hyssop (v 7), a plant with hairy leaves and stem, made a natural brush used for sprinkling the blood of sacrifices in Old Testament cleansing ceremonies. These pointed towards Christ’s sacrifice for sin (see Hebrews 9:19–28).

Forgiveness is not just a legal state. A broken relationship is restored with the indwelling Spirit empowering us to live for God. The appropriate responses to God’s forgiveness are praise and a transformed life (vs 15–17).

If you can remember it or find it, repeat slowly the words of the General Confession.¹

This psalm is credibly identified as King David’s response to the prophet Nathan’s direct exposure of his sin. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba and, even worse, when she became pregnant he schemed to make sure that her husband Uriah, a brave and honourable soldier, was killed in battle.² By now David was a successful and admired king of Israel who had everything he could ever need. His actions were utterly selfish and cold-blooded. He hoped nobody would notice. The guilt exposed by Nathan was deep. After this, David’s reign turned sour. The psalm uses the language of deep repentance. It is sufficiently general that any guilty person could use it: and we are all guilty.

Repentance involves facing the truth about ourselves and feeling the depth of the wrong we have done (v 3). This is not pathological but realistic. The apostle Paul calls it ‘godly sorrow’ because it leads to changes of behaviour.³ If we never feel sorrow over our sin, this itself is a form of hard-heartedness or self-delusion of which we need to repent. Sometimes we need to be brought up with a jolt (as David was) to face the truth. Sometimes, however, we are so shaken that it seems that our whole lives, from our mother’s womb (v 5), have been wretched and worthless. Sometimes the sense of guilt does not easily disappear but needs to be deeply purged before we gain release (v 7). We feel the stain of sin.

Release is possible. God is our Saviour, who stands ready to hear our confession and to respond to it, not with further recrimination but with mercy, compassion and cleansing (vs 1,2). Christians know this because God’s own Son has ‘made intercession for the transgressors’⁴ and God’s own Spirit can truly make us clean (v 10).

‘But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.’⁵

¹ Book of Common Prayer, Cambridge University Press, 2004  ² 2 Sam 11,12  ³ 2 Cor 7:10  ⁴  Isa 53:12; Luke 23:34  ⁵ 1 John 2:1