Against thee, thee only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight. - Psalm 51:4
The consideration and confession of sin is (or at least should be) a normal activity in the life of a follower of Christ. Yet, in the Bible and throughout church history, particular emphasis has been given to this in preparation for significant events or remembrance of those events. So, it is no wonder that the weeks leading up to the remembrance of our Savior’s death and celebration of His resurrection should be one such time. And one Scripture that the people of God have used to aid in this evaluative reflection is Psalm 51.
One writer says this about Psalm 51:
Psalm 51..., is the acknowledged masterpiece of biblical self-knowledge. “I have been wicked from my birth, a sinner from my mother’s womb.” No human being has ever looked at himself more unflinchingly than the author of this incomparable penitential psalm. “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” ...we acknowledge that God has a case against us, and we throw ourselves on his mercy.
There is a strange statement in verse 4 of Psalm 51: “Against you [God] only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Why does he say that he has sinned only against God? Sin hurts everybody - it hurts those who are victimized, exploited, used, damaged, scorned, and neglected as a result of pride, greed, anger, lust, envy, and self-will. Why does the psalmist say he has sinned against God only?
The reason for this is of central importance. Sin, at bottom, is not an ethical concept at all. It is a theological concept. Sin is only understood to be sin when God is understood to be God. The recognition of sin comes as the psalmist is confronted in prayer with the reality of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, who has the absolute right to make demands and render judgments. “You are justified when you speak.” We need to learn this; we are so accustomed to the kind of reasoning that says, “But I’m not hurting anybody,” “Nobody will know,” “Everybody else is doing it,” “It isn’t anybody’s business.” But in the last analysis, the Bible reveals, every sinful action, every sinful thought, is directed against God. Our concept of sin, like our concept of God, is too small until we learn to say with the psalmist, “Against you [God] only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”
The genius of Psalm 51, and the source of its ageless significance is this: in its impassioned petitions, the psalmist demonstrated that he has learned to see sin as God sees it. When we see that sin is an offense against the author of all goodness, then it floods in upon us that the goodness of the Lord is precisely the place where all our sin is lifted up and done away with. The recognition of sin is our response to God’s holiness and mercy…as we look into the depths, not only of our own sin but that of the whole human race, even as we consciously acknowledge the seriousness of our predicament before God, at the same moment we recognize God as the one who extends his mercy to us even in the midst of our condition. As Paul wrote: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) - (Means of Grace, pp 77-78)
Saints, let me encourage you over the new several weeks to meditate upon Psalm 51. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your sin to you. Do a deep heart inventory of the corruption that remains in you. Be brutally honest with yourself (remember the Stockdale Paradox). But don’t get stuck there. As those sins are revealed, take them to the cross and be reminded that through the redemptive work of our Savior, our sins are forgiven and as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).
