Father Knabenbauer's Commentary on Psalm 51

 

Knabenbauer's Commentary on Psalm 51

English Translation

This is the fourth penitential psalm. It contains a fervent prayer for obtaining pardon. First, the mercy of God is implored with acknowledgment and confession of sin (vv. 3-7); then most especially is sought purification and confirmation in good and restoration of joy (vv. 8-14); finally the psalmist declares what he will render for thanksgiving and satisfaction (vv. 15-19). But the last two verses (vv. 20-21) are no longer, as is evident, the prayer of one sinner for himself, but a supplication for the whole people, for the restoration of the destroyed sacred city, for the restoration of the worship of the Jerusalem temple. Considering these things, and taking into account the inscription of the psalm, concerning its author and subject it seems should be said: Divinely rebuked through the prophet Nathan concerning his crimes, David humbly responded: "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Samuel 12:13), and he amplifies this word in our psalm; but the final prayer (vv. 20-21) seems to have been added by a sacred poet during the time of exile, so that the private song might be adapted for the public liturgical use of the exiles (cf. AR. Cornely, Psalmorum Synopses, Paris, 1899, p. 41 ff.). This matter is not to be conceived as if the king himself in that very hour, met and rebuked by Nathan, artfully conceived this song in his mind and pronounced it with his mouth before the prophet—for this is neither probable in itself nor asserted by that title—but rather that David is said to have later, with the Holy Spirit inspiring, put into the form of an artful song those feelings of his soul conscious of guilt, humbled and penitent, which he had in that hour and had manifested by the word "I have sinned against the Lord" and by which he then disposed himself to obtain pardon for his sins. Therefore the psalm is divided into three strophes and a liturgical addition according to the division indicated above.

First Strophe (vv. 3-7): Confession and Plea for Mercy

First the psalmist, for the sin which he humbly confesses, begs the mercy of God and pardon:

v. 3 "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great (this adjective is absent in Hebrew) mercy, and according to the multitude of your compassions blot out my iniquity"; the Hebrew text says "wipe away" (מחה) my iniquities, for sins are considered as foul stains which render a man's soul abominable in God's eyes. Pursuing this idea further, he prays in v. 4, in Hebrew: "multiply wash me," i.e. much or diligently, Vulgate "wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." He knows his crime to be so great and so base that much washing and scrubbing—for such washing the word כבס signifies—is necessary to cleanse himself; in the very Hebrew words by which the author called his crime, a full knowledge of his manifold wickedness is present: for פשע most properly designates rebellion or defection of some subject from his legitimate lord, עון truly a perverse and depraved action, חטאת finally is a wandering from the right way and norm. Under every aspect, therefore, whether he considers God, the King of kings, or the norm of honesty and rectitude, or the ultimate end and the way by which one must go there, he understands that he has acted most wickedly and now sincerely confesses before God in v. 5 "for I know my iniquity, and my sin is before me," from Hebrew better: "before me," i.e. always; for a year and more, from when he had ordered Uriah to be exposed to the fiercest battle, he had remained and hardened in his sin, warned by no man, neglecting and suppressing the stings of conscience and deceiving himself about his guilt; but now moved and enlightened by divine grace he knows and feels himself guilty of enormous sins. He is now so struck with the consciousness, horror and shame of his sins that he has continuous memory of them. Therefore he most humbly confesses in v. 6 "Against you alone have I sinned, and done evil before you": even if no man had learned that David for the sake of adultery exposed Uriah to certain death and thereby committed true homicide, there was one whom he did not escape or deceive, the most holy God, present everywhere, testing the hearts and minds of men; in the eyes of this God was the evil that he dared to do. No man held David as a murderer and adulterer or called him to judgment for these crimes; but to the one Lord God he was guilty of these crimes and therefore destined for the most severe punishments, 2 Samuel 12:10 ff. (thus not once does לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ signify so much to offend someone by sinning, as to be guilty of sin to someone or in someone's estimation and judgment and worthy of punishments, cf. Genesis 43:9). Moreover, it can be considered here that a king, especially an oriental king, to whom nearly absolute right and dominion over all subjects belonged, restricted almost only by God's laws, has God alone as his only lord; but now to this one and supreme Lord, "terrible among the kings of the earth" (Psalm 76:12), David had most wickedly broken faith. But God allowed these things to be done by David and brought it about that they should now be known and humbly acknowledged by him also with this purpose, "that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged," in Hebrew "that, when you speak or rebuke (דָּבַר, cf. Psalm 2:5), you may appear, be known, be recognized as just, when you judge, pure or innocent." For by God's ordinance, sin is followed by divinely inflicted punishment or, if the sinner is converted, merciful pardon of punishment, and in both ways God's justice and holiness is manifested, and this is one reason why God permits sins to be committed. Even the Greek text ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαί σε (κρίνομαι middle voice: I have a dispute with someone, cf. Isaiah 43:26; Jeremiah 32 [Hebrew 25]:31) and the Latin text "when you are judged" (= you have judged) can be taken actively. But often these forms are explained passively in this sense: that you may appear innocent when you are judged (passively) i.e. when you are called to judgment by men concerning your manner of acting. The Hebrew word also שָׁפַט, with the vowel signs changed, can be brought back to this passive sense and was used passively by St. Paul (see Cornely on Romans 3:4). St. Paul in that passage understands the word of the parallel stichos בְּדָבְרֶךָ "in your words" as referring to divine promises. For David certainly by committing such enormous crimes deserved that God should retract what great things he had promised to the king: but God used such great mercy toward him that he did nothing of the sort, and he so acted that in keeping his promises he was and was recognized as just or faithful.

David not only confesses those particular sins for which Nathan had rebuked him, but further taught and enlightened by grace, he looks more deeply into himself and proclaims himself to be a sinner by his very origin and nature; which he does not do to excuse himself and shift the blame for his crimes onto others, his parents, but because, urged by grace, he is impelled to acknowledge all his corruption and confess it before God and men; although in this corruption and frailty innate to man there is a certain mitigation of any guilt and for the penitent man a certain basis for imploring and hoping for divine mercy;

v. 7 "For behold, in iniquities," Hebrew "iniquity," "I was conceived, and in sins," "sin," "my mother conceived me." These words, besides referring to sin innate to man through origin or to original sin, can scarcely be aptly explained. For indeed the psalmist does not here accuse his parents of having generated him in a sinful manner, but speaks of his own sin, and yet not of actual sin, therefore of sin contracted in conception itself. "Was David born from adultery? What is it that he says he was conceived in iniquity, unless that iniquity is drawn from Adam?" (St. Augustine on this passage, PL 36:991; cf. St. Gregory the Great, PL 75:986; Ps.-Chrysostom, PL 55:583 and others). Therefore he says, in iniquity, implicated in iniquity, infected with iniquity, polluted with the stain of sin, my mother bore me: parents generate offspring having a fallen nature, prone to sin, and, as the revelation of the Old Testament hints and the New Testament clearly teaches, infected with original sin. What else can be expected after such an origin, than that this vitiated nature during the course of life should sometimes allow itself to be carried and swept away to where it is spontaneously drawn?

v. 8 "For behold, you have loved truth, the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have manifested to me"; Hebrew "indeed you delight in truth in the inward parts (namely of the human soul), and in the hidden part you teach, or: you may teach, me wisdom." By these words, if you interpret "you teach," thanks are given to God because he himself, to whom the true self-knowledge of the sinner is pleasing, enlightens the psalmist and instructs him with true wisdom by which he turns away from sin. For indeed profound and intimate knowledge of how great an evil are the act and guilt of sin, the offense of immense majesty, enmity with God, eternal damnation—such knowledge, I say, is solid wisdom: "the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord" (Psalm 111:10); it is the wisdom with which many sinners imbued have become outstanding saints. But if you interpret תּוֹדִיעֵנִי optatively "may you teach," you make the psalmist pray that God may further instruct him in this genuine and most useful wisdom. And thus aptly the first part of the psalm, which deals with acknowledging and confessing sin, is completed.

Second Strophe (vv. 9-14): Prayer for Cleansing and Restoration

Now in the second part David prays to God that he may free and cleanse him from so great an evil as he has understood sin to be:

v. 9 "Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; you will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow." From the Hebrew the first verb of each stichos is stated precatively, the second finally, thus: "purify me from sin with hyssop, that I may become clean: wash me, that I may become whiter than snow." Hyssop is a plant whose twigs collected in bundles were used in sacred purifications and in the sacrifice of the paschal lamb; for with hyssop dipped in the blood of the sacred victim, the blood was sprinkled on the person or thing to be purified (Exodus 12:22, Leviticus 14:4 and others, Hebrews 9:19). The words here are symbolic: for it concerns cleansing the soul, which God alone by mercifully pardoning sin and infusing sanctifying grace can render clean. The name of hyssop suggests the idea of the blood of an expiatory victim; the blood of goats and calves, etc. sanctified the polluted for the cleansing of the flesh; but what victim would be suitable for cleansing the conscience from dead works, from sins? Paul taught us this (in that passage), the psalmist, when he prayed these things, did not yet know.

David begs for the most perfect cleanliness in the second stichos, and not only some easy or superficial washing with water poured over (such as would be indicated by the word רָחַץ), but again a solid, though hard on nature, washing with scrubbing (כָּבַס): therefore he is prepared for anything, provided that by the stain of sin, pardon having been obtained, he may be purged. That this pardon may be granted to him and announced for the comfort of his soul, he prays in v. 10 "you will give to my hearing joy and gladness," make me hear, I pray, a message full of joy, i.e. of pardon given, "and the bones that have been humbled will rejoice," Hebrew "that the bones which you have crushed may rejoice." By a most just and harsh rebuke and threat God had humbled him through the prophet and crushed his bones as it were, so that it is easy to understand how he must have, as long as he had not obtained pardon for sin, lacked all peace and comfort and vehemently desired the announcement of forgiven guilt;

v. 11 "Turn away," Hebrew: "hide," "your face from my sins, and blot out, wipe away all my iniquities." God is asked that—speaking humanly—he may not look upon sins, by the sight of which certainly the most holy deity cannot but be provoked to just wrath, punishment, vengeance; but by looking at what can God be appeased and moved to give full pardon to the sinner, unless he looks upon Him by whose blood he himself wishes to be appeased?

Now indeed David, having implored pardon, which he firmly hopes for, seeks confirmation in good no less fervently and confidently:

v. 12 "Create a clean heart in me (Hebrew 'for me'), O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts"; the divine power of the Creator is the work needed to cleanse and confirm the soul of the sinner, by no effort of the creature can this be accomplished; נָכוֹן is either "firm, stable" (Jerome "a steadfast spirit"), so that the psalmist prays for the grace of perseverance in good, lest he again be conquered by temptation; or it is "ready, prompt," so that he may beg a soul prepared to do and suffer all things according to God's will: cf. Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26;

v. 13 "Do not cast me away from your face, and do not take your holy spirit from me": the Spirit of the Lord had been given to David as anointed king (1 Samuel 16:13) and as inspired prophet, his life was under the particular direction and providence of God: lest he lose these graces to his own and his people's ruin—which he rightly feared—he prays to God. Indeed with confidence he dares to ask for the comfort of obtained pardon in v. 14 "restore to me the joy of your salvation," joy about obtained salvation, Jerome boldly translates "the joy of your Jesus," "and confirm me with a princely spirit," LXX πνεύματι ἡγεμονικῷ, without doubt i.e. in a spirit which is worthy of a prince, a king of the people of Israel, confirm me: which acceptance does not conflict with the Hebrew word נְדִיבָה which indicates nobility; others however from another meaning of the same word think it should be interpreted "and with a spirit (toward good) ready or generous" or "with a spirit of readiness confirm me." For he who receives this grace from God, that abhorring all sin he may now serve God with a spontaneous, ready and generous soul, now lives more secure about remitted sin and safer from the danger of relapsing into sin. Therefore with this full prayer of confidence David completes the second part of the psalm, which deals with seeking cleansing and confirmation of mind.

Third Strophe (vv. 15-19): Promise of Thanksgiving and Teaching

In the third part, to move God more certainly to grant what he has asked, he sets forth what good, if God spares the sinner, can be hoped from it for God's glory:

v. 15 "I will teach," from Hebrew better optatively: "may it happen to me that I may teach," or precatively: "grant to me that I may teach the wicked," חַטָּאִים "sinners," "your ways, and the impious will be converted to you." The sense is: act, I pray, thus with me, that I may be for all sinners an example of your manner of dealing with penitent sinners, that, considering me, they may conceive hope of obtaining pardon and of reforming life for the better, and encouraged by this hope many sinners may be converted. Also through his pious psalms, in which David extolled God's mercy, he truly taught many sinners the ways of the merciful God and moved many to penance and raised their souls to hope.

Full of confidence the psalmist prays in v. 16 "Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, God of my salvation," namely the author, "and my tongue will exult in your justice";

v. 17 "O Lord, you will open," "may you open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise." As in other psalms, here also he strives to move God to assent to him praying by promising praise and thanksgiving (cf. Psalms 13:6; 21:14; 30:13 etc.). By the name "bloodguilt," according to Hebrew דָּמִים, is probably indicated the guilt of committed homicide (Psalm 5:7; 2 Samuel 21:1); the explanation is less pleasing: deliver me from slaughter, make it so that—which indeed according to your law I have certainly deserved (cf. Exodus 21:14, Leviticus 18:20, 29 and others)—I may not be killed, or: do not carry out the slaughters which you threaten to my house (2 Samuel 12:10); for the prayers seem to have been completed with the second part of the psalm.

About to expiate his committed crime, David continues in v. 18 "For if you had wanted sacrifice, I would certainly have given it; you will not be delighted with holocausts"; Hebrew better: "for you do not want sacrifice that I should give (you do not want me to offer you an expiatory sacrifice), with holocaust you are not delighted." But in what sense could David say this? how can a king so rich excuse himself or say that sacrifices do not please God? In the Mosaic law expiatory sacrifices were foreseen and commanded, individually for various crimes variously determined. But for the crimes of homicide and adultery such sacrifices were not admitted, but those guilty of these crimes were entirely to be punished by death (thus already interprets the Anonymous in the Catena of Cordier).

Therefore David, whom certainly no one could or dared punish with death, truly could not appease God by offering sacrifice for these his crimes. God did not want, rejected, forbade such sacrifice. Nothing therefore remained to David except to ask God with confidence that in place of expiation he accept a contrite spirit and humbled heart:

v. 19 "sacrifice to God is," Hebrew "sacrifices of God," namely such as God wants, "are a troubled spirit"; and with one vowel changed it can be read in Hebrew and perhaps should be "my sacrifice (זִבְחִי), O God, is a contrite spirit"; "a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise." And with this most humble supplication of David the psalm is completed, by which, every way and means of appeasing God with sacrifices being closed, he nevertheless casts himself as it were into the bosom of the immense mercy of God.

Liturgical Addition (vv. 20-21): Prayer for Jerusalem's Restoration

From the very text of the psalm it is clear how aptly the people led into exile for their sins could say this psalm, especially since the faculty of offering sacrifices had been taken away from them also. Therefore the exiles are to be thought to have recited this psalm often. But they were moved to add prayers for restoring the temple and Jerusalem worship:

v. 20 "Do good (Lord, is absent in Hebrew) in your good will," i.e. benevolence, "to Zion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be rebuilt," Hebrew: "build the walls of Jerusalem";

v. 21 "Then you will again accept the sacrifice of justice," i.e. just, legitimate, "oblations and holocausts, then they will again place calves upon your altar."

Conclusion: Authorship and Interpretation

The psalm should not be denied to David as author without serious reasons. With the liturgical addition (vv. 20-21) omitted, there is had a complete song such as David could have composed. For in what true sense even David could have said that he could not offer expiatory sacrifices to God has been explained above.

Those who explain the words "against you alone have I sinned" so as to make the psalmist (whoever finally he may be) excuse himself: "I have sinned against no man," do not seem to have correctly perceived the sense of the words, which in context are certainly self-accusation and not excuse. There are also those who in v. 7 make the exiled people say: "for the sins of the earlier generation (my mother), of our progenitors we have been led into exile." But indeed thus again you have an inappropriate self-excuse; and can the past generation be called the mother of the people? Consider also the force of the words of v. 7 חוללתי and יחמתני, which are aptly said only of a true mother. The whole psalm suggests one person praying.