Psalm 51: an incomplete confession

I read this psalm repeatedly, over multiple days, before I wrote about it. Every time I read it, what I’m going to talk about stuck out at me like a sore thumb. I just couldn’t get past it. Fair warning: what I’m going to say will go contrary to what you might believe about this psalm – after all, this is known as David’s great confession.

Well, I think it’s David’s not so great, quite incomplete, confession. There are two verses that illustrate this point. Please understand I’m not judging him. Read till the end, and you’ll see my point – that the onus is ours to make our prayers better, in particular when confessing something. David’s omissions in this psalm are used as illustrations.

Verse 4: “Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong…” Did he? History shows that he not only sinned against God, he sinned against many people. First, against Uriah by killing him, against Bathsheba by drawing her into adultery, against their unborn son, who later died because of his sin, and finally, against his nation, to whom he should have been a better example. There is no mention of this in the psalm, unfortunately.

Verse 5: “Remember, I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception…” That’s like a criminal saying in court that he did it because of original sin. It’s a poor excuse at best, and it’s a shame that he brings it into what’s supposed to be a prayer of contrition for some dastardly acts. He makes matters worse by saying this in the next sentence: “But you delight in sincerity of heart…” Yes, that is true, but I am hard pressed to find true sincerity in this prayer. I’d really like to know what God thought of this prayer when He first heard it.

Can you see how much better and complete this prayer would have been if he had admitted all to God, and not played the blame game? These two things were so important to his prayer, and they’re just as important in each of our own prayers.

Let’s face it, we alone decide whether to sin or not. We have complete freedom of will – unless we’re mad – and so we can’t blame others or Adam and Eve for what we ourselves do. What’s more, we owe it to God – if we are to expect full pardon – to make a complete confession, where we don’t skirt the real issues. We can’t fool God – He sees right through us. It’s not as if we’re less guilty if we confess less. It only makes us look worse in the end.