According to Your Steadfast Love

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 67
• Hymn — Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
• Prayer of Invocation
• Corporate Confession of Sin — Mark 12:28-31
• Assurance of Pardon — Colossians 1:21-22
• Scripture Reading — Exodus 34:1-9
• Hymn — O God, Our Help in Ages Past
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — O Thou That Hearest When Sinners Cry
• Sermon
• Hymn — Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: According to Your Steadfast Love

Scripture: Psalm 51

I. The Problem That Necessitates Repentance

A. David uses three distinct terms for sin across the psalm

1. Transgression — willful rebellion against God and his authority; sin is personal, committed against the holy and sovereign Lord (Psalm 51:1)
2. Iniquity — an inward disposition marked by wandering from the right way, like a pilot veering off course or a hiker going astray
3. Sin — the broad term carrying the sense of missing the mark of God's holy law

B. Our active sin is offensive to the character of God

1. David's sins of adultery and murder spanned months and involved deliberate plotting (2 Samuel 11)
2. Though David wronged Bathsheba and Uriah, he confesses that his sin was chiefly against God: against you, you only have I sinned (Psalm 51:4)
3. We are always active in our sin — in thought, sight, speech, and deed

C. Our sinful nature is offensive to the character of God

1. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psalm 51:5)
2. We do not innocently fall into sin — we sin because we are sinners; this is the doctrine of original sin, imputed from Adam to all (Romans 5:19)
3. The whole of human nature has been corrupted; we are not born a clean slate

II. The Posture That Shapes Repentance

A. The right posture is a broken and contrite heart

1. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17)
2. God uses the knowledge of sin as a hammer to pulverize the hard, stony heart so that it becomes tender before him
3. Jesus illustrates this contrast in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector — the man beating his chest, not the man with puffed-out chest, models true repentance

B. David demonstrates the posture of grief over sin

1. His sin is always before him; he longs for cleansing and sees the terrible stain of his guilt (Psalm 51:1-3)
2. He has lost joy and gladness and senses the disjointing of everything within himself (Psalm 51:8, Psalm 51:12)
3. He feels the burning eye of God upon his sin and a cold distance from him

C. David demonstrates the posture of bold pleading for forgiveness

1. Have mercy on me, O God — the vile sinner boldly petitions the eternal, sovereign, holy God for the very thing that is undeserved (Psalm 51:1)
2. The pleading is persistent: blot out… wash me… cleanse me… purge me… create in me (Psalm 51:1-2, Psalm 51:7, Psalm 51:9-10)
3. God himself ordained and inspired these words of personal repentance for corporate worship in Israel, inviting this kind of bold pleading from his people
4. The sinner is not alone in pleading boldly — the Holy Spirit sustains and strengthens the disposition to repent: uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:12)

III. The Promise That Fuels Repentance

A. David's repentance is grounded in God's covenant steadfast love (hesed)

1. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love (Psalm 51:1)
2. God's steadfast love is not fickle and not conditioned on performance — it is the covenant love established with Abraham, Moses, Israel, and David
3. David pleads with confidence: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow — not I might get clean but I shall be clean (Psalm 51:7)

B. The right sacrifice in which God delights points forward to Christ

1. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system — the bulls, goats, and the annual Day of Atonement — prepared the way for the one true sacrifice
2. Christ was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; his soul made an offering for the guilt of his people (Isaiah 53:5)
3. The guilt of the believer's sin has been blotted out — it no longer belongs to us; Christ took it to the cross

C. The believer must still repent for the sake of fellowship and enjoyment of God

1. Repentance does not make satisfaction for sin — it is never the precision of repentance that saves (Westminster Confession of Faith)
2. As a child who knows a parent's love but experiences strained fellowship until a wrong is confessed, so the believer's enjoyment of God is fractured until sin is named before him
3. Once David repents, praise pours forth: my mouth will declare your praise (Psalm 51:15)
4. Come to Christ grieving your sin, pleading boldly for mercy — he is able, he is willing