Bible Guys Classics: Psalm 51:1–12

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways.

Good morning, good morning. We talked the whole night through.

Good morning.

Good morning to you.

Man.

Hey, it's Tuesday, and I did last week on Wednesday,

so I figured why not.

Do it on to you? Just made our switching it

up you. Good morning everybody. I'm Chris, this is Jeff.

We're the Bible Guys, and we are in a brand

new series talking about the prayers of the Bible and

some of them even being dangerous.

Well, all of these are dangerous prayers. Okay, so all

of these are we double dog Dare you to pray

these prayers? That's that's where they are. Have you ever

been is that in the Bible? Are you susceptible to

double dog theres? I used to be a little bit.

Yeah yet yeah, but I mean like we we would Yeah,

there was actually a thing in our little friend group

where we would we would sort of reserve the double

dog theres and we were only allowed so many months,

so many so many a month. But then if you

used it, then you used it all right then, and

then the other person was sort of obligated.

Okay, right, so that's so that these are the kind

of prayers we dare you to pray them. Yeah, that's

that's kind of how we're praying.

Well, before we dive into that, we have a segment,

and today is the famous dead Joke competition, So we're

going to decide whether or not you have the best

batch or whether I do.

Yeah, I just read the first one just now.

I actually think.

That desiree uh used this one twice. I think I've

used I think I've read this before you. Yeah, I

think I think maybe she she likes this one when

she was when she was googling at her chat remember it.

Okay, here's my first one.

I'm terrified of elevators, so I'm taking steps to avoid them.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard that one.

We've heard that one.

That's a good one though.

It is very good.

It's a good one. It's better than this one.

Okay.

I told my computer I needed a break. Now it

won't stop sending me KitKat ads.

Oh that is actually downright awful.

It is one to nothing.

Yeah for sure, it is.

Yeah.

Okay, here we go.

I asked the librarian if the library books. Oops, sorry,

let me start over. I asked the librarian if the

library had books on paranoia. She whispered, they're right behind you.

That's a good one.

It's really good.

That's a good one. That would have been a great

thirty second skit. Yeah, I mean that's a good like

TikTok it's a right little scary music.

That's really funny.

Oh, that'd be awesome. Okay, let me see. I tried

to write a joke about a broken pencil, but it

had no point. Oh yeah, okay, it's nothing nothing at

this point.

Here we go.

I used to be a velcrow salesman, but I couldn't

stick with it.

Okay, it's better than this one. I used to be

a shoe salesman until I got the boot.

Oh actually, I like yours of slightly better.

I like you, Okay, all right?

Number four okay, so it's it's two to wiro and one. Okay,

so we'll call it a tie.

Okay, number four?

Uh, what do you call a factory that makes okay products?

A satisfactory.

I like it. That's a good one. I like it

very clever. I think so too, very clever. I tried

to start a business selling mirrors. It's something I could

really see myself doing.

Oh that's good.

I like that. Okay, that's going, But yours is better

satisfactory that one. If she'd given that to me in

the previous one, yeah, I would have gotten a point.

But you're you're satisfactory way better. Here we go beyond satisfactory.

I got hidden head with a can of soda. Luckily

it was a soft drink.

Oh yeah, was that number five?

Yeah, it was number five.

I tried to organize a hide and seek tournament, but

good players are hard to find.

Oh that's a pretty yod.

It's a good one. Okay, I'm winning that one. Yeah,

so it's three one and one. That's how it worked out.

So I win.

Yeah, you win. Yeah, you're the winner. You're the best.

You're the best at the dead joke competition that she wrote.

That's right, that's what we read.

I was lucky.

I was lucky enough to receive luck of the draw.

Yeah, I was loucky.

It's like car. It's like cards, yati or whatever. If

you're playing the ever play a game that requires no

skill whatsoever?

Yes, I hate it.

Like YACHTSI is like a game where it just doesn't

even matter. You just roll and whatever happens happens.

Yeah, but we love Yatzi.

Yeah, we played at our family all the time. We

still play Yatsi when we do game night was like Yasi.

And then we have this thing called YACHTI Free for All.

It's like a version of YACHTI that's really complex. That's

actually spices it pretty much and it does require a

little bit of skill.

Well okay, yeah, sounds good.

Yeah.

Well, yesterday, kicking off this new series of dangerous prayers,

we talked about dangerous prayers. God searched me.

Wait a minute, there's no transition.

Do you have a transition for this one?

I was going to say, no, I don't, actually don't.

You just ignored it.

I just ignored it. Yep, all right, well I had

I was going to do a good transition today.

Okay, how about this.

Some of those jokes made me sad.

Yeah, some of them.

Some of them were stinky, yes, right, yeah, And when

your sin stinks up the room, it makes you sad.

And that's the prayer of So I'm fifty.

One, okay, So yeah that was a rough one. Rough.

That's why I was just going to say yesterday.

Well, you said stink.

You changed the direction I was just going to go

with sad.

Well, the title of the day is when your sins.

I know, but I was going with a sad angle.

I'm sorry, that's all right, Okay.

I think you stunck my transition up with your stink.

Okay. So yesterday we talked about praying prayers that ruin

your comfort. Particularly, God, show me if there's anything that

needs to be changed in my life. Really, yep, search

me and know me, show me. And today it goes

further because in Psalm fifty one, David is confessing his

sin with Bethsheba, and it's a powerful prayer. So I'll

just read it. Here's what it says. In Psalm fifty one,

he says, have mercy on me, Oh God, because of

your unfailing love, because of your great compassion, blot out

the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt,

Purify me from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion.

It haunts me day and night against you and you alone.

Have I sinned? I've done what is evil in your sight.

You'll be proved right in what you say and your

judgment against me is just for I was born a sinner, yes,

from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire

honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify

me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash

me and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give

me back my joy again. You've broken me. Now let

me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the

stain of my guilt. Create me a clean heart, Oh God,

renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me

from your presence. Do not take your holy spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Make me

willing to obey you.

Yeah, that's awesome, you know there.

I think that Psalm fifty one is one of the

most powerful psalms in all of the Book of Psalms.

And there's one hundred and fifty of them.

Yeah, one hundred and fifty psalms. Yeah, and the biggest

book in the Bible.

And I think that I think that it's really a

there's a hang on a second, where is the versus?

Yeah, So people.

Always focus on the creating me a clean heart of God, which,

by the way, is also a song yes, right, you

know a lot, a lot of these songs. Obviously the

psalms were songs, there you go. But I'm talking about

modern day songs. Yes, right, So I know, remember yesterday

I referred to the fact that created me a clean heart.

I actually knew two versions of that song, right, I

liked one way more than the other.

But but I sing it all the.

Time, right, creating me a clean heart, Oh God, that

I might serve you, created me a clean heart, O God,

that I might be renewed, So feel me and heal

me and.

Bring me back to you.

Created me a clean heart, O God, that I might

serve you.

That's that's a song. Yeah. And then and then then

today I should have sung that yesterday. Well that no,

that's that's that's today's today.

That's what good news. We sang it today.

Yeah, yeah, because I know two verse this song too.

But even though the people go to this song, this

this verse a lot, creating me a clean heart of God,

do not banish me from your presence, Do not take

your Holy Spirit from me. I like verses sixteen and

seventeen better. Oh really, yeah, I do, because I think

that I think that the concept of this is a

is a life lesson for all of us, because he says,

you do not you do not desire sacrifice, or else

I would offer one you don't want to burn, offering

the sacrifices you desire a broken spirit. You will not

reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. And so

the reason why I like that concept is because God

wants your repentance and your heart more than anything else.

And so there are people who try to say, you know,

like David, he said, you know, he says he could

have probably offered the sacrifices of a thousand rams of

the snap of a finger. Right, Hey, I'm gonna I'm

gonna give this. You know, I'm gonna write this big check.

I'm gonna make this donation, right, I'm gonna I'm going

to give the.

Idea of penance.

Yeah, I'm gonna try it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to

make up for it by saying, you know, all of

these repetitive prayers, or I'm going to you know.

Give this money, give this money, whatever it is.

And it's like no, no, no, no, you can do that,

but God doesn't want sacrifice or else. David says, I

give it, but that's not what God wants. So David

knows what God wants. David had all the power to

do whatever he wanted to do. He was rich, he

could have done all the good in the world. But

what he was acknowledging here is that God, I would

do all those things. But I know that's not what

you want. You want one thing. You want a broken

and contrite heart, a repentant heart, and these things you

want not despised. So I think it's an acknowledgment that

there's only one thing that God requires in these moments.

Now, I like to create in me a clean heart

of God. I love it.

It's obviously phenomenal. Right, But I think somebody should write

a song about sixteen seventeen.

Maybe I'll do that.

Being broken in spirit, yeah, broken, repentant heart.

Yeah, the fact that God only wants one thing, and

that is your repented heart.

Yeah. And repent heart isn't I'm sorry, repent heart is.

I'm stopping it and I'm turning to you.

Yes. He's a desire to turn yeah.

Yeah.

Repent means literally to turn the other way.

So this this comes after Nathan has confronted David, So

David has had an affair with Bethsheba. Bethsheba was the

wife of one of David's mighty Men, one of David's

special forces, guys Uriah, and then she gets pregnant, and

so David makes sure that Uriah is killed in battle

so that then he can marry.

After he tries to cover it up another way.

Right, can come home and sleep with his wife. And

so it was. It was just a crazy little season

in David's life, and it winds up defining a big

chunk of the rest of his life. So he his

his concern are just to hide and to cover his reputation.

And then Nathan shows up. He's a prophet of God.

God sent Nathan to go and correct David, and he

tells me the story. Hey, there's this rich man who

lives next door to a poor man. Rich man has

a guest come over, and the rich man had so

many sheep, but he goes over and he gets the

sheep of the poor man. And this poor man loved

this sheep, had she and he took care of the sheep,

and the sheep lived in his home and he fed him.

He just had his one lamb, and he loved that lamb.

But the rich man went and got that one poor

man's lamb. He said, he's one of his many many lambs.

He goes and kills that poor man's lamb and feeds him.

And he asked David, what do you think should be

done to that guy? Well, David was a shepherd as

a young man, so this was a perfect story. Yeah,

And David is so ticked off, he said they should

hunt down that guy killing.

Yeah.

And then Nathan says, well, you're the man right right,

you're the king man. You have anything you want, you

have any woman you want, but you went and took

the one wife of a poor man who is loyal

to your right. And so then judgment came. The baby died,

bestI was pregnant, the baby died, all those things, and

it was a difficult time in David's life. And it's

from that confrontation somebody who cared enough and had the

courage to confront David with his sin, that David comes

and praise this prayer and his first statement is have

mercy on me, right, God, I don't deserve you to

forgive me, but you have great compassion. And then he says,

wash me clean of my guilt, blot out the stain

of my sins that blot out you know, back in

that day, they would when they wrote with ink, they

would you know, dip the pen in the ink, write it,

and if there was a mistake, you try to blot

it out. It was kind of a try to pull

the ink back up off of the parchment or off

the paper with a blotter. It was the closest thing

to an eraser that you and I would use today. Right,

that's what they're trying to do. And he says, God,

but you know, have you ever used a blotter? It

never makes it right.

Yeah, well I've bloughted out different things, just probably not

in parchment.

Yeah, you can still see, right. But he's like, hey,

clean it up as much as possible. Would you clean

it up? And he says, creating me a new heart?

And so it's interesting at first he says, would you

just cover it? Then he's like, could you blot it up?

Maybe get rid of as much of it as possible,

And then finally says, would you make a new one.

There's kind of a progression to his prayer here, God,

I have no hope of my life ever turning around

unless you make a new life in me, because I'll

go do this again. Probably I'm what kind of a sinner?

Am I? This is kind of where he's coming at.

What was I doing? Why did I do this? And God,

you know I'm a wicked person. Would you forgive me

for this? And then he's repenting of his sin, not

just that he he acknowledges I was born a sinner

and I sin, but that's not an excuse. And he's

asking God to forgive his sin and to make him

a new person. And then, like you said, he also

the one thing that we didn't talk about verse thirteen,

fourteen fifteen, He says, God, then if you fix me

and change me, I'm not going to just use this

story for me. I'm going to use it to then

I'll teach your ways to rebels. Right, I'll use my

I'm not going to waste this story. I'll use my story,

this broken story, for others to maybe warn them and

unseal my lips that my mouth may praise you. Right,

he's saying, my actions are going to be different as

a result of the fact that you begin to change me.

And then he says, you know, I understand that God

you know, sacrifices are required for sin. He ends verse

nineteen says, you'll be pleased with sacrifices offered in the

right spirit. Right, So the sacrifices are required for the sin,

but they mean nothing without the heart. And so that's

what David is trying to extend to God is my

heart is all for you. And so I think that

that's the issue. Is first the heart has to turn

towards God. Then the behaviors will start to turn towards God.

Because when your heart turns towards God, your want tos

start to move towards God, and your feelings, your emotions

start to move that way, and those things ten to

drive your behaviors. And so as you're saying and then

all the other things, you know, the faith based stuff,

I'm supposed to be doing. Those please you. Then when

my heart is right, But when my heart's not for you, you

don't care about the ritual. Ritual doesn't matter.

Yeah, yeah, And you know this is the sin where

David says, my sin is ever before me, and so

you know, this was a public sin. And the thing

even though that we just briefly mentioned, Nathan, I think

one of the most powerful things about this whole story.

And even when you read this prayer, you have to

you know, sort of you know, receive it in that context.

Right.

Nathan actually pointed out David's sin publicly as well. Did

you know it was in the courtyard with the kingdom?

And so think about like it, what does that phrase

the emperor's emperor has no.

Clothes or something.

Yeah, and nobody wants to tell the emperor is no clothes.

It's the same thing. It's the idea that like, David

has done this thing, and every everybody knows that. Everybody

knows that that he is supposed to be our spiritual leader.

He is the guy, he's a man after God's own heart.

He is a godly man. But he is also the king,

and so other kings we fear because of the wickedness.

David is supposed to be king that we don't fear,

you know, because of wickedness. And yet he's done this

wicked thing, but nobody wants to say anything and fear

that he's going.

To kill him, like the messengers.

Right, and then all of a sudden Nathan comes along

and he's the prophet of God. Think about the courage

that Nathan had the assignment that God gave to Nathan

is to go and confront David. Well, you know, think

about it. It's like, you're the guy who's going to

confront Nathan or David publicly in front of everybody and

point it out, knowing that he has the power to

kill you, and he has a history of killing people

who bring bad news. And so when he looks at

him and he says, you are the man, you know

you know, Hey, this man should be killed, Well, guess who.

Guess who it is.

You're the man. You're the man of the story. You're

the one who did this. And then then he decrees

and then he actually lays out judgment in front of everybody,

And I just think to myself in that moment, we

also can use that as a life lesson for us,

because we also have a choice, don't we When people

confront us, When people approach us in love and they say, hey,

I'm gonna I'm gonna confront you about something. I'm gonna

confront you about something that I noticed in your life

that isn't you know, right, and whether it's right or wrong,

you know that that's that's for a discussion to decide.

That's for God's word to decide. But your reaction is everything,

and you have a choice. You can react like David

did right here, or you can react like all the

other kings of the world might right right right, which

is which is, don't tell me what to do, and

it's my life. I'm the king of my world, right,

don't bother me with this. And yet David acknowledge the

fact that you're right, so much so that he actually

says against you verse number four, against you and you alone,

have I sinned? And he's talking about you know, God,

I have done with what is evil in your sight.

And yeah, he's done it before the kingdom. But ultimately

his offense is against God. And that's why David repented,

because David acknowledges this is directly a violation of what

God wants from me.

Yeah, of course he sinned against Rayah. Of course he

sinned against Bestsheba. A lot of times we think, well,

as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, that this affair,

as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, whatever, I took

a little bit of this money, I did whatever, as

long as there but these things do hurt people. They

just do. And there's consequences that go way beyond and

so a lot of times we feel like, well, it's

just between me and him. It's not. Ultimately, it's between

you and God. And then the fallout is between you

and people. This is why Jesus said the greatest commandment

is be right with God, be right with people. Love God.

Love people. Is because when we realize our sins are

ultimately against God, but they cost people something, They cost

us relationships because whatever. This is why David knows, I

have to go get right with you God before I

can be right in front of my kingdom, before I

can get right with Bestshiba whatever. And so there's consequences. Certainly,

they lose this baby, he loses his reputation in some things.

But at the same time God does forgive him, and

God does restore him, and God keeps him in his

role as king, and God continues to use him in

a pretty great way. He wrote many, many more psalms

after this point, a big chunk of the Bible. And

so God did forgive him. And so I don't know

what kind of sins you're carrying in your life, but

I know this God forgave David of murder and of adultery, right,

and it was because of a prayer like this, Have

mercy on me. I've only sinned against you. You don't

just want religious ritual. You want my heart. And so

you know I'm broken and I want you to make me,

make me clean right, make me new again, restore to

me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing

to obey you. So he's acknowledging here in his repentance,

not only that God what I did was wrong, but

I want to go back to where I was with

you spiritually. I want to love you as much as

I used to. I want to be as committed to

you as I was. I realized I've drifted, I've kind

of gotten cold. And then he says, you know, make

me willing to obey you. He understands that real repentance

also means a realignment to do what God says is

right and avoid those things that God says is wrong.

So let's talk about this a minute. We talked about

this one time when we were in the Old Testament

with the Bible Guy's podcast, but the Bible says it

was that time of the year when kings go forth

to war spring. You know, in those days, the weather

really had effect on when you would fight and when

you didn't, and they would have to wait till the

rains were over, the crops were planted, all those things,

and then usually that's when kings would go to war.

And so you would be ready, even if you weren't

intending to go to war, like I'm going to go

invade my neighbors, you still would rally your troops and

send them out to protect the borders.

Right.

So this was that time there, David, that's who he was.

He was a warrior king. It was time for him

to go to war, and it said the Bible says,

this time he decided to stay back. He sent his

generals out, who were very capable, and he sent them out,

and he stayed back. He didn't do what he was

supposed to be doing. And it was in that time

that he sees Bestsheba, he's bored, he's just killing time,

he's just chilling, yeah, and he feels like he earned

this little vacation. And in that moment, that was also

when he had his laps of judgment, when he wasn't

what he was supposed to be doing. What he's supposed

to do.

It's so funny because it reminds me of, oddly enough,

the sin of Adam and even the Garden, because you know,

there's all these different kind of justifications that happen between

the serpent and Adam and Eve and everything else.

But you can trace it.

All the way back to the very first words that

came out of the enemy's mouth when he says did

God really say?

Right?

And so what ends up happening is is you start

to doubt or make light of God's word. And when

you start to doubt or make light of God's word,

then the snowball rolls right, and the snowball as it

goes down the hill gets bigger and bigger, because then

becomes the justification. Then comes the rationalizition, then comes the disobedience,

then the consequences, then the fallout, and then of course

the whole human race right right, And so it's like

it's like the consequences of what tracing back to one thing,

which is did God really say? Is it really that important?

Did you really mean it is that? Is that really

the final authority? And so it's it's the same thing.

You have this entire nation, right who knows about David sin.

His his his sin is ever before him. It leads

to murder. I mean, we're talking about the snowball has

rolled down the hill and it has destroyed towns at

this point, right, And it all comes down to that

simple verse, because the Bible doesn't waste words, right, and

the Bible specifically tells us. It starts that chapter and

it says in a time when kings were supposed to

go to war, David stands back and stays back, and

then all of a sudden, what does he do? He

sees Beesheba bathing on a rooftop and then and it's

all because he immediately stepped out of God's will because

it was God's responsibility, his assignment, and so he wasn't

where he was.

Supposed to be.

I would argue, that's God's will, and so he steps

out of God's will and that's what started everything.

Yeah, that's right.

So hey, that's a great perspective on Psalm fifty one,

great conversation. Hopefully we will see you tomorrow with another

dangerous prayer on the Bible.

Guys,