Sobering Realities #18: an exposition of Psalm 51:1-19. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, August 12, 2012.
Intro:
It happened 495 years ago and yet it shapes your life today. It was October 31, 1517 – “All Hallows Eve” – the evening before All Saints Day. An Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther, without fanfare, nailed a list of topics to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. His 95 theses were written in Latin. It was a call for a scholarly debate on certain topics. It was a routine act in that the church door served as a community bulletin board. But that simple act ignited a storm of controversy that eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. Brother Martin’s invitation to scholarly debate became a watershed event in the history of the church and all of western civilization.
The word “reformation” means to amend what is defective, corrupt or depraved. Reformation then is a reshaping or realigning of priorities. As such, reformation is to be the continual business of the church. The Reformers called on the church to be “always reforming.” Because the church is alive and not some static institution, there is the need to grow and change. Each generation needs to bring the living Gospel to its culture in a way that can be understood and applied. While that is a definite need of the church it is equally true that we, as individuals, be always reforming. From time to time we need to evaluate our personal lives and realign priorities and reorder our lives. That is the subject under consideration in our text this morning.
Text: Psalm 51:1-19
This is a Psalm of David.
Further we are given the specific cause for the writing of this Psalm.
It goes back to the prophet Nathan’s approaching David in 2 Samuel 12.
Nathan approached David after his sin with Bathsheba.
David had committed adultery and then arranged for her husband to be killed in battle.
The prophet tells the king a story about a wealthy man’s taking the lamb of a neighbor.
Though the king had a great flock he stole the one lamb of his poor neighbor.
The king is enraged by such a vicious act on the part of the wealthy man and demands that the man be punished. The prophet confronts the king – “Thou art the man!”
This is a very familiar Psalm.
It has been the favorite of many well-known, historical figures. Sir Thomas More recited it in full while on the scaffold in the bloody days of Henry VIII and Queen Mary. William Carey the great pioneer missionary to India asked that it be the text of his funeral sermon. Because of its beauty and the profound truth with which it speaks, to seek to expound upon it seems to almost smack of blasphemy.
Charles Spurgeon, known as the prince of preachers, while working through the Psalms put off dealing with it for weeks! Mr. Spurgeon wrote:
“It is a bush burning with fire yet not consumed. And out of it a voice seemed to cry to me, ‘Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off they feet.’ The psalm is very human, its cries and sobs are of one born of woman; but it is freighting with an inspiration all divine, as if the Great Father were putting words into his child’s mouth. Such a psalm may be wept over, absorbed into the soul, and exhaled again in devotion; but, commented on – ah! Where is he who having attempted it can do other than blush at his defeat?”
Familiar passages are not “easy” to expound, quite the opposite, they are far more difficult.
As we explore this psalm of David the scriptural giant, the great king, warrior, musician, poet, man of God, liar, adulterer and murderer we learn some valuable lessons.
And we discover a Pattern for Personal Reformation.
There are three (3) things I want to point out along the way.
- Personal reformation demands an awareness of sin. (51:1-4)
- Personal reformation demands cleansing and re-creation.
- Personal reformation results in a life of joyful service.