14 Be my saviour from violent death, O God, the God of my salvation; and my tongue will give praise to your righteousness.
Why then have you had no respect for the word of the Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the children of Ammon.
And my tongue will be talking of your righteousness and of your praise all the day.
<A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah. To the chief music-maker; put to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil. Of Heman the Ezrahite.> O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you for help by day and by night:
Because, not having knowledge of God's righteousness, and desiring to give effect to their righteousness, they have not put themselves under the righteousness of God.
And when they put themselves against him, and said evil words, he said, shaking his clothing, Your blood be on your heads, I am clean: from now I will go to the Gentiles.
Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the God of my salvation.
O Lord, because of your righteousness, let your wrath and your passion be turned away from your town Jerusalem, your holy mountain: because, through our sins and the evil-doing of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a cause of shame to all who are round about us.
O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you.
But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever and ever.
See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the Lord, without fear: for the Lord Jah is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.
I will give you praise, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will give glory to your name for ever. For your mercy to me is great; you have taken my soul up from the deep places of the underworld.
My mouth will make clear your righteousness and your salvation all the day; for they are more than may be measured. I will give news of the great acts of the Lord God; my words will be of your righteousness, and of yours only. O God, you have been my teacher from the time when I was young; and I have been talking of your works of wonder even till now. Now when I am old and grey-headed, O God, give me not up; till I have made clear your strength to this generation, and your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, is very high; you have done great things; O God, who is like you? You, who have sent great and bitter troubles on me, will give me life again, lifting me up from the deep waters of the underworld. You will make me greater than before, and give me comfort on every side. I will give praise to you with instruments of music, O my God, for you are true; I will make songs to you with music, O Holy One of Israel. Joy will be on my lips when I make melody to you; and in my soul, to which you have given salvation. My tongue will be talking of your righteousness all the day; for those whose purpose is to do me evil have been crushed and put to shame.
But you, O God, will send them down into the underworld; the cruel and the false will be cut off before half their days are ended; but I will have faith in you.
But still, you have been in the right in everything which has come on us; you have been true to us, but we have done evil:
And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here;
And in the letter he said, Take care to put Uriah in the very front of the line, where the fighting is most violent, and go back from him, so that he may be overcome and put to death. So while Joab was watching the town, he put Uriah in the place where it was clear to him the best fighters were. And the men of the town went out and had a fight with Joab: and a number of David's men came to their death in the fight, and with them Uriah the Hittite.
And when David had word of it he said, May I and my kingdom be clear for ever in the eyes of the Lord from the blood of Abner, the son of Ner:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 51
Commentary on Psalms 51 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 51
Though David penned this psalm upon a very particular occasion, yet, it is of as general use as any of David's psalms; it is the most eminent of the penitential psalms, and most expressive of the cares and desires of a repenting sinner. It is a pity indeed that in our devout addresses to God we should have any thing else to do than to praise God, for that is the work of heaven; but we make other work for ourselves by our own sins and follies: we must come to the throne of grace in the posture of penitents, to confess our sins and sue for the grace of God; and, if therein we would take with us words, we can nowhere find any more apposite than in this psalm, which is the record of David's repentance for his sin in the matter of Uriah, which was the greatest blemish upon his character: all the rest of his faults were nothing to this; it is said of him (1 Ki. 15:5), That "he turned not aside from the commandment of the Lord all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.' In this psalm,
Those whose consciences charge them with any gross sin should, with a believing regard to Jesus Christ, the Mediator, again and again pray over this psalm; nay, though we have not been guilty of adultery and murder, or any the like enormous crime, yet in singing it, and praying over it, we may very sensibly apply it all to ourselves, which if we do with suitable affections we shall, through Christ, find mercy to pardon and grace for seasonable help.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.
Psa 51:1-6
The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David's fall. But, though he fell, he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him and raised him up.
In these words we have,
Psa 51:7-13
Psa 51:14-19