Conversation on Psalm 50, during the 2nd week of Lent

“O God, have mercy on me, according to Your great mercy” (Ps. 50:3). Who is this who is so touchingly begging God for mercy? Who is constrained by such a need for heavenly help? Whose soul pours out such sorrow for itself before the Lord? This is the king and prophet David praying! The prophet and - confesses his grave sin before God? The king is glorious not only in his kingdom, but also among his neighbors and composes a song about his fall so that everyone can hear it. “To the chief of the singers the song of David 1, always bring the prophet Nathan to him, when he goes to Bathsheba the wife of Uriah”: this is what the inscription of the psalm says. And it also shows the content of the psalm. Isn’t it true that this is already enough to draw all attention to this song of repentance? Isn’t it true that sinners (and who are we all if not sinners?) need to study David’s psalm in order to be able to pray his prayer? And when is it most appropriate to study this prayer, if not on the days appointed for repentance, which are these days? Let us turn our full attention to David's prayer. There are two prayers in David’s penitential psalm: one is a prayer of petitions for oneself (Ps. 50:3–14), the other is a prayer of thanksgiving for the fulfillment of petitions (Ps. 50:15–21). In the prayer of petitions for himself, the repentant David briefly expresses a request for mercy (Ps. 50:3–4), sets out the reasons for the request (Ps. 51:5–8), then pours out prayers, first for the forgiveness of sins (Ps. 50:9–11), then for the return of the gifts of grace (Ps. 51:12–14). “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy and according to the multitude of Your mercies, cleanse my iniquity. Above all, wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps. 50:3-4). In what state, at what time does David pour out this prayer? A terrible thing is sin. The repentant David, from the height of his royal-prophetic dignity, falls into carnal uncleanness, and does not stop there, shedding the blood of Uriah and his innocent comrades, defenders of the fatherland. – Days pass, months pass, a year passes; David does not feel his sins. He does not leave others with his former rules. He prays, performs the rituals of worship, is concerned with the fate of his subjects, and still does not realize his position, still does not see where his unfortunate heart has led him, what sins he has fallen into. The fruit of sin has already been born. David is dead. A prophet appears, tells the king about a rich man who stole his only sheep from a poor man and asks for a verdict on the rich man. David boldly says: “death to him” and does not feel that he is pronouncing a sentence on himself. Then the prophet of God reveals to him one side of his situation: “You are the man who did this,” he says (2 Samuel 12:7). Then David sees everything. And thanks be to the Lord for seeing! Others, no matter what you say, whenever you tell them, remain deaf and insensitive. David is aware of his situation and is so amazed by it that he can barely utter the words: those who have sinned against the Lord. The prophet sees that David felt his condition with all his soul, trembled with all his soul before his sins, and therefore declares to him that the disasters that were about to fall on his head, on his whole house, on all his descendants will no longer touch him, who repents, only the fruit of the crime will die. David then leaves everything. - At that time, his war with the Ammonites was not over (2 Kings 12:29): but he puts aside all the royal affairs, all the greatness of the king and turns to repentance. He puts down his crown, forgets his meal and his bed, and separates himself from the whole world, like a leper through sin. He prays for a day, he prays for two, he prays for seven whole days. “And David sought the Lord for the child” (2 Sam. 12:16). In a living sense of hope in the mercy of God, he combines with deep repentance for his sins a prayer for mercy on the innocent fruit of sin. The prayer is high in the sense that it expresses a living hope in God, but not alien to attachment to earthly things, always short-sighted in spiritual matters. The child died. David, free in his soul from all earthly things, he entered the house of God to worship the Lord (2 Samuel 12:20). And now, appearing before the face of God, who had done so much good to him and was so offended by him, David could not help but again bow down before God, he could not help but again feel the depth of his fall and tears flowed like a river from his eyes, and he cried out from the depths of his heart: have mercy on me, God, according to your great mercy. Have mercy! Have pity on the poor sinner, whom sin has deprived of Your gifts, so that he does not recognize himself. David no longer dares to call God his God, as he called Him innocent and pure in soul. He barely allows himself to touch His name and only exposes his position. David with the happy abilities of nature, David rich and in royal honors, David happy in all the wars with his neighbors and with Saul: but what is all this for when he is a sinner? Only those who fear the Lord are truly blessed (Psalm 127:1). David deeply offended God. “Have mercy on me,” he cries, “according to Your great mercy.” I am such a sinner before You that it is not enough to ask for mercy from You. “My sin is too grave, my iniquity is too great.” - Therefore, Your great mercy is needed, Your great bounties are needed to forgive me. This is how the sincerely penitent repents! A living sense of his sins opens his gaze to the greatness of God’s mercy. And the more vividly, the more sincerely a sinner feels the greatness of his sins, the clearer, the more vividly he imagines that the goodness of God is great, like God Himself. And therefore, Cain repented not purely, not sincerely, when he said: my sins are greater than You can forgive them. God cannot lack mercy to show mercy to a sinner; if a sinner does not receive God’s mercy, then this is because he lacks desire, lacks the acceptability to accept mercy. “Wash me greatly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” People consider sins to be small, they call them either an innocent hobby, or an excusable weakness, or other soft names. But this is not how the word of God looks at sins. Sin is defilement, it says; and pathetic. The one who is in no hurry to get rid of this filth is unreasonable and unhappy; he is an object of disgust for a holy and righteous God. “There is dill in your uncleanness: since you have been defiled and have not been cleansed from your uncleanness, what will happen if you are not cleansed by this until I fulfill my wrath in you? (Ezek.24:13). “Wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin (Ps. 50:4). How? Grace that sheds waters of tears on the sinner. Tears are a work of God's mercy; they do not flow from a callous soul, hardened by sins; they do not purify souls on their own, but they purify them through the grace that exudes from them; they purify them when they do not constitute only the fruit of natural kindness, but are dissolved by deep contrition for the poverty of the soul, and are united with the experience of sorrows. Feeling the severity of his sins, David asks for abundant washing, repeated cleansing, is ready to endure many sorrows, make many sacrifices, if only the mercy of God would return to him completely. “For I know my iniquity, and I will take away my sin before me. You alone have I sinned and committed evil before You, so that You may be justified in Your words and overcome, and You may never judge” (Ps. 50:5-6). After the prayer, David gives reasons for his prayer. First, he indicates that he deeply feels his guilt and is therefore able to accept God’s mercy. “Have mercy on me,” “for I know my iniquity.” Do not be afraid to approach me with your mercy: it will no longer be accompanied in me by self-forgetfulness and insensibility, nor by a return to the past; no, I'm not the same as before. It was an unhappy time that I saw many things besides myself; blinded by passion, I did not understand, did not feel that I was doing lawlessness. “But the prophet Nathan revealed me to me, and my conscience denounces me even more than Nathan; Nathan forgave me, but Nathan’s conscience is more inexorable to me - it does not forgive: my sin is always before me, stands like a formidable ghost and does not give me peace. ABOUT! have pity on me, O Lord, merciful to those who suffer. – The Word of God tells us: “He who covers his wickedness will not prosper into good, but he who tells reproof will be loved” (Proverbs 28:13). The one who hides his iniquities will not receive any benefit from it, but the one who opens and denounces them will receive pardon. Sin does not cease to be a sin even when you confess to it: but the consciousness of sins is an indispensable condition for God to forgive us sin; Why? Because the sinner, recognizing his sin and feeling all the baseness of it, turns his face to the good path, opens his heart to truth and goodness and closes it to sin, opens his soul to receive the gifts of God. Without recognizing himself as a sinner, how can he want to be righteous? How can he wish to leave the path of destruction along which he has walked until now? God knows us without us. But don't we need to know ourselves? Is meaning given to us so that we know everything except ourselves? Or is it not first of all so that we know who we are? Where do we need to go and what paths do we take? How deep, how thorough David’s understanding of his sin was, David’s words show. I have sinned against You alone, he says, and I have done evil in Your sight. My sin is all the more painful for me because, by insulting my neighbors, in their person I insulted You, the Lord of the worlds and the only legislator for all, You, my Father and benefactor, from whom from the days of my youth I saw so much love and protection for me. Does not the law of Moses say, does not the law of our hearts say: honor and love God in Himself and in all those who bear His image? “Shed the blood of man, in its place, his will be shed, for he created man in the image of God,” says God Himself (Gen. 9:6). Yes, everything that is holy is holy only because it is the will of God, and that is only holy because it is the will of God. There is one Lawgiver and Judge. – Human rights are holy, but because they are sanctified by God. That is why every sin is terrible, as an insult to God. He is terrible, even if human laws did not pursue him, or, while pursuing him, were not able to catch him. The happiness of the sinner will not be hidden from the all-seeing eye of the terrible Judge if he is punished on earth for sin. Otherwise, what do human executions mean in comparison with the revenge of the heavenly avenger on his enemy? “For you may be justified in all Your words and be victorious, so that You may never judge.” David imagines the judgment of God that Nathan pronounced over him and deeply realizes that no matter how menacing that sentence was, David, who sinned, fully deserved it, so he had to say: “those who have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:9-13). “For thou shalt be justified” - the consequence of the fact that “those who have sinned” is shown. The connection of thoughts is that a person can sin a lot and for a long time without understanding himself; blinded by passion, he can consider himself right in his deeds in defiance of the judgment of God's law, he can sin and not see his sin, as was the case with David: but all this will end only in the glory of God's judgment, which sooner or later will be revealed over man, as it was revealed over David. Otherwise, God's glory never loses its rights over us; if we live righteously, it appears in us as love and grace; if we live wickedly, it is a formidable justice in us. God does not force a sinner to sin: but when a sinner sins of his own free will, the truth of God comes into its own and appears in the majesty of impartial and exact judgment over the sinner. Glory to you, Lord, shame on us. Amen. According to the original Hebrew text. You might be interested in: