With verses eighteen and nineteen,
David concludes his psalm to God that people call “The Sinner’s Prayer.” In the
prior five devotionals written on other verses of Psalm 51, we learned David recognized
his sin and understood God as loving, kind, compassionate, and omnipotent. He
realized he sinned against God and only God could cleanse him from his sin and
guilt. David pled with God and asked Him to purify him ceremonially and wash
him spiritually. He asked for his joy and gladness to be restored to him. David
asked God to create a clean heart and renewed spirit within him. He realized
his unworthiness to live in God’s presence or have His Spirit live in him.
David asked God not to cast him away from Him or remove His Spirit. He knew he
did not deserve God’s forgiveness. David understood with God’s cleansing,
re-creating his heart, and renewing his spirit, he was God’s child and would
live forever with Him. He had a basic understanding of the Messianic hope the
New Testament reveals to and for humanity. David recognized God’s greatness and
salvation as opposed to his sinfulness and finiteness. He realized he had
nothing worthy to give to God in gratitude and love that was sufficient for
what God did in his life except to give his greatest possession – his life.
With these words, David continued
to speak to God in this Psalm. He said in Psalm 51:18-19, “By Your favor do
good to Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
in burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then young bulls will be offered on
Your altar.” With these two verses, David showed he understood his sins affect
other people. The decisions he made, whether good or bad, affected the people immediately
around him and the people he led – Israel. Have you ever considered the
decisions you make affect people and the surrounding environment? More often
than not, when we are most determined to have our own way, we do not think
consider how the decision will affect other people or the environment. David
understood this.
David asked God to show His favor
and do good to Zion. What did he mean in this sentence? Notice David used the
proper noun, Zion, in this part of verse eighteen, but used “Jerusalem” in the
second half of the verse. Was he repeating himself for emphasis? Did David mean
the people of Jerusalem both times? Zion is the mountain upon which David built
his palace. It is the highest mountain in Jerusalem. Zion basically means “fortification.”
Zion and the City of David are the same place – where David conquered the Jebusites
and established as his fortification, his palace. The people in David’s
fortification were his soldiers, servants, wives, and children - the people
closest to him for whom for whom David was imminently responsible. David asked
God not to punish Zion – the people for which he was imminently responsible –
for his own personal sins. With this understanding of Zion, we can understand
the favor of which David spoke. He requested God give His delight and pleasure
to the people of Zion instead of discipline for which only he deserved. David
realized his sins affected other people and asked God not to hold them against
innocent people.
When David spoke of Jerusalem in
the second half of this verse, he referred to the capital of the united nation
– all Israelites. He asked God to establish Israel and cause them to continue,
not to discipline them for his sins and cause their destruction. David realized, as the leader of the nation,
his sins affected himself, those closest to him, and the nation. He knew God’s
righteousness and justice required discipline for sin and did not want every
Israelite punished for the wrong he did. This verse shows David’s heart. He had
the care of the nation in his mind and prayed for them to God. He was not a
selfish leader, but one who sought the best for the people of God’s nation. Do
national leaders today consider their actions and decisions as affecting the
people they lead and, so choose not to do them if they do not help the nation?
Many national leaders do not consider the welfare of their people, only of
themselves. This same principle applies to leaders of organizations and
businesses, too. Are leaders concerned for the welfare of their people primarily
and of self secondarily? Do they realize negative consequences will befall
their people and themselves for selfish decisions they make? Each of us is a
leader in one way or another and we each must consider this before we act or
speak.
With verse nineteen, David
explained God’s accepting of the people of Zion and Jerusalem meant they were
righteous and not guilty of his sin. They could offer righteous and acceptable
sacrifices to Him. These sacrifices David spoke of were burnt and whole burnt
offerings of young bulls on His altar. The sacrifices David mentioned are
important. Moses taught about burnt sacrifices offered to God in Exodus,
Leviticus, and Numbers. Burnt sacrifices were the highest level of sacrifice in
the Old Testament. The word “burnt” comes from the Hebrew word ‘olah. It means “ascent,” literally
going up in smoke. Smoke from the burnt sacrifice rose as a soothing aroma to
Him (Exodus 29:18). The parts that made the most aroma were where the fat of
the animal was. The burnt offering was the complete burning of every part of
the animal except the skin, which the priests kept. Burnt sacrifices were for
festal (Numbers 28:11-29:39), daily (Exodus 29:38-42 & Numbers 38:3-8),
Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10), occasional, and voluntary offerings (Numbers 7 &
1 Kings 8:64). Of most of these sacrifices, the priest apportioned the meat
between God and the people who offered the sacrifice to Him. They offered it to
renew their relationship with God (Leviticus 1:9 & 6:8-13). These offerings
were a social feast and a giving back to God. David meant the people of Zion
and Jerusalem could offer righteous burnt offerings in keeping covenant with
God. Do we need to go before God with offerings to celebrate and renew our
relationship with Him? How long has it been since you spent time with and
honored Him with your self and your offering?
Besides the “burnt offerings” David
first mentioned in verse nineteen, he stated God would accept their “whole
burnt offerings” because their righteousness was untainted by his sin. These
“whole burnt offerings” were different because people were to give the whole
offering solely for God’s pleasure. No part of the offering would be eaten by
the people offering it. Only four other offerings mentioned in the Old
Testament were exclusively for God – the vegetable and cereal offerings, and
the offerings of a bull by a priest for himself or for the people for sins, the
latter of which burned outside the camp/city. The whole burnt offering, other
than the four just mentioned, was not for atonement and sacrament, but
communion with and devotion to Yahweh God. The people received no part of the
sacrifice. This offering was a voluntary honorific sacrifice of the best and
most costly possession the person had – a bull. The person who gave a bull gave
voluntarily from that which God blessed him. The bull was the most costly sacrifice
as compared to other animals God said were acceptable for other offerings like
a ram, dove, or lamb. By doing this, the person/people offered complete surrender
to God’s service. This whole burnt offering, too, foreshadowed the Messiah’s
offering of Himself for the salvation of humankind. Would you give your most
valued possession as an offering to God to be totally surrendered for His
purposes as a promise to commit yourself completely to Him? A whole burnt
offering in David’s time implied this.
What are you willing to give today to honor God in total surrender to
Him?
