The first verse of Psalm fifty one has been printed as a heading in the A.V. but it is an integral part of the Psalm.

It puts the whole of David's predicament, his prayers, and his restoration in its historic association with Bath-sheba

and Uriah, and with Psalm thirty two, where his tardy `acknowledgment' is recorded.

Here, in Psalm fifty one, his confession and prayer is the outcome of this acknowledgment `For I acknowledge

my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me' (Psa. 51:3).

We are limiting our examination in this article to the twofold petition of verses one and two :

` Blot out ... Wash me'.

This is not merely a repetition for the sake of emphasis; two vitally associated consequences of redemption are

here suggested. `Blot out' envisages a record written in a book, that must be cancelled if peace is ever to be

envisaged. `Wash me' rather considers sin in its defiling nature, rendering the sinner `unclean' and so unable to

enter into the holy place. `Blot out' looks to justification. `Wash me' to sanctification. David was guilty of both

murder and adultery, and he knew only too well that under the law of Moses there was no provision for a murderer.

`Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely

put to death' (Num. 35:31).

Yet David could pray for deliverance from blood-guiltiness, and declared that his tongue should `sing aloud of Thy

righteousness' (Psa. 51:14). In the opening of this Psalm, David speaks of God's loving-kindness and tender mercy,

but righteousness as a basis for an unforgivable sin looks beyond the law, and is inexplicable apart from the offering

of Christ. David's consciousness of the extreme defilement left by his sin is indicated by the emphasis he places on

the need, not only for washing, but to be washed `throughly', the Hebrew reading literally `multiply to wash'. This

consciousness of great defilement is seen in the different words used: -

`wash', `cleanse', `purge', `clean'. `To blot out', as we have already suggested, refers to the erasure of a record, as

in Exodus 32:33 :

`Him will I blot out of My book' (Ex. 32:33)

`The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water' (Num. 5:23).

`Let them be blotted out of the book of the living' (Psa. 69:28).

`I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions' (Isa. 44:22).

`I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins' (Isa.

Let us look a little closely at these words that speak of cleansing. `Wash me'. The Hebrew word used in Psalm

51:2 and 7 is kabas which refers in every passage to the washing of clothes, particularly in the ceremonial cleansing

of Leviticus 11:24,25. In 2 Kings 18:17, Isaiah 7:3; 36:2 and Malachi 3:2 it is translated `fuller'. Wash me

throughly and I shall be whiter than snow. David here looks beyond the cleansing that the law provided to `the

precious blood of Christ' that cleanseth from all sin.

`Purge me'. Here the Hebrew word is chata. Now chata is translated `sin' 165 times, yet the selfsame word is

rendered purge, purify, cleanse, make reconciliation, offer for sin.

The Companion Bible has the comment against `purge' here :

`Thou wilt sin-cleanse me, or un-sin me :

i.e. expiate by the blood of a sin offering'.

So closely associated in the mind of God is `sin' and its `punishment' and `forgiveness' and the `bearing' of sin, that

the A.V. and the R.V. print in the text of Genesis 4:13, as we have earlier observed :

`My punishment is greater than I can bear'

but in the margin read :