I.　Psalm 51 was composed after David's great sin in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife and after David was rebuked by the prophet Nathan; Psalm 51 is David's psalm of repentance—2 Sam. 11:1—12:14:

A.　First, there were transgression and repentance plus forgiveness; after that, there was Solomon (12:24), the one who built God's temple.

B.　Thus, God's forgiveness "married" David's transgression and repentance, and this marriage brought forth the man named Solomon, who built the temple of God; Solomon is a type of Christ and of those who experience Christ to be one with Him:

1.　The name Solomon means "peaceful" (v. 24; 1 Chron. 22:9), but Solomon has another name, Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25), which means "beloved of the Lord."

2.　Solomon built the temple of God in the kingdom (1 Kings 6:1-2) and spoke the word of wisdom (10:23-24; Matt. 12:42); today we can be one with Christ to prophesy by speaking Him forth as the word of wisdom for the building up of the church as the temple of God—1 Cor. 12:8; 14:4b; cf. 3:12a, 16-17.

C.　The building up of God's temple, the church consummating in the New Jerusalem, comes from man's transgression and repentance plus God's forgiveness—Matt. 1:6; Psa. 51:18:

1.　Confessing our sins in the divine light for God's forgiveness is the way to drink Christ as the living water for us to become the New Jerusalem— John 4:14-18; cf. Num. 21:16-18.

2.　Confessing our sins in the divine light for God's forgiveness is the way to keep ourselves in the fellowship of life for our growth in life unto the maturity in life—1 John 1:2-3, 5-9; Acts 24:16.

3.　Receiving the forgiveness of sins issues in our fearing God and loving God—Psa. 130:4; Luke 7:47-50.

4.　Ministering Christ as the sin-dealing life to the saints kills the germs, destroys the problems, and maintains the oneness of the Spirit— John 8:1-11; 1 John 5:16; Rom. 2:4b; Lev. 10:17; Gal. 6:1; Psa. 51:13.

II.　Like David, we need to stay in the presence of God to have a thorough and genuine repentance and confession to receive a full forgiveness from God—v. 2; Acts 24:16:

A.　The verbs used by David in Psalm 51—blot out (vv. 1, 9), wash (vv. 2, 7), cleanse (v. 2), and purge (v. 7)—indicate that his repentance and confession were thorough and that his asking for forgiveness was genuine.

B.　Since the Lord knows the record of our sinful doings, it is best for us to ask Him to rid us of that record by confessing—1 John 1:9:

1.　The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly, from every sin—v. 7.

2.　Once God forgives us, He erases our sins from His memory and remembers them no longer—Heb. 8:12; Psa. 103:12.

C.　After such a thorough and fine confession, we will be filled with the Spirit essentially and economically to make us buoyant and bold in our God to speak the gospel of God—1 Thes. 2:2, 4; Acts 26:18.

III.　David confessed that he was born in sin, and he pleaded with God to blot out his transgressions, wash him thoroughly from his iniquity, cleanse him from his sin, and purge his sin with hyssop—Psa. 51:1-2, 5, 7, 9; cf. 1 John 1:8-10:

A.　To pray in this way indicates that we have no trust in ourselves.

B.　Hyssop typifies Christ in His humble and humiliated human nature (1 Kings 4:33a; Exo. 12:22a), implying Christ as the Mediator and the sacrifice (Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 10:9-10).

IV.　David asked God to create in him a clean (pure) heart and to renew a steadfast spirit within him—Psa. 51:10:

A.　We need a pure heart in seeking only the Lord Himself—Matt. 5:8.

B.　By sinning we become old, so we need God's renewing through the application of His forgiveness— cf. 26:28-29.

V.　David asked God not to cast him from His presence—Psa. 51:11:

A.　The Spirit is the presence of the Triune God— John 14:17; cf. 1 Cor. 7:40; Heb. 1:9; Isa. 11:2-3.

B.　If we have the Lord's presence, we have wisdom, insight, foresight, and the inner knowledge concerning things; the Lord's presence is everything to us; if we lose God's presence, we lose everything— cf. 1 John 5:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 4:4.

VI.　David asked God to restore to him the gladness of His salvation and to sustain him with a willing spirit—Psa. 51:8a, 12:

A.　It is by the gladness of God's salvation that a willing spirit is sustained within us; this is the overcoming life.

B.　We should always have a willing spirit for the things of the Lord and the things of the church—Phil. 2:13.

VII.　David asked God to deliver him from the guilt of bloodshed that his tongue might ring forth God's righteousness and his mouth might declare God's praise—Psa. 51:14-15.

VIII.　David's repentance and confession issued in his asking for God's goal—"Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion; / Build the walls of Jerusalem"—v. 18:

A.　For the Lord to do good unto Zion is for Him to build up the church, fill the church with His glory, and grant the church His rich presence with Himself as joy, peace, life, light, security, and every spiritual blessing— cf. Eph. 1:3.

B.　The Lord's recovery is to build up Zion:

1.　The overcomers are today's Zion in today's Jerusalem (the church life)—Rev. 12:11.

2.　Zion is the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church—Psa. 48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2.

3.　Although the Lord has the right, the title, to the earth, today the earth is usurped by His enemy; yet on this usurped earth there is the mountain of Jehovah, Mount Zion, which is absolutely open to the Lord and absolutely possessed by Him—24:1-3, 7-10; 2:6.

4.　The overcomers, who are typified by Zion, are the beach- head through which the Lord will return to possess the whole earth—Dan. 2:34-35.

C.　We need to beseech God to build the walls of the city for our absolute separation unto God and the protection of the interests of God— cf. Rev. 21:12a, 18a.

D.　If we are those who repent, confess our sins, and ask God for His purging, we will have the enjoyment of God in Christ in the church as His house and in His city as His kingdom—Psa. 51:19.