Psalm 51 From Transgressors To Teachers

Daily Bible Study for Wednesday September 7, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

Colossians 1:28

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song: At Your Name (Yahweh Yahweh)    By: Phil Wickham

Psalm 51

From Transgressor To Teacher

This is a well-known Psalm for Christians around the world. It’s the place many have gone, including myself when running to God asking for forgiveness of our sins. As the first lines indicate, God is full of tender mercy and lovingkindness – praise His name forever. There’s more to this Psalm than meets the eye. Confessing our sins and getting our cleansing is key. But what do we do with it after that? Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for Your tender mercies that are new every morning. Thank You for Your loving kindness that is better than life! Lord, I ask You to open the eyes of all our hearts as we go with You through Holy Spirit on this journey through Psalm 51. Father, it is our desire to submit to Your will and Your ways by honoring You, Your word, Your Holy Spirit and those among us. Father, I ask You to bring me the utterance and the anointing to speak Your message as I ought with boldness and clarity. Father, cause this message to go out unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. As we look and learn we will purpose to be doers of Your word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we trust in You. Lord, we thank You in advance for forgiving us, cleansing us and making us whiter than snow in Jesus name. Amen.

What I am going to do is write out this Psalm as I applied it to me. It will be like a paraphrase – the Hanny version. Come with me as we see the exciting things the Lord will show us in this delightful journey with our wonderful God and Savior!

Psalm 51 – Hanny’s Paraphrase

Father, I am asking You to have mercy on me. Remove my sins. Wash me – cleanse me Lord. I know I have sinned. It is staring me right in the face. Against You alone Lord God have I committed these sins. When You speak on the matter to me Your words will be justified. When You judge, it will be clear and right.

Father, I was conceived, yes even born into sin. I know You desire the truth from the depth of my heart. Only You can make me have wisdom.

Father, purge me with the blood of Jesus (hyssop was a type of plant used for purification – now we have Jesus). Then I will be clean. When You wash me in the blood of Jesus, then I will be whiter than snow.

Father, cause me to hear joy and gladness. Then my bones You have broken will rejoice in relief. (Sickness leaves when sin is confessed) Don’t look at my sins Lord. Blot them out like they were never there. Father, I ask You to create in me a clean and right heart. Renew my spirit inside of me. Don’t send me away from Your presence. Don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me (We now have Holy Spirit as long as we accept Him).

Father, I ask You to restore to my heart the exceeding great joy of what my salvation means to me. Hold me up, strengthen me with Your free Spirit.

Once this happens I will go out and teach other sinners Your ways. Then they too will confess to You and turn their lives over to Your leading and care. Hallelujah!

Remove the guilt from my heart Lord. Then I will sing out loud about Your right ways. Father, if You will give me a chance to speak I will be shouting Your praises far and wide!

Father God – if You desired sacrifices I would give them to You. But You are not delighted with burnt offerings (stuff I bring). I know that what You really require Lord is the sacrifice of a broken and repentant heart.

In Your good pleasure Lord, do good to Your people. Build up Your church. Once that happens, You will be pleased when we bring to You the sacrifices of right living, and the offerings of hearts that are fully committed to You. That’s when Your church will bring You something that You really value.

What I have just done is made this Psalm personal to me. I am in no way trying to change the scriptures – please understand that! Think of it like looking at the Amplified Bible. They have added in words to the scriptures to make it more deeply broken down for descriptive purposes. Most of the translations of the Bible are not what we could consider an accurate translation from the original Greek and Hebrew text. 

When we study the Bible we need to read it through and then think of it as Holy Spirit leads us in our own application and the interpretation He wants to give us. That is what I am doing here. I hope it helps you when you study.

This was an Old Testament example of confession and repentance and it is an excellent template to apply to our own prayers when we have to approach the Lord after we have sinned. Then we apply it to the New Testament prayer principals remembering that we no longer live in the Old Covenant. Let’s look at another confession verse…

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This week happens to be a week where I have had to do a lot of confessing and repenting over some things I was not aware of and others in the same category that I did understand. Our life is a process of being cleansed and purged – like the Psalm today says. It is Holy Spirit in us that convicts us when we have done something wrong. This weekend at church as I learned some new things and experienced some things personally, I had to get right with the Lord right away. I knew the minute I confessed and acknowledged to the Lord that I knew what I had done wrong, and asked Him for forgiveness in the name of Jesus that I was forgiven. The deep sense of sorrow leaves and the joy of the Lord returns as if it had never left. Praise His name forever!

When a person who is a Christian sins, the fellowship with the Lord is broken. It does not feel good at all. The minute we sense anything is wrong, we need to run, not walk to the Father and ask Him to forgive us in Jesus name. After that we should also ask Him to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need to be changed. Our hearts must be molded by the Lord through His Spirit to remove the desire to sin. Over time spent with Him in His presence, we can get there. We go from glory to glory…

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We get victory in one area and then He shows us something else. Aren’t we so grateful that we don’t see all our imperfections at one time! It would be overwhelming. Recently I have been set free of eating issues like never before – praise the Lord! He is our Deliverer! Then He wanted to show me something else that had been a weakness and a serious problem in my life in the past. He wanted to get that out too. In order to bring us up to higher ground like we discussed yesterday, we have to get rid of the junk. If we were on a ship that was sinking, we would instantly start throwing things overboard that really didn’t matter much when it comes to life or death – right?

As we make our ascent towards heaven, the Lord wants to do the same thing with us. The closer to Him we get, the more of our flesh has to get tossed overboard. It will not make the climb. High altitude is tough on our flesh – it cannot survive. Here is the greatest part about coming to Jesus, second from being in His presence of course! Once we get cleaned up and well on our way in our walk with Him, now we can be used by Him to go out and teach others what He has done for us and tell them that He wants to do it for them too – hallelujah! That is the really fun part. Even if it includes hard work we count it all joy to be able to teach others about doing things the God kind of right way. Being in a position to show them the great things the Lord has done for us and invite them to join in is a thrill every Christian should look forward to…

Ephesians 4:11-12

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

Think of it. Once we were a sinner – now we are a saint! Once we were transgressors, now we are teachers! Glory to God. The Bible makes it clear that once we get pulled from the fires of hell, we need to be reaching out to grab other hands to pull them from the fire too…

Jude 22 – 23

Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

In my own life I consider myself to be a lot like Paul when he says he was the chief of all sinners. He felt he was among the worst of sinners. I certainly concur with that concept. I did some really bad things over the course of my life. Some pockets of time were much worse than others. I had fallen in with the wrong crowd and it cost me dearly. When I look at the things the Lord has cleansed me of and forgiven me for, how can I be anything but amazed at His awesome grace? And if He could save someone like me, then I believe He can save anyone because the Bible tells us that He is no respecter of persons.

What is even more amazing to me is that He would take someone like me and want to use me to teach others about Him. It is beyond comprehension and I am so deeply grateful. It is a great responsibility to teach people about the ways of God and His word and Holy Spirit – but the rewards will be, well, I have yet to see how rich and wonderful they will be. I know it will all be worth it.

For now, suffice it to say that I am a witness and a testimony of some mighty miracles. God has done some amazing things for me. I see miracles happening in my house every day as I reach out to be used by the Lord to get these Bible studies out. What a blessing, honor and privilege it is. This is what we should be to the lost in our world today…

Luke 3:4-6

⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
⁵ Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.
⁶ And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

The Lord needs workers. Will you be one of them?

Questions:

Have you gone to God to confess any sin you are aware of lately?

What did you learn from this prayer today?

Are you willing to be used by the Lord to teach others about Him?

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

God is merciful and loving when we go to Him to confess and repent

Confession restores the joy of our salvation

The Lord wants to take transgressors and turn them into effective teachers of His ways

                        Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for showing me Your mercy and loving kindness even when I have sinned. I am asking You to show me if there is any sin in my life right now that I have not confessed. I will confess it and repent right away. Father, I want to live in right standing with You at all times. I desire to be used by You to teach others about Your right ways and blessings. Thank You in advance for correcting me and teaching me so I can be used to teach others. In Jesus name. Amen

What can you teach somebody about this chapter?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.