Insights on Psalm 51

In the previous post, I discussed the positives and potential negatives of Scripture memorization. I received some excellent comments on each side of the issue, particularly from those indicating what incredible insights can come from Scripture memorization. As I have started memorizing Psalm 51, I have experienced some of these new insights of which many of you spoke, and I thought I would share them.

1. Psalm 51:1: "Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness." This word lovingkindness is very prominent in the Old Testament and it is used to translate the Hebrew word which indicated God's covenant faithfulness. And if we see anything from the story of Israel, we see that God is faithful to his covenant even when his people are not. We call on God, here, to be gracious to us, not according to the good we have done, but according to HIS faithfulness. I don't deserve it, but I know that God will be gracious to me because he is faithful despite what I do.

2. Psalm 51:5-6: "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold you desire truth in the innermost being and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom." This verse indicates the predicament that we are all in, that we have been born into original sin, that we are sinners from birth. Many times, and I speak for myself here, I like to hide behind this. To justify my sin, in other words, because I can't help it. But notice how the Psalmist David does not stop at the truth of original sin, but continues on to where God is wanting to bring us - into truth and wisdom. Sin is our problem but it doesn't have to be our reality, for God desires us to know truth and to know wisdom. What is interesting about this "wisdom" is that the Fathers universally saw Wisdom as a name for Christ. So John's Gospel starts: "In the beginning was the Word." This Word (logos) is actually the Greek masculine form of sophia (the word translated from the Greek Psalm 51 as wisdom). Psalm 51 is saying that God desires us to know Christ in the innermost part. Wow!

3. Psalm 51:14: "Restore to me the joy of your salvation." I believe that as I read this Psalm in the past, I always thought or assumed that the "your" in this verse was actually "my" - restore to me the joy of my salvation. There might even be a praise chorus of this song which uses my. What is interesting to me is that David is asking God to give him joy of the Lord's salvation. The emphasis, in other words, is not on David's salvation, but on the Lord's salvation of all of creation, and David is a part of that. How often we reduce things to individual truths (God and me), when the biblical perspective is communal truths (God and us).

These are just a few of the insights that have come to me while memorizing this Psalm. It has been quite an exercise and what I like most about it is that I find Scripture reverberating in my head as I walk around, instead of the normal Seinfeld, baseball, One Crazy Summer junk that is often not productive. My prayer is that the development of this discipline in my life will be used by God to help me to know Wisdom in the hidden part.