Fathers

Psalms 51

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Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 51:9

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Turn Thou away Your face from my sins, and all mine iniquities blot out" [Psalm 51:9]. For now bones humbled exult, now with hyssop cleansed, humble I have become. "Turn Thou away Your face," not from me, but "from my sins." For in another place praying he says, "Turn not away Your face from me." He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, would that God's face be turned away from his sins. For to sin, when God turns not Himself away, he adverts: if he adverts, he animadverts. …

Exposition on Psalm 51 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"Turn away." Here he asks for the recovery of innocence. And because he considers that the evil of guilt is in him and the good of grace, he first asks for the removal of evil or sin; second, he asks for the removal of the effect of sin, at "Create in me a clean heart, O God." For sin is removed not in the sense that the sin never existed, but in the sense that the committed sin is not imputed to him for punishment, according to Ps. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗