March 2, 2025 - Psalm 51:7 - Whiter Than Snow

Psalm 51:7

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Here is a Spirit-inspired prayer of repentance from King David, expressing his deep longing for forgiveness and gracious renewal after his sin with Bathsheba. The imagery of being cleansed with hyssop, a plant used in ancient purification rituals, reflects both the severity of sin and the profound grace of God’s cleansing power through the shed blood unto death of the accepted Sacrifice before the LORD. Pause and consider the significance of true purification before God, and the restoration that comes through His forgiveness, and the hope that even the deepest stains of sin are washed away, leaving the justified sinner pure before Him.

David, a man after God's own heart (God having set His heart on him in saving grace- 1 Samuel 13:14), was, nonetheless, a miserable sinner who had grievously sinned before the LORD. This prayer was recorded after he had taken Bathsheba, the wife of one of his generals, and then aggravated that sin with murder. To cover up his sin, David put his general in a position where his troops were ordered to withdraw, resulting in the general's death. David believed he had gotten away with the perfect murder and cover-up. Yet, even as dark and sinister as this plot was, we find David, after the LORD pointed him out as THE SINNER, looking nowhere else but to the blood of the Lamb, pleading for mercy and grace. In 2 Samuel 12:9-12, we find the story behind Psalm 51, where the Lord did not leave David alone. He sent one of His prophets, Nathan, to speak to him about what he had done to Uriah. "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die" (2 Samuel 12:13).

Before David was aware of the forgiveness of the LORD on his behalf, the prophet assured him that the LORD had put away his sin. Since we know that no sin could be put away until Christ had come and paid the debt, the way David's sin was put away, just like all the Old Testament believers, was by God not charging them with the sin (the non-imputation of their sin-Romans 4:8) and having purposed to lay it on the LORD Jesus Christ, the TRUE LAMB SLAIN, when He would come and pay the sin debt of all the elect together at one time, Hebrews 9:15.

Why hyssop? Hyssop is a small plant, about 12 to 15 inches tall at its largest point. Some believe it is of the mint family, though it was a bush used in the sacrifices that God required of Israel in the Old Testament. It is mentioned in the Passover feast in Exodus 12, where it was part of the ritual: the blood of the lamb was to be placed on the doorposts and lintels, and God, seeing the blood, would pass over the children of Israel. Could it be that David was thinking of this when he said, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean?” More importantly, it likely pointed forward to the cross of the Lord Jesus. In John 19:29, when our LORD Jesus hung on the cross and was about to lay down His life, it says they filled a sponge with vinegar, put it on hyssop, and offered it to His mouth. After receiving the vinegar, Jesus declared, "It is finished," and then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Literally, He pillowed His head in submission to the death on the cross that the Father had required of Him as the Substitute of His people. How we need the Spirit of God to turn our hearts and minds away from ourselves to the remedy, as with David, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."

Two Key Thoughts

There are two thoughts to underscore in this portion of scripture: one negative, and the other positive. David says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

First, note that though sin is put away by the Lord in the court of heaven, the poor sinner may not enjoy the comfort of this in his conscience. This is the negative aspect. We may not always know in our hearts and minds whether the Lord Jesus Christ ever died for us, but we can know that if He did, in God's time, He will cause His Spirit to teach us of our sinfulness. In the meantime we may labor under the weight of our sin until He is pleased to turn our eyes to the Only Remedy, and cause us to cry out for mercy and grace, looking to the LORD Jesus Christ and His shed blood for our only Hope.

Second, the positive aspect is the utmost efficacy of the blood sacrifice. "Efficacy" means the power to get the job done. Faith ascribes this power to One Person—the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood that was shed unto death. David did not try to purge himself; he prayed that God would be pleased to purge him, and he was confident that if God did so, "I shall be clean." "I shall" is an expression of certainty because of Whose Blood it is. David looked forward to the time when the LORD Jesus would come to put away his sin once and for all. He says, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Faith’s object—Christ and Him crucified—is the only remedy for the condemned sinner, cleansing him from all iniquity. Yet, even after this cleansing, the soul is left to cry out under the weight of sin, "Wash me..." It is not our tears of repentance that cleanse us, but the precious blood of the Lamb of God that alone can wash the guilty sinner. What a precious word!

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Here is the only cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ that is whiter than anything our minds or hearts can imagine. Pure because His blood and righteousness make the sinner, for whom Christ died, as Holy and Righteous as God Himself. He is saying, "I shall be whiter than snow." I shall be as free and as pure from the least stain of sin in God's sight as if I had always obeyed. "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27).