Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 51:9
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
9. Hide thy face from my sins ] Cease to gaze upon them in displeasure. Cp. Psa 32:1; Psa 90:8. This use of the expression is unusual. Generally God is said to hide His face when He withdraws His favour (Psa 13:1; Psa 44:24, &c.).
blot out ] See note on Psa 51:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 12. Repeated prayer for pardon, cleansing, and renewal. The change from the future to the imperative (see above) indicates that a fresh division of the Ps. begins here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hide thy face from my sins – That is, Do not look on them; avert thy face from them; do not regard them. Compare the notes at Psa 13:1.
And blot out all mine iniquities – Take them entirely away. Let the account be erased, cancelled, destroyed. See the notes at Psa 51:1.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 51:9-10
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Gods pardoning grace
This psalm is made up partly of confessions and acknowledgments of his great crimes, partly of petitions and supplications, wherein he intercedes for pardon, and prays for forgiveness. And this was but necessary to complete the duty of confession, which without this additional act of devotion might have looked rather like a daring defiance of Divine justice; God having nowhere promised us His pardon, or indeed any other blessing without our asking; nor that He will open the gates of His mercy to penitent sinners, and grant them readmission into His favour again, but upon their earnest applications and importunate knocking.
I. The sense and meaning of the words.
1. By sins we may understand offences of a high nature, wilful and deliberate transgressions, such as are mightily provoking in the sight of God, from which, therefore, he prays God to hide His face.
2. By iniquities may be understood the common frailties and ordinary miscarriages of our lives, those which with the greatest care we can use, cannot well be avoided; such as we daily run on score with God, which, therefore, he desires may be blotted out.
3. Gods hiding His face from anything is His passing it by, and His not regarding it (Psa 55:1; Eze 39:29). Proportionably to hide His face from our sins is to overlook them; particularly to suspend sentence, not to proceed to judgment against us, but to forbear us. And this is properly that act of forgiveness the Latins call Igno-scentia, to seem not to know, not to resent injuries, and to put up affronts which are done to His Heavenly Majesty. And, oh blessed God, may every one of us, sinners as we are, say, how do we all of us stand obliged to Thy goodness, that Thou hast not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; but hast lengthened out our time and Thy patience, and given us space of repentance, and left us still in a possibility of salvation, and hast from time to time hid Thy face from our provoking sins, oven when we have boldly and deliberately dared Thy justice to Thy face! Oh, praised be that unspeakable mercy of Thine.
4. To blot out all our iniquities is so to forgive them as that they shall never be remembered more (Eze 33:16). This is a metaphor taken from the usual discharge of debts and release of suits and actions we may have against any man, when we wipe out the score, and cancel all bills and obligations whatever, and give him a free general pardon and quit-claim of all duos or demands. And this is that act of forgiveness which in Latin is called condonatio, an absolute and full discharge. And this is the very term and tenor of evangelical pardon, as Himself hath declared it by His prophet (Isa 43:25). Gracious God, be always pleased to hide Thy face from our sins, but never hide it from our persons or from our prayers; which is the severest token of Thy heaviest displeasure.
II. The nature of Gods pardoning grace. Consider the wonderful goodness of Gods nature in Himself and of His will towards us, that He doth as it were lay aside all His glorious attributes almost, to serve us; and shows us mercy, even in disparagement to His infinite knowledge and holiness and justice; that, though He cannot but see and know our sins, because He knows all things, yet He takes no notice of them: and because they cannot be hid from His face, He hides His face from them; though He cannot but abominate sin, and hate it with a perfect hatred, yet He loves and bears with the sinner; and though He stand obliged as a righteous judge to punish sin, wherever He finds it, yet He delays the punishment in expectation of our repentance. And this is the first act of pardon, or, at least, step towards it, that God doth not rebuke us in His anger, nor chasten us in His hot displeasure; that there is a suspension at least of punishment, a reprieve in order to a full pardon; which follows in the next place, the blotting out of all our iniquities, so as never to be remembered more; and this is the removal of guilt, a total and final discharge for the future, as that is a forbearance of vengeance at present. That in a manner is but present impunity; this is an absolute discharge for ever; and that–
1. Total: all mine iniquities; and–
2. Final: by being blotted out.
III. How this forgiveness and full pardon may be attained.
1. Contrition. Labour to be thoroughly convinced of thy sins; consider and lay to heart thy dangerous estate; spread thy sins before thy own conscience first, before thou lay them before God in thy confession. Fruit is first bruised and squeezed before it yields its precious liquor; stones, and the hardest metals themselves, when they are melted down, will run. Then, when thou art thus contrite, when thou hast broken thy heart, and melted it with the coals of Divine love, thy soul will pour out itself.
2. Supplication. Get thee to thy Lord right humbly; beseech His mercy to accept thy repentance, and His grace to improve it. Let Him not alone till thou hast obtained a gracious answer.
3. Lay hold on Christ; plead His passion and merits. In His name and mediation thy supplications must hope to speed, and have their designed effect. Lot thy prayers be perfumed in the censer of thy High Priest, and be mingled with His intercessions.
4. Amendment of life; or else all that thou hast done hitherto falls short and comes to nothing,
IV. The blessed effects and consequence of this pardoning grace.
1. The favour of God as now reconciled in Christ. If thou hast this pardon, thou hast the light of Gods countenance shining upon thy inner man, and art in the same condition as a child restored to his fathers love. And this thou mayest know by thy own dutiful behaviour and ingenuous affections, as well as by His kind reception; if thou givest Him cause by thy filial diligence to rejoice in thy return, as thou thyself rejoicest in His reconcilement.
2. This favour procures the peace and quiet of conscience.
3. The gracious assurance of thy present acceptance, both of thy person and performances.
4. The ascertaining of thy future hopes. Present acceptation goes a great way with a faithful servant; but to have, beside and beyond this, an ascertainment of what expectations and future rewards such a servant may look for at the hands of a kind master; this cannot but raise, as well as quiet, his spirit. This will not only fix, but elevate him in his loyalty.
V. Marks whereby a sinner may know whether he hath attained this pardon. (Adam Littleton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Hide thy face from my sins] The sentiment here is nearly the same as that in Ps 51:3: His sin was ever before his own face; and he knew that the eye of God was constantly upon him, and that his purity and justice must be highly incensed on the account. He therefore, with a just horror of his transgressions, begs God to turn away his face from them, and to blot them out, so that they may never more be seen. See Clarke on Ps 51:1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Do not look upon them with an eye of indignation and revenge, but forget and forgive them. See Psa 51:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Hide, &c.Turn frombeholding.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Hide thy face from my sins,…. In whose sight they were committed, being now ashamed of them himself, and ashamed that any should see them, and especially his God; and being filthy and nauseous, he knew they must be abominable to him, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; and being breaches of his law, must be offensive to him, and provoke the eyes of his glory; and were such that he knew would not bear the examination of justice; and that if God was strict to mark them, he could not stand before him: moreover, in this petition the psalmist deprecates a severe chastisement of them, which is sometimes expressed by setting sins before him, Ps 90:8; and entreats the pardon of them, or oblivion and non-remembrance of them, that they might be cast behind his back, and into the depths of the sea;
and blot out all mine iniquities; as in Ps 51:1; here repeated, to show his deep sense of them, and his great importunity for the forgiveness of them; and adds the word all, including all his other sins, with those he had lately committed; for he knew that, if anyone, was left unpardoned, he could never answer for it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Hide thy face . . .i.e., thy angry look. (See Psa. 21:9.) More usually the expression is used in the opposite sense of hiding the gracious look. As long as Jehovah kept the offences before Him the breach in the covenant must continue.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 51:9. Hide thy face from my sins The verb satar, properly signifies to veil, or hide with a veil. The meaning is, “Do not look upon my sins with a severe eye, nor place them in the light of thy countenance with all their aggravations; but draw, as it were, a veil between thyself and them, that the sight of them may no longer provoke thee to anger, or draw down the deserved vengeance upon me.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Ver. 9. Hide thy face from my sins ] We are not able to endure God’s presence, much less his justice for our sins; nor can there be any sound peace of conscience while he frowneth. His favour is better than life, but his displeasure more bitter than death itself. See 2Sa 14:32 .
And blot out all mine iniquities
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hide: Isa 38:17, Jer 16:17, Mic 7:18, Mic 7:19
blot: Psa 51:1, Col 2:14
Reciprocal: Num 5:23 – blot Neh 4:5 – their sin Job 20:14 – his meat Psa 25:18 – forgive Psa 109:15 – before Isa 43:25 – even I Isa 44:22 – blotted Zec 3:4 – I have Mat 7:5 – first Luk 6:42 – cast Act 1:15 – Peter Act 3:19 – that Rom 4:7 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 51:9-10. Hide thy face from my sins Do not look upon them with an eye of indignation and wrath, but forgive and forget them. Create in me a clean heart Seeing I have not only defiled myself by these actual sins, but also have a most unclean heart, corrupt even from my birth, which nothing but thy almighty, new-creating power can purify; I beseech thee to exert that power to produce in me a new and holy frame of heart, free from those impure inclinations and vile affections, the effects of which I have too fatally felt; a heart in possession, and under the influence, of those sacred dispositions of piety and virtue, in which the moral rectitude and purity of the mind consist. Thus shall both my inward uncleanness be purged away, and I shall be prevented from falling again into such actual and scandalous sins. And renew a right spirit in me Hebrew, , ruach nachon, a firm, constant, or steadfast disposition or temper of soul, that I may not be shaken and cast down by temptation, as I have been, but that my resolution may be fixed and immoveable. He says, , chaddesh, renew, because he had had this good temper, in a great measure, before his late apostacy, and here prays that it might be restored to him with increase. Within me Hebrew, , bekirbi, in my inward parts. Thus he wisely strikes at the root and cause of all sinful actions.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The expressions in this verse picture God as a judge removing David’s sins. The psalmist wanted God to put his sins in a place where He would not see them, and to blot out any record of them from His record books.