Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 51:5
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
5. Behold, I was shapen ] Better, Behold, I was born. Acts of sin have their root in the inherited sinfulness of mankind. It does not appear, as some have thought, that the Psalmist pleads the sinifulness of his nature as an excuse for his actual sins. Rather, in utter self-abasement, he feels compelled to confess and bewail not only his actual sins, but the deep infection of his whole nature (Job 14:4; Rom 7:18). Moreover this verse forms the introduction to Psa 51:6, which, as the repetition of ‘behold’ indicates (cp. Isa 55:4 f; Isa 54:15 f), stands in close connexion and correlation with it. He contrasts his natural perversity and liability to error with the inward truth and wisdom which God desires, and which, he is confident, God can communicate to the pardoned and regenerate soul.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 8. He has inherited a sinful nature; and yet, so he is confident, God can and will make it conform to His desire. The emphatic ‘Behold!’ marks the beginning of a new stanza.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity – The object of this important verse is to express the deep sense which David had of his depravity. That sense was derived from the fact that this was not a sudden thought, or a mere outward act, or an offence committed under the influence of strong temptation, but that it was the result of an entire corruption of his nature – of a deep depravity of heart, running back to the very commencement of his being. The idea is, that he could not have committed this offence unless he had been thoroughly corrupt, and always corrupt. The sin was as heinous and aggravated as if in his very conception and birth there had been nothing but depravity. He looked at his, sin, and he looked back to his own origin, and he inferred that the one demonstrated that in the other there was no good thing, no tendency to goodness, no germ of goodness, but that there was evil, and only evil; as when one looks at a tree, and sees that it bears sour or poisonous fruit, he infers that it is in the very nature of the tree, and that there is nothing else in the tree, from its origin, but a tendency to produce just such fruit.
Of course, the idea here is not to cast reflections on the character of his mother, or to refer to her feelings in regard to his conception and birth, but the design is to express his deep sense of his own depravity; a depravity so deep as to demonstrate that it must have had its origin in the very beginning of his existence. The word rendered I was shapen – cholaletiy – is from a word – chul – which means properly, to turn around, to twist, to whirl; and then it comes to mean to twist oneself with pain, to writhe; and then it is used especially with reference to the pains of childbirth. Isa 13:8; Isa 23:4; Isa 26:18; Isa 66:7-8; Mic 4:10. That is the meaning here. The idea is simply that he was born in iniquity; or that he was a sinner when he was born; or that his sin could be traced back to his very birth – as one might say that he was born with a love of music, or with a love of nature, or with a sanguine, a phlegmatic, or a melancholy temperament.
There is not in the Hebrew word any idea corresponding to the word shapen, as if he had been formed or moulded in that manner by divine power; but the entire meaning of the word is exhausted by saying that his sin could be traced back to his very birth; that it was so deep and aggravated, that it could be accounted for – or that he could express his sense of it – in no other way, than by saying that he was born a sinner. How that occurred, or how it was connected with the first apostasy in Adam, or how the fact that he was thus born could be vindicated, is not intimated, nor is it alluded to. There is no statement that the sin of another was imputed to him; or that he was responsible for the sin of Adam; or that he was guilty on account of Adams sin, for on these points the psalmist makes no assertion. It is worthy of remark, further, that the psalmist did not endeavor to excuse his guilt on the ground that he was born in iniquity; nor did he allude to that fact with any purpose of exculpating himself. The fact that he was thus born only deepened his sense of his own guilt, or showed the enormity of the offence which was the regular result or outbreak of that carly depravity. The points, therefore, which are established by this expression of the psalmist, so far as the language is designed to illustrate how human nature is conceived, are
(1) that people are born with a propensity to sin; and
(2) that this fact does not excuse us in sin, but rather tends to aggravate and deepen our guilt.
The language goes no further than this in regard to the question of original sin or native depravity. The Septuagint agrees with this interpretation – idou gar en anomias sunelefthen. So the Vulgate: in iniquitatibus conceptus sum.
And in sin did my mother conceive me – Margin, as in Hebrew, warm me. This language simply traces his sin back to the time when he began to exist. The previous expression traced it to his birth; this expression goes back to the very beginning of life; when there were the first indications of life. The idea is, as soon as I began to exist I was a sinner; or, I had then a propensity to sin – a propensity, the sad proof and result of which is that enormous act of guilt which I have committed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 51:5-7
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Original depravity
Men may come upon this doctrine one of two different ways.
1. As a dogma in theology. The first thing that some theologians do is to assail human nature, to describe it as covered with wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, and as deserving nothing but eternal burning. And human nature denies this. It says, No, I have good impulses, upward desires, generous emotions; I resent your calumnies.
2. The second way is totally unlike this. Here is a true believer in Jesus Christ, one who loves Him with passionate devotion, and grows daily more like Him. From this attitude he looks back upon his former self, compares the human nature he started with, with that which he has attained, and involuntarily, by the sheer necessity of the contrast, he says, I was born in sin. What he never could have understood as an opinion he realizes as a fact. Let a tree be conscious. Tell it in April how bare and barren it is. It will defend itself stoutly. Go to it after it has had a summers experience, and it will confess, I am not what I was; I was as you said, but now I feel as if I had been born again. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Of original sin
The end of the Gospel is to bring sinners unto Christ; for this they must feel their misery without Christ. And this misery consists in our sin, original and actual.
I. Natural corruption is a sin (Rom 7:1-25.), where you may find near twenty aggravations of this sin. And it is not a valid objection that this sin is not voluntary, for what is involuntary may be sin. But original sin is voluntary both in respect of Adam who represented us all, and in respect of us by our after consent.
II. We are tainted with it from our birth (Isa 48:8). Stay not to inquire how sin is conveyed to us in the womb, but consider how to be set free from it.
III. It should be the ground of our humiliation.
1. It is a privation of all good (Rom 7:18).
2. There is an antipathy to God and the things of God (Rom 8:7). The carnal mind is not only an enemy, but enmity. Naturalists write of a beast that will tear and rend the picture of a man if it come in his way; whence they argue his great antipathy to man. And so we may argue antipathy to God when men will tear and despise His image. What cause, then, for humiliation.
IV. Press home this doctrine. Consider, therefore–
1. The unnaturalness of this sin. We hate vermin that are naturally poisonous more than any other.
2. The sinfulness of it; for it violates not one of, but all, Gods commands, and that always without interruption; there is no cessation from it.
3. The causality of it. All actual sin springs from it.
4. Its habitualness both in respect of permanency–see leprosy (Lviticus 14:41, 42)–and facility in acting (Rom 7:21; Jer 8:6).
5. Its pregnancy; it is all sin virtually, for all sin is wrapped up in it.
6. Its extent. It has overspread the whole man (Isa 1:6).
7. Its monstrousness; see the deformity it has brought upon the soul by defect, impotency, dislocation.
8. Its irresistibleness and strength.
9. Its devilishness, brutishness and incorrigibleness. (D. Clarkson.)
Original sin
We purpose considering the subject of original sin–what it is that David means, when he says, I was shapen in iniquity. This implies two things–guilt and corruption, that every man is born in sin and a child of wrath–there is guilt imputed to him. This guilt which is imputed to him is the guilt of Adam, his representative, and this sin which is derived by him is that of Adam, his progenitor. This is our twofold inheritance from our first parent–original sin. Let us take each of these in its order. Our first proposition is, that we inherit from Adam guilt; that he stood before God the representative of all humanity–their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker. In him we all once stood upright, in him we were tried, fell, were judged and condemned. Is it true? Turn, then, to Rom 5:19; 1Co 15:45; Rom 5:12; Death has passed upon all men, because all have sinned. But the only sin they could have suffered for was the sin of Adam. Stern and strange as this doctrine may seem, it is not more stern or more strange than the undeniable fact which proves it. We take the man who denies it to the bedside, where lies the corpse of a newborn babe that has just breathed out its few short hours of painful life. Why is this? Pain has been here, and death–what brought them? What had that little sufferer done, that the dread penalty of death should be extracted from it, and its young life untimely snatched away? It was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin. But this fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies, to a certain extent, an answer to the objection made on the score of justice; for the injustice of imparting to us Adams guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adams punishment. In this world the innocent do suffer for the guilty, and the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Ask the offspring of the drunkard, the libertine, the criminal, the spendthrift. And the sins of one age are visited upon the next. A godless statesman suffers a nation to grow up in ignorance, and the next generation reap the bitter fruits of his neglect in misery and crime. A faithless ministry leave their flocks unguarded and unfed, and they who come after them toil painfully, and almost hopelessly, to recall those sheep to the fold from which the carelessness of others had suffered them to stray. Wherever we turn, then, we see men suffering for the sins and smarting for the follies of others. Why, then, should it startle you when we ask you to admit a fact which is not one whir more opposed to justice, nay, which throws the only gleam of light along this dark chain of sinful cause and sorrowful effect–namely, that we not only suffer the consequences, but also share the guilt, of our first parents first offence? If you object to the doctrine of original sin as revealed in the word of God, you must object against the fact of vicarious suffering as ordained in the providence of God. There is no stoppingplace between Atheism and the faith of the Christian who believes, in spite of all mystery, that God is just and good. But you say it is unjust that I should be held to have sinned in Adam–what, then, is it you would demand? A trial in your own person–that you should be placed as Adam was, in a state of probation, made upright, with the option of so continuing, if you could; this, you will say, would have been just. But if you were so placed, do you imagine that you would have fared better than he did? Was he not the very perfection of humanity? Was there any weakness in him there would not have been in you? Is there any strength you could have that He had not? What could you have been at best but another Adam, sure to yield to the very same temptation to which he yielded? What difference, then, is there, in point of justice, between this trial having been made for you or by you, if the result would be the same in either case, and if you are only held guilty of a sin which you would assuredly commit, had you the opportunity of committing it? But the vindication is more complete and triumphant when we remember that over against the sin of the first Adam is placed the grace of the second, so that where sin did abound, grace, etc. (Archbishop Magee.)
Original sin
I. Man by nature is sinful.
1. Prove this by Bible testimony (Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21).
2. Every page of human history tells the sad story of mans natural corruption.
3. What we observe in others we have to confess to be even more true of ourselves. We know not only the fact of this tendency to sin, but its strength; for we have had to struggle against it in order to do good, and to abstain from evil. Any righteousness in man is the result of an effort to work up-stream against his own nature.
4. This has been the testimony of the best men in all ages (Job 42:6; Isa 6:5; 1Ti 1:15; Rom 7:23).
5. The same is testified to by highest reason. If you try apple after apple from every part of the tree, and all alike sour, you cannot but conclude the tree itself is bad. If you drink from a stream and find it brackish, day after day you conclude that the fountain itself is bitter. Now, when you observe man after man sinning day after day, in all ages, under every form of government and society, you must conclude that the troubles lie in the very nature of man.
II. This corruption is universal as to the whole race, and total as to each man. Like leprosy, it may not be visible in the whole face or body, but being in the blood it is only a question of time as to when it will claim every part. Do not deceive yourselves. However you may manage to hold your inward corruption in check, it will sooner or later work out your total corruption, if not in this world, in the world to come. Death will remove all restraining motives and you will in eternity be left to the unrestrained operations of your sinful nature.
III. We are responsible for our sinful nature. I do not believe that Gods Word teaches that we were guilty of original sin in Adam. But the Word of God is clear that you are guilty and responsible for original sin by your own act. We have inherited sin; God does not condemn us for having inherited it, but for choosing to stand by the sin we have inherited, and refusing to give it up and turn from it when He calls upon us to forsake it and accept His abundant mercy in forgiveness, together with a new nature in Christ Jesus. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
The natural state of mankind in regard of sin
I. The original of it. I was shapen, etc. Original sin, wherewith the nature of man is so infected, consists in two things. First, in Adams voluntary transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit, imputed to all his posterity. Secondly, in the hereditary corruption of nature, propagated and derived to his posterity.
II. The manner of it, how it is conveyed. There are divers opinions about it, and each have their arguments for them. It is enough for us to know this, that man produces his like not only in nature, but also in corruption; and the one is consequent upon the other; so that it is impossible for a sinner to produce any other than a sinner (Job 14:4; Joh 3:6). The consideration of this point is thus far useful unto us.
1. As it teaches parents how to carry themselves towards their children; which, although it be not to indulge them, yet to pity corruption in them, as considering how themselves have been the occasions of conveying it to them. And further, it will hence concern parents to be so much the more careful and industrious of freeing their children from sin, so far forth as lies in their power. As they have been the occasion of corrupting them, so they should be likewise instruments of reforming them; and as they have been the conveyers of sin, so they should be also of grace. Now, this is especially done three manner of ways.
(1) By hearty and earnest prayers to God for them.
(2) By good and careful education.
(3) By godly example. I might add as an appurtenance hereunto the bringing of them to the Sacrament of Baptism, the laver of regeneration (Tit 3:5), as that which seals to all true believers their new birth in opposition to their corruption of nature.
2. Here is an item also to children from hence, not to glory too much in their pedigree and natural birth into the world. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite; thou wast shapen in iniquity, and in sin did thy mother conceive thee.
III. The notoriousness of it. Behold. David sets a mark upon this sin as being most grievous. And so it is.
1. In respect of the largeness of it; for it comprehends in it all other sins and evils.
2. in regard of the strength and power of it.
(1) As it hinders us from good (Rom 7:18; Gal 5:17; Rom 8:7; Jer 13:23).
(2) As it Carries forcibly to evil (Jer 8:6; Gen 11:6; Eph 4:19).
3. The inherence and permanency of it (Rom 7:17). As for many actual sins, they may be wholly suppressed in us so as we may never return to them again. But this corruption of nature will always more or less continue; and we shall never be freed absolutely from the actings and stirrings of it so long as we live. Now, the application of this point thus explained may be drawn forth into this improvement, namely, as matter of just abasement and humiliation to us, and that which may lay us low both in our own eyes and the eyes of God. And it may do so to two sorts of persons. First, those who are yet in their natural condition; heres a word of astonishment and advertisement also to them. By how much the more grievous original sin is in its own nature, by so much the more sad and lamentable is their estate, and they have cause to be affected with it. Now, further, there may be an improvement of it likewise to the regenerate, and that to sundry intents. First, in a way of thankfulness to God for their freedom and deliverances. The worse that original sin is, the greater mercy to be freed from such an evil. Secondly, in an endeavour to make others partakers of this birth so far forth as we are able; it is that which Paul professes of himself in the behalf of the Galatians (Gal 4:19). Thus should ministers for their people, parents for their children, Christian friends one for another, seeing a natural condition is so grievous, therefore being renewed themselves, to endeavour likewise the conversion of others. Thirdly, in a way of caution and wariness for themselves. They should hence ha persuaded to keep a watch over their own hearts, and to remember that they have flesh in them as well as spirit, from whence they may not make too bold with the occasions and temptations to sin, but may suppress and subdue them in them betimes. And further, to have sober thoughts in themselves when they behold the enormities of others; not to be high-minded, but to fear. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Total depravity
Total depravity is the entire alienation of the will and affections from God; and that carries all the good qualities as well aa the bad ones away from God and enlists them against Him. A daughter, tenderly reared and carefully educated, in an evil hour yields to temptation and loses her virtue, and subsequently chooses to lead a life of sin and shame. So far as her standing in society and among virtuous people is concerned she is totally depraved; and yet in her sin and shame she retains her accomplishments, and if not all her former graces and kindliness of heart and disposition, at least very much that is good. But who will deny that, for all this, she is in every sense a bad and totally lost woman, so far as virtuous society is concerned? I have recently wandered over some of the splendid ruins of Europe–through many an ancient abbey and cathedral. In some, if not all, there were the remains of their ancient and exquisite beauty. Here was a window with its exquisite tracery in stone as complete as when it was built; there an arch as entire and strong as of yore; and here again a cloister-room as entire as when it was occupied by one of the priests of the chapter. But for all this, the cathedral as such was a total ruin. Who has not admired with a constantly increasing admiration that grandest of European ruins, the old castle at Heidelberg! Much of it is still intact; its splendid and elaborately carved and sculptured facades are still there and the chapel scarcely decayed; and so of many other parts. And yet it is a mournful ruin, entirely and utterly destroyed so far as the purpose for which it was originally built is concerned. Out here in our own beautiful harbour a few months ago there was a collision between two ships, and one of them went to the bottom. The divers went down to examine her hull and see if it would pay to attempt to raise her, and coming up they pronounced her a total wreck. Now, some one objects to that report and says, while the ship is wrecked, to be sure, there are many parts about her that are as good as ever; keel and bow, and one entire side, boiler and engines scarcely damaged–why should she be called a total wreck? Why? Because she is beyond repair. The materials out of which she was built may be recovered and sold for old iron, but the ship as a ship is wholly ruined. In this sense man, with his many remainders of original beauty and perfections, is a totally depraved being. Man, originally upright, and to serve and enjoy God, he has sought out many inventions; he has become entirely alienated from God; and what of his powers have not become the prey of low and disgusting sins have boon preserved for selfish uses and wholly withdrawn from the service of God. Could a man be found who was a model of intellectual and moral perfection who yet withdrew from the fellowship and service of God and used those unimpaired and beautiful faculties against Him, he would be a totally depraved man. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
Nothing but sin
So the knowledge of this one sin bringeth him to the examination of his whole life, till he find nothing in himself but sin. For if the fountain be poisoned, what will the streams be that flow from it? If we would look back to our original sin, we might have cause the more to lament our actual sins as poisoned streams flowing from such a fountain. So soon, therefore, as our conscience accuseth us of any one sin, we should call to remembrance the whole course of our life, that it hath been nothing else but a continual sinning against God; that thus the last putting us in mind of the first, we may not he content to repent and ask pardon for one, but for all. A sick man having obtained health, doth remember how long he was sick, whereby for the present he both considereth his own frailty and Gods mercy in delivering him, as also encourageth and animateth himself against the time to come, by remembrance of former mercies obtained. Happy were we if we would begin to remember our miseries and Gods mercies. (A. Symson.)
The fact of original sin indisputable
Sin must be within us naturally, since the best training does not prevent it. Children secluded from the sight or hearing of evil, kept as it were within a glass case, yet run to it when the restraint is removed. As the young duck which has been reared in a dry place, yet takes to the water as soon as it sees a pond, so do many hasten to evil at the first opportunity. How often it happens that those young persons who have been most shut out from the world have become the readiest victims of temptation when the time has come for them to quit the parental roof! It must be in them, or it could not thus come out of them. In many cases evil cannot be the result of mistaken education nor of ill example, and yet there it is; the seed is in the soil, and needs no sowing. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity] A genuine penitent will hide nothing of his state; he sees and bewails, not only the acts of sin which he has committed, but the disposition that led to those acts. He deplores, not only the transgression, but the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. The light that shines into his soul shows him the very source whence transgression proceeds; he sees his fallen nature, as well as his sinful life; he asks pardon for his transgressions, and he asks washing and cleansing for his inward defilement. Notwithstanding all that Grotius and others have said to the contrary, I believe David to speak here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him, and which is the fruitful source whence all transgression proceeds. The word cholalti, which we translate shapen, means more properly, I was brought forth from the womb; and yechemathni rather signifies made me warm, alluding to the whole process of the formation of the fetus in utero, the formative heat which is necessary to develope the parts of all embryo animals; to incubate the ova in the female, after having been impregnated by the male; and to bring the whole into such a state of maturity and perfection as to render it capable of subsisting and growing up by aliment received from without. “As my parts were developed in the womb, the sinful principle diffused itself through the whole, so that body and mind grew up in a state of corruption and moral imperfection.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This verse is both by Jewish and Christian, by ancient and later, interpreters, generally and most truly understood of original sin; which he here mentions as an aggravation of his crime: and the sense of the place is this, Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to acknowledge and bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain; and upon a serious review of my heart and life I find that I am guilty of innumerable other sins, and that this heinous crime, though drawn forth by external temptations, yet was indeed the proper fruit of my own filthy and vile nature, which, without the restraints of thy providence or grace, ever was, and still is like to be, inclinable and ready to commit these and ten thousand other sins, as occasion offers itself; for which contrariety of my very nature to thine, thou mayst justly loathe and condemn me; and for which I humbly beg thy pardon and grace.
Conceive me, Heb. warm or cherish me in the womb, before I was
shapen or formed there.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5, 6. His guilt was aggravatedby his essential, native sinfulness, which is as contrary to God’srequisitions of inward purity as are outward sins to those for rightconduct.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,…. This cannot be understood of any personal iniquity of his immediate parents; since this respects his wonderful formation in the womb, in which both he and they were wholly passive, as the word here used is of that form; and is the amazing work of God himself, so much admired by the psalmist,
Ps 139:13; and cannot design any sinfulness then infused into him by his Maker, seeing God cannot be the author of sin; but of original sin and corruption, derived to him by natural generation: and the sense is, that as soon as ever the mass of human nature was shaped and quickened, or as soon as soul and body were united together, sin was in him, and he was in sin, or became a sinful creature;
and in sin did my mother conceive me; by whom cannot be meant Eve; for though she is the mother of all living, and so of David, yet could not, with any propriety, be said to conceive him: this only could be said of his immediate parent, not even of his next grandmother, much less of Eve, at the distance of almost three thousand years. Nor does the sin in which he was conceived intend any sin of his parents, in begetting and conceiving him, being in lawful wedlock; which acts cannot be sinful, since the propagation of the human species by natural generation is a principle of nature implanted by God himself; and is agreeably to the first law of nature, given to man in a state of innocence, “increase and multiply”, Ge 1:28. Marriage is the institution of God in paradise; and in all ages has been accounted “honourable in all, [when] the bed is undefiled”, Heb 13:4. Nor does it design his being conceived when his mother was in “profluviis”, of which there is no proof, and is a mere imagination, and can answer no purpose; much less that he was conceived in adultery, as the contenders for the purity of human nature broadly intimate; which shows how much they are convicted by this text, to give into such an interpretation of it, at the expense of the character of an innocent person, of whom there is not the least suggestion of this kind in the Holy Scriptures; but on the contrary, she is represented as a religious woman, and David valued himself upon his relation to her as such, Ps 86:16. Besides, had this been the case, as David would have been a bastard, he would not have been suffered to enter into the congregation of the Lord, according to the law in De 23:2; whereas he often did with great delight, Ps 42:4. Moreover, it is beside his scope and design to expose the sins of others, much less his own parents, while he is confessing and lamenting his own iniquities: and to what purpose should he mention theirs, especially if he himself was not affected by them, and did not derive a corrupt nature from them? Nor is the sin he speaks of any actual sin of his own, and therefore he does not call it, as before, “my” iniquity and “my” sin; though it was so, he having sinned in Adam, and this being in his nature; but “iniquity” and “sin”, it being common to him with all mankind. Hence we learn the earliness of the corruption of nature; it is as soon as man is conceived and shapen; and that it is propagated from one to another by natural generation; and that it is the case of all men: for if this was the case of David, who was born of religious parents, was famous for his early piety, and from whose seed the Messiah sprung, it may well be concluded to be the case of all. And this corruption of nature is the fountain, source, and spring of all sin, secret and open, private and public; and is mentioned here not as an extenuation of David’s actual transgressions, but as an aggravation of them; he having been, from his conception and formation, nothing else but a mass of sin, a lump of iniquity; and, in his evangelical repentance for them, he is led to take notice of and mourn over the corruption of his nature, from whence they arose. The Heathens themselves affirm, that no man is born without sin c.
c “Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur”. Horat. Sermon. l. 1. Satyr. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
David here confesses his hereditary sin as the root of his actual sin. The declaration moves backwards from his birth to conception, it consequently penetrates even to the most remote point of life’s beginning. stands instead of , perhaps (although elsewhere, i.e., in Psa 90:2, the idea of painfulness is kept entirely in the background) with reference to the decree, “with pain shalt thou bring forth children,” Gen 3:16 (Kurtz); instead of , with still more definite reference to that which precedes conception, the expression is (for , following the same interchange of vowel as in Gen 30:39; Jdg 5:28). The choice of the verb decides the question whether by and is meant the guilt and sin of the child or of the parents. (to burn with desire) has reference to that, in coition, which partakes of the animal, and may well awaken modest sensibilities in man, without and on that account characterizing birth and conception itself as sin; the meaning is merely, that his parents were sinful human begins, and that this sinful state ( habitus ) has operated upon his birth and even his conception, and from this point has passed over to him. What is thereby expressed is not so much any self-exculpation, as on the contrary a self-accusation which glances back to the ultimate ground of natural corruption. He is sinful (Psa 58:4; Gen 8:21), is , an unclean one springing from an unclean (Job 14:4), flesh born of flesh. That man from his first beginning onwards, and that this beginning itself, is stained with sin; that the proneness to sin with its guilt and its corruption is propagated from parents to their children; and that consequently in the single actual sin the sin-pervaded nature of man, inasmuch as he allows himself to be determined by it and himself resolves in accordance with it, become outwardly manifest-therefore the fact of hereditary sin is here more distinctly expressed than in any other passage in the Old Testament, since the Old Testament conception, according to its special character, which always fastens upon the phenomenal, outward side rather than penetrates to the secret roots of a matter, is directed almost entirely to the outward manifestation only of sin, and leaves its natural foundation, its issue in relation to primeval history, and its demonic background undisclosed. The in Psa 51:7 is followed by a correlative second in Psa 51:8 (cf. Isa 55:4., Isa 54:15.). Geier correctly says: Orat ut sibi in peccatis concepto veraque cordis probitate carenti penitiorem ac mysticam largiri velit sapientiam, cujus medio liberetur a peccati tum reatu tum dominio . is the nature and life of man as conformed to the nature and will of God (cf. , Eph 4:21). , wisdom which is most intimately acquainted with ( eindringlich weiss ) such nature and life and the way to attain it. God delights in and desires truth . The Beth of this word is not a radical letter here as it is in Job 12:6, but the preposition. The reins utpote adipe obducti , here and in Job 38:36, according to the Targum, Jerome, and Parchon, are called ( Psychol. S. 269; tr. p. 317). Truth in the reins (cf. Psa 40:9, God’s law in visceribus meis ) is an upright nature in man’s deepest inward parts; and in fact, since the reins are accounted as the seat of the tenderest feelings, in man’s inmost experience and perception, in his most secret life both of conscience and of mind (Psa 16:7). In the parallel member denotes the hidden inward part of man. Out of the confession, that according to the will of God truth ought to dwell and rule in man even in his reins, comes the wish, that God would impart to him (i.e., teach him and make his own), – who, as being born and conceived in sin, is commended to God’s mercy, – that wisdom in the hidden part of his mind which is the way to such truth.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity, etc He now proceeds further than the mere acknowledgement of one or of many sins, confessing that he brought nothing but sin with him into the world, and that his nature was entirely depraved. He is thus led by the consideration of one offense of peculiar atrocity to the conclusion that he was born in iniquity, and was absolutely destitute of all spiritual good. Indeed, every sin should convince us of the general truth of the corruption of our nature. The Hebrew word יחמתני, yechemathni, signifies literally, hath warmed herself of me, from יחם, yacham, or חמם, chamam, to warm; but interpreters have very properly rendered it hath conceived me. The expression intimates that we are cherished in sin from the first moment that we are in the womb. David, then, is here brought, by reflecting on one particular transgression, to east a retrospective glance upon his whole past life, and to discover nothing but sin in it. And let us not imagine that he speaks of the corruption of his nature, merely as hypocrites will occasionally do, to excuse their faults, saying, “I have sinned it may be, but what could I do? We are men, and prone by nature to everything which is evil.” David has recourse to no such stratagems for evading the sentence of God, and refers to original sin with the view of aggravating his guilt, acknowledging that he had not contracted this or that sin for the first time lately, but had been born into the world with the seed of every iniquity.
The passage affords a striking testimony in proof of original sin entailed by Adam upon the whole human family. It not only teaches the doctrine, but may assist us in forming a correct idea of it. The Pelagians, to avoid what they considered the absurdity of holding that all were ruined through one man’s transgression, maintained of old, that sin descended from Adam only through force of imitation. But the Bible, both in this and other places, clearly asserts that we are born in sin, and that it exists within us as a disease fixed in our nature. David does not charge it upon his parents, nor trace his crime to them, but sists himself before the Divine tribunal, confesses that he was formed in sin, and that he was a transgressor ere he saw the light of this world. It was therefore a gross error in Pelagius to deny that sin was hereditary, descending in the human family by contagion. The Papists, in our own day, grant that the nature of man has become depraved, but they extenuate original sin as much as possible, and represent it as consisting merely in an inclination to that which is evil. They restrict its seat besides to the inferior part of the soul and the gross appetites; and while nothing is more evident from experience than that corruption adheres to men through life, they deny that it remains in them subsequently to baptism. We have no adequate idea of the dominion of sin, unless we conceive of it as extending to every part of the soul, and acknowledge that both the mind and heart of man have become utterly corrupt. The language of David sounds very differently from that of the Papists, I was formed in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me He says nothing of his grosser appetites, but asserts that sin cleaved by nature to every part of him without exception.
Here the question has been started, How sin is transmitted from the parents to the children? And this question has led to another regarding the transmission of the soul, many denying that corruption can be derived from the parent to the child, except on the supposition of one soul being begotten of the substance of another. Without entering upon such mysterious discussions, it is enough that we hold, that Adam, upon his fall, was despoiled of his original righteousness, his reason darkened, his will perverted, and that, being reduced to this state of corruption, he brought children into the world resembling himself in character. Should any object that generation is confined to bodies, and that souls can never derive anything in common from one another, I would reply, that Adam, when he was endued at his creation with the gifts of the Spirit, did not sustain a private character, but represented all mankind, who may be considered as having been endued with these gifts in his person; and from this view it necessarily follows that when he fell, we all forfeited along with him our original integrity. (263)
(263) Our Author’s views on the doctrine of original sin are more fully stated in his Institutes, Book II. chap. 1.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Behold, I was shapen . . .Better, Behold, I was born in iniquity.
The later rabbis, combining this verse with the mystery hanging over the origin and name of Davids mother, represent him as born in adultery. (See Stanley, Jewish Church, chap. ii., p. 46, Note.) The word rendered conceived is certainly one generally used of animal desire. (The marginal warm me is erroneous.) But the verse is only a statement of the truth of experience so constantly affirmed in Scripture of hereditary corruption and the innate proneness to sin in every child of man. The argument for a personal origin to the psalm from this verse seems strong; but in Psa. 129:1, and frequently, the community is personified as an individual growing from youth to age, and so may here speak of its far-back idolatrous ancestry as the mother who conceived it in sin.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. I was shapen in iniquity; in sin conceive me The verb rendered “shapen” simply denotes the being born. The words “in sin,” etc., do not imply any thing sinful in the means leading to that birth, but merely the being born with a sinful nature. The text is of like import with Eph 2:3, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” This confession of natural depravity was not made in abatement of actual transgression, but to show that David not only abandons every plea of self-justification, but also of self-restorative power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, &c. Behold, I was born, &c. I do not find that the original word cholalti, which we render shapen, does ever so signify. It unquestionably denotes to bring forth, as a woman does her child; and in all the places where it is rendered shapen, it would better bear another signification. The rendering in the place before us should be; Behold I was brought forth in iniquity; and then the ensuing words will contain the reason of it; because in sin did my mother conceive me. I was brought forth in iniquity. This refers to the Psalmist himself; to what he was from his birth, and his state as he came into the world. It was in sin; i.e. with great propensities and dispositions to sin; in a state of sensuality, with more irregular, and much stronger tendencies to animal and criminal indulgencies, and the gratification of those lusts which are dishonourable in themselves, and which, when gratified, are sinful in their nature, and highly offensive to God, than they would have been, if the parents themselves had been entirely free from them; and this, as opposed to rectitude of nature, and the regulation of our portions and appetites, in a depraved sinful state. And I should think that there is need of no other proof that we are all born in such a state, that our own experience, and the present condition of the world we live in. Nor do I see how it could be otherwise with the Psalmist, if what he says of his mother be true, that she conceived him in sin, or was herself a sinner, when she first cherished him in her womb. I shall not easily be persuaded to think, that parents, who are sinners themselves, and too much under the influence of bad affections and passions, will be very likely to produce children without transmitting to them some of those disorders and corruptions of nature with which they themselves are infected. And if this be a difficulty, I would beg leave to observe, that it is a difficulty which affects natural, as well as revealed religion: since we must take human nature as it is; and if it be really in a state of disorder and corruption, and cannot be otherwise, considering the common law of its productions, the difficulty must have been as ancient as the first man who was born; and therefore can be no objection against the truth of revelation, but it must be equally so against natural religion, which must equally allow the thing, if it be in reality a fact, with revelation itself. The sense therefore, as I apprehend, of the whole passage is, that the Psalmist owns himself to be the corrupted degenerate offspring of corrupted degenerate parents, agreeable to what was said long before he was born: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Job 14:4. Nor is it unusual with good men, when confessing their own sins before God, to make mention of the sins of their parents, for their greater mortification and humiliation. See 2Ch 29:6. 2Ki 22:13. Neh 9:16 and elsewhere. So also Horace:
AEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem. Lib. 3: od. 6.
More vicious than their fathers’ age, Our fires begot the present race, Of actions impious, bold, and base; And yet, with crimes to us unknown, Our sons shall mark the coming age their own. FRANCIS.
I shall only farther observe, that David does not mention the circumstance of his being born of sinful parents, and born, as hath been explained, in sin himself, as an excuse for, but rather as an aggravation of his sins; since he ought to have been more upon his guard, and watched more carefully over his sensual passions and affections, as he knew his natural tendency to evil, and had been instructed by the law of God to correct and suppress it; as he more than intimates in the following verse. See Dr. Chandler; whose observations are here more immediately levelled at some remarks upon this text by Dr. Taylor, in his Doctrine of Original Sin, p. 31, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 587
ORIGINAL SIN
Psa 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
ONE of the most essential marks of real penitence is, a disposition to see our sins as God sees them: not extenuating their guilt by vain and frivolous excuses, but marking every circumstance that tends to aggravate their enormity. During their impenitence, our first parents cast the blame of their transgression upon others; the man on his wife; and the woman on the serpent that had beguiled her: but, when true repentance was given them, they no doubt beheld their conduct in a very different view, and took to themselves all the shame which it so justly merited. The sin of David in the matter of Uriah was great, beyond all the powers of language to express. Yet there were points of view in which none but a real penitent would notice it, and in which its enormity was aggravated a hundred-fold. This is the light in which the Royal Penitent speaks of it, in the psalm before us. Having spoken of it as an offence, not merely against man, but primarily, and almost solely, against Jehovah himself, he proceeds to notice it, not as an insulated act or course of action, but as the proper fruit of his inherent, his natural, corruption. We are not to suppose, that he intended by this to cast any reflection on his mother, of whom he elsewhere speaks in most respectful terms; nor are we to imagine, that he adduces the nature which he had derived from her, as an excuse for the wickedness he had committed: his intention is, to humble himself before God and man as a creature altogether corrupt, and to represent his wickedness as no other than a sample of that iniquity or which his heart was full, a stream issuing from an overflowing fountain. This, we doubt not, is the genuine import of the words which we have now proposed to consider; Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
In prosecuting this important subject, we shall endeavour to establish,
I.
The truth asserted
The doctrine of Original Sin is here distinctly affirmed. It is indeed by many denied, under the idea that it would be inconsistent with the goodness and mercy of God to send into the world immortal beings in any other state than one of perfect purity. But it is in vain for us to teach God what he ought to do: the question for us to consider is, What hath God done? and what account has he himself given us of our state? And here, if the Scriptures be true, there is no room for doubt: we are the corrupt off-spring of degenerate parents; from whom we derive a polluted nature, which alone, since their fall, they could possibly transmit. This we shall proceed to prove,
1.
From concurring testimonies
[Moses, in his account of the first man that was born into the world, expressly notices, that Adam begat him not in the likeness of God, in which he himself had been originally created, but in his own likeness, as a fallen and corrupt creature [Note: Gen 5:3.]: and how different the one from the other, may be conjectured from the conduct of this first-born, who imbrued his hands in his brothers blood. In his account too, as well of the post-diluvian, as of the ante-diluvian world, he tells us, that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart was only evil continually [Note: Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21.]. Job, not only affirms the same awful truth, but shews us that it is impossible in the nature of things to be otherwise: since from a thing that is radically and essentially unclean, nothing but what is unclean can proceed [Note: Job 14:4; Job 15:14-16; Job 25:4.]. The testimony of Isaiah and Jeremiah is altogether to the same effect [Note: Isa 6:5. Jer 17:9.]; as is that also of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes [Note: Chap. 9:3.]. And, in the New Testament, our Lord himself teaches us to regard the heart as the proper womb, where every species of iniquity is generated, and from whence it proceeds [Note: Mar 7:21.]: and St. Paul declares of himself, as well as all the rest of the human race, that they are by nature children of wrath [Note: Eph 2:3.]. But how can we be in such a state by nature, if we are not corrupt? Can God regard as objects of his wrath creatures that possess his perfect image? No: it is as fallen in Adam that he views us, and as inheriting a depraved nature that he abhors us [Note: The subject does not lead us to notice Adam as a federal head; and therefore we confine ourselves to what lies immediately before us].]
2.
From collateral evidence
[Whence was it that God appointed the painful and bloody rite of circumcision to be administered to infants of eight days old, but to shew that they brought into the world with them a corrupt nature, which it was the bounden duty of all who were in covenant with him to mortify and subdue? Whilst, on the one hand, it sealed to them the blessings of the covenant, it intimated to them, on the other hand, that they needed to have their hearts circumcised, to love the Lord their God.
Again, how comes it that every child, from the first moment that he begins to act at all, manifests corrupt tempers and dispositions? If only some, and those the children of wicked men, evinced such depravity, we might be led to account for it in some other way: but when, with the exception of one or two who were sanctified from the womb, this has been the state of every child that has been born into the world, we are constrained to acknowledge, that our very nature is corrupt, and that, as David tells us, we are estranged from the womb, and go astray as soon as we are born [Note: Psa 58:3.].
Further, How can we account for the sufferings and death of infants, but on the supposition, that they are partakers of Adams guilt and corruption? Sufferings and death are the penalty of sin: and we cannot conceive that God would inflict that penalty on millions of infants, if they were not in some way or other obnoxious to his wrath. St. Paul notices this, as an irrefragable proof that all Adams posterity fell in him, and through him are partakers of guilt and misery [Note: Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14.].
Once more; Whence is it that all need a Saviour? If children are not, in the eye of God, transgressors of his law, they cannot need to be redeemed from its curse. But Christ is as much the Saviour of infants as of adults. We find no intimation in the Scriptures that any are saved without him: on the contrary, it is said, that, as in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. In the temple shown to Ezekiel, there was one door for the prince: it was the door by which the Lord God had entered: and was to be for ever closed to all except the prince [Note: Eze 44:2-3.]. So Christ alone enters into heaven by his own merits: to all besides him that door is closed: and Christ alone is the door by which we must enter in; he is the only way to the Father: nor, as long as the world shall stand, shall any child of man come unto the Father but by him [Note: Joh 10:9; Joh 14:6.].
These things then, especially, as taken in connexion with the many express declarations before quoted, are decisive proofs, that Davids account of himself was true, and that it is equally true of all the human race.]
This truth being established, we proceed to mark,
II.
The importance of adverting to it in estimating our state before God
Unless we bear in mind the total corruption of our nature, we can never estimate aright,
1.
Our individual actions
[Even in common courts of judicature, the great object of inquiry is, not so much the act that has been done, as the mind of the agent: and, according as that appears to have been depraved or blameless, the sentence of condemnation or acquittal is passed upon him. Precisely thus must we judge ourselves in our conduct towards God. To elucidate this part of our subject, we will suppose two persons to have been guilty of the same act of treason towards an earthly sovereign, but to have differed widely from each other in respect of the mind with which they acted: one entered upon it unwittingly, and without any consciousness that he was doing wrong: the other knowingly, and aware that he was rebelling against his lawful sovereign. One did it reluctantly, through the influence of one whom he could not easily withstand; but the other willingly, as a volunteer in the service, and as following the impulse of his own mind. One went without premeditation, being taken hastily and off his guard: the other with a fixed purpose, after much plotting and deliberation. In one it was a solitary act, altogether contrary to the whole of his former life: in the other it was frequent, as often as the temptation arose, or the occasion offered. The one proceeded with moderation, not having his heart at all engaged in it: the other with a fiery zeal, abhorring in his soul the authority he opposed. The one had his mind open to conviction, and might easily be prevailed upon to renounce his error: the other was filled with self-approbation and self-applause, thinking nothing of his risks and dangers, if he might but help forward the utter subversion of the government. Take these two persons, and say, whether, notwithstanding their acts were in appearance the same, there would not be an immense difference between the measure of their criminality in the estimation of an upright judge? There can be no doubt on this subject. Take then any other sin whatever, (for all sin is treason against the King of kings;) and examine how far it has been voluntary, deliberate, habitual; how far it has been against light and knowledge; and how far it has proceeded from a heart radically averse to God and holiness. Let sins of omission be examined in this way, as well as sins of commission: and then the things which now are accounted light and venial, will appear hateful in the extreme, not merely as blighted grapes of a degenerate vine, but as grapes of Sodom, and clusters of Gomorrha: their enormity will be felt, in proportion to the strength and fixedness of the principle from which they spring.]
2.
Our general character
[If our actions have not been openly sinful, we are ready to bless ourselves as having but little ground for shame and remorse. But if we consider the enmity of the carnal mind against God, and view our utter want of all holy affections, and exceeding proneness to some besetting sins, we shall see but little reason to glory over the vilest of mankind. We shall see abundant cause indeed for thankfulness to God, who by his preventing grace has restrained us from many evils into which others have run: but we shall take no credit to ourselves as better than others. If we behold bitter fruit produced by others, we shall remember that there is the root of it all in ourselves: if we see in others the streams of wickedness, we shall bear in mind, that the fountain of it all is in ourselves also. Thus, however free we may be from any flagrant enormity, we shall be ready to acknowledge with Paul, that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; and with Job to say, Behold, I am vile! I repent, and abhor myself in dust and ashes. So far from indulging self-preference and self-esteem, we shall find no names more suited to us than those by which St. Paul designated his own character, Less than the least of all saints, and The very chief of sinners [Note: Eph 3:8. 1Ti 1:15.].]
From this view of our natural corruption, we may learn,
1.
How greatly we need the renewing influence of Gods Spirit
[Outward amendment might suffice for outward sins: but where the heart itself is so corrupt, we must have a new heart given to us, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds. With such hearts as ours, it would be impossible for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven, or to enjoy it even if we were there: we could not bear the sight of so holy a God; nor endure to spend our lives in such holy employments. Know then, that old things must pass away; and all things must become new. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh: the stream can rise no higher than the fountain head. If ye would enjoy the things of the Spirit, ye must be born of the Spirit, who alone can impart the faculties necessary for that end. Let your prayer then be like that of David, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me [Note: ver. 10.]!]
2.
How carefully we should watch against temptation
[If we carried about with us a load of powder which a single spark would cause to explode, we should be extremely careful to avoid whatever might subject us to danger. Should we not then, with hearts so corrupt, and with temptations so thick around us, look well to our ways, and pray unto our God to keep us from the evils of an ensnaring world? Well did our blessed Lord say, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak. Who that reflects on Davids state previous to his fall, does not fear for himself, and cry mightily unto God, Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe! Uphold me with thy free Spirit, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me! To all then we say, Be not high-minded, but fear: Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
He here goes back to the source of all sin, in original depravity! What hyssop shall purge this away, what washing of water will make this clean? Oh! how blessed is it do behold Christ, whose blood alone cleanseth from all sin. 1Jn 1:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ] This he allegeth, viz. his original depravity, not as an excuse, but as an aggravation of his actual abominations, which he saith were committed out of the vile viciousness of his nature. See Psa 58:3-4 , . The Masorites here observe, that the word rendered iniquity is full, written with a double , Vau, to signify the fulness of his sin; Hebrew Text Note whole evil being in every man by nature, and whole evil in man; which, when the saints confess, they are full in the mouth, as I may so say; they begin with the root of sin (not at the fingers’ ends, as Adonibezek did), stabbing the old man at the heart first, and laying the main weight upon original corruption, that indwelling sin, as the apostle calleth it, Rom 7:14 , ; that sin of evil concupiscence, as the Chaldee here; that peccatum peccans, as the schools. Cicero likewise had heard somewhat of this when he said, Cum primum nascimur, in omni continuo pravitate versamur, As soon as ever we are born we are forthwith in all wickedness. Augustine saith, Damnatus homo antequam natus, Man is condemned as soon as conceived.
And in sin did my mother conceive me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 51:5-9
5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
6Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.
Psa 51:5 This verse may go with Psa 51:1-4. It is not an excuse but the terrible reality of the fallen human condition (cf. Gen 8:21; 1Ki 8:46; Job 14:1-4; Job 15:14; Job 25:4; Psa 58:3; Pro 20:9; Isa 48:8; Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:23; Eph 2:3; all express the reality of the fall of mankind in Genesis 3. It is true that most rabbis emphasized the origin of sin as Genesis 6. The Apostle Paul is the NT author who focuses on Genesis 3 as the source of sin and its consequences).
For me the theological issue is the sinfulness of children before the age of moral responsibility. Calvinism has emphasized the total depravity of mankind, in all areas, from birth to death. I am more drawn to the concept of informed human volition. This means that until a child knows he/she is breaking God’s laws, they are not! Sin involves open-eyed rebellion! We are sinners in Adam/Eve (cf. Rom 5:12-21) and also we choose to sin. Both are true!
Psa 51:6-9 The psalmist is asking God to restore him to his previous place/state of fellowship. He has acknowledged his sin (Psa 51:3-4) and asked for forgiveness (Psa 51:1-2). This strophe repeats these.
1. acknowledge his sins
a. Psa 51:5
b. two imperatives
(1) hide Your face from my sins BDB 711, KB 771, Hiphil imperative
(2) blot out all my iniquities same as Psa 51:1 (the book of God is also mentioned in Psa 139:16, see note on secret below)
2. desires forgiveness
a. God desires truth in the innermost being (BDB 711, note the use of secret [BDB 712] in Psa 139:15)
b. God please make that truth known
c. prayer requests (6 imperfects)
(1) purify me BDB 306, KB 305, Piel imperfect
(2) I shall be clean BDB 372, KB 369, Qal imperfect (i.e., result of being purified)
(3) wash me BDB 460, KB 459, Piel imperfect
(4) I shall be whiter than snow BDB 526, KB 517, Hiphil imperfect (i.e., result of being washed, cf. Isa 1:18)
(5) make me to hear joy (BDB 965) and gladness (BDB 970) BDB 1033, KB 1570, Hiphil imperfect
(6) let the bones. . .rejoice BDB 162, KB 189, Qal imperfect (broken bones were an OT idiom of divine judgment, cf. Isa 38:13; Lam 3:4)
The psalmist deeply desires that the intimate fellowship he had known with God, which was damaged by his sin, be restored by God’s grace and mercy.
Psa 51:6 desires This verb (BDB 342, KB 339, Qal perfect) is used in Psa 51:6 of that which God desires (i.e., truth in the innermost being) and in Psa 51:16 of that which He does not desire (Qal imperfect, i.e., perfunctory sacrifices or sacrifices for intentional sins).
Psa 51:7 hyssop The small desert plant (BDB 23) was used in a bunch to sprinkle liquids for ritualistic ceremonies.
1. blood of the Passover lamb on the doorpost of homes Exo 12:21-22
2. ceremony for cleansing of the leper Lev 14:4; Lev 14:6 (for leprous buildings, Lev 14:49; Lev 14:51-52)
3. in connection to the ritual of burning the Red Heifer (i.e., ashes of purification) Num 19:6; Num 19:18
4. in connection with Moses sprinkling the book of the law Heb 9:19, cf. Exo 24:6-8
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
shapen: Psa 58:3, Gen 5:3, Gen 8:21, Job 14:4, Job 15:14-16, Joh 3:6, Rom 5:12, Eph 2:3
conceive: Heb. warm
Reciprocal: Lev 12:2 – If a woman Lev 13:45 – Unclean Lev 15:18 – unclean 2Sa 11:27 – displeased Job 11:12 – man be Job 14:1 – born Job 25:4 – how can Job 40:4 – Behold Psa 19:12 – cleanse Pro 20:9 – General Pro 20:11 – General Pro 22:15 – Foolishness Ecc 9:3 – also Isa 7:15 – know Isa 48:8 – a transgressor Isa 64:6 – are all Jer 17:9 – General Mat 11:11 – born Mat 15:27 – Truth Mar 9:21 – How Luk 1:35 – that Luk 11:13 – being Joh 9:34 – wast Rom 7:18 – that in me Rom 9:11 – the children
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity Hebrew, , cholaleti, I was born, or brought forth: for it does not appear that the word ever signifies, I was shapen; and then the ensuing words will contain the reason of it; the sense being, because in sin did my mother conceive me, therefore I was brought forth in iniquity; that is, with great propensities and dispositions to sin. This verse is, both by Jewish and Christian, by ancient and later interpreters generally, and most justly, understood of what we call original sin; which David here mentions, not as an excuse for, but as an aggravation of, his transgression, inasmuch as the knowledge which he had of the total corruption of his nature, and its tendency to evil, ought to have made him more on his guard, and to have watched more carefully over his sensual passions and affections. And the sense of the place is this: Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to acknowledge and bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain. And, upon a serious review of my heart and life, I find that I am guilty of innumerable other sins; and that this heinous crime, though drawn forth by external temptations, yet was indeed the proper fruit of my own vile nature, which, without the restraints of thy providence or grace, ever was and still will be inclinable and ready to commit ten thousand sins as occasion offers. Thus, as Dr. Dodd, after Chandler, justly observes, The psalmist owns himself to be the corrupted, degenerate offspring, of corrupted, degenerate parents, agreeable to what was said long before he was born, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one, Job 14:4. Nor is it unusual with good men, when confessing their own sins before God, to make mention of the sins of their parents, for their greater mortification and humiliation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The king went on to confess the depth of his sinfulness. He had been a sinner from the time he came into existence as a human being, namely, at his conception. This is one of the strongest indications in the Bible that human life begins at conception rather than at birth (cf. Psa 139:13-16). He viewed sinful acts as the fruit of a sinful nature, not as the product of his environment or the situation that had triggered his acts. This verse does not mean David felt free of personal responsibility for his actions. He felt responsible, as is clear from his statements in the context.