June 26, 2025 - Psalm 51:1 - "The Mercy and Justice of God"

Psalm 51:1

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions."

These are not the words of someone bargaining with God or claiming merit—they are the cry of a broken sinner casting himself wholly upon the mercy and grace of the LORD. This verse sets forth the very heart of the Gospel: that salvation is not based on human worthiness or religious effort, but entirely on the gracious, covenant love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. David appeals not to his repentance or sorrow, but to God’s lovingkindness—His electing grace and abundant mercy in Christ, the Lamb slain at the cross. There can be no salvation of sinners by any other means than the just satisfaction of God’s righteousness. God's righteousness satisfied is the cause, of which salvation is the effect. David, like all Old Testament believers, looked to and longed for the fulfillment of God’s righteousness in the death of the LORD Jesus, even as he declared “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of THY RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Psalm 51:14) 

    When the Spirit brought David to confess his guilt in the death of Uriah and his adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, he used the plural form “bloods,” which denotes intensity and great guilt. He did not argue that it was a light matter because he was chosen by God or somehow justified by being elect. No! He cried unto the LORD to be his salvation, clearly placing no confidence in animal sacrifices "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering" (Psalm 51:16). He was uniquely looking to the One that those sacrifices represented, Who would come in the fulness of the time and lay down His life to redeem him, "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). That knowledge caused him to sing aloud of that righteousness that the LORD Jesus would earn and establish and that God would impute to his account once He had finished the work on his behalf at the cross.

    The righteousness of God was satisfied in time at the cross on behalf of all those whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world, in a twofold manner. First, all the sins of all the elect—from the beginning to the end of time—were laid upon the Savior, Who stood in their place as their Substitute. Second, the perfect obedience of the LORD Jesus, which He earned and established as God in the flesh, was simultaneously imputed to their account when He laid down His life on the cross: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This righteous satisfaction at the cross was accomplished according to God’s eternal purpose and decree, and its effect is the actual salvation of all for whom Christ died when He paid their dreadful sin debt. Since law and justice were satisfied at the cross, all of the elect were then and there justified before God. Herein, God reveals Himself to be both a just God and a Savior.

   Salvation is the sum of all the works of God in Christ—election, predestination, obedience, redemption, justification, sanctification. regeneration, and final glorification. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:28–30). All the benefits of salvation are the fruit of God’s covenant mercies in Christ—mercies that God the Father ordained, God the Son accomplished, and God the Spirit reveals in the heart of each elect sinner in His time.