Bible Strands
Psalms 51:1
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David speaks to God in the aftermath of Nathan's confrontation over Bathsheba, as the superscript states. The prayer is not a general penitential form but a response to a specific, named sin.
The words — מְחֵה (me.Cheh, "wipe out") is the verb that carries the petition; it is the same root used in Isaiah 43:25 and 44:22 for God's act of erasing transgression. The request is not for pardon in the abstract but for the transgressions to be physically removed, as ink is wiped from a surface.
The thread — The "blot out" language recurs in Isaiah 43:25 and 44:22, where God declares the act as His own. Acts 3:19 picks up the same image in the New Testament ("sins may be wiped away"), linking repentance to the erasure David requests here.
Why it lands — David grounds his plea entirely in God's chesed and rachamim, not in his own merit or the seriousness of the sin. The reader is asked to see that the appeal rests on who God is, and that the sinner's only leverage is the character of the one addressed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath–sheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Cross-references
- Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
- Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
- Isaiah 43:25 I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
- Psalms 51:9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
- Colossians 2:14 having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!
- Psalms 69:16 Answer me, O LORD, for Your loving devotion is good; turn to me in keeping with Your great compassion.
- 2 Samuel 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
- Psalms 4:1 For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.
- Psalms 25:6 Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age.