“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Psalm 51:4).

The Lord Jesus taught that the Scriptures of the Old Testament testified about Him (John 5:39). “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets,” we read, “He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Christ must be seen as central in the psalms (Luke 24:44), but how can verses about sin be applied to Him?

Psalm 51 is a confessional psalm of David who cried out to God for mercy and sought cleansing. Our Lord, David’s greatest Son, never personally sinned, but He was “made . . . to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). He was and is the Lamb of God “which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Reading Psalm 51 through Christ lenses gives new meaning and dimension. Verse 1 says, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” Our Lord, “in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, . . . was heard in that He feared” (Hebrews 5:7). We stand justified before the Father because the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus has been put to our account, but He was condemned to death because our sins were laid on Him. After the crucifixion, He was raised in triumph from death, “because it was not possible that He should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24).

Verse 13 reads, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” David was helpful in teaching sinners God’s way, but the Lord Jesus was and is the teacher par excellence; sinners may be “converted” only because He made it possible. PGH