Have Mercy upon me, O God

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2)

• Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness. Here we have the public confession of King David who had an embarrassing record of flagrant sins which he had kept hidden. King David pled for God’s mercy. He recognized that his sin had offended God, and that God could judge him.
  
  Likewise, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We deserve God's wrath and condemnation. Like King David, we plead for God's forgiveness and grace through God’s lovingkindness, the atoning blood of Christ, His Son.


• According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. God's tender mercies are the extension of His love for us, according to His sovereign pleasure. God could have abandoned us and left us to our deserved fate. He could have condemned all of us and send us to Hell. But God chose otherwise. God saved us by judging His Son in our place – Jesus willingly bore our sin on the Cross. There on the Cross, God's justice was satisfied and God's mercy triumphed! God blotted out all our sins of His own free goodness, and shows Himself altogether bountiful, and does not look for any payment for it at our hands. Through His grace, God washed away all our sins for all time by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, our Perfect Paschal Lamb.
  
  And so when we feel the heavy burden of sins weighing us down, we must confess them to God and ask Him to blot out all our sins on account of what His Son had done for us! We must plead with Him to take our sins all away!


• Help me, Oh Lord! Save me according to Your lovingkindness! Blot out all my sins! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.