Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Nathan's rebuke roused David from a spiritual torpor into which he had sunk for a long time. Seeing the magnitude of his guilt, he turns to God's infinite mercy as his only ground for hope, knowing he deserves multiplied condemnation and might justly be cast off forever.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 51:1-19
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He is thunderstruck at the discovery of his inbred sin, and proceeds to set it forth. This was not intended to justify himself, but it rather meant to complete the confession. It is as if he said, not only have I sinned this once, but I am in my very nature a sinner.
The title has reference to a very sad story, that of David's fall. But, though he fell, he was not utterly cast down, for God graciously upheld him and raised him up. 1. The sin which, in this psalm, he laments, was the folly and wickedness he committed with his neighbour's wife, a sin not to be spoken of, nor thought of, without detestation.
Commenting on Psalm 51:1-6