Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
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
Purge me with hyssop. Sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolise. Nothing but blood can take away my blood stains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me. Let the sin offering purge my sin. Let him who was appointed to atone, execute his sacred office on me; for none can need it more than I.
Hyssop sprinkled water on the unclean to restore them. David prays the blood of Christ, applied by living faith, would cleanse him as surely as that ceremony cleansed the leper. If washed in that fountain, he shall be whiter than snow, not merely acquitted but accepted.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 51:7-13