From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
August 8 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your
loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of your tender mercies blot
out my transgressions." Psalm 51:1 This psalm is very suitable to the needs and feelings of
every sensible sinner, for it is not necessary to have committed David's sin
to have a measure of David's repentance and confessions, and of David's
desires, breathings, and supplications. "Have mercy upon me, O God," he
says, "according to your loving-kindness." To ask God to have mercy upon us
is one of the first cries that a convinced sinner puts up to God. It was so
with the tax-collector in the temple; and where it is sincere, God will
certainly hear it "according to his loving-kindness," for he is full of love
and kindness to poor, mourning sinners. How the psalmist also begs of the Lord to "blot out his
transgressions according unto the multitude of his tender mercies." As our
sins in thought, word, and deed are a countless multitude, of which every
one deserves hell, we need "the multitude of his most tender mercies" to
blot them out. We may see the stars in the sky, the sands on the sea-shore,
the drops of dew on the grass, the waves rolling in upon the beach; but both
our sins and God's tender mercies exceed them all. How he showed these
tender mercies in giving his dear Son to suffer, bleed, and die for
miserable sinners; and how we need all these tender mercies to pity and
pardon us and our transgressions. And how earnestly David begged, "Wash me throughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." It is only the washing of God
himself that can wash us throughly. If we could shed an ocean of
tears it would not wash away one sin; but the blood of Christ cleanses from
all sin. In order to make us know this, the Lord shows us and makes us feel
the guilt and burden of sin, and that we can do nothing to put it away.
Pardon must be his own free gift, and that every sensible sinner is made to
feel.