Psalms 51:4

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,.... All sin, though committed against a fellow creature, being a transgression of the law, is against the lawgiver; and, indeed, begins at the neglect or

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.

Against thee, thee only; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, because he had unquestionably sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and many others, who were either injured by it, or scandalized at it; but comparatively. So the sense is this, Though I have sinned against my own body and conscience, and against others; yet nothing is more grievous and terrible to me, than to consider that I have sinned against thee; partly upon a general account, because this is the chief malignity and sinfulness of sin, that it offends and injures the glorious and blessed God; and partly upon particular reasons, because I set thee at defiance, and having used all wicked arts to conceal my sins from men, and being free from fear of punishment from them, I went on boldly in sin, casting off all reverence to thy holy and omniscient Majesty, and all dread of thy judgments, and because I sinned against thee, to whom I had such numerous and peculiar and eminent obligations, as thy prophet Nathan truly suggested to me, ,8. In thy sight; with gross contempt of God, whom I well knew to be a spectator of my most secret actions. That thou mightest be justified; the particle that is not taken causally or intentionally, as if this was David’ s design, but eventually, as it is . This will be the fruit or consequent of my sin, that whatsoever severities thou shalt use towards me and mine, it will be no blemish to thy benignity, or righteousness, or fidelity, but the blame of all will rest upon my head as I desire it may, and thy justice will be glorified by all men. When thou speakest, Heb. in thy words, i.e. in all thy threatenings denounced against me by Nathan, and in any further sentence which thou shalt see fit to pass upon me. When thou judgest; when thou dost plead or contend with me, or execute thy sentence or judgment upon me. Or, when thou art judged, as it is rendered , for the word may be taken passively as well as actively; when any man shall presume to censure time, as not keeping thy covenant and mercy promised to David.

Psalms 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done [this] evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, [and] be clear when thou judgest.Ver. 4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned] This he spake in respect of the secresy of his sins, say some; whence also it followeth, "And done this evil in thy sight." David sent for Bathsheba by his servants, but they knew not wherefore he sent for her, saith Kimchi; neither knew any one why letters were sent to Joab to kill Uriah; but because he refused to obey the king, bidding him go home to his house, &c. Others thus, Against thee only, that is, thee mainly; for every sin is a violation of God’ s law; the trespass may be against man, but the transgression is ever against God. Others again thus, Against thee, &c., that is, against thee, so good a God, have I thus heinously offended, giving thereby thine enemies occasion to blaspheme thee. This, I take it, is the true meaning. And done this evil in thy sight] Which was to despise thee, 2 Samuel 12:10, not caring though thou lookedst on. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, &c.] i.e. Declared to be just, whatever thou hast denounced against me or shalt inflict upon me. The unrighteousness of man commendeth the righteousness of God, Romans 3:4-5. To thee, O Lord God, belongeth righteousness, but unto us confusion of face, saith Daniel, Psalms 9:7.

(4) Against thee, thee only . . .—This can refer to nothing but a breach of the covenant-relation by the nation at large. An individual would have felt his guilt against the nation or other individuals, as well as against Jehovah. The fact that St. Paul quotes (from the LXX.) part of the verse in Romans 3:4 (see Note, New Testament Commentary) has naturally opened up an avenue for discussion on the bearing of the words on the doctrines of free-will and predestination. But the immediate object of his quotation appears to be to contrast the faithfulness of the God of the covenant with the falsehood of the covenant people (“Let God be true, and every man a liar”). The honour of God, as God of the covenant, was at stake. It is this thought which appears in the last clauses of this verse. That . . .—So that (or, in order that) thou art (or mayest be) justified in thy cause, and clear in thy judgment. The Hebrew, rendered in the Authorised Version when thou speakest, is often used of a cause or suit (see (Exodus 18:16-22, “matter,” &c), and it is here plainly used in this sense and is parallel to judgment. The clause seems to imply not only a sense of a breach of the covenant, but some manifest judgment from Jehovah in consequence; and, as usual, it is of its effect on the heathen that the psalmist thinks. The Divine honour would be justified when the suffering nation confessed that condemnation and punishment had been deserved. This was apparently the meaning read in the words by the LXX.

Verse 4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned] This verse is supposed to show the impropriety of affixing the above title to this Psalm. It could not have been composed on account of the matter with Bath-sheba and the murder of Uriah; for, surely, these sins could not be said to have been committed against God ONLY, if we take the words of this verse in their common acceptation. That was a public sin, grievous, and against society at large, as well as against the peace, honour, comfort, and life of an innocent, brave, and patriotic man. This is readily granted: but see below. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest] Perhaps, to save the propriety of the title, we might understand the verse thus: David, being king, was not liable to be called to account by any of his subjects; nor was there any authority in the land by which he could be judged and punished. In this respect, God ALONE was greater than the king; and to him ALONE, as king, he was responsible. Nam quando rex deliquit, SOLI DEO reus est; guia hominem non habet qui ejus facta dijudicet, says Cassiodorus. "For when a king transgresses, he is accountable to GOD ONLY; for there is no person who has authority to take cognizance of his conduct." On this very maxim, which is a maxim in all countries, David might say, Against thee only have I sinned. "I cannot be called to the bar of my subjects; but I arraign myself before thy bar. They can neither judge nor condemn me; but thou canst: and such are my crimes that thou wilt be justified in the eyes of all men, and cleared of all severity, shouldst thou inflict upon me the heaviest punishment." This view, of the subject will reconcile the Psalm to the title. As to the eighteenth and nineteenth verses, we shall consider them in their own place; and probably find that the objection taken from them has not much weight.

4. David’s confession to Nathan was couched in the simple words (two only in the Heb.), “I have sinned against Jehovah.” The additional words “thee only” have been taken as a proof that the Psalm cannot have been written by David. But they need not, as we have seen already, be pressed with such extreme logical precision as to exclude sin against man. All sin, even that by which man is most grievously injured, is, in its ultimate nature, sin against God, as a breach of His holy law; just as man’s duty to his fellow-man is based upon his duty to God and is regarded as part of it. Moreover the king, as Jehovah’s representative, was in an especial and peculiar way responsible to Him. and done this evil] Better as R.V., and done that which is evil in thy sight. Cp. 2 Samuel 11:27, “the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Jehovah”: and 2 Samuel 12:9, “Wherefore hast thou despised the word of Jehovah, to do that which is evil in his sight?” that thou mightest &c.] Better, that thou mayest be justified when thou givest sentence: i.e., that Thy righteousness and holiness may be declared and vindicated when Thou dost pronounce sentence on my sin. When thou speakest is shewn by the parallelism to mean, ‘when Thou dost pronounce sentence.’ Be justified corresponds to the cardinal divine attribute of righteousness: be clear to that of holiness. Cp. Isaiah 5:16, “God the Holy One proves Himself holy in righteousness.” But this is a hard saying. Can it be meant that the vindication of God’s holiness is the object of man’s sin? (1) Grammar forbids us to relieve the difficulty by rendering so that thou art justified (consequence) instead of in order that thou mayest be justified (purpose). (2) We might regard that as depending upon Psalms 51:3-4 a taken together, and introducing the object of the Psalmist’s confession. ‘I confess my sin, that thou mayest be justified in pronouncing sentence upon me.’The sinner’s confession and self-condemnation is a justification of God’s sentence upon sin, just as, conversely, the sinner’s self-justification is a challenge and impugnment of God’s justice (Joshua 7:19; Job 40:8; 1 John 1:10). (3) Probably however we are meant to understand that man’s sin brings out into a clearer light the justice and holiness of God, Who pronounces sentence upon it. The Psalmist flings himself at the footstool of the Divine Justice. The consequence of his sin, and therefore in a sense its purpose (for nothing is independent of the sovereign Will of God), is to enhance before men the justice and holiness of God, the absolutely Righteous and Pure. “The Biblical writers … drew no sharp accurate line between events as the consequence of the Divine order, and events as following from the Divine purpose. To them all was ordained and designed of God.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned - That is, the sin, considered as an offence against God, now appeared to him so enormous and so aggravated, that, for the moment, he lost sight of it

4. Against thee, thee only—The particle rendered “only,” should here take its radical signification of separately, apart, as it often does elsewhere.