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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
51:3-5 I Own Up to My Sin. The next section builds on the humility expressed in the opening section, freely acknowledging that the sin is the worshiper's own and that God is free from all blame. Indeed, God would be fully justified in refusing the request for mercy and bringing judgment instead.
51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned. Of course, in doing wrong he has hurt others; the point here is that God is the ultimate judge for all sin (thus harming others is given not less weight but more). Cf. David's response to Nathan, 2 Sam. 12:13. so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. The psalmist acknowledges his guilt before God "so that" God's justice in all he does will be clear. In Rom. 3:4 Paul cites this part of the verse from the Septuagint in support of his argument that God is just and is entitled to judge.
51:5 I was brought forth (that is, from the womb) in iniquity. David thinks of himself as a sinful person from the time of his birth. in sin did my mother conceive me. The idea is not that the act of conception was itself sinful, but (as the parallel first line shows) that each worshiper learns to trace his sinful tendencies to the very beginning of his existence--not only from birth but even from before that, to conception. (This certainly attributes moral accountability, the most important aspect of "personhood," to the developing baby in the womb. This is why many see this passage as implying that an unborn child should be thought of as a human person from the point of conception in his mother's womb.) See The Beginning of Life and Abortion.
