Psalms 51:2

Psalms 51:2. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

What a washing that is! The penitent desires to have it done thoroughly: "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity." "Leave not a single spot, for one speck would be sufficient to shut me out of heaven; I must be spotless to be admitted there. ‘Wash me throughly.’ Wash not only this outward stain, but this inward defilement. Wash me through and through, - ‘throughly,’ - till there is no trace of my sin. So wash me till I am cleansed, and made perfectly clean." There is none but the Lord himself who can wash us after this fashion. Each of us may say with Job, "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me." If we made the sea to be our bath, we should sooner crimson every wave with our iniquities than one single stain of guilt should be washed away by the waters of the ocean. It is a divine work to cleanse from sin; therefore say, dear friend, "Lord, thou must wash me if I am to be washed; but do it thoroughly: ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.’"