Psalms 51:1

Psalms 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

And really, brethren, if we cannot feel that we have need to say, "Have mercy upon me," and if, indeed, this is not the habitual language of our soul, there must be something more wrong about us than even open sin. Not to be able to confess sin, and not to be able to mourn it, is one of the direst estates of sin, in which even sin can be found; but to be able to say from the very soul, "Have mercy upon me: blot out my transgressions," indicates that there is a soundness in us still by divine grace. Do you notice what a quick eye David has here for the softer attributes of God? Did ever any man put words together more pleasantly? "According to thy loving-kindness"-" according to the multitude of thy tender mercies." God never looks more beautiful than when he is seen through a tear. If, under a sense of sin, you see him as the strangely forgiving ‘God, oh! how pleasant a God he is, and how our hearts love him!