Psalms 51:7

Psalms 51:7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:

As the priest purges the unclean man by dipping the bunch of hyssop into the blood of the sacrifice, and then sprinkling him with it, so, "purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean."

Psalms 51:7. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

"That is to say, I shall be clean if thou dost wash me, O Lord! My own washings make me no cleaner; my own purgations make me fouler than I was before; but if thou wilt purge me, and if thou wilt do it with the sacrificial blood, then I shall be whiter than snow." This is grand faith on David’s part. I cannot help calling your attention to it, - that he, with a sense of his sin heavy upon him, and bowed down to the very earth with the consciousness of his great guilt, yet dares to say, "Wash me," -adulterous, murderous David, - "wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." No faith brings greater glory to God than the faith of the audaciously guilty when they dare to believe that God can forgive them.

Not even the unfallen seraphim can render to God purer homage than when thou, a defiled and condemned sinner, darest to believe in the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, and so to believe as to say, with David, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."