Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
David is direct, even blunt, here. He’s not sugar-coating anything. Even so, these words are routinely misunderstood, especially by new readers of the Bible, or older ones who’ve never paid attention.
The sense is the same as if he had said, “I was born into the tribe of Judah, and therefore Judah is my tribe.”
Only, here, the tribe in question is that one we call “humanity.” As cats bring forth cats, and dogs have litters of puppies, so the descendants of Adam and Eve have babies well outside the Garden of Eden. The Fall has happened, and Paradise has been lost.
As Paul would later explain, even the youngest humans, who haven’t sinned yet (like Adam did) are under the umbrella of his punishment, subjected to a lifetime of toil and death. Babies die, not because they sinned, but because that’s the end of all the members of their tribe.
David’s mother didn’t sin by becoming pregnant. Adam and Eve were told to make babies before they messed everything up. They were told to populate the earth before sin was an issue.
David was from a long line of sinners. You can see how he might have been tempted to use that as an excuse, wrestling with God over his gross violations of the commands. He might’ve said, “C’mon, what do you expect of me, Lord? You know who and what I am. In fact, you are in charge of all that. If you create me with a nature that is inclined to sin, how can you condemn me for sinning?”
We hear things like this all the time. That’s not how David is using the concept.
He’s honestly owning his personal corruption. He’s admitting that he is a sinner from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, and lower than that, at a foundational level: From root to fruit, so to speak, and including the soil.
Even so, let’s answer the hypothetical question: If you made me a sinner, how can you be angry at my sin? Well, because, O king, God has loaded you down with benefits and graces. He’s revealed himself to you. You’ve heard his voice. You’ve experienced amazing tokens of his salvation. You’ve communed with his Spirit. You’ve had the word, and it has delighted you as it taught you.
At some point, shouldn’t there be a payoff for all these acts of his love toward you? How much would he need to do before he’d have a right to expect you won’t go around murdering people?
That’s what David is coming to grips with. It’s not just that he’s done things. But he did them in the face of the mighty acts of God on his behalf. He’s unworthy, ungodly, and undeserving … all the way down.
And you, Christian, living in a better covenant than David could have fathomed, because of the Messiah, Jesus, the son of David, what will your own excuse be? From the one to whom much is given, much will be expected.
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at: