Tehillim 51 | “When the Prophet Natan Came to Him After He Came to Batsheva”

The title of this psalm places us at the most dramatic moments in David’s life — his sin with Batsheva. When studying the Book of Shmuel, one can see that one of the most striking difference between King Shaul, who was removed from his position, and King David, who was granted an eternal dynasty, is the ability to recognize a sin and work toward repair. In the Book of Shmuel, David’s acknowledgment of his wrongdoing is limited to the brief phrase, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (Shmuel II 12:13) But the Book of Tehillim completes and expands that moment into a detailed heartfelt psalm.

The psalm opens with pleas for forgiveness, grounded in David’s deep awareness that he will carry the memory of his sin always. At the heart of this request lies a powerful idea: Consider a relationship between a man and a woman where both keep mental records of each other’s wrongs, ready to bring them up in the next argument. But in a healthy relationship, each party takes responsibility for their own failings and works to improve, and so there is no need for the other to hold onto the memory of the misdeed. So too, in a deeper and more elevated sense, with God; if a person sins and truly recognizes that they have sinned, God can “forget” the sin, because the person is already on a path of correction. This is the request in the second half of the psalm — the plea to create a new heart, to purify him, and to grant him the strength to return to a life of divine service and renewed connection with God.

The psalm does not spell out the specifics of the sin, and it is written in broad, universal terms so that it can be said by any sinner and by anyone seeking God. In doing so, David fulfills his promise: “I will teach offenders Your ways, and sinners will come back to You” (51:15). As Chazal taught us that David "raised the yoke [ullah] of repentance" (Avodah Zara 5a).