Psalm 51

Psalms — iconic scene

Service recording Sunday 2nd August looking at Psalms.

Watch the service — 2 August 2026

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Psalm 51

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 51

This is the word of God.

"Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness; according to the greatness of your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise. For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. By your favour do good to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then young bulls will be offered on your altar."

Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 11:28

"But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup."

Why We Come to This Text

The reason we’ve come to this particular text is obvious: it is the first weekend of the month, and on the first weekend of the month we have a tradition to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, to eat of the bread and to drink of the wine in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was somewhat prompted by this because Thursday night was Bible study night at our place, and Alec led a study on the Passover; and the Passover, of course, in the Old Testament, was a shadow of what here we call the communion service. So that’s what prompted me.

Once a year I like to just stop, because it’s such a significant thing, the communion that we take. It’s not significant in the sense that it’s somehow a holier sort of service. When I was growing up, in the church that I grew up in, which was a particularly liberal church, there was a regular number of attendees, not dissimilar to the size of church that we have here. However, communion was quarterly, and the communion service brought in people from everywhere; the deacons, or the managers of the church, as they were called in our circles, would be scrambling around looking for extra seats to put in the aisles. Everyone would turn up, and the reason was that the elders had been around everyone during the week and rounded them up and encouraged them to come. Some people saw the communion service as somehow more important, or a holier time, than just the normal week-by-week meeting of the people.

We do not hold to that here, and we do not want to hold to that here; but nevertheless, we do not want to neglect giving proper attention to the communion service, because it’s extremely valuable to us as believers. If for no other reason, it jerks us back to the centrality of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ: he who died, who shed his blood, whose body was broken, so that our sins might be forgiven. It’s a marvellous message, and we should never forget it, or go so far from it that we neglect it. So that’s why I’m giving a bit of extra special attention here to the Lord’s Supper, or to what we call the communion service.

What Is Communion?

So, what is communion? I want to remind you: communion is what we call a sacrament. And a sacrament, by definition in the church, is a visible sign which shows us an invisible grace. The visible sign to us is the bread and the wine, which we take, we eat, we drink. And that visible sign indicates a greater grace: the fact that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, in remembering the Lord Jesus in this particular way, we are, and should be, excited to do just that.

The sacraments were instituted by Jesus. As a church, we’re a Protestant, Reformed church, and so we celebrate just two sacraments: the Lord’s Supper and baptism. The reason we celebrate just two, in the past, in rebellion against Roman Catholicism, which held seven, and those sacraments are somewhat established in scripture but the reason that we hold to two is that these two were directly instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, in the book of James you’ve got the elders called to anoint somebody with oil and to pray prayers of healing; that’s kind of a sacrament. There are other sacraments, scripturally speaking; but we give prominence to these two because they were directly instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism was given in the Great Commission, where the Lord said to his disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing and teaching all whom you come into contact with to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, and to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is part of that and is given by the Lord. In the Gospels, repeated not just in one Gospel but in all of them, to one degree or another is the concept of communion or what is sometimes called the Lord’s supper.

The Context in 1 Corinthians

Let’s look at the context of this verse: but a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. It comes in 1 Corinthians. If you look closely at the book of 1 Corinthians, it is a book of questions being answered by the Apostle Paul, because there were difficulties in the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church was a young church at this time, a very excitable church, and they had various issues and problems, and so they very likely sent a letter to the Apostle Paul asking, can you give definitive or helpful answers on these things? So, what we have here is part of him answering issues that had occurred in the church.

The particular issue in this case was around the Lord’s Supper, the communion service within the church. That issue went something like this properly: the more well-to-do folks in the church would come together, and they would eat and drink plenty of the wine; and as a result, the poorer people, who perhaps couldn’t get there on time or didn’t have the means to be there at a given time, would miss out. So as a result, we’ve got divisions occurring. He says, in verse 18, I hear that divisions exist among you. Well, that’s not surprising for the church, is it? Churches are fraught with divisions sometimes, because we’re principled people and because we don’t deal well enough with one another in love. He goes on to say, there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper; for in your eating each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk. Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I will not praise you.

This is the guts of the issue he’s addressing. Then he goes on and gives a framework by which the Corinthian church can properly celebrate the Lord’s Supper, in the words we know so well: for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, this is my body. And in the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. And then he addresses what shall be the attitude, what shall be the heart, of the people who come together as the church to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is in that context that we come to our verse 27 the verse before our verse: He says, therefore whoever eats of the bread and drinks of the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord but a man must examine himself, and in so doing, eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

A Visible Word

The apostle gives to the church a simple reminder of a simple remembrance feast. The bread: this is my body, the Lord said. The wine: the cup of the new covenant in my blood, the Lord said. It is, in effect, what we might call a visible word. We have the written word of God; but in a sacrament, in this way, it becomes a visible illustration of the Word, Jesus himself.

But the Scripture before us says that a man must examine himself. It doesn’t say examine one another, which is our tendency, isn’t it? When we look out and see other people, we’re very quick to note other people’s faults, other people’s issues, we are very quick to do that. But it doesn’t say examine one another; it says examine yourself. It’s dead easy to find fault in others; it’s actually quite hard though to honestly examine oneself rightly. Brothers and sisters, the sin of Pharisaism is never far below the surface of any church, and we must guard against it. Examine, a man must examine himself.

How Do We Examine Ourselves? See Yourself as God Sees You

So how are we going to examine ourselves? I want to suggest some helps, drawing from the Scriptures and perhaps a little from my own experience. The first is this: let’s try to see ourselves as God sees us. How does he see us? He sees us in our natural state as what we call totally depraved. In Genesis 6:5 it simply says that when God looked upon man, he saw that every thought and intention of their heart was only evil all of the time. And I know that most of you here have become believers most of you here; but yet there is still that remaining thing, isn’t there? Because we are now men and women of two natures, not just the old nature, but a new nature. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. There’s no doubt that as believers that is true of you: you are new creations behold the new has come. But yet we still have the old-man nature in us, and we will have it until we are completely translated into the very presence of God. So still we say, and shouldn’t be afraid to say, that we are depraved that really there is a part of every thought and intention of our hearts that is only evil all the time, this remaining bit in us. The old man still exists in us.

We’re lost. Isaiah 53:6: God sees us as lost, all we like sheep have gone astray; everyone has turned to his own way; and by necessity it was necessary that God should lay on Jesus the iniquities of us all. We’re short of God’s standard. Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Even our righteousness is as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6.

See Yourself in Comparison to Christ

Secondly, not just to see ourselves as God sees us, but to try to see ourselves in comparison to our Lord Jesus Christ, who on his own and alone obeyed and loved God perfectly. He is the one who fulfilled the law of God. He said this of himself in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 5: don’t think that I’ve come to abolish the law and the prophets; I haven’t come to abolish them, but to fulfil them. And if he fulfilled them, he kept them; he obeyed them one hundred percent. Jesus also revealed the grace and truth out of the very heart of God to us; for the law came through Moses, the Apostle John says in chapter 1, but grace and truth were shown to us in Jesus Christ.

Compare yourself also with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist looked across and saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The inference is: there is the Lamb without blemish, there is the one who has no sin, there is the one who, having no sin of his own, yet became sin on behalf of all those who would believe and trust in him for their salvation.

Comprehend God’s Righteous Judgments

Thirdly, try to see your sin in that psalm penned by King David, having been confronted by Nathan the prophet about his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. His repentant heart and pen are taken up to draw together Psalm 51. Comprehend, along with King David, God’s righteous judgments, and that they are truly deserved by us because of our sin. You’re right when you speak, he says; you’re blameless, God, when you judge me for my sinfulness. My sin is an affront to you, God. I was born in sin, and I continue in sin, albeit unwillingly.

Understand Our Need of God’s Grace

Fourthly, understand our need of God’s graciousness. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. When we talk about the graciousness of God, it should excite our hearts, because it brings together the whole idea that God has done something for us that we so did not deserve: unmerited favour. His loving kindness in sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross: for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever might believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Think also of his compassion: blot out my transgressions, he says. Think of the cleansing from the sin so deeply embedded in us, by the adequate shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, a sacrifice that we could never have paid ourselves or brought to God. Think of purification: if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Think that we receive from him a new heart, that we’re born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that there is imparted in us, so that we might endure to the end, a steadfast spirit, and a restoration of joy in each of our lives and hearts.

Coming to the Table

How, then, do we examine ourselves rightly? As we come to the table shortly, we should try to see ourselves as God sees us: sinners. We should try to see ourselves in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live like him. We should try to comprehend that God’s righteous judgments are truly deserved by us. But we should understand our need of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness in our hearts and in our lives. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Closing prayer

Father, again, we thank you for your word, and for the encouragement that this visible word, this bread, this wine today, brings to us in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ and all that he’s done for us. We thank you, Lord. We are in great need of all that you offer to us. We ask, Lord, that we would appreciate it more and more, and more and more become what we are in Christ Jesus. Forgive us again of our sins; they are many, they are great, they are an affront to you. But Lord, no matter how much we have sinned, no matter how many times we have fallen short of your standard of holiness, your grace abounds even more. Amen.