If you ask most people who wrote the book of Psalms, they would point to King David.  In fact, fewer than half of the psalms bear his name.  While several are anonymous and might be Davidic in origin, many are attributed to other authors altogether.

Psalm 51, however, is not only attributed to David, but we are given a life setting for the Psalm.  We are to read this psalm as though David wrote it in the moments after his famous confrontation with Nathan the prophet, with the guilt of his adultery with another man’s wife and the death of the hapless husband fresh in his soul.

More pointed words of repentance could hardly be penned than we find in this psalm.  While most of us (presumably) are neither murderers or adulterers, we nevertheless resonate with David’s need to clear the air between our hearts and God.

The psalm does not stop, however, with a simple call for forgiveness.  David asks also for renewal.  He wants not only to be spared the punishment he so richly deserves, but also to be set on right paths.  Here is true repentance:  not mere sorrow over deeds done, but a resolve to live life differently in the days to come.