Ps. 51.1-2 (the attachment)

Have mercy / on me / O God / according to your loyal love
according to your abundant mercies / blot out / my acts of rebellion
Wash away / the guilt / of my waywardness
and cleanse me / from my sin.

We have seen openings like this before, where through the sheer force of repetition a type of desperation emerges from the psalmist. No matter how artfully it can be said once, it needs to be repeated, over-and-over again, for nothing else could capture the sense of urgency. David is not merely asking for forgiveness; he needs it.

David knows himself to have been made useless by his sin. Indeed, he is a broken thing that requires not merely healing but re-creation itself (vs. 10). This note is struck immediately with the opening words, "Have mercy on me...". There is a twofold dynamic at work here: David knows he has placed himself beyond the pale and yet he knows that he can be brought back into communion with God if God will reach out to him in mercy. There can be no transaction between David and God; David has nothing that can be appealed to in this situation. It is for this reason that God's mercy will be founded on the covenantal term of "loyal love." We have argued before how important it is to realize that while God is in covenant with his people he is the Lord of the covenant. This 'sovereignty' over the covenant is this 'loyal-love'. It is what initiated the covenant and, here, it is what maintains the covenant by removing from the covenant partner any obstacle that threatens him (whether that be enemies, sickness or, here, sin itself). David is appealing to this 'ground of the covenant' precisely because he has made himself in need of a type of 'covenant renewal'. And just as this loyal-love is what initiated the covenant, so too can it be presently appealed to in order to reach out, mercifully, and lift David up.

At this point, though, the need becomes plural. David initially asked for 'mercy'. He now asks for God to act "according to your abundant mercies." Likewise, he sees himself as multiple: "my acts of rebellion". God's 'abundant mercies' are those that a mother expresses to her child, emerging from the depths of her compassion. The need to appeal to such a strong devotion is understood to be necessary because of the magnitude of his 'acts of rebellion'. David appeals deeply into God because of the shattering force necessary to remove his acts.

To 'blot out' likely refers to the act of either breaking a tablet of 'sin' or to washing away of the curses consequent to sin. The point is that David sees his acts as objective. It is 'something' in need of destruction and removal. It is attached to him in this manner like a stain to clothing (wash away the guilt...) or a form of defilement (cleanse me). It is as if in the act of rebellion David issued an invitation to sin. The act was just the beginning, not the conclusion. Sin performed attaches.

And it is this attachment that David is utterly incapable of removing from himself (we will see later why). It must be taken from him. This taking, David sees, is rooted in God's nature to him, in his mercy and his loyal-love. David knows there to be, deeply within God, this power on his part to effect this 'blotting out', to 'wash him' and 'cleanse him'. It is, upon reflection, an astonishing thing.