that which subsequently takes place. Followed by the perfect (2Sa 12:21; 1Sa 12:8), it has the sense of postquam (cf. the confusing of this כאשׁר with אחרי אשׁר, Jos 2:7). By בּבוא the period within which the composition of the Psalm falls is merely indicated in a general way. The Psalm shows us how David struggles to gain an inward and conscious certainty of the forgiveness of sin, which was announced to him by Nathan (2Sa 12:13). In Psa 6:1-10 and Psa 38:1 we have already heard David, sick in soul and body, praying for forgiveness; in Ps 51 he has even become calmer and more cheerful in his soul, and there is nothing wanting to him except the rapturous realization of the favour within the range of which he already finds himself. On the other hand, Psa 32:1-11 lies even beyond Ps 51. For what David promises in Psa 51:15, viz., that, if favour is again shown to him, he will teach the apostate ones the ways of God, that he will teach sinners how they are to turn to God, we heard him fulfil in the sententious didactic Psa 32:1-11.
Hitzig assigns Ps 51, like Ps 50, to the writer of Isa 40:1. But the manifold coincidences of matter and of style only prove that this prophet was familiar with the two Psalms. We discern in Ps 51 four parts of decreasing length. The first part, Psa 51:3, contains the prayer for remission of sin; the second, Psa 51:12, the prayer for renewal; the third, Psa 51:16, the vow of spiritual sacrifices; the fourth, vv. 20, 21, the intercession for all Jerusalem. The divine name Elohim occurs five times, and is appropriately distributed throughout the Psalm.
Psalm 51
Verses 1-2
Prayer for the remission of sin. Concerning the interchangeable names for sin, vid., on Psa 32:1. Although the primary occasion of the Psalm is the sin of adultery, still David says פּשׁעי, not merely because many other sins were developed out of it, as his guilt of blood in the case of Uriah, the scandal put into the mouths of the enemies of Jahve, and his self-delusion, which lasted almost a whole year; but also because each solitary sin, the more it is perceived in its fundamental character and, as it were, microscopically discerned, all the more does it appear as a manifold and entangled skein of sins, and stands forth in a still more intimate and terrible relation,
