Bird's-eye view
After the profound personal repentance that makes up the heart of this psalm, David concludes by lifting his eyes from his own navel to the public consequences of his sin and restoration. This is entirely appropriate. Private sin always has public ramifications, especially when the sinner is a king. David’s sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah was a blow against the stability and health of the entire nation. Therefore, his personal restoration must necessarily overflow into a prayer for national restoration. He moves from "create in me a clean heart" to "build the walls of Jerusalem."
These final verses are not, as some critics have suggested, a later addition tacked on during the Babylonian exile. They are the fitting and necessary conclusion to a prayer of repentance from a public figure. David understands that his sin has damaged the city of God, and only God’s unmerited favor can repair that damage. Once that favor is shown and the walls are rebuilt, then and only then can the people of God offer up sacrifices that are truly righteous and acceptable. True worship is always a response to grace, never a means of earning it. The movement is always from God to us, and then from us back to God.
Outline
- 1. The Foundation of Public Restoration (v. 18)
- a. A Prayer Rooted in God's Good Pleasure (v. 18a)
- b. A Plea for Corporate Security and Strength (v. 18b)
- 2. The Fruit of Public Restoration (v. 19)
- a. Acceptable Worship as a Consequence of Grace (v. 19a)
- b. The Restoration of Full Sacrificial Worship (v. 19b)
Clause-by-Clause Commentary
Verse 18
By Your favor do good to Zion;
David begins this public portion of his prayer by grounding his request in God's good pleasure, His favor. The Hebrew word here speaks of God's delight and sovereign will. This is crucial. David is not appealing to any merit in Zion or in Israel. After the sordid business he has just confessed, how could he? He has just finished saying that God desires truth in the inward parts, and he has demonstrated that he possesses none of it apart from divine grace. So, the basis for Jerusalem’s restoration is the same as the basis for David’s restoration: God’s free, unmerited, sovereign good pleasure. He does not say, "Because we are trying hard, please help us out." He says, "According to Your favor, do good." All true blessing, whether for an individual or a nation, flows from this fountainhead. David's sin had brought God's disfavor, and he knew that the only remedy was a fresh outpouring of God's favor.
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
This is not necessarily a prayer for literal construction, though it could include that. Walls represent security, strength, identity, and integrity. A city with broken walls is vulnerable, disgraced, and indistinct from the surrounding wilderness. David’s sin was a breach in the walls of Jerusalem. It exposed the nation to judgment and compromised its testimony before the heathen. He is therefore asking God to restore the strength, safety, and honor of His people. He is praying for a spiritual and civic restoration. In the New Covenant, this prayer is answered in the building up of the Church. The Church is the heavenly Jerusalem, and we are being built up as living stones into a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). When leaders sin, they knock holes in the walls. Repentance, true repentance, includes a passionate desire to see those walls rebuilt, to see the security and testimony of the Church restored.
Verse 19
Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
Notice the sequence. First, God shows favor and builds the walls (v. 18). Then, and only then, does He delight in their sacrifices. This word "then" is doing a great deal of theological work. It establishes the priority of grace. God does not rebuild the walls because they started offering good sacrifices. They are only able to offer good sacrifices because He has already rebuilt the walls. Right worship is the result of God’s gracious restoration, not the cause of it. Before the walls are built, any sacrifice offered is an abomination, a lipstick-on-a-pig situation. It is an attempt to bribe God, which David has already disavowed (v. 16). But once God has acted in grace, the sacrifices offered are "righteous sacrifices." They are righteous not because of their intrinsic quality, but because they are offered by a forgiven and restored people, from a right heart, on the foundation of God’s prior work.
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
David here lists different types of offerings to encompass the whole of the sacrificial system. The burnt offering was a sacrifice of complete devotion, where the entire animal was consumed on the altar. It signified total consecration. After God has restored the city, the people will once again be able to offer themselves in complete and glad-hearted devotion. Their worship will not be a grudging, partial affair. It will be whole-hearted. This is what God is pleased with. For us, this points to the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). This kind of total consecration is only possible after we have been justified by grace and the walls of our salvation have been secured by God Himself.
Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
This is the capstone. Young bulls were the most valuable and significant of the sacrificial animals, offered on the most solemn occasions. David is envisioning a full restoration of worship, where the best is gladly and freely offered to God. This is not the meager, half-hearted worship of a people under judgment, but the lavish, celebratory worship of a people blessed by God’s favor. The picture is one of abundance and joy. When God’s favor rests upon His people, their response is not stinginess, but overflowing generosity in their worship. This is the ultimate fruit of repentance. It does not terminate on the individual’s feeling of relief, but blossoms into robust, public, and costly worship within the covenant community. The sinner is restored not just for his own sake, but so that he can once again take his place in the choir and add his voice to the loud praise of God.
Application
The structure of David's prayer provides a timeless lesson for both individuals and the Church. We often get the cart before the horse. We think that if we just get our worship right, if we try harder, if we put on a better show, then God will bless us. David teaches us the opposite. We must first plead for God's unmerited favor to do good to us and to build our walls. Personal and corporate repentance is the prerequisite for seeking God's blessing.
When we see the walls of our churches broken down by sin, scandal, or compromise, the first order of business is not to launch a new program or polish the liturgy. The first order of business is to fall on our faces and ask God, on the basis of His character alone, to show favor and rebuild what we have broken. We must confess that our sin has public consequences.
Only after that grace-driven restoration can our worship be truly acceptable. True worship is a response. It is the joyful sound of a city whose walls are secure, whose citizens are safe, and whose God dwells in their midst. It is lavish, generous, and whole-hearted, like young bulls on the altar. Our ultimate sacrifice is Christ, the bull without blemish, and our worship is now offered in His name. But the principle remains: God acts first in grace, and we respond with grateful, righteous worship.