“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your UNFAILING LOVE. Because of your great compassion, BLOT OUT the stain of MY SINS.” (Psa. 51:1)
The title of this psalm gives the tragic setting for David’s plea. He had sinned in adultery with Bathsheba, and in the murder of her husband Uriah, then in covering his sin, and in hardness against repentance. It took the bold confrontation of Nathan the Prophet to shake David from this (2 Samuel 12), once shaken, David came in great honesty and brokenness before God. David used several words to speak of the kindness he desired from God. Mercy, implies God’s loving assistance to the pitiful. Unfailing love, (lovingkindness) points to the continuing operation of this mercy. Compassion, (tender mercies) teaches that God has sympathy for our infirmities.