The account of David's sin with Bathsheba is well known to readers of the Old Testament. David's sin started with coveting, a sin against the tenth commandment. Then he sinned against the sixth, seventh, eighth, and even the ninth com­mandment (by getting Uriah to carry his own death sentence). We could add the fifth – David think­ing he was accountable to no one. Imagine! Adultery, murder, steal­ing a wife, lying, all rooted in cov­eting and cover-up. But then the prophet Nathan exposed the whole sordid mess.

Confronted by the prophet, David confessed, "I have sinned against the LORD." Then he wrote Psalm 51.

I was conceived in sin; in sinfulness my mother bore me. I'm sinful from my birthday. Against you, you only, have I sinned. You see my original sin, and my actual sins. I'm a disas­ter! You see my guilt and my pollu­tion. And I deserve the penalty for sin. I've been overcome by the power of sin. My sin is ever before me — I'm in the presence of sin!

And then verse 7: "Cleanse me! Purge me!" Actually, "Un-sin me!" That's the force of this word, "Un-­sin me with hyssop! My life is sin, but Lord, de-sin me." We talk about defanging a snake or declawing a cat. David prays, "De-sin me." How? With ritual cleansing of blood, and with hyssop.

In Leviticus 14 we can learn of purity rituals for lepers, and for persons who'd had contact with the dead. All have hyssop rituals. A hyssop branch would be dipped in the blood of a sacrificed animal, and the unclean person would be sprinkled with it. Each time the ceremony rituals were completed, the declaration was to be made, "And he will be clean" (Leviticus 14:7-9). De-sinned with hyssop, he will be clean.

David pleads with God in Psalm 51,

I'm unclean. Leprous. Dead, even. Walking dead, with the dead, and dead in sin. But un-sin me, Lord, and make the joyous judgment, 'He shall be clean!' Wash me!

The leper and the person unclean because of contact with the dead had to wash their clothes, too. But in a flash, David understands. He says, "Don't wash my woolens. Don't launder my linen. Don't even bathe my body. But wash me!" Not white linen, not clean skin, but a purified life, that's what David needed. "Un-sin me. Purify my life." Purged with hys­sop, then the judgment will be — ­for David knows God's Word — "He shall be clean!"

Rejoicing will result. Joy and gladness will ring out. David com­pares the realization of his guilt to having crushed bones. Agony! But he wants those bones to rejoice and to dance. David also pleads in this Psalm, "Blot out my sin" (v. 9). A king would have a chronicle of the deeds in his kingdom.

David pleads with his heavenly King,

Erase them from your record book. Hide your face from my sins.

How can this be for us today? Only in Jesus. The New Testament tells us that when you turn to him in faith, his life is yours. His deeds are yours. His obedience is yours. His love is yours. His devotion is yours. Just as we are in Adam, all of Adam's sin is yours. So in Jesus Christ all of his "un-sin" is yours. His satisfaction — his payment of the penalty of sin; his righteous­ness — his freedom from the power of sin; his holiness — his freedom from the presence of sin: they are all yours.

De-sin me, Lord, and I shall be clean. Run me through your laun­dry with the blood of Jesus as your soap, and I will be whiter than snow. Cleanse me, not with hyssop and blood and water, but with bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus. Un-sin me, Lord, with the hyssop of Golgotha. Sprinkle on me the blood of the new covenant in Jesus. Launder me in your spiritual laundry. Wash me in the blood of the lamb. Say of me, 'You shall be clean. As clean as Jesus!' Un-sin me, Lord, and I shall be clean! Wash me, and I'll be whiter than snow! Un-sin me, Lord!