Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Psalms 51:7
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Purge me with hyssop, etc.] Or “thou shalt purge me with hyssop” ; or “expiate me”; which was used in sprinkling the blood of the paschal lamb on the door posts of the Israelites in Egypt, that the destroying angel might pass over them, (<021222>Exodus 12:22,23); and in the cleansing of the leper, (<031404>Leviticus 14:4-7); and in the purification of one that was unclean by the touch of a dead body, etc. (<041906>Numbers 19:6,18); which the Targum on the text has respect to; and this petition of the psalmist shows that he saw himself a guilty creature, and in danger of the destroying angel, and a filthy creature like the leper, and deserving to be excluded from the society of the saints, and the house of God; and that he had respect not hereby to ceremonial sprinklings and purifications, for them he would have applied to a priest; but to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, typified thereby; and therefore he applies to God to purge his conscience with it; and, as Suidas f683 from Theodoret observes, hyssop did not procure remission of sins, but has a mystical signification, and refers to what was meant by the sprinkling of the blood of the passover; and then he says, f682 and I shall be clean; thoroughly clean; for the blood sprinkled on the heart by the spirit clears it from an evil conscience, purges the conscience from dead works, and cleanses from all sin; wash me; or “thou shall wash me” f684; alluding to the washing at the cleansing of a leper, and the purification of an unclean person, (<031408>Leviticus 14:8 <041919>Numbers 19:19); but had in view the fountain of Christ’s blood, in which believers are washed from all their sins, (<381301>Zechariah 13:1 <660105>Revelation 1:5); and I shall be whiter than snow; who was black with original corruption, and actual transgressions; but the blood of Christ makes not only the conversation garments white that are washed in it; but even crimson and scarlet sins as white as wool, as white as snow, and the persons of the saints without spot or blemish, (<660714>Revelation 7:14 <230118>Isaiah 1:18) (<490525>Ephesians 5:25-27); “whiter than the snow” is a phrase used by Homer f685 , and others, to describe what is exceeding white.
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