Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and best-selling author Dr. Paul David Tripp

connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Today, we'll open our Bibles to Psalm 51,

where Paul unpacks the idea of sin from this sober prayer of confession.

To hear more of these Bible studies, visit paultrip.com slash psalms.

Here's Paul Tripp with Psalm 51.

David said sin is a matter of the heart. It's not a matter of my history for us, not a matter of the heart.

It's not a matter of my history first,

not a matter of my family,

not a matter of location,

not a matter of situation.

My biggest problem lives inside of me,

not outside of me.

I don't outside of me.

I don't know. Psalm 51 is written is written after David had committed that double sin of adultery with Bathsheba and then murder of her husband.

It's unthinkable. And yet he comes in honest and humble confession to God. And one of the things

that we see as a result of that confession is Psalm 51 is a place where you get one of the most accurate

definitions of what sin is about in all of Scripture because that's what David is confessing.

There's no what if, there's no if only, there's no argument for his own righteousness.

There's no blame shifting. It's just honest confession. And notice how Psalm 51 begins. Have mercy on me,

O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy,

blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Now, I don't know if you noticed, but in that first couple verses of this Psalm, David uses three different words for sin,

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