The title of the psalm makes
it clear that this psalm was written at the time when Nathan visited David
‘after he had gone in to Bathsheba’. David has sinned by sleeping with another man’s
wife and murdering her husband by proxy. He is in desperate need of forgiveness
and restoration. This is probably the most classic of all the penitential
psalms. In it we are given a clear view of the route we need to go down, after
sinning, if we are going to have our relationship with God restored.
