Psalm 51:13 NKJV
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
From Transgressor to Teacher
MY NOTES
“Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” — Psalm 51:13 (NKJV)
The Silence of the Secret Sin
Notice that tiny, massive word: “Then.” It acts as a gate. On one side of the gate is a David who was silent, ineffective, and probably hiding in the back of the tabernacle. On the other side is a David who is ready to speak. You can’t teach what you haven’t experienced. While David was hiding his sin, his “spiritual work” was dead. He learned the hard way that getting right with God is the absolute prerequisite for helping anyone else get right with God.
Reclaimed Poachers Make the Best Gamekeepers
Charles Spurgeon famously said, “Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers.” There is something about a person who has been “in the thick of it” that makes their testimony hit differently. When a “perfect” person tells you to follow the rules, it feels like a lecture. When a pardoned sinner tells you about God’s mercy, it feels like a lifeline.
David’s curriculum wasn’t going to be “How to be a Perfect King.” It was going to be “How to Find a Way Back When You’ve Destroyed Everything.” He wanted to teach other “transgressors” like himself. Because he had felt the weight of the hammer and the warmth of the hug, he could speak with a “feeling” that others lacked.
The Ripple Effect of Your Restoration
David didn’t just want to feel better; he wanted to see conversion. He knew that his messy story, once washed in grace, could be the catalyst for someone else’s return to God. This is the ultimate “overruling” of evil for good. Your biggest failure, once brought into the light of God’s forgiveness, becomes a map for someone else who is currently lost in the dark.
As Matthew Henry put it, “Penitents should be preachers.” Your restoration isn’t just about you; it’s about the person standing behind you who thinks they’ve gone too far for grace to reach them.
Key Takeaways
- Guilt Mutes Your Message: If you’re living in unconfessed sin, your “spiritual authority” will feel like a hollow shell. Restoration is the key to effectiveness.
- Empathy is a Superpower: Having “been there” allows you to speak to other sinners with kindness instead of contempt.
- The “Ways” of God: Teaching God’s “ways” includes teaching how He handles backsliders. It’s a message of hope, not just a list of rules.
- Redeemed Scars: God doesn’t just erase your past; He uses the scars to prove to others that the Healer is real.
Cross References (NKJV)
Luke 22:32
“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
James 5:20
“Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
Psalm 34:11
“Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:7
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Prayer
Abba, thank You that my mistakes do not have to be the end of my story. Forgive me for the times I’ve let shame silence me. Cleanse my heart so that I can speak with a clear conscience again. Use my “scars” to show others that You are a God who restores. Give me a ’sense’ for those who are currently lost, and let my life be a map that leads them back to You. I ask You and Thank You for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Things to Think About:
- Is there a “secret silence” in your life right now? What is one thing you need to bring to God so that your “Then” can begin?
- Who in your life currently feels like a “transgressor”? How could sharing your own experience of God’s mercy help them see a way back?
- Think about the most painful lesson you’ve learned. How does that “experimental knowledge” make you a better teacher than someone who only knows the theory?
Proverb for Today
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you. Proverbs 9:9-11 NKJV
Daily Scripture
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV
Bill
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Summary of Commentaries:
Restoration transforms David’s failure into a truly powerful teaching tool. Scholars highlight that personal experience with grace creates a sympathetic witness; as Spurgeon noted, “reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers.” Once right with God, David’s silence breaks. By sharing the “ways” of divine mercy, he moves from a disgraced king to an effective evangelist. A penitent heart becomes a bridge, using its own scars to guide other transgressors back to God’s gracious, forgiving, eternal arms.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Then will I teach transgressors thy ways.” It was his fixed resolve to be a teacher of others, and assuredly none instruct others so well as those who have been experimentally taught of God themselves. Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers. Huntingdon’s degree of S.S., or Sinner Saved, is more needful for a soul-winning evangelist than either M.A. or D.D. The pardoned sinner’s matter will be good, for he has been taught in the school of experience, and his manner will be telling, for he will speak sympathetically, as one who has felt what he declares. The audience the psalmist would choose is memorable—he would instruct transgressors like himself; others might despise them, but “a fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.” If unworthy to edify saints, he would creep in along with the sinners and humbly tell them of divine love. The mercy of God to one is an illustration of his usual procedure, so that our own case helps us to understand his “ways,” or his general modes of action: perhaps, too, David under that term refers to the preceptive part of the word of God, which, having broken, and having suffered thereby, he felt that he could vindicate and urge upon the reverence of other offenders.
“And sinners shall be converted unto thee.” My fall shall be the restoration of others. Thou wilt bless my pathetic testimony to the recovery of many who, like myself, have turned aside unto crooked ways. Doubtless, this Psalm and the whole story of David have produced for many ages the most salutary results in the conversion of transgressors, and so evil has been overruled for good.
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Enduring Word
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You: In the dark days before this confession of sin, David was not able to teach those who were far from God and saw none converted to Him. We don’t know if David never made the attempt because of a sense of guilt, or if he attempted and saw no blessing on his work. One way or another, getting this right with God was key to effectiveness in his spiritual work. (David Guzik)
Sinners shall be converted: VanGemeren notes that David used the same word here translated converted that was previously translated restore (Psalm 51:12). “The psalmist who prayed ‘restore to me’ also prays that he may be instrumental in restoring sinners to the ‘ways’ of the Lord.” (VanGemeren)
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Albert Barnes
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways – As an expression of gratitude, and as the result of his own painful experience. He would show them, from that experience, the evil and the bitterness of sin in itself; he would show them with what dreadful consequences sin must always be followed; he would show them the nature of true repentance; he would show them what was required in order that sin might be forgiven; he would encourage them to come to that God who had forgiven him. So the Savior charged Peter, from his own bitter experience in having fallen under the power of temptation, to strengthen and encourage those who were struggling with the depravity of their own hearts, and who were in danger of falling: “And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,” Luke 22:32.
And sinners shall be converted unto thee – They would see from his case the evil of transgression; they would learn from his example that mercy might be found; they would be persuaded to flee from the wrath to come. The best preparation for success in winning souls to God, and turning them from the error of their ways, is a deep personal experience of the guilt and the danger of sin, and of the great mercy of God in its forgiveness. No man can hope to be successful who has not experienced this in his own soul; no one who has will labor wholly in vain in such a work.
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John Gill
[Then] will I teach transgressors thy ways,…. David was a prophet as well as a king; see Acts 2:30; and taught men the fear of the Lord, Psalm 34:11, and instructed them in his ways, as he here promises he would; by which are meant, either the ways which God prescribes and directs men to walk in, as the paths of faith, holiness, and truth, and the ways of his commandments; or which he himself has walked in; meaning not the ways of his providence, which are sometimes past finding out; but the ways of his grace, the steps and methods he has taken in the salvation of men, by forming the scheme of it, by choosing unto it, by making a covenant with his Son, and appointing him to effect it; and particularly his ways and methods in receiving and pardoning backsliders, when returned by repentance to him; and who may be meant by “transgressors” here: and then the sense is, that David, upon his being received and pardoned, would teach others like himself how graciously God had dealt with him; how plenteous he is in mercy; how ready to forgive, and how faithful to his promises; and so encourage them to go to him, and acknowledge their transgressions, and seek pardoning grace at his hands, who does abundantly pardon, and whose ways are not as theirs; see Isaiah 55:7;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee: or “that sinners may be converted unto thee”; this being the end of teaching by the word, and the means of the conversion of profane and unregenerate sinners, through the power of divine grace; though rather this seems to be understood of the conversion of God’s own people after backslidings, and not of first conversion; see Luke 22:32.
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Matthew Henry
See what David here promises, v. 13. Observe,
1. What good work he promises to do: I will teach transgressors thy ways. David had been himself a transgressor, and therefore could speak experimentally to transgressors, and resolves, having himself found mercy with God in the way of repentance, to teach others God’s ways, that is,
(1.) Our way to God by repentance; he would teach others that had sinned to take the same course that he had taken, to humble themselves, to confess their sins, and seek God’s face; and,
(2.) God’s way towards us in pardoning mercy; how ready he is to receive those that return to him. He taught the former by his own example, for the direction of sinners in repenting; he taught the latter by his own experience, for their encouragement. By this psalm, he is, and will be to the world’s end, teaching transgressors, telling them what God had done for his soul. Note, Penitents should be preachers. Solomon was so, and blessed Paul.
(3). What good effect he promises himself from his doing this: “Sinners shall be converted unto thee, and shall neither persist in their wanderings from thee, nor despair of finding mercy in their returns to thee.” The great thing to be aimed at in teaching transgressors is their conversion to God; that is a happy point gained, and happy are those that are instrumental to contribute towards it, Jam. 5:20.
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