My Notes
What Does Psalms 51:15 Mean?
David prays: open my lips, LORD. And my mouth will show forth your praise. The prayer acknowledges that even praise requires divine enabling. David can't open his own mouth for worship. God has to do it. The lips are sealed until God unseals them.
The context is Psalm 51 — David's confession after the Bathsheba affair. His mouth has been producing lies, cover-ups, and murder orders. The same mouth that conspired with Joab to kill Uriah now asks God to open it for a different purpose. The lips that were instruments of evil need to be re-purposed for praise.
"Open thou" — the initiative is God's. David doesn't say "I will open my lips." He says: You open them. The mouth that sinned so badly can't rehabilitate itself. The lips that produced death can only produce praise if God intervenes. Self-generated worship from a self-ruined mouth is impossible. God has to open what sin closed.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Has your mouth done enough damage that you need God to 're-open' it for a different purpose?
- 2.Does the inability to self-generate worship (God has to open the lips) challenge a performance-based approach to praise?
- 3.How does the context (David's mouth was a murder weapon) make this prayer feel more desperate and more hopeful?
- 4.What would it look like for God to open your lips — for the same mouth that has sinned to become an instrument of praise?
Devotional
Open my lips, Lord. Because I can't open them myself. Not after what they've done.
David's mouth has been a murder weapon. It commanded Uriah's death. It lied to cover adultery. It conspired with generals and deceived a husband. And now — after Nathan's confrontation, after the confession, after the tears — David asks God to open those same lips for praise.
The prayer is the most humble request in the Psalms: I can't even worship without Your help. The mouth that was so fluent in deception is now mute before God. The lips that moved so easily to lie are sealed when it comes to praise. David needs God to do the opening.
"Open thou" — the initiative has to be divine because the damage was that severe. Sin doesn't just close your eyes. It closes your mouth. The lies you've spoken, the damage you've caused with words, the destructive things your lips have produced — all of it creates a seal over the mouth that only God can break.
Self-generated worship from a defiled mouth is impossible. You can't just decide to praise. Not after what your mouth has done. The lips need to be re-opened by the same God they sinned against. The reopening is a resurrection — dead lips made alive for a new purpose.
"My mouth shall shew forth thy praise" — once God opens the lips, the content changes. The same mouth. Different product. The lips that produced death now produce praise. The vocal cords that ordered murder now sing worship. The instrument hasn't changed. The one playing it has.
God opens. You praise. The sequence can't be reversed. You can't praise your way to an opening. God opens, and praise flows out of what He opened.
If your mouth has been an instrument of destruction — if your lips have done damage you can't undo — David's prayer is your prayer. Open my lips, Lord. Because what comes out next needs to be different from what came out before.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
O Lord, open thou my lips,.... The Targum adds, "in the late"; which were shut with a sense of sin, with shame of it,…
O Lord, open thou my lips - That is, by taking away my guilt; by giving me evidence that my sins are forgiven; by taking…
I. David prays against the guilt of sin, and prays for the grace of God, enforcing both petitions from a plea taken from…
open thou Lit. as P.B. V., thou shalt open, i.e. when thou openest. Not the occasion for praise only, but the power to…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture