Abstract Psalms 51 a very profound Psalm that has three distinct and major requests by David to God. In verses 1-7 David is asking God to cleanse him, then in verses 8-12 David is asking God for Restoration, then finally verses 13-19 his plea is for God to use him. In this short essay we are going to examine then sin that David committed as it relates to an offering or the sacrifice that is needed for forgiveness. We will also try to identify key elements in this Psalm about his pleas and sins. Finally, we will contrast, my personal thoughts on forgiveness.  David, A man after God’s own heart, the sinner and his plea for forgiveness.   David, committed as well as caused more the one sin to be committed murder, fornication, adultery, deception, and lies. This has the making of a top rated movie in this day and age, but at the time of David these still were very serious sins. Sins that God looked down on harshly then and even now. You can almost take any verse in this Psalm and find some sort of indication of the true dilemma that David has in his need for forgiveness. I think the key verse in this is the first part of verse 4 which states “Against You – You alone – I have sinned and done this evil in your sight ”. In the analysis of this verse, David acknowledges that his sin was directly against God and not just against others, including Bathsheba, Uriah, and the nation. David recognizes the impact of his sin as being a sin of evil in God’s sight. David see’s the treason he has committed against God. David appealed to God’s sense of grace. David’s declaration to God was of a true contrite heart, he did not ask God for forgiveness with pride in his heart. The pleas for cleansing with hyssop also elude to how much David desired to be cleansed. In biblical times the lepers would request cleaning, and the hyssop would be dipped in blood, and sprinkled on the person seven times at the altar. Being a leper in biblical times means you were an outcast, unclean, and not worthy to worship in the presence of others. So by David asking for the same cleansing as a leper, he is stating he is unclean, and not worth worshipping God. In the final verse of this Psalm, David speaks about his burnt offerings to God for atonement. The keyword in this verse is “Then”, the word only could easily be placed in front of then, to read. Only then, once you are forgiven David, you can present your righteous sacrifice to God, but this sacrifice can only be presented with a right heart. If David’s heart is not right, then the burnt offering would bring no delight to God. This brings us to our final topic of this paper, my personal perspectives and thoughts about forgiveness. This is an interesting topic to write about, I am just glad we no longer have to offer up burnt offerings, because I do not believe I could afford to purchase all the head of cattle I would need to live in this corrupted society that we live in today. Mankind since the crucifixion of Christ has been fortunate. That final blood sacrifice was made, and we have all been cleansed. We have to ask for forgiveness of our sins and nothing else and we are forgiven. There is one caveat with that statement, if we do not change our ways and have no intent on changing, then is the forgiveness of sin truly accepted? It would seem to me that the majority of Christians now a days do not have a true heart of contrition, that they seem to be going through the motions on Sunday, but Monday – Saturday they just fall into the same routine as everyone else around them, the routine of the world. This won’t prevent us from getting into heaven, but we will have to answer for all of these transgressions against one another, against the earth, against God. Forgiveness, is the ultimate grace of God, we do not deserve forgiveness, we all deserve a death and eternal life in the fiery pit. Seldom do we see anyone practicing the great commission of spreading the gospel to all nations. We are too busy preaching a message of warmth and feel good, which is ok, but what about saving souls? What about reminding people about forgiveness? David offers a great example of a true repenting heart. If we can follow David’s example, we may see more grace handed down from God to us, but we are too busy being politically correct, to have that type of a repenting heart.