What does it mean to be "whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7)?

Man has his many imitations of white, as of all other colors, as Scripture records, but needless to say, nothing that we know on earth can equal the pure whiteness of light. Snow is the closest approach to it, and the believer cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, from the guilt of his sins, is made "whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7).

But he cried to God and sought His forgiveness. “Purge me with hyssop”—the least of herbs—as though he were willing to be reduced to nothing—“and I shall be clean.” “Wash me,” he prayed, “and I shall be whiter than snow,” because the purity needed for God’s presence is far greater than earth’s cleanest, purest, whitest covering. Nor did he pray in vain. His cry was heard, and he was graciously answered, as he lay in the dust of self-abhorrence.

Next to its coldness, perhaps more striking than that, snow is the standard for absolute whiteness, of purity. Perhaps Job did not know that this whiteness was caused by the pure white light reflected from the countless faces of its crystals. But what "treasures" of whiteness are reserved by God? He is light, and the snow reflecting the sunlight, suggests how completely His essential righteousness is displayed in that work of redemption which enables Him to say: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isa. 1:18). Sins that once cried for vengeance, now, through the precious blood of Christ, reflect the glory of God's character! "To declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). In the "redemption that is in Christ Jesus," He has exhaustless stores of whiteness and protection for the sins of the world. What fearful judgments will follow the rejection of that grace! "The wrath of the Lamb!" — the "snow" now falling in a pitiless storm of destruction.

The efficacy of the precious blood of Christ is so great that it can completely remove the defilement. It can cleanse away the sins of a lifetime in a moment, and wash the sinner white as snow.

It is the only means of cleansing from guilt. This is the divinely appointed and the divinely given way. It is therefore exclusive of all other methods. "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God" (Jer. 2:22). "If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me" (Job 9:30-31). It is only the blood of Christ which can make the sinner whiter than snow.

Here then we are led from the person of Christ, which had just been before us, to the work of Christ characterising His person. For His work it is which furnishes the witnesses. God deigns to give us more than sufficient testimony. Two witnesses were required in the things of man with man, two sufficed, three better still. Here God provides fully. He presents to man three witnesses of the greatest conceivable weight for leading into the truth. "This is He that came," neither by human birth, might, or wisdom, nor yet by divine power or glory. It was not through His incarnation nor through His unequalled ministry. "This is He that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ." He who was the true God and life eternal came to die as truly as any man, yet as no other could die, He by God made sin to save sinners and wash them, not only purified inwardly but in God's sight whiter than snow through His blood. Yes He came to die, for His death alone could blot out our sins or glorify God as to sin (John 13:31-32). The allusion is unquestionably to our Lord on the cross, dead already, pierced by the soldier to make sure of His death, out of whose side flowed blood and water. In the history the blood is that which caught the eye first of course, and so there first named. The water was observed however to flow also. Whoever saw or heard of a fact so extraordinary that blood and water should issue out of the side of a dead man? Yet so they did here.

But the apostle adds, "Not in the power of the water only, but in the power of the blood." Why does he now use a different preposition — the Greek en, instead of dia? — "in the power of" instead of "in the way of?" "In the way of" indicates the way or means. Moral cleansing for men and perfect satisfaction for God is the only suited method of dealing with men in the condition in which they are through sin; but it is not only a suited method, it is thoroughly adequate; it is the only effective way of meeting man's need. In coming to provide cleansing and expiation, the Son of God has interposed in man's behalf with what is fully efficacious; hence the added expression, "Not in the power of the water only, but in the power of the blood." The death of Christ provides both, and both effectively; so that the soul that comes under the power of the cleansing Word, symbolized by the water, is turned to God to stand before His face with the assurance that he is made fit for His presence, having been made whiter than snow by the blood — the sign of propitiation accomplished, which means the unqualified acceptance of the one who believes and confesses Jesus to be the Son of God.

(Vv. 7-13). Truth in the heart has borne its fruit: a second condition of heart is the consequence: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v. 10). How could this clean heart be produced? “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (v. 7). He speaks of hyssop which was used to sprinkle blood on the leper, and then he refers to washing with water. Under the law at each sin the sprinkling of blood was to be renewed; for us the sacrifice has been offered once for all. But in addition to this the soul of the believer needs the washing of water by the Word continually, applied by our High Priest to the defilement we contract as we walk: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” - But in order to have a clean heart something other than our personal purification is needed: “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” (v. 9); it is essential that God Himself remember them no more. This was not yet an accomplished fact for a saint in the Old Testament, nor should we believers express ourselves in the same way as verse 9 does. But when our hearts have been cleansed from all iniquities we can present ourselves before God with a consciousness that He remembers them no more. The result of this is that the joy of our salvation returns and we are sustained in the spirit of liberty.

(vv. 7-8) Having acknowledged his sin, the repentant man looks to God to cleanse him with hyssop. The reference is to the cleansing of the leper, and those who had defiled themselves by contact with a dead body. The hyssop was dipped in blood, which was then sprinkled on the person to be cleansed. It surely speaks of the righteous ground on which God can cleanse — the precious blood of Christ. Being cleansed, the soul would be restored to joy and gladness.

But we come now to the gospel, although in that veiled way in which the Old Testament of necessity so largely spoke, and still, as all through this psalm, in the language of prayer for the blessing; not yet as realizing it. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Here nothing is mentioned that had real power to cleanse, even in the Mosaic ritual! The hyssop was of course only that by which the sprinkling that really cleansed was effected. It was used to sprinkle the passover blood upon the doorposts (Ex. 12:22). It was that which, along with cedar and scarlet, was dipped with the living bird in the blood of its fellow, which then was sprinkled upon the leper; to cleanse him (Lev. 14:6; 7). It was used in the case of one defiled with the dead to sprinkle the water of purification upon him (Num. 19:18). There is no other use of hyssop given us in the Old Testament; and to one of these it must refer.

We can have little difficulty in deciding which is here to be understood. The passover is out of the question. Besides its relation to one special feast, which would hardly make it appropriate to an individual case like this, the blood of the paschal lamb was not sprinkled upon the person; but on the door-posts of the houses within which the feast was being kept. Of the two other occasions, the sprinkling upon the leper might seem to be most appropriate to the case of one so deeply affected with sin; and in a state so naturally incurable; as the fifth verse has shown. In the case of the leper; however, the hyssop has no distinct relation to the cleansing: it is simply dipped in the blood, along with the cedar and scarlet and the living bird, and then it is said only that "he" — the priest — "shall sprinkle." On the contrary, in the ordinance of the red heifer (Num. 19) the hyssop comes again, as at the passover; into unmistakable prominence as the means of sprinkling the blood; while, in contrast with the passover; this is sprinkled upon the person; to cleanse him. Thus the reference in the psalm would naturally be to this. Thus defilement with the dead is expressly what is before us here; while the deliverance sought from blood-guiltiness (in the fourteenth verse) shows us how far beyond ordinary defilement the case here goes. The finger; as it were; points in a certain direction to show us what is in question, but there is still an enigma to be solved: how can the law of the red heifer apply? was it ever ordained for cleansing from. the guilt of blood-shedding? The only answer that can be given is necessarily in the negative.