Introduction:
It was a time of war and King David had sent his general Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and lay siege to Rabbah. However, David remained in Jerusalem. When God’s people were engaged in warfare against God’s enemies their king had stayed back and was somewhat at ease in his palace. Whether David was idle we are not told but it is said; “Idleness is the Devil’s workshop” and Satan was not idle and had David in his crosshairs.
One evening David could not sleep and we are not told why he couldn’t but it may well have been that Satan was luring him into a situation which would catch David out. So David went for an evening walk around the roof of the palace when his attention was suddenly drawn to a beautiful woman bathing on the rooftop of her house which was located next to the palace. Satan’s ‘lure to catch the fish’ had been cast before the eyes of the king. Why the woman was on the roof of her house bathing in full view of the roof top of the palace at that time of the evening we are not told but one can wonder if in some way she might have known that the king would often walk around the roof of the palace in the evenings?
Satan had ‘dangled the carrot’ before the eyes of David and was now at work on his imagination causing David to draw away from his strong refuge in God in considering how he might approach her. When David found out she was already spoken for he persisted in following the imaginations of his thoughts that had already evoked lustful desires that would lead into inappropriate actions (James 1:14-15). This is the subtle spiritually seductive way in which Satan works. Even if we belong to the LORD we all have a spiritual weak spot, an ‘Achilles heel’ if you like, that if not guarded against can bring our spiritual downfall leading us into sin. As God’s soldiers in spiritual warfare we must always stay alert, being watchful in view of Satan’s wiles and sudden attacks. A Roman soldier on campaign slept fully armed for battle and ready to engage the enemy if attacked and even more so for a general, or even a king on campaign, because multitudes of their officers and soldiers depended on strong and resolute leadership. Just as snipers go for the officers in a physical war so Satan and his ‘snipers’ go for God’s Generals and officers in spiritual warfare. If the chain of command is broken then there will be confusion in the ranks.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are Satan’s targets, and he has assigned specific principalities in the unseen spiritual realm to personally attack these God ordained leadership roles within the Body of Messiah. In David’s case Satan knew that if he could entice David into this sin of adultery leading to murder that it would have devastating consequences in both the seen and the unseen realm, not only for David, but for the whole nation of Israel. While God forgives sin as David found in his own experience, it also brought with it a legacy which David would have to live with for the rest of his life when confronted with murder and adultery within his own extended family.
Sin is so subtle and David sought to hide it, and being the king who was there that would dare to say anything against the king? However, God’s faithful prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin risking his own life in rebuking David. The king had two choices. He could kill Nathan or have him removed, or he could take on board Nathan’s rebuke and repent. David chose to confess and repent of his sin, to throw himself without reservation on the unmerited favour and mercy of the God he really loved deep down on the inside and through repentance found forgiveness, cleansing and spiritual restoration.
When we look at David’s walk with God we see that after his repentance he was still able to complete God’s pre-ordained will and purpose for his life but also have in the future very difficult situations to deal with that could have been avoided if he had not given into sin. In fact David had settled down in his sin and had become somewhat comfortable with it even though we know that it even affected his health and his recovery only came after repentance (Psalm 32:3-5). After confession and repentance God turned that situation around for David and Bathsheba. They lost their first child, an innocent one that died because of the sin of its parents. Their innocent son died in their place, a foreshadowing of the truth of the Gospel. The innocent baby died in David’s place so that David might live. In the Torah adultery was punished by death. At the cross He, our Lord Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin with our sin so that we might be made righteous with His righteousness received by faith (2 Corinthians 5:21) (Romans 3:21-24).
However, despite the dire situation Satan had engineered, God, in His wise and loving providence, gave David and Bathsheba King Solomon, a son God had pre-ordained for David even before he had committed adultery and murder (1 Kings 8:19). When you read this psalm we see that after this terrible situation had occurred David had to live with the consequences of his actions, never the less he was able to serve and to complete the will of God for his life. David recognised that His life had been planned by God from eternity, even when David was being formed in the womb of his mother that God was overseeing. David had the revelation that all of the days of his life God had ordained for him were already written in God’s book before any of them came to be (Psalm 139:15-16). As I write this article I keep always before me this saying; “I would rather fall into the hands of a sovereign God than into the free will of man.” As the late David Wilkerson used to say and in which I find great comfort is that “God still has everything under control” and this unchangeable eternal Biblical truth is clearly revealed in this penitent psalm of David.
Psalm 51: Exposition
1. David’s Realization (Vs.1-6)
(Vs.1) “Have mercy on me, O God,” The first words out of David’s mouth was directed towards the mercy of God. The idea of “mercy” is “the mourning over an object to be loved and pitied.” David was painfully aware of his need for the mercy of God, the unearned unmerited favour of God. This is the first step in repentance. When we know we have sinned, and we all sin and that grievously at times, we need to avail ourselves of the mercy and love of God and that He might deal with us out of pity for us and with attentive love. I think of the things that delighted God and evoked His response to call David a man after His own heart was because David always relied upon and trusted in the mercy of God especially when he messed things up because of his tendency to sin, which comes out in other psalms he wrote. When David sinned he knew who to run to. When we are conscious of sin we should not run from the Lord but run to Him and cast ourselves without reserve or excuses upon His mercy and favour, being mournfully aware that spiritually we are like a pathetic object that needs to be pitied and shown mercy as one who desperately needs God’s abundant pardon and cleansing in the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). David continues…
“… according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” God’s love never fails. As it is written; “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). His love and mercy and capacity to forgive our sins are steadfast and He does not change (Malachi 3:6) (James 1:17) (Hebrews 13:8). The word “compassion” conveys the idea of “a movement of the bowels,” a deep sense of tenderness and sensitivity to another’s need that causes a physical reaction within the stomach of the one who bestows that mercy needed. God’s compassion is great!
God’s mercies then never come to an end. Every morning His faithfulness is being extended towards those whom He has redeemed by the blood of His Son the Messiah our Lord Jesus and often He is in control in times of stress and spiritual attack when we are not even aware of this unchanging fact. Notice David also beseeches God, “to blot out” his transgression. This conveys the idea of an indictment in a court of law that needs to be cancelled or removed from the transgressor. At the cross the list of our offences were nailed to the cross and Satan and his principalities in the unseen spiritual realm defeated forever (Colossians 2:13-15). God writes across the list of our offences “Paid in Full” with the blood of Jesus. As born again, blood redeemed children of God we have an advocate on our behalf in God’s court room. One who is our legal counsel and representative in Heaven’s court who pleads or intercedes on our behalf before God who is the Law Giver and the dispenser of righteous judgement upon sin and rebellion.
When we do sin the beloved apostle John writes; “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Messiah, the Righteous One. He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). When we do confess our sin and desire with all of our deepest longing to be freed from its grip, He chooses to forget what we have done and treat us as if we have never sinned at all. Even Job in the Old Testament understood this great eternal Biblical truth of an advocate in heaven (Job 16:9).
David also understood this great eternal truth concerning the great compassion of God when he wrote; “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who revere Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who revere Him” (Psalm 103.8-13). And then David prays…
(Vs.2-3) “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” Here he pleads with the LORD to keep washing him over again and again continuously in the realization of his innate inbred tendency to sin and his need of continual cleansing, and because the stain of his sin was deep. This is conveyed in what he says in that he knew the sinful tendencies of his heart and propensity to sin and wanted to be free from this ‘plague’ within his soul. This comes out again later in this psalm. One of the hardest matters to deal with in the spiritual life is when the past failures and sins rise up like a dark spectre to torment our soul for past sins. While we should always remember what we were cleansed from, we must not allow the accuser of the brethren, who accuses us day and night before our God, to torment us with feelings of guilt for past sins we have confessed and have been freed from by the atoning blood of Messiah our Lord Jesus, who loves us beyond anything we can imagine or think (Revelation 1:5) He who “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
In the gospels the Lord Jesus healed a crippled man confined to his mat because of sins he had committed. The Messiah healed him and told him to walk and also to take up his mat. Sometime later when the Lord Jesus saw this man in the temple He also warned him to stop sinning lest something worse might happen to him (John 5:8, 14). Taking his mat with him would be a constant reminder to this man of how he had been confined to his mat, what had caused him to be crippled, and that while he could now walk the mat would be a constant reminder of what had once crippled him. This was not to be ‘a guilt trip’ for this man but a solemn reminder of the wages of living a sinful life.
While God forgives, cleanses and chooses to forget our sins, it is spiritually beneficial often to reflect on what we were and did before we were cleansed and forgiven, so that we might remained humbled before God and make us aware that if we are to boast we must boast in the Lord and not in anything we have done or have achieved spiritually. As God says through the prophet Jeremiah; “This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth— for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Any grace we exhibit in our lives is from the blessed Holy Spirit, because in our fleshly nature dwells nothing good at all when compared to the righteous character of our Triune God (Romans 7:18). Then David continues…
(Vs.4) “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are proved right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” It is so easy for us to blame others for the sins we have committed, or to blame the devil who made us do it while we tend to down grade or to minimise the seriousness gravity of our sin in God’s sight. While our sin does affect others and we can sin against a brother or sister in Messiah, we must take responsibility for our personal sin before the LORD. David did not give into ‘the blame game’ but completely agreed with what God said to Him and offered no excuses in recognising that sin is primarily committed against God and that when we are confronted with our sin to say about it what God says about it and not to argue with Him. To confess Biblically is to agree totally with what God says about our sin. When there is heartfelt confession and repentance without any excuses for ones sins then the cleansing blood of Jesus washes us from all of it, both its power and its guilt (1 John 1:9). When David said he had sinned he was in effect saying “I and I alone have sinned against you personally.” He took personal responsibility for his sin against God.
(Vs.5-6) “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desire truth even in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” David recognised that he had been born with a sinful nature with its disposition to speak, to think, to feel and to act out his sinful desires and tendencies because by nature and by birth he knew that he was a sinner and under its enslaving power. David was also acknowledging before the LORD that he was void of any spiritual wisdom from within himself even though he knew intuitively that God desired truth deep down on the inside and that without it David would have no spiritual wisdom at all (James 3:17).
David also recognised his need for God to teach him the wisdom he needed deep down on the inside and would need this wisdom from God in the future to avoid falling into the sins of adultery and murder again. David had known God’s wisdom in the past but because of the seriousness of what he had done he would especially need God’s wisdom to recognise the temptation again if it should present itself to him in the future, and wisdom to see it coming and to turn aside from it. David also knew that this kind of wisdom comes from God and not from within himself. God’s wisdom is revealed in His Word and to our inner spiritually regenerated spirit when we ask Him for it and believe we receive it when we ask in faith without wavering. This kind of faith always pleases God (James 1:5-6) (Hebrews 11:6).
So then the first thing this psalm teaches us is that we must come to the realisation that when we have sinned we have sinned against God and not to run from Him but to run to Him with a sorrowful and repentant heart to be cleansed from its guilt and power by the blood of Messiah our Lord Jesus whose blood cleanses us from all sin and will keep cleansing us as we walk in the light of the faith of obedience to the Word of God (1 John 1:7) (Romans 1:5 and 16:26). Let’s continue…
2. David’s Repentance (Vs. 7-12)
(Vs.7-9) “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.” The Bible mentions hyssop several times, mostly in the Old Testament. In Leviticus, God commanded His people to use hyssop in the ceremonial cleansing of people and houses. In one example, God tells the priests to use hyssop together with cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and the blood of a clean bird to sprinkle a person recently healed from a skin disease such as leprosy. This act would ceremonially cleanse the formerly diseased person and allow him to re-enter the camp (Leviticus 14:1–7). The same method was used to purify a house that had previously contained mould (Leviticus 14:33–53).
Hyssop is also used symbolically in the Bible. When the Israelites marked their doorposts with lamb’s blood in order for the angel of death to pass over them, God instructed them to use a bunch of hyssop as a “paintbrush” (Exodus 12:22). This was probably because hyssop was sturdy and could withstand the brushing, but it also likely signified that God was marking His people as “pure” and not targets of the judgment God was about to deal out to the Egyptians.
Hyssop also appears at Jesus’ crucifixion, when the Roman soldiers offered Jesus a drink of wine vinegar on a sponge at the end of a stalk of hyssop (John 19:28–30). This was, in fact, the Lord Jesus’ last act before He declared His work on earth finished and gave up His spirit. The hyssop stalk was long enough to reach to Jesus’ mouth as He hung on the cross and it is interesting that that particular plant was chosen. God meant this as a picture of purification, as Jesus bought our forgiveness with His sacrifice. Just as in the Old Testament blood and hyssop purified a defiled person, so Jesus’ shed blood purifies us from the defilement of our sin. David understood that ceremonially the lamb’s blood on the Hyssop covered for his sin but in the Spirit David was availing himself of the cleansing power of God represented in that blood.
The blood of animals could only temporarily cover for sin but could not deal with the sin problem deep down on the inside of a person (Hebrews 10:4). However, the blood of Jesus completely, fully and forever atoned for sin once and for ever, a sacrifice never to be repeated according to the author of Hebrews (Hebrews 9:26; 10:10-12).
It was this blood that was cleansing David because the Lamb of God was slain from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20) (Revelation 13:8). It was efficacious in eternity where the past, the present and the future do not exist as they do down here. While David may not have fully comprehended the cleansing power in the blood of the Lord Jesus he most certainly knew in his spirit that somehow he was being cleansed deep down on the inside and that not by the blood of any animal. As New Covenant believers, who know the atoning, sanctifying, cleansing power of the blood of Jesus; need to avail ourselves every day of its cleansing and keeping power. Our testifying daily to what the Word of God says that the blood of Jesus does for us will always overcome Satan and drive him away and out of our affairs and give us the strength to persevere in faith even to the point of martyrdom if this is God’s will for us (Revelation 12:11).
Once the blood has cleansed us from our sin when we confess it we will find that joy and gladness will spring up from deep within us and that even our physical powers will be enhanced and renewed to keep on keeping on by faith and in step with the Holy Spirit. Confession of sin brings spiritual renewal and physical strength that has been sapped by our unconfessed sin. David knew this spiritual reality as he wrote in Psalm 32; “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:3-5).
It can be likened to when you come into the bathroom covered with dirt and with weariness after a long hot day and then standing under the shower be renewed and refreshed and cleansed and feel the dirt being washed away down the drain and come out of the shower feeling clean and free from the dirt and the grime of the day. Sometimes when we have confessed our sin and claimed God’s cleansing power and forgiveness for what we did it is only by the blood of Jesus that the memory of that sin will not linger for long but very quickly be replaced by an inner sense of the peace and joy of the LORD that will spring up on the inside of us again. The joy of the LORD will be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). David knew this in his own experience. Once again he asked God to hide His face from his sin and blot out his iniquities.
(Vs.10) “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Our Lord Jesus said; “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). A pure heart is one that is free from mixed motives, from the dominance of sinful passions and a heart transparent before God and men. It is the seat of our affections filled with God’s love by the Spirit and with love for others (Romans 5:5) and one that desires deep down on the inside to be fully pleasing to God and to do His will. David wanted God to do for him what he could not do for himself in this matter of having a pure heart before the LORD. He also knew that a pure heart would need to be accompanied by a steadfast inner spirit to enable him to persevere in moving forward in the will of God, despite the setback he had experienced through his sins of adultery and murder.
In the spiritual life we are so dependent on the power of the blessed Holy Spirit Himself every hour of every day who is the only one who has the power to separate us to God for service to, and for Him. Unless the LORD builds our spiritual house we will labour in vain if we seek to build it by our own strength and power because if we try to do this from within ourselves we will inevitably fail (Psalm 127:1). Steadfastness and a determined resilience to stand our ground against the devices of the devil is only accomplished through faith and perseverance in the time of testing, trial and through seasons of heaviness of spirit through many temptations (1 Peter 1:6).
We are in a spiritual battle every day and God has given us the spiritual weapons and armour we need to wage a war and a successful campaign against Satan and his forces in the unseen spiritual realm. These weapons consist of putting on every day the full armour of God accompanied by praying unceasingly in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18) (Jude 1:20-21). The four great and powerful spiritual weapons God has furnished us with is the power of the Blood of Jesus, the power of the Word of Jesus, the power of the Spirit of Jesus and the power of Persistent Prayer in the Holy Spirit and they are released by faith. These weapons God has specifically designed to demolish spiritual strongholds in our own lives and in the lives of others (2 Corinthians 10:4).
(Vs.11-12) “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Clearly David knew the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in his life and by that same power when he was a shepherd boy killed wild animals that tried to take the sheep. It was this same power that took out Goliath. It was this same power that gave David victory after victory over Israel’s’ implacable enemies and it was this divine power of the Holy Spirit Himself that gave David power to repent, to once again experience the abiding presence of the Holy spirit deep down on the inside, and by that same Spirit to rediscover afresh the joy of his salvation and be given supernaturally by the same Spirit a willing spirit to sustain him for what lay ahead. He had realised his sin, He had responded with repentance and now he would experience his spiritual restoration with God, and have a deeper experience of Him, and a renewed sense of His calling and gifting from God which are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). The Messiah our Lord Jesus is the author and finisher or perfector of our faith, and what He starts doing in us and with us and through us, He fully intends to finish, as we will now see in the life of David’s restoration.
3. David’s Restoration (Vs.13-19)
(Vs.13) “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.” From his early youth David had experienced a relationship with the LORD and had seen Him work in his life. Undoubtedly he had seen God working in and through his life and had experienced the spiritual gift of God in his life as one having the gift of the psalmist or one who could write spiritual hymns and songs in the Holy Spirit. He had seen what God could do through Him and achieve through his life.
When you read the life of David it seems he was unconquerable and one who walked in victory over all of his enemies and had the following of his people and the Word of God affirms these victories and successes even though they came through trials, hardships, dangers and through waging war with his enemies on every hand. However, God’s Word also reveals David’s sins of adultery and murder and his intention to cover it up until his sins were exposed by Nathan the prophet. This was an experience that David brought on himself and undoubtedly fuelled by the devil’s devious and deceptive handy work. Through his experience of failure to walk in God’s will for a time David entered into a much deeper spiritual experience which he would have never had if he had not committed adultery and murder.
While God never intended for this to happen to the man after His own heart, it happened because David had a free will and made a very unwise and foolish decision which would have ramifications for the rest of his life even though he was still able to complete God’s will, being those days God had ordained for him and written in God’s book even before they came to be (Psalm 139:15-16). After experiencing his failure in his service for the LORD he came into a deeper spiritual experience of the mercy of God towards those caught in the snare of sin. Having been in that situation himself and having experienced the redeeming power of the LORD to take his feet out of the miry clay and to stand them on the rock of His salvation and His promises David has a deeper insight into God’s desire to see all men and women saved and that none should perish but that all should come to repentance and that having been there himself had the compassion for those also ensnared by the devil.
David could now minister to his people spiritually at a much deeper level. Through his experience he was empowered by the Holy Spirit to know how to teach others needing to be turned away from their sinful ways. God would give to David the treasures of darkness and the riches hidden in secret places, so that he might know that it was the LORD, the God of Israel, who called him by name for a set and predetermined purpose as He had done for the pagan king Cyrus (Isaiah 45:3). “The treasures of darkness” are “the riches hidden in secret places” which are beyond the comprehension of the human mind no matter how brilliant it may be.
David’s realisation of his sin and his repentance and his spiritual restoration would be those treasures of darkness God would bring forth from His riches hidden in secret places. In all things that David had experienced in his life, both his successes and failures, God would use and fuse them together for good because David really loved God deep down on the inside and God knew this. David was called by God according to His predetermined purpose and will for David’s life (Romans 8:28). God can do all things and noting is impossible to Him and He outwits Satan every time because no purpose of God can be thwarted (Job 42:1-2). God does what He wants, when He wants, in the way He wants and with whomsoever He wants and asks no man’s permission! As God says through the prophet Isaiah; “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
So then because of that deeper work of God’s grace in his life David was able to lead others into the deeper things of God because he himself had experienced them in his life, and in his case through experiencing God’s grace due to David’s sin. For David it was his treasure of darkness given to Him by God in the process of His spiritual restoration of this man after God’s own heart. As we read in the New Testament; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). David then writes…
(Vs.14-15) “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O LORD Open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” David was conscious of his act of murder of an innocent man who had done him no harm and did not want to ever experience this kind of situation again especially as Bathsheba’s husband Uriah had been a trusted, true, loyal and confident friend of the king and a trusted and capable commander. David knew the intense inner agony of murdering a trusted friend and possibly it haunted him during his lifetime every time he saw Bathsheba.
As a result of God saving him out of the muddy quagmire of sin David was able to sing the songs of the psalmist but with a depth never before experienced as we see reflected in this psalm and in other psalms he wrote addressing God’s grace and forgiveness of sin such as Psalms 32 and 103. One could say that Psalm 51 is David’s version of “Amazing Grace.” When David opened his mouth out of his innermost being would flow the life giving power of the Holy Spirit. David wanted only the LORD to open his mouth when he sang songs he had composed. From his experience David had come to know and to desire God’s glory and to praise Him who in his righteous character had pardoned and cleansed David from all of his sin. David also knew the power of praise to drive the devil out of his affairs (Psalm 8:2) (Psalm 9:1-3). And then David continues…
(Vs.16-17) “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God, are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Religious, ceremonies and traditions and differing ways of worship never impress God when there is an absence of a broken and contrite heart in the worshippers. The Lord Jesus Himself made this clear to the woman at the well when He said to her; “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
This is the kind of sacrifice God desires from us when we come into His presence to worship him. As the prophet Isaiah writes; “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Isaiah 42:3). A broken and contrite heart in its literal meaning is “one that has been reduced to splinters” and splinters are very sharp and painful and the splinters of the heart can only be removed by the finger of God. With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible and nothing is too hard for the LORD! Just as we live by faith so we worship by faith as an act of our will. However we worship and it varies in its ways and methods, but if their is broken, splintered and contrite hearts, then the blessed Holy Spirit can do His work in empowering God’s people to praise Him with everything they have and with every kind of instrument as we see in the Temple worship in the Old Testament.
The New Testament also endorses this kind of worship. As we read in Rabbi the apostle Paul’s letter to the assembly at Ephesus; “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be continuously filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Messiah to God, even the Father;” (Ephesians 5:18-20). David continues…
(Vs.18-19) “In Your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight You; then bulls will be offered on your altar.” David was aware that his sin had affected God’s people over whom David had a responsibility before the LORD to give godly leadership as the king but in his sin he had caused others to stumble and left a trail of adultery, immorality and murder even within his own extended family especially concerning Absalom who openly fornicated with David’s concubines and even committed murder and himself experiencing a violent death that broke David’s heart. Yes God forgave David and cleansed David and restored David and continued to use David but David left a legacy of adultery and murder that never left his own household. His ardent plea to God was that Zion, the people of God corporately might once again be spiritually restored and that God would once again build a spiritual wall of protection and prosperity around the city. Once the people’s hearts were right with God then any sacrifices and offerings made in God’s House would be acceptable to Him. As the author of Hebrews writes; “For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name” (Hebrews 13:14-15).
Praise and thankfulness to God are the highest forms of sacrifice that God accepts. As it is written; “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100). One thing to mention is that when we see the expressions “O LORD” or “O God” used in prayer it signifies a deep sigh or breath coming out from deep within the one who is praying.
Epilogue (A Personal word)
This Psalm is one of encouragement to those who have failed in their ministry and service for the LORD. Possibly you may be reading this psalm conscious of the fact that God once used you to be a blessing to others and to be involved in ministry and service for Him but through sin He has been forced to lay you aside. The clay He tried to mould would not mould and the divine potter had to lay it aside. However, God can reshape your life and ministry, possibly not in the way it was before, but reshape it to bring it once again into conformity with His pre-determined and pre-ordained will for your life. One thing that has not changed is that “God’s gift and call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). He has not forgotten you.
Like David you still really love God deep down on the inside of you but because of your sin and disobedience you have lost sight of your call and gifting and your days on earth that were ordained for you and written down in God’s record books in heaven before they even came to be (Psalm 139:16). Yes you have failed and realised your sin whatever it may have been that drew you out from your strong refuge in the Triune God. You have repented of it time and time again with regret and the years have passed, but deep down on the inside the sense of God’s call has never left you but lain dormant. The bruised reed He has not broken and the smouldering wick He has not snuffed out. He has seen you realisation of your sin and your heartfelt repentance and desire to come back to Him. He has never left you but you have left Him. His calling and gifting are still awaiting you. While your ministry now may be expressed in a different way because of the years that have passed, never the less God’s call and gifting can still be activated in your life.
He is able to take those dark experiences that have caused you to bend over at the knees and use them as treasures of darkness to enlighten and encourage others, who like yourself, have been estranged from the LORD maybe for years, as you yourself have been. God may not use you in the same way He did before but His call and gifting have not changed. David was used mightily by the LORD and yet he failed through sin, and yet God persevered with Him because He knew that deep down on the inside David really loved Him and wanted to serve Him in doing His will.
Once David had repented he was re-instated and spiritually restored by the LORD to his calling and gifting as Israel’s king. Yes he had to live with the results of his sin and the legacy it left, especially in his family members, but David was still considered by God to be a man after His own heart and in restoring David God was able to empower David to complete His will for David’s life and ministry. God may use you in a different way than he did years ago but because His call and gifts are irrevocable it is possible to be drawn back by the blessed Holy Spirit into that path God has ordained for you even before you were born.
Turn back to Him, give Him permission to do with you whatever He wants to do and to use you in whatever way He chooses to use you, and as you offer the parts of your physical body and its contents, being your mind, your emotions and your will to Him as a living sacrifice on the altar of service with a willingness to be His obedient child, He will enable you to prove what is His good acceptable and perfect will ordained for you from all of eternity.
The fact that you still have a heart for Him after all these years is proof that the Hound of Heaven, the blessed Holy Spirit is still pursuing you to bring you back to the sheepfold from which you have strayed. Once again hear what the Messiah our Lord Jesus is saying to you; “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for once again out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” David realised his sin, repented of his sin and was restored spiritually from his sin and by this experience as dark and dire as it was for David, the LORD was able to complete His will for David’s life, for his calling and for his gifting and for his days on earth that were already fore ordained and written in God’s record book even before they came to be! In this Psalm of David we see his realisation, his repentance and his restoration. Selah.
