‘Restore’

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Psalm 51:12

David had known days of spiritual blessedness in the past. He had had great joy in salvation. Alas, for the moment, that joy was gone. He had sinned grievously and was now repenting earnestly. He wanted desperately to have God restore unto him the joy of His salvation. David associated this restoration with the work of the Holy Spirit. Hence, he follows his request for restoration with the prayer, ‘and uphold me by Your Free Spirit.’ This is the logical follow-on of our consideration from yesterday. When the Holy Spirit withdraws in grief from providing for us the comfortable sense of God’s Presence our souls grow very dry and barren. When He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us, it causes the desert-like conditions within us to utterly change.  Where there was sorrow, there is joy. Where there was barrenness, there is fruitfulness. Where there was darkness, there is light. This is the result of the Spirit’s work. This enables us to again have fellowship with God and to walk in the pleasant garden with Christ, Our Beloved. It is good for us to understand the difference between going on in our hard-hearted pursuit of selfish sin and the blessed enjoyment of the comfortable presence of God, with restored joy, and the upholding of God’s Free Spirit.

Our Good and Loving God,
we praise You that You are ever-ready to restore us.
We rejoice that this restoration, which You perform in us by Your Holy Spirit,
brings unto us true and lasting joy.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Your Holy Spirit’

‘…and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.’

Psalm 51:11b

The Holy Spirit is critical to all vital spiritual life. No one has ever been regenerated, without the work of the Holy Spirit. No one has ever understood the Gospel message, apart from the Holy Spirit. No one has ever been saved apart from the Holy Spirit. There has been no believer, over the course of all of the history of salvation, who has not been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. David understood that the Holy Spirit was critical to the restoration of his relationship with God. Therefore David prayed, ‘Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.’ David understood that its was the Holy Spirit that enabled him to have the comfortable sense of the Presence of God. As long as he continued in an unrepentant state, he was not enjoying that communion which comes with the sense of God’s Presence. Therefore, David sought that God would not remove the Holy Spirit so that he would go on without the communion which he had previously enjoyed. When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit. We may, for a time lose the sense of the Presence of God. He may withdraw His Spirit from us, not in the sense that He no longer indwells us, but in the sense that He no longer grants us the comfortable sense of God’s Presence and favor. Today, let us dwell upon the work of the Spirit, and how He takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us. We cannot lose this. We need it daily.

Our most Holy and Kind God,
we rejoice in the blessed work of Your Holy Spirit.
We evermore desire, the unbroken communion with You,
which the Holy Spirit enables.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

No Separation

Cast me not away from thy presence….

Psalm 51:11a

David was earnestly praying as he confessed his sin to God. He was well aware that his sin had caused a disturbance of his fellowship with God. Because David was a man after God’s own heart, he could not bear this breach of fellowship. Therefore, we find him pleading, ‘Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.’ This brings to mind the emotional attachment which the Bride of the Song of Solomon has for her Bridegroom. She cannot bear to be separated from Him. The picture is of the relationship between Christ and His people, the Church. The people of God cannot bear to go on without the Presence of Christ. After Israel sinned in the wilderness, Moses was pleading with God.  God said that He would send them up to the Promised Land, but would refuse to go with them. As Moses prayed he said, ‘If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.’ We thrive upon the Presence of Christ. We are desolate and bereft without it. When our sin has brought a breach in our fellowship with Christ, we have every reason to cry, ‘Do not cast me away from Your Presence.’ As we consider these things today, let us dwell upon the fact that God is Merciful and that Christ desires to have fellowship with us. He will hear us, that there be no separation.

Our Gracious Master and our God,
we praise You, that You desire communion with us.
We rejoice that You have made a way for us, through Christ,
that there be no separation between us and You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

A Clean Heart and A Right Spirit

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

As a regenerated person, David knew the difference between where he was spiritually and where he wanted to be. He did not have a clean heart but he wanted one. He did not have a right spirit and he wanted that as well. What is interesting for us to note is that David does not look to himself to resolve the problem. Here is a fundamental defect in much of modern theology and its’ practical application. Because it exalts the will of man, and touts his own ability to pull himself up spiritually, it points people to themselves to resolve their own issues by ‘preaching’ to themselves or ‘arguing’ their way into ‘right thinking.’ David understands that God Alone can ‘create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.’ This is something which only the Spirit of God can do by taking the things of Christ and showing them to us. David appeals to God to do a work in his heart and spirit that he knows he cannot do himself. Here is where we need to land when we find ourselves without ‘a clean heart’ and ‘a right spirit.’ We appeal to God to do in our heart and spirit what we cannot do ourselves. We look to Christ and His sanctifying Spirit to bring us back to the place in our spiritual experience to where we possess ‘a clean heart,’ and ‘a right spirit.’

Our Good and Gracious God,
we rejoice that You ever point us to Christ.
We praise You that because of Him and by the power of His Spirit,
we can have clean heart.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

The Blotting Out of Iniquities

Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

Psalm 51:9

David returns to the critical issue of the removal of his sin-stains. He uses very evangelical language. Our text calls to mind the text from Colossians 2:14 where Paul describes the work of Christ. There he tells us of Christ, ‘having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.’ Here is the reason we make much of the Person and Work of Christ. No other person is qualified to act in this capacity. Nothing else but this crosswork of His can avail and prevail to remedy our sin-sickness. David wanted his ‘iniquities’ gone and had enough evangelical understanding to realize that he stood in need of the ‘blood of the everlasting covenant.’ This is the scarlet thread which runs through the Scriptures from the beginning to the end. The song of the saints in glory is, ‘to Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.’ David’s Christ is our Christ. The Blood that would blot out his iniquities will blot out our iniquities as well. Although the climate of our times and culture abhors what some call a ‘slaughterhouse religion,’ we continue to proclaim that it is the Blood of Christ that will blot out our iniquities. Today, let us take the time to dwell upon the virtue and value of this atoning Blood.

Our Holy and Righteous God,
we rejoice that You blot out our iniquities.
We praise You that we may ever resort to the
cleansing blood of Christ to wash us from every stain.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning