A NEW HEART
Create, Renew, and Restore
Psalm 51:10-13
Intro
Imagine you're out for a nice hike on a beautiful spring day and you come to a creek. But there's something wrong with this picture. You notice that someone has dumped trash into the stream—an ugly sight. Judging by some of the empty pop cans, the trash has been there awhile. And there is an ugly film on top of the water. You can't just leave the scene as you found it, because it would bother your conscience. So you begin to gather the trash and clean the creek as best as you can.
It actually takes several hours before you can begin to see a difference; it's amazing how much junk is there. You sit back, rest for a moment, and realize you'll have to keep returning each day until the site is truly clean. But when you come back the next day, it's as if your work has been undone.
In fact there's more trash than before. Somehow the garbage multiplied overnight. You think about the unlikelihood of someone coming to this very spot to dump their garbage in the few hours while you were away, and you realize that something isn’t right. So you begin to follow the creek upstream.
Sure enough, you come to a garbage dump that has been there for years. It's emptying into the passing creek. Your cleaning job only opened up a gap for more stuff to settle. You could go and clean every day …. If you want your creek to be clean, that means going directly to the source and dealing with what's there. (Source: Kyle Idleman, Gods at War, Zondervan, 2013)
Getting to the source is the best way to solve a serious problem. If you only deal with the surface stuff you will never solve the real problem. You need to get directly to the source and rectify it. That’s what David does in Psalm 51.
David’s serious problem was that had committed adultery with a married woman and had her husband killed. He asks God to have mercy on him and to blot out his transgression but that’s not enough. He now gets to the source of where it all began – the evil and the sin. It began in his heart and he asks God to create in him a pure heart.
Psalm 51:10a, “Create in me a pure heart, O God.”
Create: the word used here is "bara"; the term is also used in Genesis 1:1 where we read God created the heavens and the earth. It means to create absolutely, supernaturally, and to make something out of nothing. David wanted a new heart, a new start. If he was to be kept from sinning in the future, a radical work needed to be done in his inner being.
David does not pray like King Saul who prayed: "I have sinned, yet honour me before this people." (1 Sam. 15:30). What Saul was asking the Lord to do was to preserve his reputation. He was more concerned about what people thought than being broken and repentant of his sin. Saul did not deal with his corrupt nature.
David's great concern was to get his corrupt nature transformed. David now sees more than ever what an unclean heart he has and sadly laments it. It all starts in the heart – the heart is the source of sin, evil and corruption.
Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matt. 15:19).
David realizes it is not in his own power to create a new heart and therefore begs God to create in him a new one. A radical new work needed to be done in his heart.
It was not just restoration David wanted but regeneration. David's life was in ruins. He could see now the damage done by his old nature, he wanted a new nature.
You see, the problem we have today in the world is that people are trying to reform their lives on the outside but the inside needs to change. We need to work on the foundational stuff and it starts in the heart and the only one who can create a pure heart or a new heart is Christ.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, a very religious person, that he needed to be born again, to have a new heart.
2 Cor. 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come!"
Psalm 51:10b “Renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
David had found his life unstable and inconsistent. Not only did he desire a new heart but also a renewed spirit that would never turn away from the Lord. He wanted a steadfast unshakeable faith.
In other words he was saying, "Lord, secure me for time to come that I may never depart from you."
Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7).
It is persevering to the end! A steadfast spirit that will not give up!
Psalm 51:11 “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
David felt sin's doom. To be cast away from God's presence is the ultimate doom. David was afraid he might have earned that doom!
David in Psalm 6:4-5 says, “Turn, O Lord, and deliver me save me because of your unfailing love. No one remembers you when he's dead. Who praises you from the grave?” You see, the fear of the Lord had gripped his heart.
David also prayed that God would not take away His Holy Spirit from him. David had seen the Spirit of God depart from his predecessor, King Saul. David saw how Saul became the tormented victim of an evil spirit (1 Sam. 16:14). This is what David feared could happen to him. He knew of no resource except God Himself to prevent the dreadful consequences of his sin.
We need to clarify one thing in regards to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and before Pentecost. Often we read in the Old Testament that the Holy Spirit “came upon them” or “him.” For instance with King Saul the Holy Spirit came upon him just for a certain task, to prophecy and then the Spirit departed (1 Sam. 10:6) Also in others parts of the Old Testament we read about the Holy Spirit coming upon Balaam (Num. 24:2) and upon Samson (Judges 14:6) for a specific work or task.
It was a unique Old Testament gift from God, an enabling of the Spirit for some unique role within the purposes of God in the theocratic kingdom. David wants to have the anointing in the future; he wants to be a faithful king. He wants to be useful to God and he doesn’t want God to withdraw His Spirit.
Psalm 51:12a “Restore to me the joy of your salvation…”
David felt sin's depression. In Psalm 51:8 he wanted to hear joy and gladness again and he desired to have God’s joy restored in his life.
Much of the depression in the lives of Christians is caused by sin. It may be sin hidden away somewhere in the past gnawing away at the conscience. It may be something spitefully said, some fit of temper, a lie or some immoral act.
David did not take his depression to someone who could give him some psychological relief but rather he took it to God. He knew his depression was caused by sin in his life and only God can remove the sin. David wanted God to restore the joy of his salvation. I believe a true believer cannot lose their salvation but they can certainly lose the joy of it. That joy could only come from God after the cause of his depression, guilt and sin had been removed. That’s what God does! He restores the joy back in our lives. There is also joy in heaven when one repents. Jesus taught, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). David repented.
Psalm 51:12b “And grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
David never again wanted to fall into such sin; he wanted to be kept from committing such horrible evil. If he tried to live a victorious life in his own strength he would fail. He asks God to sustain him from falling and to give him a willing spirit to do God’s will. This is true repentance! He desires change deep in his spirit and will. He loves the Lord and wants to obey him and asks God to safeguard him and sustain in obedience to God.
Psalm 51:13 “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.”
After David asks God to create in him a pure heart, to renew a steadfast spirit, and to restore the joy of his salvation, David then would teach and counsel others about his experience. He would help sinners turn back to God in confession and repentance.
James 5:20 says, “Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
It is a great help when counselling others if we can say: “I know what you’re going through, I have been there myself.” There is nothing like personal experience! David fulfilled this pledge of his, to teach transgressors when he wrote Psalm 51. This psalm has been very instrumental in helping many people throughout the ages. It has been a tremendous blessing in my life.
Conclusion
Many times God uses our brokenness and our failings for a greater good. God did it through David’s brokenness.
He also did it through Chuck Colson. Colson was a special counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969-1973 and was caught in the Watergate Scandal and sentenced to prison. In prison he became a Christian and then later started the Prison Fellowship ministry which has reached so many prisoners for Christ. This is what he had to say about his life:
“The great paradox of my life is that every time I walk into a prison and see the faces of men or women who have been transformed by the power of the living God, I realize that the thing God has chosen to use in my life … is none of the successes, achievements, degrees, awards, honors, or cases I won before the Supreme Court. That's not what God's using in my life. What God is using in my life to touch the lives of literally thousands of other people is the fact that I was a convict and went to prison. That was my great defeat, the only thing in my life I didn't succeed in” (Source: Chuck Colson, Sermon "The Gravy Train Gospel," ).
God uses our brokenness and our failures to touch other lives for His glory. God did that through David in this powerful Psalm 51.
David’s reconciliation with God became a centerpiece in the Old Testament, an indelible picture of God’s amazing grace…God does not give up on us and He even uses our brokenness and failures for His glory as He did with David.
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