We return this evening to the second of two parts, considering the message of Psalm 51. Psalm 51. So if you would go ahead and take your Bibles and turn there – if you’re using one of our church Bibles you’ll find that on page 474. With the conclusion of the fifty-first psalm, our studies in this psalm, I will be taking a break for the summer Sunday evenings. You will have the joy and blessing of hearing the other pastors on the pastoral staff preaching God’s Word to you in the Lord’s Day evenings through the summer. That will allow me to catch up on some other areas of study and preparation that have been waiting on an opportunity like this. Please pray for me, but please pray especially for the other ministers on the staff as they prepare and that God would work mightily. Robert Murray M’Cheyne prayed consistently for revival at St. Peter’s Free Church in Dundee and then he left to go visit Palestine to inquire after the spiritual condition of the Jewish people, and while he was away the preacher who was in his place was used of God to bring revival. And he came back rejoicing to see how the Lord had been at work when he was not in the pulpit. And so my prayer, I want your prayer to be, that in the summer Sunday evenings that God would use the other pastors on our staff and pour out His Spirit and give to us a great blessing, even revival among us on those Lord’s Days. Now let’s turn our attention to Psalm 51. This is the Word of Almighty God. Before we read it, let’s pray.
Father, how we need to hear from You. Would You open the Scriptures, open our minds, open our hearts to receive the Word of truth. Help us as newborn babes, eagerly to desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word that we may grow thereby. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
“TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID WHEN NATHAN THE PROPHET WENT TO HIM AFTER HE HAD GONE INTO BATHSHEBA.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.”
Amen, and we praise God who has spoken in His holy, inerrant Word.
Last Lord’s Day evening we began, as I said, to consider the message of Psalm 51. We saw it has two divisions. Verses 1 to 9 deal with David’s cry for pardon. He is deeply convicted of sin. You will remember he has committed adultery with Bathsheba and conspired to have Uriah, her husband, murdered. Nathan, the prophet, has confronted David in 2 Samuel chapter 12, exposed his sin, and now David has come fleeing to God aware that he urgently needs forgiveness. He comes seeking mercy. And we traced David’s repentance in three movements. You remember first in verses 1 and 2 there’s the argument David offers. He seeks mercy but he bolsters his plea with an argument for the character of God. God is merciful in His character, therefore he pleads with God to act according to His character. The God of mercy should have mercy. Then we notice secondly the acknowledgement that David makes. Verses 3 to 6. He faces his sin honestly, confessing its nature, its source in all its ugliness and polluting power. And then in 7 to 9 we considered the atonement David trusts. When he speaks about being cleansed with hyssop he’s thinking about the sacrificial system. The hyssop bush was used as a brush to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial victim. He thinking about atoning sacrifice. He’s pointing of course to the great sacrifice, the Lamb of God whose blood is able to atone for our sins once and for all – the Lord Jesus Christ. That was last week.
The Three Foci of Prayer
Now this week we move on to focus on the second great division of the psalm, verses 10 through 19, not now a cry for pardon but a cry for purity. David knows he needs forgiveness but he knows he needs more than that. He also needs inner cleansing and renewal. He needs God to change him inside out. That is the preoccupation of the second part of the psalm. Would you look at it with me please, verses 10 through the end of the psalm? Notice again that the passage advances in three great movements, three great stages, each focused in a different direction. First in 10 through 12, David’s prayer has an inward focus. Its subject is David’s heart. Then in 13 to 15 its focus is outward. Its subject is witness to others. Then in 17 to 19 there is an upward focus. The subject this time is worship. In, out, and up. Those are the three directions that David’s prayer moves in as he repents and seeks renewing grace.
Focus Inward – Look at Your Heart
Let’s look at verses 10 through 12 first – the inward focus of David’s prayer. In verses 1 to 9 he had asked for forgiveness for the offense his sin had given to God. The judicial implications of having broken the law of God have been addressed. But what about the root of the problem? And so now David turns his attention from sin’s guilt to its presence and pollution and power. He turns to the source from which his sin flows. He focuses, do you see, on his own heart. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” That, let’s be clear, is the nature of our problem. Sin arises from the heart. That is from our essential selves. It is not accidental to who we are; it adheres to the essence of who we are. “No good tree bears bad fruit nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes nor grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good, and the evil person, out of evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” – Luke 7:43-45. Sin, as I’ve said before, is like a dandelion growing in the middle of your perfect lawn. You can mow that weed down as often as you like, chop it down again and again; it will always grow back unless you deal with the root. When we repent truly, as David does here, we come to God seeking a heart transplant. We come seeking heart surgery. We come seeking grace to deal with the root of the weed of sin sunk deeply into the soil of our hearts. “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
The Need for a New Heart
That word “create” there is important. It’s the Hebrew word, “bara.” It’s the word Moses uses in Genesis chapter 1 for God’s creation of all things of nothing in the space of six days. It talks about God’s sovereign, free, creative fiat that brings order out of chaos, that brings out of darkness light, out of nothing all things. That is what David is asking for here – not remedial action, not the spiritual equivalent of a fresh lick of paint on an otherwise sound structure. He’s not asking for a make-over. He’s asking for God to do a creative work within him that will echo the creative work performed at the dawn of time. He’s asking for the miracle of inner renewal. Of course that happens in a once for all sense in the new birth. When first we come to Christ we are born again, made spiritually alive together with Christ. Even when we were “dead in trespasses and sins” He takes away our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh. It is a once for all regenerating act of God’s free grace by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And so it really is vital as we hear David’s prayer here that you can answer the question, “Do I have a new heart?” There is really no more pressing question that can be addressed to you. There is no more pressing question to which you must give an answer. Do I have a new heart? I’m not asking about your behavior. I’m asking about your essential self. Has God worked the miracle of inward renewal in you? I want you to hear me tonight as though I were your cardiologist saying, “You need a transplant immediately or you will die! There is a heart here ready for you. Without it you are lost. Take immediate action. Take immediate action!” Do you have a new heart? That is what you need. Without it you will perish. God can give you a new heart. Make David’s prayer your own. “O God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, create in me a clean heart, O God.”
But even after God has done that miraculous renewing, transforming work, even for a mature believer like David, this prayer is an appropriate prayer to pray, one that we never cease needing God to perform and answer, we must always be calling, “Create in me a clean heart,” always looking to the Holy Spirit to give us cleansing to overthrow sin’s remnants and generate godliness within us. Obedience is never simply a matter of course, do you see? It is always the produce of the Spirit’s mighty working. Do you weep for your heart that still so readily inclines to selfishness, to lust and pride and greed and idolatry? Well then certainly, sit under the preached Word, by all means read great solid, Christian books. Join a small group. Seek accountability. But this, this is the master grace. This is the animating power that makes all the other means effective. The utter abandonment of yourself to the power and help of the Holy Spirit. Cry to Him, cling to Him, seek Him, pray with David, “O God, today I need a clean heart. Create it within me and renew a right spirit within me.”
The Need for Restored Joy
And then notice having stated it positively, David now restates the same prayer negatively, verse 11. Do you see that in the text, verse 11? “Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” Now that is a verse that has troubled some Christians. They worry that it teaches the possibility that the Holy Spirit might abandon us under the right circumstances. Or maybe it applies to only Old Testament believers like David who merely had the Spirit upon them but not within them. Is that the right construction to put on David’s words? I want to suggest that both are mistakes, and as so often is the case with questions like this, if you’ll simply pay careful enough attention to the text itself we’ll see an answer immediately to hand. Do you notice the synonymous parallelism of the text? Each line restates the meaning of the other line in slightly different terms so that we see the whole picture. Look at it. “Cast me not away from your presence.” That’s line one .Then the point is restated in line two, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” It is sin’s ability to shatter fellowship with God, not destroy altogether our relationship with Him that is in view here. Sin impairs our enjoyment of His presence; it cannot rupture our possession of His love. At times, to discipline us and to teach us never to wander from His ways, God our Father may withdraw His Spirit’s comforting presence but He never will withdraw His saving presence. He may, for a time, withdraw the light and smile of His face, but He never will withdraw the affection of His heart. The Holy Spirit may be taken from our sense but never from our souls if we are Christians.
And that’s confirmed, isn’t it, by verse 12. Look at verse 12. “Restore to me,” not, “Restore to me my salvation which I have lost and now I need to get back.” What does he say? “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” That’s what sin has shattered and ruined and clouded and obscured. Salvation’s sweetness and beauty and joy. A Christian may lose the pleasure of their Christianity but never the possession of it. They may lose their enjoyment of spiritual things but never their right to them. And yet even that experience, the sense of being at a distance from the loving fellowship of the Father, is too heavy for David to bear, isn’t it? So he’s crying out with urgency, pleading with God for restoration of communion. Any healthy, loving relationship cannot for long live with unresolved conflict, shattering the harmony of their love. They can never be happy until their beloved is reconciled. In fact, everything else seems less pleasant. All other joys are diminished if they remain unreconciled to the one they love the most. And so David cries to God for a heart that’s put right, made clean, so that the unbearable burden of broken fellowship might be lifted and the smile of Abba Father restored.
Maybe you’re here tonight, a Christian who has lost the pleasure of their Christianity. You are a follower of Jesus who has lost her joy in following her Savior. It’s like you have been wandering in the desert. You are parched and dry. Your life has become, your spiritual life is desiccated and dull. And so you find yourself tonight asking with William Cowper, “Where is that blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul refreshing view of Jesus and His Word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memories still, but they have left an aching void the world can never fill.” Do you know that experience? It may be that you are wrestling with that reality because like David there remains unaddressed, unrepented sin in your life. It may be that you know little spiritual joy because the truth is, you’re backslidden. You’re in a wayward state. You’ve wandered into secret sin – your hidden drinking, you’ve been looking at pornography on your phone, you’ve allowed unexpressed resentment towards a brother or sister to grow up in your heart and there it is, festering and spreading its poison through your system. There is a cold front that has settled down into an almost permanent winter between you and your spouse and now you barely communicate. What is it for you? Where have you wandered away? Search your heart. Have you lost the joy of your salvation because today you’re not where you ought to be and you know it?
As you search your heart do please understand that there is a way back out of the wilderness. There is a way out of the desert land. David shows it to us. Flee to God for mercy, verses 1 and 2, own your sin fully, verses 3 to 6, cling to Christ alone whose blood can wash you and make you clean, verses 7 to 9, and then turn and deal with the root of the matter – “Create in me a clean heart, do the miracle in me, O God. Come in creative power and renovate my heart. Return, O holy dove, return sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made Thee mourn and drove Thee from my breast. The dearest idol I have known, what’er that idol may be, help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee.” That’s it. That’s the way back from the desert. That’s the way home from the wilderness. That’s what you must do. You need no gimmicks, no programs, no five-step plan, no emotional high. You need to get real with God; you need to repent and seek His mercy that He might give you a clean heart. That’s the first thing – David’s repentance has an inward focus. And as we’ll see this really is the fountain from which everything else in the rest of the Psalms brings. Whatever else comes next, this must come first; not simply first in order of sequence but first in order of importance. Get a clean heart. Without a clean heart you will die; you will perish. Get a clean heart! This is the one thing needful. A surgeon uses clean instruments; God uses clean Christians.
Focus Outward – Proclaim His Grace to Others
Which brings us to verses 13 to 15. First an inward focus; now the outward focus. “Create in me a clean heart, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness, O Lord. Open my lips and my mouth will declare your praises.” Do you see what happens when God comes and cleans our hearts and changes us? We can’t keep our mouths closed; we can’t help but speak about our Jesus. The joy of our salvation has returned. David’s not offering quid pro quo here. He’s not trying to bargain with God. He’s not doing what Martin Luther did, you remember, just a few years before he was converted – 1505 on the road to ——–. Battling through a storm, a lightning strikes right next to him, he falls to the ground and he calls out, “Help me, Saint Anne, and I will become a monk!” And almost nine more years are to pass before he discovers what David clearly grasps in the first part of our psalm that forgiveness is a gift. It’s not wages; you don’t earn it. It’s mercy; it’s free. So David isn’t trying to bargain with God. He’s not trying to merit mercy. He’s not saying, “If you’ll forgive me then I’ll be a preacher.” He’s saying, rather, “If the Lord will work in my heart I resolve by His grace now never again to live at such a low ebb. I’m not going back to mediocrity. If He will come and work in me, I will be His servant with a glad heart and an open mouth to praise Him and proclaim Him to all.”
That will be the great mark of God’s renewing grace in your life. Evangelism is only a duty when the Gospel itself loses its sweetness and luster in your heart. Worship is only a burden when the silver of the Gospel has become tarnished and dull in your life. But when the Lord makes it shine again, you will be unable to do anything other than resolve with David to tell all about your wonderful Savior and to delight to sing His praise.
Focus Upward – Look to God
There is an inward focus, an outward focus, and then lastly there is an upward focus. Verses 16 to 19. “You will not delight in sacrifices or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar.” You see what he’s wrestling with? He’s asking himself, “What kind of worship will God accept?” Once upon a time he thought it perfectly possible to sleep with Bathsheba, plot Uriah’s murder, then show up in the temple on the Sabbath Day and offer worship, offer sacrifices. He thought worship was a matter of the right forms but now he knows that the outward forms are an offense to God. If the heart isn’t right, without a broken and contrite heart, what use public worship? What dishonor you do your Master to take His name on your lips while you commit adultery with an idol in your hearts!
A Prayer for True Worship in Our Lives
That’s what David realizes – that true worship must begin here; it must begin with my heart. And as he pleads with God to look on him in mercy and to restore and renew him, as he comes now at last broken and contrite, he is made aware in assuring grace that that is precisely how God would have us come. Not with everything all together, not sorted out, not fixed and clean and wise and strong. People who look like that are practiced liars. There is no one like that. Scratch the surface and you’ll see the truth lurking not far beneath. Every one of us needs grace. Every one of us is broken. David has come to face it honestly, at last. Broken and contrite he comes to God and he says, “Such sacrifices, such sacrifices, O God, you will not despise.” Broken, contrite believer, God is saying, “Come, come and welcome. Come as you are. Come with your sin intact. Come in need. I have grace for you.”
A Prayer for True Worship in the Church
And notice too, very briefly at the last few verses, that as David cries to God to do this work in himself he then turns and cries that God would do the same in the church. “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem.” And then true worship will begin to erupt there also. Then the outward forms will be acceptable because the heart will be right. In the end, the final proof and evidence of a changed heart is a burden for others that they may know the same grace you yourself have come to know. That God would visit the church with the same renewal with which He has visited you. Would you pray for the church of Jesus Christ? “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, O God! Restore the walls of Jerusalem! Revive your church! Have mercy on your church! Bring your church to new repentance! Give the church broken and contrite hearts! Visit your church for the glory of your name and gather in your people.”
Do you repent? Has God cleansed you? Do you have a new heart, a clean heart? Well when God does it, it will show in your witness to the world, in the worship you bring to God, and in your burden for others. May God indeed so work in our hearts the blessed brokenness and contrition we see in David’s heart that our praises might be more than the praises of lips but the surrender of our lives. Let us pray.
Father, forgive us; forgive us for our idolatrous, adulterous hearts. Forgive us for looking elsewhere for our satisfaction, for finding our joys in lesser things and finding the joy of Your salvation evaporate and even lesser pleasures become less sweet as a result. Have mercy. Create in us a clean heart, O God. Restore to us the joy of our salvation. And then our lips will be open to sing Your praises and we will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will be turned to You. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion and restore the walls of Jerusalem for the glory of our Savior’s name. Amen.