Sermon series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Psalm 51
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight--that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
0 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise.
Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.
Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

***Page break***
(Page Two)

Message:
Two opposite kinds of experience are wonderfully blended in this Psalm—the experience of a conscience-stricken transgressor, and the experience of a believer rejoining in Divine mercy.
Nothing can be more mournful than David's profound self-abasement and piercing cry for pardon. Nothing can be more calm, hopeful, restful, than his trust in God's forgiving and restoring grace! He is like one emerging from a gloomy cavern, where no ray of light shone, who does not yet stand in the sunlight, but sees it shining at the cave's mouth, and knows that a few more steps will bring him into full sunshine. The secret of this blending of opposite experiences is that David is looking so earnestly away from himself to God.
Today, in our study of this Psalm of prayer, we come to verse 8.
"Make me to hear joy and gladness,"
This is the word of David...if any man ever knew the world and enjoyed it, David did! The experience of even his wise son Solomon was limited compared with his. Endowed with personal grace and beauty which won love at first sight; a man of genius, skilful in poetry and music; a hero in war, who had fought his way from the sheepfold to the throne;-—he was, in the hey-day of prosperity and power.
His armies and generals won victories for him, while he enjoyed the luxury of his palace. His servants devotedly obeyed, even when he required them to commit crimes! He had obtained the wife on whom his heart was passionately set. A son had been born to them. It might seem as though God had overlooked his sins, and was shedding on him the peaceful light of Divine favor. True, his sins--nay, crimes--had made the enemies of the Lord blaspheme; but their counter-censures did not reach the royal ears.
What lacked he, in the midst of his prosperity? Two things--one of conscience, and the sense of Divine favor, what in happier days he called--the light of God's countenance.
He longs for that joy and gladness which, in the past, filled his heart. SIN, that thief that steals all that is beautiful, had stolen from him, and his heart

***Page break***
(Page Three)

was empty and his life desolate.
David has asked for pardon...now he asks that once again, joy may return to his heart. All of us will agree that sin has the capacity to take the real joy out of living. In its place, sin brings guilt, anxiety, frustration, pain and remorse. Sin has the capacity to crush us and leave us incapacitated to be our best...and this David has felt deeply!
MAKE ME TO HEAR JOY AND GLADNESS, THAT THE BONES YOU HAVE BROKEN MAY REJOICE.
Bones form the structure on which the muscles, ligaments, and tissue of the body hang. Broken bones leave the body without the capacity to function! There are structures on which all the values of life hang--family, marriage, social acceptance, ego, confidence and courage--when these structures are broken, life is only a shadow of what God planned it to be! It is in the act of violating the laws and commandments of God that these structures are broken and the joys and happiness of life are taken from us.
MEN DO NOT BREAK THE LAWS OF GOD, GOD'S LAWS BREAK US! After we have violated God's law, they still stand true and unchangeable...they do not break! THEY BREAK US when we violate them! Violate the laws of God with your body, and it results eventually in broken health! Violate the commandments of God in human relationships, and the result is broken relationships and blasted friendships.
David senses this brokenness and incapacity to be every thing he could have been because of sin's effects.
Observe the man in the gutter, held in bondage of addiction and sin. His occupation is gone, his profession squandered, his family in shreds, and his life without purpose and meaning. The bones...the structures that make life worth living...are broken and useless.
When David speaks of the BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN, he is not speaking of fleshly wounds...but his manhood had become a dislocated, mangled, quivering sensibility. He is requesting a great thing; he seeks joy for a sinful heart, music for crushed bones. Preposterous prayer anywhere but at the throne of God!
Verse 9 of our Psalm reads; "HIDE YOUR FACE FROM MY SINS, AND BLOT OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES."
The second division of the Psalm begins here with the renewed prayer for forgiveness. From the confident assurance of the last two verses, that God would do that

***Page break***
(Page Four)

which he asked, David now passes to earnest pleading with God.
This is surely what is to be found in all true prayer; it will be marked by fluctuations of feeling; its order will be the order of need, not the order of intellect. Again, David asks for forgiveness first, and then renewal. "For though God fully and completely forgives," says Calvin, "still the narrowness of our faith does not take in so large a goodness on His part, but it must flow down to us gradually and drop by drop."
SOULS IN AGONY AND DEEP REMORSE HAVE NO SPACE TO FIND VARIETY IN LANGUAGE: PAIN HAS TO CONTENT ITSELF WITH MONOTONES AND GROANINGS.
"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26)
David's face was ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove it from his memory; but he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he himself cannot. If God hide not His face from our sin, He must hide it forever from us; and if He blot not out our sins, He must blot our names out of His Book of Life.
DAVID KNEW THAT WHEN HE ASKED GOD TO FORGIVE HIM, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THE VERY CHARACTER OF GOD ASSURED HIM.
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 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 punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. (Psalm 103:8-11)
After the prayer of forgiveness, there follows now the prayer for renewal and sanctification.
"CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD, AND RENEW A STEAD FAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME." (Verse 10)
The word CREATE is always used strictly of the creative power of God. The whole spiritual being of the man, had as it were, fallen into chaos. The pure heart and the childlike feeling of confidence could only return as a new creation.

***Page break***
(Page Five)

Paul picks up this thought in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
In the seventh verse he asked to be clean; now he seeks a heart suitable to that cleanliness; but he does not say, "Make my old heart clean; he is too experienced in the hopelessness of the old nature. He would have the old man buried as a dead thing, and a new creation brought in to fill its place.
NONE BUT GOD CAN CREATE EITHER A NEW HEART OR A NEW EARTH!
Salvation is a marvelous display of supreme power; the work in us as much as that for us is wholly of Omnipotence. The heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord takes it in hand we steer in a false and destructive course which ends in death and hell.
"RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME." The law of my heart has become like an inscription hard to read; please write it anew, O gracious Maker. RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME. A steadfast spirit is, firm in faith, not easily swayed hither and thither through its own weakness or by blasts of temptation, and therefore also firm and constant in obedience.
Paul gives these words of admonition to the Romans: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1-2)
"CAST ME NOT AWAY FROM THY PRESENCE AND TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME." (Verse 11)
Some Bible scholars see an allusion partly to the exclusion of the leper from the congregation, others see in this prayer David's deep concern that God not reject the nation of Israel from His favor because of his sin. But I think what must have been uppermost on David's mind in uttering these words was his memory of Saul, the king that served the nation of Israel just before his reign. David had observed a man appointed to the high position of king, misuse his position and authority, disobey the commands of God, and eventually God withdrew His Spirit from him, and Saul died a tragic death!

***Page break***
(Page Six)

Saul, the first king of Israel, is one of the most striking and tragic figures in the Old Testament. If we are at all sensitive as to the supreme values and vital issues of human life, the story of Saul will challenge us. In some ways he is very big; in others very little. In some ways he is commandingly handsome; in others definitely ugly. He began so reassuringly, but declined so disappointingly, and ended so wretchedly, that the downgrade process which ruined him becomes monumental to all who will give heed.
The story of his life begins in the early part of First Samuel and the book ends with his tragic death on the battle field.
Never did a young man give fairer promise or find brighter possibilities greeting his young manhood. To begin with, he was distinguished by a striking physical superiority. He is described as "a choice young man, and a goodly; there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people" (1 Sam. 9:2).
Secondly, young Saul showed certain HIGHLY COMMENDABLE QUALITIES OF DISPOSITION. Modesty, discreetness, generous spirit, considerateness of his father, his dash and courage, his capacity for strong love, his energetic antagonism to such evils as spiritism, and his evident moral purity in social relationships--these marked this young man's nature and character.
Third, there were special gifts which God gave him when he became king. We read, "God gave him another heart so that he became another man." (1 Sam. 10:6,9). Again, "the Spirit of God came upon him so that he prophesied" (1 Sam. 10:10). Nor is this all: he was given a "band of men whose hearts God had touched" (1 Sam. 10:26).
This was the young Saul of fair promise!
And God selected him to be the first king of Israel. "Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah, and said to the children of Israel, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought up Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppress you.
But you have today rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’ Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans." (1 Sam. 10:17-19).

***Page break***
(Page Seven)

Alas, Saul's early promise is a morning sky soon overcast with sullen clouds. Defection, declension, degeneration, disaster--that is the dismal downgrade which now sets in until this giant-hero drops as a haggard suicide into ignominious death.
His first defection occurred early. IT WAS AN ACT OF IRREVERENT PRESUMPTION. When Samuel did not seem to be coming before the appointed time expired, Saul, in willful impatience, violated the priest's prerogative, and foolishly presumed to offer up with his own hand the prearranged sacrifices to the Lord. He violated that obedience to the voice of God through the prophet which was a basic condition of theocratic kingship. Samuel's rebuke was, "Saul, thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah."
The next default follows quickly. It is an act of RASH WILLFULNESS. Using Jonathan as his instrument, God spreads confusion among the Philistines. Israel's watchmen report what they see. Saul calls the priest, to ask God for guidance, but with stupid impatience cuts short the enquiry and rushes his men off without guidance.
But in chapter 15 of First Samuel comes still graver failure. IT IS A BLEND OF DISOBEDIENCE AND DECEIT. Saul is told to destroy utterly the vile Amalekites; but he spares the king and the best livestock. Then he equivocates to Samuel. He slips blame for the booty on to the people. He even pretends the booty is for sacrifice to Jehovah! Humility had now given place to arrogance! From this point the decline is steep.
1 Samuel 16:14 says: "But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him."
He gives way to a petty jealousy until it becomes a fiendish malice--against David.
David watched a mighty man begin to dwindle and disintegrate before his very eyes when the Spirit of God was taken from him.
The last tragic act in the mournful drama of this man is depicted in chapters 27 to 31 of First Samuel. His downgrade course at length brings him to the witch of Endor, as an embittered and desolate-hearted fugitive from doom. This giant wreck of a man who once enjoyed direct counsel from heaven now traffics with the underworld! Witchcraft and then suicide! Saul is no more. He lies a corpse, with lovely Jonathan. How are the mighty fallen! How is this son of the morning brought to shame!

***Page break***
(Page Eight)

As we see this man Saul come from such heights to such depths, do we not ask what it was which lay behind his fearful self-frustration? IT WAS SELF-WILL. Saul's two besetting sins were PRESUMPTION AND DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD; and behind both these was impulsive, unsubdued SELF-WILL. David had watched Saul's tragic downfall, and he knew what it was to have the Spirit of God taken from a man! In sad and awesome tones the voice of Saul still speaks, and we do well to heed!
He preaches to us that THE ONE VITAL CONDITION FOR THE TRUE FULFILLMENT OF LIFE IS OBEDIENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD. We are not the independent proprietors of our own beings. We are God's property. He has made us kings and queens over our own personalities with their gifts and powers and possibilities; but our rule is meant to be theocratic, not an independent, self-directed monarchy! We are meant to rule for God, so that our lives and personalities may fulfill His will and accomplish His purpose. When we obstinately rule independently of God our true kingship breaks down; we lose the true meaning and purpose of life. In greater or lesser degree we "play the fool."
But Saul teaches us another important truth...THAT TO LET "SELF" GET THE UPPER HAND IN OUR LIFE IS TO MISS THE BEST AND COURT THE WORST. David set aside the commandments of God which he knew, let his passion take over, sinned the sin of adultery and then murder...and the rest of his life he paid the price for that transgression! The sword never left his house!
Every man who lets "self" fill his vision till it blinds his inner eye to what is really true and Divine is "playing the fool." The downgrade process in our life may not be as outwardly observable as it was with Saul, simply because we do not occupy as conspicuous a position, but we are just as really playing the fool, and our ultimate corruption is just as certain.
We bring this lesson to a close with this solemn thought..."God's Spirit will not always strive with men."
Many hold to a theological position that it is impossible to loose the Spirit of God from our lives once we have been indwelt by Him...and this position has many verses to support it...but here is a man, Saul, who in reality experienced the tragic and eternal loss of God's Spirit and was forever banished from God's presence. Saul admitted that "God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore!" (1 Samuel 28:15).