Sermon
The End Of Psalm 51
September 8-9, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For the last number of weeks we've been thinking of the great truths in the Psalms, and we've called our series 'A Summer In The Psalms'. And of course Summer has ended and this will bring an end to this series, and the Lord willing we'll go back to our study in the gospel of John. But our last Psalm, you'll find it in your pew Bible if you'd like to follow along with me. It's page 388 in the red pew Bible. Others of you have your own personal Bible, and we're discussing a prayer that David prayed after he has been confronted by Nathan the prophet, a prayer for forgiveness and pardon because of his sin. David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and in order to cover his sin he arranges for her husband, whose name is Uriah, to be killed on the battlefield. So not only is he an adulterer, but he is also a murderer. Now he's covered that sin for months. And then Nathan comes to him and says, do you remember the story that he tells him, and David admits that he's the sinner. Here's the prayer that he prays for pardon for his sin to God. Let me read it for you.

Have mercy upon me, 0 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 to 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, 0 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. O 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, and a broken and a 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.

Now we've been here a number of weeks and we've covered most of the passages, and the one that I want to conclude with today is verse 11. But just quickly if we had time to go on in our studies; let's just quickly cover verses 12 through 19. Verse 12 says, Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. And the intent there is, God, I seek reconciliation. I want once again to feel the joy of our relationship when we enjoyed each other's presence. I need reconciliation with You, dear God. I've often said that I think one of the most beautiful words in the English language is reconciliation, because over the years it's been my joy to have couples come together. And sometimes their differences are so vast that one will sit on one side of the office and one on the other, and before even we get started the eyes tell of anger and mistrust. I listen and while the folks are sharing back and forth I'm praying, God, may there be a reconciliation. May You come into this scene and, whatever it takes to heal it, bringing this couple back together and restore to them the joy of their marriage day. And as I'm praying and they're talking, one of the delights is to see a tear drop from a cheek and then the hardness begins to soften and the spirit becomes open, and before very long one stands and walks across the room to the other. It's time for reconciliation, and that's the moment I leave the room. That's the sacred moment in a relationship. It's a beautiful scene. And then I usually return and say, God, thank you for doing Your work of reconciliation.

David said, God, I've missed You so much. My sin has separated me so far from You. I want to be reconciled. Would You restore to me the joy of Your salvation? And he says, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. He knows God is gracious. As I have studied this Psalm, and the Psalms of David, I think he has a far better concept of God than most people do. Somehow we've been taught that God's the big policemen who stands over the balconies of heaven with a 2 by 4 ready to hit us every time we do something wrong. That's not true. God loves us. He knows our frailties. He knows our weaknesses. David said, God, You've got a generous Spirit and in Your generosity You're going to treat me with graciousness.

Then he says, then I will teach transgressors Your ways. He's saying, once I get this matter straightened out then my life can be a witness for You, dear God. Then I can go to people and I say I did fail, but God's forgiven me and He'll forgive you if you'll just come to Him. God, I want reconciliation so I can tell everyone that You are a gracious God, and I can tell transgressors if they wish, and if they desire, they can come back to You. I can become a witness again for Your grace and mercy, and I'll give my testimony and as the result, sinners will be converted. I want to do that dear God. It's the great joy of our Christian faith of sharing God's mercy and grace towards us to others who need it. We can say, if God forgave me, He can forgive you.

And then David goes on and says, Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God. He's got that blood crying from the ground. Uriah died because of David's sin, and David is very confronted. He says, God, that blood of Uriah just calls to me constantly -- forgive me for this transgression, the sin of bloodshed. I'm a murderer, O God of my salvation. Notice he adds that deliver me O God, the God of my salvation. Again he is saying, God, You're bigger and You're more gracious then my sin. O Lord, when You do that, my tongue shall sing and my lips shall praise You. It's true, isn't it? When we come to God and He's forgiven us and the guilt is gone, there's a peace and a joy that begins to flow from the heart again. He said I'll sing again, dear God. Remember we talked last week of broken bones, broken structures. When He heals them, there's music.

Then he says, the sacrifices, You don't desire sacrifice. And we've learned in our study that God had no sacrifice in the Mosaic system for murder or for adultery. No sacrifice -- only death. You died. David knew that. He said, if there was a sacrifice, whatever it would be, God I'd do it. But there is no sacrifice for the wretchedness of my sin. I can't cover it nor atone with a sacrifice, or else I'd do it, he said. What You really want, God, is a broken heart. You want genuine contrition. You want genuine repentance, not just words, but a heart that cries out; I've sinned, I've done this wrong, God forgive me, I repent. I know what You want God. There's no faking this. I'm not trying to say words I don't mean. God, I'm broken and I need You to forgive me.

Now when I read this I thought, why did he put in verse 18? Do you see it there? He says, do good in Your good pleasure to Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem. Now how does that fit in to this whole matter of seeking pardon and the problem of sin? And I said, God, there had to be something deep in this, and here's what I believe David was saying. David was saying, all the time that I was wrestling with this whole matter of guilt, trying to cover it up, I was neglecting my daily assignments of being a good king, and sin does that. Sin can become, secret sin that we wrestle with, can distract us and take our energies away and our focus, and we're always trying to figure out, how can I cover up this sin? And as a result, the things for which we are responsible in life become neglected, because we can't concentrate on that. We are so wrapped up in trying to figure out, how am I going to get out of mess? And David said, all the time I've tried to cover this sin I've neglected being a good king. I've left the walls, some of them need to be built, and God, the altars need to be repaired, and there needs to be some work there in the sanctuary, and all of this time all that has been neglected. I couldn't focus on that.

When the mind is clear and the heart is right, and you know in your heart God's forgiven you, you can refocus and bring balance back into life, and duty, and responsibility. It's true, isn't it? Sin can really be distracting. David said, now God, if You forgive me I'm going to get back and be the best king ever. I'm going to do what needs to be done around the palace, and around the city walls, and the worship center. That way we'll start getting the sacrifices of righteousness back into order, and God I regret that I've neglected my assignment.

Now come back with me to verse 11, and here's where we'll conclude our study today. I think probably this is one of the most confounding thoughts in this entire prayer. He says, do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Now let's take our notes and let's go to page 5 in our notes. Would you do that? Take the notes out of your bulletin. You can read the other pages when you have lunch today. Down at the bottom of page 5: Cast me not away from Thy presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Some Bible scholars see an allusion partly to the exclusion of the leper from the congregation. Remember, we've learned that leprosy was somehow symbolic of sin, but a leper once he was pronounced leprous he had to stand apart from all the congregation and if anybody got within a certain distance from him he'd say, unclean, unclean. And thus he spent the rest of his life separated and isolated from people because of his leprosy. David said I don't want to do that.

Others see in this prayer David's deep concern that God not reject the nation of Israel from His favor because of his sin. God I know I've sinned, but don't take it out on my nation. But I think what must have been uppermost in 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 a high position of king, but he saw him 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 6. 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 the 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 commonly 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.

Now the story of his life begins in the early part of 1 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 in the Bible 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." In other words, he had a commanding presence. I've always prayed I should have been 7 feet tall. There's something about height that gives a command when you walk into a room.

Secondly, young Saul showed certain to 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. Remember he chased out all the spiritualists in the nation, and his evident moral purity in social relationships. These marked this young man's nature and character.

Thirdly, there were special gifts that God gave him when he became king. It says that, "God gave him another heart so that he became another man." Again, "the Spirit of God came upon him so that he prophesied." And again, a band of men whose hearts God had touched surrounded him. Now this was the young Saul of fair promise.

And we find in 1 Samuel 10, we find Saul anointed as king. Then Samuel, that's the prophet, called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah, and he said to the children of Israel, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I brought you up 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. And history behind that verse is this, God wanted a nation that He could lead through godly man, the prophets, but as the nation of Israel got in amongst the Cainites, and all the rest of the folks, they saw them with their kings and they came to the conclusion, God, we really don't want You. We'd like to have a king like everybody else around us. And God said, all right, I'll give you a king, but it'll be against My plan.

Page 7. 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. Now 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. In those days no king went to war without the priest's prayer. So he said, Samuel, come and pray for us before we go to war. Offer the sacrifice for us. Samuel doesn't arrive. Saul gets impatient, and he foolishly presumes upon with his own hand the prearranged sacrifices. He positioned himself as a priest.

God says you as a king can do certain things, and you as a priest can do certain things, but you don't cross responsibilities. You don't do that. Saul took the prerogative to become a priest, offer the sacrifices. He violated that obedience to the voice of God through the prophet which was a basic condition for theocratic kingship. In other words, ruled by God Himself. And Samuel's rebuke was, "Saul, thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah."

Now 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 and Saul calls the priest. Here again, to ask God for guidance, but with stupid impatience cuts short the enquiry and rushes his men off to battle without God's blessing.

But in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel comes still graver failure. It's a blend of disobedience and deceit. Saul is told to destroy utterly the vile Amalekites; but he spares the king and the best livestock. A total violation of God's instructions. Then he equivocates to Samuel. He slips blame for the booty on to the people. He even pretends that 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 petty jealousy until it becomes fiendish malice against David. Remember he threw a sword at him a number of times trying to kill him. Now David had watched a mighty man begin to dwindle and disintegrate before his very eyes when the Spirit of God was taken from him. And the last tragic act in the mournful drama of this man is depicted in chapters 27 to 31 of 1 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 in the dark underworld. Witchcraft and then suicide.

Saul is no more. He lies a corpse with his son Jonathan. How are the mighty fallen. How is this son of the morning brought to shame. Page 8. 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 the 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. Ladies and gentlemen, I think what David was praying--he knows that he had been disobedience to the commands of God just like Saul. But he had witnessed a man high and blessed disobey and finally the Spirit of God is taken from him.

Look at the last sentence on page 8. Here are Saul's departing words to history. God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore! David knew what sin could do, and what he is saying is, God, I don't want to die like Saul. Well how did he die? Chapter 31 of 1 Samuel says he's out on the battlefield. The Philistines whom he had whipped before are now after him, and they've got armies planted all over the place, and he sees them coming. One of the spears thrown hits him. He's wounded. He says to his armor bearer, kill me. I don't want the enemy having the joy of killing me. And the armor bearer said, I'm not going to do it. What did old Saul do? He sticks his spear and he falls on his spear and commits suicide there on the battlefield.

When the enemies come they rejoice, take off his head, take his body back and nails it to the wall of the heathen city and laughs at it. Then, finally, his friends come and take the body down, burn it, and bury the remains. David knew that. He's saying, God, I don't want to die that way. I don't want You to cast me away from Your presence. I know I've disobeyed You, and I don't want to do the way of Saul.

I had somebody come to me last Sunday and said, Pastor, when you get to verse 11 are you going to talk about eternal security? I said, why? Well it says in other parts of the Bible if you've got the Spirit of God, and you are once saved, you can lose it. I said that's not even the issue here. I'm not interested in that theological confusion. What he's really saying is I watched a man who God had mightily dealt with, and I watched a man rebelliously act on his own against the commands of God, and with arrogance. I watched God take His Spirit from a man, and I don't want that ever to happen.

What he's saying? I think, ladies and gentlemen, here's the crux of it: he's saying, when you look around and you see the price tag on sin it ought to tell us something. When we see the price that other people pay for sinning, we see homes destroyed because of adultery. We ought to say to God, God, I don't want my home, I don't want my marriage to end that way. I don't want it to be that way, and with Your help, it's not going to be that way, because I've seen the price tag on sin. Young people, you see it around you, kids that get caught in drugs. They've got their arms poked and they've got their hair stringing, and they've got their bodies destroyed, and they've got their lives wrecked and they die young. And you young people should look at other young people and say I've seen enough of that. That's a high price tag you pay for sin when you get involved with the drug world. With God's help I'll never go there. I'll never go there. The price tag is too high.

When the Bible says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, young people when you choose your mate don't choose an unbeliever. Because as hard as you try to convince yourself you'll make Christians out of them, eventually, it will end up in a destroyed home because you've violated the commands of God. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That's what the Bible says. Sin has a tremendous price tag, just ask Saul. He said, God has forsaken me and He won't talk to me anymore. That's utter desolation, isn't it? David said, God, I hope I learn just to look around and see the price tag other people have paid for their sin, and that ought to be enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of pastors to have fallen. I have reached out to them in love in the process of restoration. But I'll tell you, when I see the price tag for a sinning preacher the hurt that it brings to people, the distrust in religion itself, the anguish it brings to a family, I have one prayer; God, I'm getting near the finish line. I'm seventy years old. But I just pray that You'll keep me close to You and close to the cross so I don't make failure on the last lap of the journey, because I don't want to fail like other pastors have. That's what keeps me close to the cross, because it would be a tragic day if I ever had to stand before you and say, I failed you. I went the way of sin. I've seen the price tag and it scares me. And all of us ought to take a look at sin just for the sake of the lessons it teaches, and say that's the price tag of sin. It cost Saul everything. And David said, so help me God, I turn to You God and I rejoice knowing that You're a gracious God, and You forgive and I thank you for that. Isn't this a prayer to have?

Father, for some of us here today we're very sensitive to the fact that we've failed You deeply. We need Your pardon. May we believe in You, the God that David believed in, as the God of generous spirit and the God of mercy and grace, the God who is more anxious to give us forgiveness than often we are to ask for it. May hearts today who struggle with guilt and sin turn to You and find a generous God of mercy, and grace, and love that forgives. That's our prayer. We pray it in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. God bless you. God bless you.