Mensa Otabil - Restored Joy
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Psalm 51, verse 12: «Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.» Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David. It is believed that David wrote this Psalm at the time when he had grievously offended the Lord. He had sinned against God in a very serious way, and he felt far away from the Lord; he felt distanced from the joy of the Lord.
Many of us can identify with David as he wrote this Psalm. We can remember periods in our lives when we felt very, very guilty because we have done something wrong; we have offended the Lord, broken the commandment of the Lord, or done what we really know we shouldn’t have done. Sometimes we recover from the incident and move on, but the memory brings back all kinds of feelings of guilt and rejection.
We feel, «Oh God, why did I do that?» and that’s where David was at this time. He had sinned against the Lord, but one of the good things about David is that when he sinned against God, he didn’t run away from the Lord, which is what a lot of people do. They sin against God, they run away from God and the people of God, and they stop going to church. Some probably stop reading their Bibles and don’t want to hear anything Christian because it makes them feel bad inside. But David did the opposite; he went before the Lord and threw himself at the mercy of the Lord.
That’s what we should do, because when we sin against the Lord, we don’t feel better by turning away from Him or because we feel ashamed. We feel better when we have a sense that God has forgiven us, and the way to know God has forgiven you is to truly repent of your sin. Repentance has two parts: you feel sad for what you’ve done, but that is only one part of it. The other part is that you turn away from it. You feel sad that you’ve done it, and you determine you’re not going to do it again.
You cannot repent and still be doing the same thing; that’s not repentance. That is just trying to appease your own conscience, and very soon, if you continue doing that, you’ll have a dead conscience. So David came to the Lord and prayed, «Lord, I want You to restore to me the joy of Your salvation, the joy of knowing that I am Your child, that You are with me, and that I obey You.» That joy of salvation is so important for us to know that we are in a right relationship with God. And so he says, «Restore that to me,» and he says, «Uphold me with Your generous Spirit.» «Lord, You’re generous; You’re good; You’re merciful. Hold me, keep me together, help me not to fall apart.»
That’s what David is praying, and he cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard him. The Lord restored to him the joy of His salvation. So today, if you feel like David and think, «Oh, I have just blown it with God; I shouldn’t have done it,» and maybe you are living with the consequences of your sin, instead of just feeling embarrassed, bad, and guilty, why don’t you truly repent? Turn away from it as well, go to the Lord, and ask for His mercy. Then you can pray the prayer of David: «Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.» For anyone who feels distant from God, may the Lord restore to you the joy of His salvation, and may He uphold you by His generous Spirit.
Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, release me from the prison of my past sins. Fill my heart with Your joy and peace. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.