In this article we are going to write a bit about Psalm 51, but not without first highlighting that this Psalm was written by King David from the depths of his heart and his sensibilities as a human being. From the first verse we see his soul emptied before God, speaking as a man who has been destroyed and who recognizes his sin and simply cries out for God’s mercy. David wrote this psalm after he had committed a series of sins and simply no longer felt comfortable without God.
What do we feel when we sin? Really many times when we sin we only think about what people will say, but have we thought about what God will say? When we sin our greatest concern, it should not be men but God, that God who looks at us from heaven who is offended by our actions.
And David at that time did not have men in first line for the terrible fault he had committed but he felt extremely alone without God because he understood that he had transgressed all types of Law.
David begins this chapter with the following verse:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Psalm 51:1
The first thing is that we should never go to God justifying ourselves for what we know is wrong. Dear brother, before God there is no human justification, the only thing that justifies us is the precious blood of Christ on the cross but for this we must go before God with a totally repentant heart that recognizes its failure. Remember that God looks at the humble closely and the proud looks at him from afar.
But I want us to pay full attention to the following verse of this supplication of David:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:12
It is good to point out that David had lost the joy of salvation, the joy of the Lord was no longer in him, and precisely because of this he had become involved in so many unpleasant acts. What I want to highlight with all this is that when we lose this joy we also get involved in things that are not pleasant the Lord and that is why, together with David, we should say: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation”.
If we have lost that joy we should ask God to relive that joy in us again, those moments where we only wanted to be in the house of God, those moments where the things of this world did not fill our eyes, where we only wanted to be close to the Lord and nothing else. If we have lost that joy this is the time to renew it before the Lord, to go in prayer and ask Him that we can no longer be without Him, that our souls are dejected and that without Him we can do nothing.
Dear brothers, I hope that these words can in some way comfort you in the Lord.
