Psalm 51:10-13 - Getting Right With God.
Psa 51:10-13; Getting Right With God.
Psa 51:10-13 (KJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew
a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and
take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach
transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Psalm 51:10-13 (NLT) Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a
right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't
take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your
salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to
sinners, and they will return to you.
Psalm 51:10-13 (AMP) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right, persevering, and steadfast 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 will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be
converted and return to You.
Psa 51:10-13 (CWR) Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a
new, right spirit within me. Don't ask me to leave your presence and
don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your
salvation and grant me a willing heart to obey you. Then I will teach
transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.
CONTEXT
Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
This is the most famous of the penitential psalms (6, 32, 38,
51, 102, 130, and 143). [Disciple SB]
The Way Back to God.--I present before you the fifty-first
psalm, a psalm filled with precious lessons. From it we may learn what
course to follow if we have departed from the Lord. {3BC 1147}
What a beautiful summation of the Twelve Steps David gives us in
this psalm. [Life Recovery Devotional SB]
This is the most adequate confession of sin in the Bible. There
is no attempt to justify the sin. Sin is stated for what it is, and
God is perceived for what He is. David could not forget his
transgression. Its magnitude consisted not in what he had done to Bathsheba and
Uriah, but in what he had done against the Lord. [Disciple SB]
David was horror-stricken because of his sin's gravity. He felt
that for God to remove the curse of this terrible wrongdoing from his
conscience would take a miracle comparable to bringing the world into
existence from nothing. Spiritual miracles are far more amazing than those
concerning the physical universe. Forgiving, renewing, and reforming the
human personality is one of God's great creative acts. Human power and
intelligence cannot produce morally and spiritually pure persons. [Disciple
SB]
Because we are born as sinners our natural inclination is to
please ourself rather than God. David followed that inclination when he
took another man's wife. We also follow it when we sin in any way...
Right conduct can come only from a clean heart and spirit. Ask God to
create a pure heart in you. [Life Application SB]
CROSS REFERENCES
Ezekiel 18:31 (KJV) Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit:
for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Romans 12:2 (KJV) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and
you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and
from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a
heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow
my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
2 Cor. 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.
Titus 3:5 (KJV) Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Luke 11:13 (KJV) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Ephes. 2:10 (KJV) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them.
1 Cor. 15:58 (KJV) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye
stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch
as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Peter 1:5 (KJV) Who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Jude 1:24 (KJV) Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy,
COMMENTARY / APPLICATION
Create. As something new, which cannot emerge from what now is,
and which only God can fashion [NIV SB]
Create. Translates the Hebrew verb bara, which is used in the
O.T. to refer to an activity of God and God alone. Only the Creator
God can re-create man. [Believer's SB]
Create. The verb translated create is the same one used in Gen.
1:1 and refers to what only God can do. David was asking that his
heart be renewed, restored, and transformed. God is the only source of
such a renewal. [Nelson SB]
A right spirit or a constant spirit; a spirit that is steadfast
in its faith, and therefore constant in its obedience. [SDA
Commentary]
With thy free spirit. better translated, willing spirit; David
prays to be kept in a frame of mind willing and ready to obey God and
to serve Him. [SDA Commentary]
It is by his Spirit that God gives his people a "new heart and .
. . a new spirit" to live by his will. [NIV SB]
When Jesus speaks of the new heart, He means the mind, the life,
the whole being. To have a change of heart is to withdraw the
affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart
is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives. What is the sign
of a new heart?--a changed life. There is a daily, hourly dying to
selfishness and pride. {4BC 1164.10}
Perhaps our most troubling times come when we are faced with the
realization that we have sinned. How we deal with that sin makes all the
difference in the world. It's like the difference between night and day.
The difference between a crushing sense of guilt, and the buoyant
realization that our heart is pure.
This well-known psalm celebrating God's forgiveness was written
by David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then
arranged for the death of her husband in battle. The first half of the
psalm portrays the dark side of our experience. The second half the
bright newness God offers believers who confess their sins to Him....
Aware of the darkness within him, David cried out, "Create in me
a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." God,
who spoke light into existence, can do a creative work in us and
make our soiled hearts pure.
And when that happens? Then again there is joy in salvation.
Then again we are able to "teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners
will turn back to You."
From the purified heart pour forth hymns of praise, and from the
humble acknowledgment of what we are comes something new; a life of
holiness. [The 365-Day Devotional Commentary]
God wants us to be close to him and to experience his full and
complete life. But sin that remains unconfessed makes such intimacy
impossible. Confess your sin to God. You may still have to face some earthly
consequences, as David did, but God will give back the joy of your
relationship with him. [Life Application SB]
How Hearts May Be Kept for God.-- The heart in its natural state
is a habitation for unholy thoughts and sinful passions. When
brought into subjection to Christ, it must be cleansed by the Spirit
from all defilement.... Only in His strength can we keep guard over the
words and actions. In the work of heart-keeping we must be instant in
prayer, unwearied in petitioning the throne of grace for assistance.
Those who take the name of Christian should come to God in earnestness
and humility, pleading for help. The Saviour has told us to pray
without ceasing. The Christian can not always be in the position of
prayer, but his thoughts and desires can always be upward.... To keep your
heart in heaven, will give vigor to all your graces, and put life into
all your duties. To discipline the mind to dwell upon heavenly
things, will put life and earnestness into all our endeavors.... The
affections should center upon God. Contemplate His greatness, His mercy and
excellences. Let His goodness and love and perfection of character captivate
your heart. Converse upon His divine charms, and the heavenly
mansions He is preparing for the faithful. {3BC 1157}
And having become partakers of the heavenly gift, we are to go
on unto perfection, being "kept by the power of God through faith."
1 Peter 1:5. Yet we have a work to do to resist temptation. Those
who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices must guard well the
avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that
which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind should not be left to
wander at random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may
suggest. "Girding up the loins of your mind," says the apostle Peter, "Be
sober, . . . not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts
in . . . your ignorance: but like as He which called you is holy,
be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living." 1 Peter
1:13-15, R.V. Says Paul, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things." Philippians 4:8. This will require earnest prayer and unceasing
watchfulness. We must be aided by the abiding influence of the Holy Spirit,
which will attract the mind upward, and habituate it to dwell on pure
and holy things. And we must give diligent study to the word of God.
{PP 460}
A Christian has victory over his besetments, over his passions.
There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus.
Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient... I saw how this grace could be
obtained. Go to your closet, and there alone plead with God: "Create in me
a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Be in
earnest, be sincere. Fervent prayer availeth much. Jacoblike, wrestle in
prayer. Agonize. Jesus, in the garden, sweat great drops of blood; you
must make an effort. Do not leave your closet until you feel strong
in God; then watch, and just as long as you watch and pray you can
keep these evil besetments under, and the grace of God can and will
appear in you. {1T 158}
"Lord, renew a right spirit within me." He who sincerely prays
to God to do this, will prove his honesty by using the means
through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word of
God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful
to watch over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord has his own
appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be ready when he passes
by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and
nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed
from him, cease not to cry, "Renew a right spirit within me." Morning
and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon
Trouble and distress may lead us to perceive God's absence. This
may be a revelation of God's displeasure and punishment and should
lead to repentance. Israel regularly understood God as withdrawing
and angry at His sinful people. Still they knew they could confess
their sins and call on God for salvation. [Disciple SB]
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our
defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 1 John 2:1 (NIV)
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