Psalm 51 (Day 25): Let Me

Merciful Lord and King,

I thank You for inviting me to draw near to You

and to approach Your throne of grace with confidence.

Too often, however,

in the safety of Your presence,

I forget that You are uncontainable

and attempt to reduce You to something,

anything that fits comfortably

within my self-centered little world.

Teach me, Holy Spirit of the living God,

to regard and worship the Godhead
in a manner that is pleasing to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit --

with reverence, intimacy, understanding, humility,

and gratitude.

In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen!

A harvest is appointed. 
A reward is set aside.
A promise is made.

Surely, the day will come when the Lord will not only improve His people through harsh and fiery circumstances, but He will also improve the very circumstances of His chosen ones. The day will come when the presence of the Lord will be the only light of the city, the final dwelling of the Lord's people.

Until that time comes, it is imperative that God's people know that God is indeed with them. 

For that reason, God initiated contact with mankind.

The Father spoke to our forefathers.
He spoke through His prophets.
He spoke to Israel. 

The Son came as the Word incarnate for all.
He lived amidst humanity as the Word practiced before all.
He died a gruesome death on the Cross as the Word broken to all.

The Holy Spirit came fifty (50) days after the resurrection as the Counselor, Comforter, and Teacher of anyone who believes in the One the Father has sent -- Jesus, our Lord and King. He is the reason I will be celebrating on Pentecost Sunday, commemorating the day He came and rested upon the early followers of Jesus in the form of individual tongues of fire.

As He continues to speak to me through Psalm 51, I now reach verse 8 on this twenty-fifth morning of my 50 days of waiting. The verse goes as follows,

"Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones You have crushed rejoice."

The opening "Let me" of the verse is suggestive of a heart that recognizes where true authority resides -- in God, the Sovereign Creator of the universe. He is the One whose scepter of justice allows, provides, grants anything and everything you and I need for life and godliness. 

He is the One who:

     -  stills storms

     -  feeds the hungry

     -  opens shut doors

     -  unlocks deaf ears

     -  clothes the naked

     -  frees the oppressed

     -  widens narrow lanes

     -  gives sight to the blind

     -  makes the lame to walk

Recognizing that you and I serve the Most High God instructs our hearts that anything at all we desire can only come to pass if He lets us, if He permits us.

Hence, David's prayer invites us to request the Father's go-ahead in everything, to humbly ask for His permission even for things that we might take for granted like hearing joy and gladness.

Why, we must ask, does David request to hear joy and gladness?

For one, we know that David used to hear unpleasant sounds, as recorded in Psalm 3:2,

"Many are saying of me,

'God will not deliver him."

and Psalm 5:9,

"Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;

their heart is filled with destruction.

Their throat is an open grace;

with their tongue they speak deceit."

For another, David focused on the loudness of his sin in the first seven verses of Psalm 51, as summed up in the following words, 

" . . . my sin is always before me."

Psalm 51:3

Therefore, his request must imply that joy and gladness can only come to him when the Lord completely removes his sin and grants him total forgiveness.

And of his crushed bones, David himself answers his own question in Psalm 34:17-20,

"The righteous cry out,

and the Lord hears them;

He delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

A righteous man may have many troubles,

but the Lord delivers him from them all;

He protects all his bones,

not one of them will be broken."

In fact, David also says in his lament,

"Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure . . .

You have made known to me the path of life;

You will fill me with joy in Your presence,

with eternal pleasures at Your right hand."

Ps 16:9, 11

The takeaway for us who often find ourselves in David's predicament is this: No matter how despairing our sinful state may feel, no matter how loud the taunts of our thorns and adversaries may be, no matter how broken and oppressed our hearts may be under the load of shame and guilt, we have a Father who lets us remember that His "law is perfect, reviving the soul" and whose "precepts are right, giving joy to the heart" (Ps 19:7, 8). He is the One who fills hearts with great joy and turns "mourning into dancing" (Ps 30:12).

Let me see Your glory, Oh Father!

Let me hear Your gracious voice, O Son of God!

Let me heed Your generous promptings, O Holy Spirit of God!