3/1/2012 11:40:34 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Restore Me
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 51:8-12
Message of the verses: In today’s SD we will look at the next section of Psalm 51 as David moves from confessing his sins and being cleansed to asking God to restore him so that his life would again be useful to the Lord.
“Restore Me” (vv. 8-12): “8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.’”
I would like to begin by sharing a portion from the John MacArthur Study Bible that has to do with a section in verse eleven of Psalm 51 where David makes a request of the Lord that He would not “take You Holy Spirit from me.” The study of the Holy Spirit is an interesting and profitable study to undertake for there is a difference in His activities from the creation of the world to His activities in the Old Testament times to His activities in the New Testament times. I have heard that the book of Acts, which is the acts of the Apostles could be called the acts of the Holy Spirit. His work in OT Israel is different and that will be briefly in this quotation.
ANOTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
“Old Testament Israel had mediators who stood between God and His people. To empower the OT mediators, the Holy Spirit gave special administrative ability to carry out the management of the nation and military skills which enabled them to defeat the theocracy’s enemies. The Lord first anointed Moses with this ministry of the Spirit, and then in a truly dramatic scene, took some of this ministry of the Spirit and shared it with 70 elders. Thus they were enabled to help Moses administer Israel (Nu. 17:25)
“Also Joshua (Dt. 34:9), the judges (Jdg. 3:10; 6:34), and the kings of united Israel and the southern kingdom were anointed with this special ministry of the Spirit. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon King Saul, for example, he was in effect given ‘another heart’ (1Sam. 10:6-10). This does not mean that he was regenerated at this point in his life, but that he was given skills to be a king. Later the theocratic anointing was taken from Saul and given to David (1Sam. 16:1-14). Saul, from that time on, became a totally incapable leader.
“King David no doubt had this special ministry of the Spirit in mind in his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. He was not afraid of losing his salvation when he prayed, ‘do not take Your Holy Spirit from Me’ (Psalm 51:11), but rather was concerned that God would remove this spiritual wisdom and administrative skill from him. David had earlier seen such a tragedy in the life of Saul when that king of Israel lost the anointing of the Holy Spirit. David was thus pleading with God not to remove His hand of guidance.
“King Solomon also perceived his youthful inabilities at the beginning of his reign and requested God to give him special wisdom in administering Israel. God was greatly pleased with this request and granted an extra measure to the young man (1Ki. 3:7-12, 28; 4:29-24). Although the OT is silent in this regard about the kings who succeeded Solomon, the theocratic anointing of the Spirit likely came on all the descendants of David in connection with the Davidic Covenant.
“When the theocracy went out of existence as Judah was carried away into captivity, and the last Davidic king was disempowered, the theocratic anointing was no longer given (Eze. 8-11). The kings of the northern tribes, on the other hand, being essentially apostate and not in the Davidic line, never had the benefit of this special ministry of the Spirit.” (Copyright by 1997 Thomas Nelson, Inc)
We can see from the verses above that David’s sin affected his whole person. The term “Joy and gladness” according to Dr. Wiersbe is a Hebrew phrase that means “deep joy,” and so David is asking the Lord to create a new heart within him that will give him a steadfast spirit that will not vacillate. It seems to me that many believers would want this same thing, I know that I would for it seems to me that there are far too many times when my spirit vacillates. Dr. Wiersbe writes that verse ten is “central verse of the psalm and it expresses the heart of David’s concern. David knew that the inner person—the heart—was the source of his trouble as well as the seat of his joy and blessing, and he was incapable of changing his own heart. Only God could work the miracle (Jer. 24:7; Ezek. 11:19; 36:25-27).” Jeremiah 24: 7 “’I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.”
I want to pick up a bit on the subject of the Holy Spirit and talk about how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers in the NT. Let’s first look at John 14:15-18, “15 ¶ "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Now let us look at Ephesians 3:30-32 to show us that the believer today can lose the Spirit’s effective ministry by grieving Him, “30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” In Acts 5:1-3 we see that we grieve Him by lying to Him, “1 ¶ But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?” We can also quench the Holy Spirit by deliberate disobedience as seen in 1Thes. 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.” According to Ephesians 1:13-14 we receive the Holy Spirit when we are born from above or “saved” and He will be with us until we go to heaven, “Eph 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” The Holy Spirit is our “down payment.”
David uses the term “willing spirit” in verse 10 and this is speaking of his own spirit and it is one that is not in bondage but is free and yielded to the Holy Spirit of God. We will see in Romans 8:14-17 that the Holy Spirit ministers to us through our spirit. “14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: We can see that David got down to business in his prayer that is found in Psalm 51, and he did this because he knew and loved the Lord and did not want to disappoint Him. I like the portion of Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary where he spoke of where David asked God for a steadfast spirit, one that did not vacillate.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Lord I ask You for a steadfast spirit that will only want to serve you.
2. Lord I pray that You will continue to use my circumstances to teach me contentment.
3/1/2012 1:53:50 PM
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