Psalm 51 Take Not Your Holy Spirit From Me

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This famous psalm contains the penitential prayer of David after his sin with Bathsheba became known. In 2 Samuel 12, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David for his sin. To understand the depth of grief in David’s prayer here in Psalm 51, it is helpful to reread how God delivered the message to David that prompted the prayer.

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Allow me to interject here that this is a great metaphor for what sin does… it is the taking, killing, and consuming of another person’s pet lamb or something even more dear. Like any normal person, David was angered by the injustice in Nathan’s report. But there was more to the story.

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. (2 Samuel 12:1-9)

Nathan came to the king with a compelling word picture that allowed David to emotionally pronounce judgment on another person over the hypothetical taking and killing of a poor man’s pet lamb. Perhaps we would like to judge David for this outburst, however, is this not what we all tend to do? Instead of confessing and repenting of our own sins, we often project our guilt onto others. We have created an entire media culture that facilitates this cursed coping mechanism. There is so much we can learn from the Lord and Nathan’s approach, but that is not the focus of this post.

Instead, from Psalm 51, I want to consider how we respond when conviction for our sins comes upon us.

“You are that man!” Oh no!

How do we respond when we become aware of our failure to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and have failed to love our neighbors as ourselves? Will we deny doing anything wrong and embrace a lie, or will we contritely admit the truth and run to our merciful God, our Heavenly Father who loves us?

As the narrative reveals, King David was far from perfect, and he did some horrific things.[1] Yet when he realized that he had sinned, he repented wholeheartedly... with no denials, no excuses, no minimization, and no blaming. He didn't go all "Saul" on the corrective message or the messenger. How do we respond when the Holy Spirit convicts us that we have sinned? Psalm 51 is a great primer on how to confess and repent.

How do we handle guilt over our actions, inactions, attitudes, and thoughts? Do we cover it up or switch to a fight or flight reaction? Or do we realize that God knows the deep truth about us and that the best response is to confess? The reality of our failures is that there will come a time when they can be denied no longer. It is far better to be a quick confessor!

Confession (v. 3-4)

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When we confess, we are saying, “Yep, I did it (i.e., ‘I know my transgressions…’v.3) and you are completely right to judge me” (v.4). David’s conscience had been activated by conviction and now he couldn’t unsee his sin. Further, he recognizes that all sin ultimately was against the Lord. He was not denying that he hurt people but recognizing that the Lord was the ultimate recipient of that hurt… not just the poor man whose lamb was taken but the one who is the Lamb of God as seen in type through the OT sacrificial system.

In verses 5-6, David owned up to his systemic fallenness. Allow me to paraphrase, “I have a sinful nature; it seems that even as an infant I was not sinless, yet you teach me wisdom in my heart/inward being (v.5-6). He knew that God doesn’t wait for perfection before he gets involved in our lives but walks with us and teaches us along the way… if we have ears to hear.

David knew that he had sinned against the heart of God and taken from others that which he could not give back. Yet, because he valued his walk with God he came to God in this prayer of faith and deep humility and asked some honest requests.

Petition: Requests he asked of God…

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Have mercy on me (v.1) and not just any run-of-the-mill mercy but mercy that is “according to your steadfast love.” Mercy is not getting the dreadful thing that you deserve. David knew he deserved death and pleaded for that mercy sourced in and suited for God’s steadfast love (Heb. hesed). And just as that hesed abounds in God’s nature, so David asked for abundant mercy so that his second round of requests might be accomplished. 

     Blot out my transgressions (v.1d,9)

         Wash me thoroughly (v. 2, 7)

               Purge and cleanse me (v.7)

These three requests are all in one accord, asking for the same thing. David wanted to be clean inside and out. While used in parallel, we might see subtle variations on a theme. He wanted to be set free from the guilt of what he had done, washed from all the lingering external residue, and even deep-cleaned on the inside cutting off sin at its root, a prideful heart.

All he experienced until the Lord forgave and restored him was the opposite of joy, but in hope, he prayed, “Let me hear joy and gladness” (for I am consumed with sorrow and regret). David knew something about a right relationship with God—it is the source of joy. As people who have received forgiveness through Jesus Christ, we too should lean into the joy and gladness of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, David humbly asked for healing as he confessed his brokenness (v.8) As a shepherd, David knew that sometimes a shepherd must break the leg of a wandering sheep of its own good. During the recovery time, they are always in the presence of the shepherd and learn that life is better there than wandering among wolves and lions.

Then David wrote/prayed the well-known words that many of us have fervently sung as well as prayed down through the centuries,

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right 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. (v.10-12)

These three short verses encapsulate the cries of the hearts of all who not only know and mourn their sins but who also know the God who is “slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness.” What might seem at first to be six densely packed requests are three pairings of parallel requests.

In the first pairing, David asked God to create and renew a clean heart/right spirit “within me” where he only knew the stain of his sins and the wrong thinking and sorrow they produced. In the third pairing, we see that the restoration of the joy of salvation (echoing v. 8) is tied to a willing spirit that upholds us in difficulty.

While I can personally relate to David repeatedly asking for cleansing, and renewed joy, it is the relational request of the middle pairing (v.11) that captures my heart this week.

Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me. (v.11)

I propose that neither of the other pairings are possible without the Lord granting this request. Even if we were cleansed, we could not hope to remain so if God removed his presence from us. Not only that but what enduring joy could we have apart from the Spirit? This might not seem important to us because we often undervalue the Holy Spirit. However, David knew what happened to his predecessor—Saul—when because of his stubborn heart and refusal to confess his sin, God had removed his Spirit from him (1 Sam. 16:14). David had witnessed Saul’s torment, jealousy, and fits of homicidal madness all too often. He would not have wanted to be like Saul, and I am sure that such memories added to the intensity of his plea. Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t merely dole out heavenly currency to meet our needs, he gives us his very self! The presence of the Lord is life (1 John 5:11-12).

This psalm is a blessing for those who know they have sinned and long to be right with God. It not only gives us the language to bare our soul before the Lord, but it is also a prayer that God answered for David (the psalmist) and will answer for us today through Jesus Christ! But having been forgiven, will we teach others God's ways, or will we return to our own?

Declaration

Right after this prayer of petition, there is a pledge of faithful living from then on. David declared what he would do upon being cleansed, kept close, and restored to the joy of salvation. He would be an example for others to follow. Something he could not be without the inclusion of both his failures and his repentant faithfulness. He planned to sing aloud and declare God’s praise. Recently on a church worship and prayer night, we sang Cody Carnes’ song Bless God, which includes these lyrics,

Come on and bring your offering
Sing if you've known His grace
Come on and lift up your holy hands
He's worthy of all our praise.

Bless God in the sanctuary
Bless God in the fields of plenty
Bless God in the darkest valley
Every chance I get
I bless Your name.

This is exactly what David said he would do upon experiencing such desperately needed grace. The Lord doesn’t long to smell more burning meat on the sacrificial altar’s grill. He desires a different type of sacrifice—that of “a broken and contrite heart” (v.17).

What is the sign of such a sacrificial heart? It is confession. Instead of walking the path of rationalization, minimization, and deflection, a contrite heart admits its moments of weakness, acts of disobedience, and attitudes of independence and rebellion.

A dozen years ago I commented on this psalm, “In this great psalm of repentance, David acknowledged the kind of sacrifice God accepts...a broken and contrite heart. Such hearts like his are in short supply these days having lost their shelf space to more popular and less helpful indulgences like denial, pride, excuses, pride, technical confession without remorse, and did I mention pride?”

The Holy Spirit Draws Us Back to Jesus

If we have not grown hard of heart and calloused of conscience when we become aware of our sin, our guilty hearts often hear two voices speak—one condemns and the other convicts. We do well to learn the difference.

Condemnation is the voice of the accuser speaking to our fears and shame warning us to get as far away from the angry, judgmental, punitive God as we can, for we no longer deserve his love, and he doesn’t want anything to do with us. Remember that the accuser—Satan—is the father of lies.

The other voice is that of conviction. Conviction is the voice of the Holy Spirit reminding us that we can’t save ourselves and that we need to get to Jesus Christ, the lover of our soul, as quickly as we can, for Jesus is our light, life, and everlasting hope! John tells it straight,

Come unto me...

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9 ESV)

If we are sorry for our sin, and don’t merely turn away from a harmful attitude or behavior but
return to our merciful Lord Jesus we should have no fear that the Holy Spirit will be taken from us.

Remember that God is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20), so today, instead of self-condemnation, take time to thank the Lord for the forgiveness and cleansing he has given to us! David did.

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[1] [Note: the regular inclusion of the faults and sins of “heroic” biblical characters is solid evidence that the Bible is not propaganda but a true historical narrative.]