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PSALM 51:12 “RESTORE UNTO ME THE JOY OF THY SALVATION; AND UPHOLD ME WITH THY FREE SPIRIT.” (KJV)
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. (NKJV, NASB, NIV)
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. (NASB, ASV, RSV)
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (NIV)
Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (TLB)
Christians ought to be the happiest people alive! After all, what could bring you more joy than knowing you are saved? So, the obvious question is, what causes us to sometimes look like we need joy restored to our lives?
We don’t need to dwell on David’s sin with Bathsheba a lot more, but you can see how the consequences of his sin had left him very far from the joy he had previously demonstrated. Sin will do that. The urge to satisfy a momentary, sinful pleasure can lead every one of us on a path of destruction and sorrow that can bring about loss, pain and sometimes, even death.
Already, from the last two chapters, we know that a man who had once danced in front of the entire nation of Israel in praise to the Lord, had sunk to unbelievable lows and depression as a result of a momentary pleasure. Convicted of his sin by Nathan the prophet, he had to deal with the guilt of murder, the loss of his child, the future rejection of many of his children and resulting turning away by his nation from God. Sin will do that.
Have you ever found yourself far from God because of your sins, turned from them in repentance and pleaded with Him to “create a clean heart” in you again? Along with that second request to “renew a right spirit within me,” now comes David’s plea to “restore the joy of his salvation.”
I hope you have felt that joy that comes from knowing you are clean in God’s eyes, free from the shackles of sins that felt like they would doom you for eternity. We don’t always “feel” that joy, but oh what incredible rapture it can be if you ever take in the full realization that Jesus’ sacrifice for me paid the price that I should have had to pay.
There are many who can testify how low they were in this life and how the miracle of Jesus’ saving them made them feel such an immense joy. If you have never felt that, I would encourage you to ask Jesus to show you the kind of joy such “good news” should bring you.
There are maybe even more of us who, once having felt that joy, know how miserable it feels to journey far from that joy, in search of some of life’s promising pleasures, only to eventually discover there was no joy in them at all. I ache every time I hear stories of God’s preachers and ministers of the Word who get drawn away, usually after lustful desires, only to find that not only has sin caught up with them, but the testimony of their failure has ruined their ministry. The tears flow, the sorrow heaps, forgiveness is usually found, but what was originally a life filled with the joy of salvation and usefulness for the Lord comes crashing down around them.
Much later, maybe after years of repentance and picking up the destroyed pieces of their lives, they learn that there is still forgiveness from the Lord. But some damage that results from our sins, we learn that we just have to live with.
David’s child who came as a result of his lustful heart died. David had to live with that consequence the rest of his life.
The preacher who chased after his own “Bathsheba” ruined a ministry that the Lord was so abundantly blessing. The evangelist who gave into drugs or alcohol might still have a great testimony of deliverance by the Lord, but he or she has to live with some of the consequences that made their testimony so much less than it could have been.
It’s easy to see how we can lose that joy that was so evident before our fall in sin. Praise the Lord, He is still ready to forgive us of our sins and restore us to right relationship with Him. We can remember that we had a clean heart before. In answer to our prayers, He can create a clean heart again. He can renew that right spirit that we didn’t realize we were sacrificing.
The Lord can even restore the joy of our salvation…maybe not the same as before, but maybe even better! Unfortunately, we tend to want to hang onto the memory of our failures because guilt doesn’t go away easily. That’s what calls for the need of the second part of this verse: “Jesus, please uphold me with Your Spirit!”
Notice that the different versions call that a free, generous, willing Spirit. Only the Lord can restore the joy of our salvation. If we try to generate that joy ourselves, we will fail. Once again, (just like we remember it was before we were saved), it takes the generous, free and willing Holy Spirit to touch our damaged, wounded lives and provide healing. Only He can bring joy back again after our failures.
God is faithful. He wants us to never leave His side. But He knows, many of us will…even after having felt the joy that comes from being freed from the chains of slavery of our sins. But the good news is, He never lets go!
Even while we are chasing what we think will bring us joy, He knows the way we are going. When we fall, the Lord is patiently waiting for us to plead, “Lord, please forgive me and pick me up again!” He answers those prayers by picking us up and forgiving us and renewing right spirits within us.
I like the way the KJV says it: “He UPHOLDS me with His free (generous, willing) Spirit.” Only the Lord can hold me up! Everything else…everyone else…will let me down eventually. He picks me up. He cleans me up again. He brings joy, just like the joy of our original salvation, back into our lives so we can live for Him again.
Only Jesus can do this for us in our lives. Let Him restore that joy of your salvation today. Live in the life that continually enjoys how only He can uphold you with His free Spirit. Watch what comes next!
Questions to consider: Have there been any followers of Jesus who have not fallen? The Bible can be so brutally honest about the weaknesses and failures of those God has chosen to follow Him. Does the Bible give examples of anyone who never fell? Have you ever asked, “how many times can I fail and fall and expect Jesus to forgive me and restore me?” Is it reasonable for us to expect, after a fall into sin, that the Lord will use us the same way He used us before? After David’s sin, he and Bathsheba gave birth to Solomon, the wisest man to live and in the lineage of Jesus. Does Jesus still use us after our failures?
Other Scriptures to study: 2 Samuel 12: 22-25 (see especially the part that says, “The Lord loved him.”) See Peter’s example of restoration: John 21:15-18. Deuteronomy 34, Moses pays for disobeying God, yet is blessed with seeing the Promised Land and is buried by God Himself: “Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face…”
A Song to Remember: “Create in Me a Clean Heart” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Hk3WFUMvo
 
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