Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 51 and verse 10. Psalm 51 and verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. This is a Psalm of
David, and we're told over the top the occasion when it was
written that it was when David had committed adultery with Bathsheba
and also murder in using the children of Rabbah to kill Bathsheba's
husband Uriah the Hittite when he found out that he had caused
Bathsheba to be with child He sought first to make it appear
that it was Uriah's child, bring him home from the battle. But
when that didn't work, then he had him slain. And we read that
the thing that David did displeased the Lord. When David had him
slain, then he took Bathsheba to be his wife. And that is then the context
or when this was written. But further than that, the Lord
was pleased to send Nathan, the prophet, to David to convince
him of his sin. Whether David had those bricks
of conscience, whether he realized what he'd done was evil, we do
not know. But the Lord sent Nathan so that
he would tell him a parable And he told him a parable about two
people that were in one city. One was a rich man and one was
a poor man. One had many herds, many flocks,
and the other just had one little ewe lamb that was brought up
with him and was like a child. And the rich man then had brought
to his house visitors and travellers, and instead of killing one of
his flock, many flocks, he took the poor man's lamb and slew
that and dressed it for his visitors. And David, when he heard that
parable, he said, that man shall surely die for this thing. His
anger was greatly aroused because that man had no pity at all but
took that poor man's lamb. And then Nathan said that thou
art the man. And he said to David that God
had given him riches and many wives and he could have had many
more wives and yet he had taken Uriah's one and only wife and
slain Uriah and took his wife to be his. And David fell under
the conviction of that And he said, I have sinned. And Nathan
was able immediately to bring God's message to him and say
to him that God hath also put away thy sin. Thou shalt not
die. So David's sin was forgiven. Nevertheless, God did say that
because he'd done this in the sight of all Israel, the child
that was to be born would die. And the Lord touched it and it
did die. He also said that the sword should
not depart from David's house, that he should have trouble in
his house all his days because of it. What a reminder it is
that sin does have consequences, and though sin is forgiven, yet
God does still visit with chastening afterwards, after repentance
has been given, after sorrow has been evidenced, and after
forgiveness has been obtained. And I proved I've known that
in my own life as well. And David, later on in his life,
when the sword did come in the case of Adonijah, in the case
of Atamah and Absalom, and those that were trouble in his own
house, The Lord gave David a gracious spirit under it to bow under
the hand of God, no doubt remembering his sin and what he had done. So we have with David a man after
God's own heart, and this account is the only blemish that is set
forth in scripture. We know, of course, he sinned
in numbering Israel, but this is the one that is highlighted
by the inspired penman as that it is the only time that David
did walk so contrary to the Lord, and it was evil in the sight
of the Lord. What a reminder that God's dear
children, those that have a right spirit, those that have God's
spirit, a man after mine own heart was what God called him,
can and do fall, and do fall into grievous sin. And the Lord
does chasten for sin, but he also forgives the sin of his
dear people. But David here was not content
just to have his sin forgiven, just to have it blotted out. He wanted something that was
more. And in this psalm, we have a
great outpouring of godly sorrow for his sin. And in the first,
in verses three through to six, we have the acknowledgement of
his transgressions. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, the only have I
sinned. And we might say, well, hasn't,
didn't he sin against Uriah? Didn't he sin against Bathsheba,
against Israel? No, against thee, sin is the
transgression of the law of God. It is against God, not against
man. Yes, we may go against man, and
in that case we are to confess our faults one to another, acknowledge
our sin. But he traces it as a transgression
of sin against God. Against thee, the only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. And so he confesses his sin. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. And what he means there is
not that he was born because of incest or born because of
rape or something like that or out of marriage. but he acknowledges
that as part of the Fall, because of the Fall, he was a sinner
by birth, born in sin and shapen in iniquity. And that applies
to us all. We do not learn to be sinners. We are born sinners. We are born
as the fallen sons of Adam and of Eve, and already under the
sentence of death. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. In dying thou shalt die. And
all of the descendants of Adam must die, except, of course,
those when the Lord comes again, which shall be equivalent to
death, when those of the people of God shall be changed and shall
be with the Lord forever. But we cannot continue. We are
mortal, and this body is corrupted. It is sinful. and it is under
the sentence of death. But here is David setting forth
those things that, though his sin is forgiven and pardoned,
they're things that he wants more, desiring more than forgiveness. And it's not just one thing.
We are going to look mainly at one thing tonight in this verse
10. creating me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. But it's by no means
the only thing that he wants in addition to forgiveness. We might say, well, if our sins
are forgiven, isn't that enough? Shall we not then go to heaven?
Shall it not be well with us? But David, he discerned there
was more needed than that. There was blessings that he needed. from the Lord, and he takes to
prayer to ask the Lord for these things. Notice he doesn't make
resolves to do these things himself. He is responsible and accountable
to God for his own sin and for the actions that he's taken,
but the restoration of his soul is God's work, and that's what
he asks of God. There are some people that they
will say, well, because we are responsible for our sins and
because we are accountable for them, we are also responsible
for our salvation. It's up to us to believe and
to repent and to be saved. And we have as much power to
do that as we have to sin. But that is not how David takes
it here. He is asking the Lord to give
him these blessings and the forgiveness and pardon that was given by
the Lord, the repentance was given by the Lord. Just because
we have power to do evil does not mean then that we have power
to do good. Just because we have power to
ruin something doesn't mean to say that we've got the skill
and ability to mend something. You've only got to ask a parent
that. When a child breaks its toy or breaks a plate or something
like that, you don't say, well, you've broken it, now you can
mend it. Because the child would not have
the skill or ability to mend it. They can break it, but they
cannot mend it. And that is the same with David. It's the same with all the people
of God. No man can redeem his own soul. The name of our Lord was given.
His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins and is to be delivered from them. And really,
this is what David is asking for here. So his prayer to the
Lord is, it begins in verse one. He's asking for mercy, have mercy. upon me, O God, according to
thy lovingkindness. And then in verse 2, he's asking
to be washed. Wash me throughly from my iniquity. And in the same verse, to be
cleansed. In verse 7, he's wanting to be
purged, purged with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and
I shall be whiter. than snow. In verse 8 he prays
that he might be made to hear joy and gladness, which the bones
which thou hast broken may rejoice. He does not have rejoicing, he
does not have joy, he does not have gladness, though he has
forgiveness, and this is what is desiring of the Lord. And he's asking that the Lord
would, in verse 9, his face from his sins, blot out all mine iniquities. And this is someone who has already
received the forgiveness and pardon of sin. Then he prays
the word of our text. We come back to that. Verse 11,
he prays that he be not cast away from the presence of the
Lord and that he will not take his Holy Spirit from him. In verse 12 he's asking for restoration
of the joy of thy salvation. At this point he does not have
the joy of God's salvation and he's asking that that be restored
to him. He has known that before and
he asked to be upheld and then he asked to be delivered in verse
14 from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. He
had really committed murder. He was, should have been under
the sentence of death, and no doubt he really knew that. And then verse 18, he's asking,
O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy
praise. And the whole of the psalm is is not a profession of what he
is going to do and what he's promising the Lord, as if I won't
do this again, from now on I'm going to be a better person,
a good person, my thoughts are going to be right, my actions
are going to be right. All what he has to say is in
petition, asking from the Lord. Thou only has wrought all our
works in us. If we are any different than
the wicked, it is by grace. It is by the new work of God
within. It's what He has done for us.
And this is very evidenced here in this psalm. Don't ever think,
well, when we have sinned, that we can somehow promise future
good to bring. We cannot, but we can. take the
prayer of David here and ask the Lord to do these things for
us. May we be delivered from the
thought, well, we're forgiven, we don't need to ask that we
be renewed or that we be changed, that sin does not have dominion
or reoccur and take advantage over us. David, he realized that
though the sins that he did was outward sins of adultery and
murder, it arose from inward sins. It arose from that which
was wrong in his heart, in his affections. His heart was not
right before God. And so that is why we have in
our text, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. Of course, the heart, it is not
the organ that pumps the blood around our bodies. It is the
innermost being, that which affects all of our affections, our thoughts,
our mind, our spirit, that which governs really what we are. And
in one way, there is a parallel to the heart, because as the
heart brings the blood to every organ, If the heart is well,
the rest is well. And if the blood has got the
nutrients in it, then all of the organs are having those nutrients
as well. The heart, in a natural way,
affects everything. If you have to take drugs or
an injection or tablets for something, everything, it gets into the
bloodstream, and then it is carried through to every part of the
body. And when we think then of the
heart in a spiritual way, it affects everything. It's not
just a conscience thinking, well, this is what we should be, and
so we'll do that. Sometimes we can do that. We
can just imitate the godly and appear to be what we're not.
But given the right situations, then the heart discloses what
it really is and what really the condition of it is. But what
is upon my spirit, especially this evening, is that desiring
more than forgiveness, more than just that our sins be pardoned,
blotted out, more than just that we be assured that we beget to
heaven at last, but it relates to how we are in this life, how
we continue on from backsliding, from a fall, from a sin, how
we recover from any of those things. It's not just being forgiven,
but to have these blessings that come from God that speak to the
heart. So there are four things that
David is asking for, and we introduce them one at a time as we go through
them in this verse. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew bright spirit within me. The first thing that he is asking
for is an inward work, a work in Him, within me. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. It's not a work on us, but it's
a work in us, in our hearts, and this is what David is asking
for an inward work, work by the Holy Spirit of God inside him
that shall then affect the outside. Our Lord says, make the inward
right and then the out shall be right. Out of the abundance
of the heart, man speaketh, and so he is looking for this inward
work. The Lord uses means to this end,
uses his holy word, opening the ears of that, and by the washing
of water by the word, the word affects that which is within. The entrance of thy words giveth
light. It's not just in the head, but
it's really taken on board, it touches the heart and it is a
work of God forming, creating and working within where no eye
sees but the effect is an outward effect. And this is what David
is asking for. May this be our prayer that the
Lord would work in us that which is pleasing in his sight, he'd
work in our hearts, that he'd work in our affections, he'd
work in us that which does bring forth fruit to the honour and
glory of God. An inward work. And may that
be our first petition joining with David. The second he wants
is a creating work. Create in me a clean heart, O
God. He wants that work that really
is right from the beginning. It's a new creation. as if not building upon that
which is there before, but it is what the Lord did at the very
beginning in creation. He spake and it was done. He created out of nothing. He brought there from without
something that was not there in the beginning. And really
all of God's children are his creation. He has formed them. This people have I formed for
myself. They shall show forth my praise. And that new nature which is
above is not just a reformation of the old nature. It is a new
nature. Now, of course, David, he did
have a new nature. He was called, he was one of
God's children. He did have the root of the matter
in him. In that sense, there was not
a need of a creating as a new creature in Christ. But what
he did want was created in him a clean heart. And it's just
at this point to think of the petition as a Creating work. And it leads back to the creator,
in the beginning, God. True religion will lead us to
the creating God. What a solemn thing that there
are those with a profession of religion that will disallow the
creation accounts, disallow the creation of the world in six
days by our Lord, that making of everything good and perfect,
the Lord looking upon it. Creation runs right through the
scripture, and it has its parallel in the new creature and the work
of God inwardly in his people, giving them that which does not
come from nature, but comes from above. And it's a blessed thing
where the things that we pass through even when they are our
sins, that they lead us to look to our Maker, look to our Creator,
look to Him that is able to do a work where we may look and
think, how can ever God dwell here? When we think of the world
as it was in the beginning, without form, darkness upon the face
of the deep, it's as if David would say now, That's how my
soul is like. Now create it. Make it. Make it to thy praise and to
thy glory. Form it. Make it like the potter
makes the clay, forms a vessel for his honor and for his glory. Create in me, he says, a clean
heart. Then in the third place, he wants
a cleansing work. Create in me a clean heart, O
God. To have the cleansing work of
God, to view that in us is all uncleanness, affections wild
by sin defiled, says the Hymn of Carry Me Away. all uncleanness,
full of uncleanness, dead men's bones as it were. We think of
the times that the temple was left to ruin, that beautiful
temple that Solomon made, and then it fell into disrepair,
it had all manner of things in it, all much rubbish, and the
times of Reformation, the times like in Hezekiah's day, the first
thing that needed to be done was to cleanse that temple, to
take out all of the rubbish. Our Lord did it in his day, in
going into the temple and casting out the buyers and the sellers.
He says, my father's house is a house of prayer, holy house
for all people, but ours made it a den of thieves. And he took
a scourge of small cords and draved them out of the temple. And David has this picture here
of his heart being full of uncleanness and affections and evil thoughts
and evil desires and adulteries and murders and all of those
things. feels them, he prays in verse
two, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my
sin. A beautiful promise in 1 John
chapter one, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we do need that cleansing
work. So often we are prone to think
that work is ours. And we were sung of that in our
middle hand. Some tell me that I may cleanse
my heart, but that work is God's work. And this is what David
seeks the Lord. And may we be renewed in asking
of the Lord to do these things. Remember the beautiful word that
is in Ezekiel, 36, where the Lord promises that He would do
these things. I will sprinkle clean water upon
you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from
all your idols. Will I cleanse you? A new heart
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you a heart of flesh. and I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes, ye shall keep my
judgments and do them. And he says, thus saith the Lord
God, I will yet for this being quiet of by the house of Israel
to do it for them. And so where the Lord has shown
us our uncleannesses, shown us our sin, shown us how they break
forth, they affect how we say, what we say, how we act, and
what we do. Where that sight is shown us,
and we read in Ezekiel again, where the prophet was shown the
abominations of Israel. Turn again, thou son of man,
thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And many of us, the
Lord has shown us even more and more abominations in our own
evil and wicked heart. But in David's case here, the
response is to go to the Lord for cleansing. And so he desires
to the Lord that cleansing work. Now, of course, this does not
mean that we do not take any measures or any carefulness to
avoid the occasions of sin, to avoid those things, the temptation
to sin. We should seek to do that. And of course, by the word of
the Lord, we are warned and directed. And now the word of the Lord
is a lamp to our feet. But without the power, without
the savour of Christ upon it, his redeeming work. We read at
the end of Psalm 25, redeem Israel, O God, out of all his transgressions
and all his troubles. It is through our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, that he has the warrant, the authority to do
that work in the sinner's heart. He doesn't turn and say, well,
because you're such a sinner, your heart is so unclean, You're
so filthy, you're so vile, you're so fallen back, you're so backslidden,
I'm gonna give you up. You've tried and tried, you've
miserably failed, and I'm gonna cast you away. No, David raises
up that hope that there is cleansing, there is renewing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, in that which is provided in the gospel and this
is where he's seeking these blessings and really every blessing and
you might say well this is the old testament the old testament
saints were saved in exactly the same as they knew abraham
saw christ only rejoiced at him david he speaks of christ stone
i believe in the death of the child that basheba had Not that
the child put away his sin by dying, but the Lord said to David
that because of his sin, that that child should die. And I
believe David knew that of the seed of his body, that God would
raise up Christ, raise up the Saviour. And when that child
died, He realized this, that in due time, that the eternal
Son of God would come and that he would die and put away David's
sin. And I believe Abraham saw that
as well, a substitutionary offering, Isaac taken off the altar, the
ram put in his place. This is how the Old Testament
saints, they saw Christ's day, they saw the offering, They saw
the blood, when I see the blood I will pass over you. And they
then seek the blessings that flow through Christ, and how
much more we should as well. And we think of Paul's words
in Romans 5, if while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us, how much more being reconciled shall we be saved through his
life. If the Lord pass by us, and bid
us live when we were yet in our sin. How much more, when we fall,
when we backslide, when we are defiled, will he not save us
and cleanse us and wash us? And I believe instead of David
taking occasion by the Lord saying his sin was forgiven and just
saying, well, that's good, the sin's forgiven, he takes the
occasion and the encouragement to ask for these blessings. It's
not a comfort to God's people to have an unclean heart, to
have a hard heart, a heart that goes after the world, a heart
that sins against the Lord, that brings grief and sorrow. Where
there is a real desire for holiness, then there will be prayers like
these. So he asked for a cleansing work,
and lastly he asked for a renewing work, renew a right spirit within
me. In the margin it says a constant
spirit, but a right spirit. He'd obviously had a wrong spirit,
a lustful spirit, a doltrous spirit, a spirit that would cover
his sins. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper. He that confesseth and forsaketh
them shall be saved. He's acknowledging here, the
Lord, it was his God, and he had been with a right heart,
a clean heart, a renewed soul. He did have a right spirit, but
these things, he'd backslidden from that, and now he needed
renewed. Many of us, we can think of the
days of our first love, days when our hearts were very tender,
when Christ was all in all to our souls. You know, the charge
against one of the churches in Asia was that they'd left their
first love, and that first love is Christ. But David here, he
is wanting to be renewed, and especially in his spirit. Have
a right spirit, a holy spirit, a gracious spirit, a godly spirit,
A tender spirit, a teachable spirit. The Lord said to his
disciples at one time, you know not what spirit ye are of. Well, there was a time here that
David did not know what spirit he was of when he was walking
in these paths of sin. But now he did. And now he wanted
to be renewed, a right spirit. And so he prays, cast me not
away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. A great blessing to have a right
spirit, a gracious spirit. There is a wrong spirit and there
is a right spirit. There's a spirit that comes from
ourselves or comes from beneath. There is our own spirit and there
is a spirit that is given to us by God. So David has these
petitions here, desiring more than forgiveness, desiring an
inward work, desiring a creating work, desiring a cleansing work,
and desiring a renewing work. And may those desires and those
petitions be ours as well. May the Lord add His blessing.
Amen.