The occasion for this penitential prayer is found
in the story of King David's rise to prominence and power from a humble shepherd
boy to the sweet singer of Israel, a successful warrior, and an honored and noble
king. This story is too familiar to require recounting. His fall from the staggering
eminence into the dark slough of adultery, murder, and hypocrisy is equally well-known.
The famous parable of Nathan fearlessly delivered to the self-deceived king is now
a religious classic. David's capitulation and deep humiliation of heart and consequent
repentance, as recorded in the fifty-first division of the Psalms, reveal greater
depths of human depravity and a clearer course of the way of repentance and restoration
from the fallen state to the favor of God than any known record. We shall allow the
penitent monarch to speak for himself.
Be gracious to me, 0 God, according
to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and done what
is evil in Thy sight, so that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, and blameless
when Thou dost judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother
conceived me. Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden
part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the
bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Hide Thy face from iny sins, and blot out all
my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit
within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, 0 God, Thou God of my salvation; Then my tongue
will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness. 0 Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may
declare Thy praise. For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give
it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise (Ps. 51:1-17).
King David had grievously sinned and the prophet Nathan had just rebuked him
with the parable and the words,"Thou art the man." David's immediate response
was, "I have sinned." The very personal and frankly honest nature of this
prayer is worthy of careful consideration. The personal pronouns I, me, my and mine
are used no less than thirty-four times in these seventeen verses.
The Penitent's
Confession
This is a confession of transgression, the breaking or overstepping
of the divine law. Says David, the penitent sinner, "I know my transgressions."
Thus, he not only identifies his transgression, but he acknowledges full responsibility
for it. This is a very personal confession: "I know my transgressions."
Frequently the prayer, even of would-be penitents, is ineffectual because it is not
personal; it is not specific. Not infrequently one is heard to pray, "We acknowledge
our sins, our transgressions. Lord, if we have done anything amiss, forgive us. Lord,
if we have grown cold or careless in our relationship to Thee or in our service for
Thee, we beg Thee to forgive us." God does not deal primarily with groups, with
people en masse. We hear much of the social mind, but the social mind is fictitious.
The social mind does not exist, that is as an entity. The so-called social mind is
but a temporary association of individual minds. There may be a superior individual
who momentarily largely determines the thinking of the group of which he is the leader,
but it is only momentarily that the group thinks as one. When the group has disbanded,
individuals go their respective ways. Each bears a sense of his personal responsibility
for his decisions and actions. Thus, the social mind consists only of the minds of
a number of individuals acting collectively, each of which bears his individual responsibility
and has taken his initiative in concurring with the majority opinion, or consensus.
So long as we think and confess in the plural, we shall make little progress in our
approach to God. It is only when we, as individuals, acknowledge our personal responsibilities
toward men and God and assume personal responsibility for our decisions, our deeds,
our wrong attitudes, and our sins, that we shall be able to realistically face a
personal God. Even in the group God deals with individuals. On the day of Pentecost
it is said that they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from
heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where
they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves,
and they rested on each one of them (Acts 2:1-3).
Thus even though the manifestation
of God was to the group, and the place where they were sitting was filled with the
presence of God, at the same time God singled them out as individuals and manifested
Himself to them as such, "tongue as of fire... rested on each one of them,"
ministering to the personal needs of each. They were individualized and ministered
to accordingly. David's success in his return to God as a penitent sinner consisted
primarily in the fact that he, though a representative of the kingdom of Israel,
and its ruler, was nevertheless willing to take responsibility for his personal sins.
"I know my transgressions," said he. This confession reveals the haunting
presence of guilt. Though David had assumed a very bold and brave front as the supreme
ruler of the people of God, as the king, as the sovereign, nevertheless there had
not been a moment since the commission of his sins of adultery and murder when he
had not consciously felt the guilt of his evildoing. It had been present with him
when he sat in the court before Israel and judged the people. When he administered
justice to the subjects of his kingdom, there was ever that accusing finger of his
conscience pointing at the king and saying to him, "You are demanding justice
in your kingdom, but in your own life you are perverting justice. You make a pretense
of being just and of requiring justice of your subjects, but in your own heart you
are exceedingly unjust. Remember your treatment of your fellows in the kingdom!"
When
David lay down at night to sleep, beside him on his bed was the presence of his evil
conscience which confronted him in his dreams and haunted him. When he arose in the
morning to go about the duties of life, beside him arose, and with him walked the
shadow of this accusing conscience. His deeds-his evils-were ever present with him.
As he sat at the table in the banqueting hall with his friends in the hour of merriment,
David's joy was stolen by the ever-present accusing conscience for the wrong that
he had done. Indeed he smiled, he made merry together with his friends, he gave the
appearance of a free conscience, of self-possession, of tranquillity of mind and
soul; but underneath there was that sense of insecurity, there was that rottenness
at the foundation of his life that was ever threatening the structure that he was
building, or had built. The king sat upon the throne, he ruled the kingdom; but he
ever feared that the foundation of the throne would crumble and his rule would collapse.
Insecurity characterized his life because of the ever-present consciousness that
he was not squaring with reality. His sin was with him-ever before him. David's consciousness
of sin resembles the purported cruel Roman practice of executing certain criminals.
It is said that by this method the Romans chained a human corpse to the living condemned
criminal. Wrists were secured to wrists and ankles to ankles, and the wretched criminal
was required to carry about with him this decaying mass of human flesh wherever he
went. If he lay down to sleep at night, it lay beside him and haunted him in his
dreams. Awakening in the morning he was faced by the ghastly spectacle of the sunken
eyes and gaping mouth of the corpse staring him in the face. Then he sat to eat his
food, he was deprived of his appetite by the gagging stench of putrefying flesh If
he would walk about in his cell for exercise he carried with him the killing weight
of this "other self," from which there was no hope of liberation until
death itself put an end to the unspeakable ordeal Some think that Paul is alluding
to this cruel Roman practice when he cried out in despair for deliverance from the
sinful nature, as is recorded in Romans 7:24; "Wretched man that I am! Who will
set me free from the body of this death?" Paul's answer to his own question
is the only satisfactory answer that has ever been given: "Thanks be to God
through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:25a). This confession reveals a sense
of moral responsibility to God. Says the penitent Psalmist, "Against Thee, Thee
only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Thy sight." We marvel as we read
this confession of the king's personal responsibility to God. Had he not been guilty
of the sin of adultery? Had he not taken the wife of Uriah and made her his own?
Had he not placed Uriah in the forefront of the battle with the specific purpose
of having him slain that his deed of adultery might not be found out? Had he not
covered all of this with hypocrisy? Was not David guilty before society and before
the bar of his own conscience? Most certainly, but it must be noted that David was
sovereign-he was amenable to no court upon earth. He could not be brought to justice
by his own people. We know not whether the kingdom, or whether anyone within the
kingdom, knew the sin and the crime that David had committed. Perhaps it was thought
to be that so-called perfect crime, unknown, unsolved. Perhaps David had no fear
that anyone in the kingdom knew it. But even had they known it, there was nothing
they could do about it short of revolution, or of the assassination of the king.
David was supreme, the ruler of his people. He was the supreme judge. There was no
court higher than his court. Thus he could have gotten by, and perhaps have gotten
by very successfully before society. He could not be indicted for his crime. Though
David was the sovereign ruler of the people of God, though he was the supreme judge
of the supreme court, he was wise enough to know that there was a court higher than
the court of Israel, and a judge higher than the judge of Israel. There was that
court in heaven above, and that Judge, the Supreme Judge of all the universe, to
whom the king was responsible; and in the wisdom of his awakened mind he cried out,
"Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned,and done what is evil in Thy sight."
Like Hagar of old, David could say in his mind, Though no human eye has discerned
the wickedness of my heart and my deed, "Thou God seest me." The record
is in heaven, though it may not be on the books of crime on earth. If people were
only aware of this fact, there is much evil that would never be committed at all.
Though man can get by with his evil deeds here, and cover them successfully so they
may not be known to the members of his family, to his fellow members in the church,
to his business associates, to the community in which he lives and of which he has
the utmost confidence and respect-they may not be known on earth, yet remember that
God knows. This fact accounts for the disposition of man to atheism to discredit
and dethrone God. If in the life of man there are those evil attitudes and deeds
which he is quite unwilling to square with his fellowmen and with God, and he is
able to get by before man, he will then in the hypocrisy of his heart attempt to
discredit the authority of God, and his personal amenability to the Supreme Judge,
by denying the existence of God and the afterlife. Thus he thinks to clear himself,
since there is no authority higher than himself, as he thinks. He attempts to dethrone
God and make himself supreme that he may not be answerable to any court higher than
the court of his own decisions, his own intellectual or rationalizing judgment. He
will clear himself through rationalization and attempt to go scot-free. Atheists
are not usually found among those who have been discovered in their sins or crimes.
The atheists are usually to be found among the people who have as yet not been discovered
in the evil of their hearts and lives. Once they have been apprehended and convicted,
they are usually humbled. Whether they acknowledge it freely and openly is not the
question. In the secret of their minds, they are convinced that they are not supreme.
Until they have been caught they may deceive themselves into believing that they
are supreme. David is a truly awakened soul. The finger of God has been pointed at
the specific sin of which he is guilty: "Thou art the man!' David had pronounced
judgment upon the unjust, the cruel and heartless rich man who had taken the pet
lamb of his poor neighbor's children and slain it that a feast might be provided
for his friends, while his own flocks remained untouched. There was awakened by this
parable, in the soul of David, a sense of righteousness, justice, and indignation
against the injustice of such a man. "Such," he says, "shall pay dearly
for his crime, for his injustice." And then in that moment of the awakened sense
of justice in the soul of the great king, Nathan, inspired of God, utters those words
that cut away the last defense of the king. "Yea, king, thou hast pronounced
judgment upon thyself. Thou art the man!" "Against Thee, Thee only, I have
sinned, and done what is evil in Thy sight," cries the king. David rightly recognizes
his amenability to a court higher than any earthly tribunal. Though not subject to
judgment by his kingdom, he must answer to God. David's confession reveals the presence
of inherited depravity, as corrupting the heart and responsible for the overt act
of sin. Says David, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my
mother conceived me." There is no covering of the cause of the deed of which
he has become guilty, and which has brought so much of misery and woe into his life.
David now goes to the very source of the problem. He acknowledges that the sin and
the crime that he has committed are the fruit of the nature that characterizes him.
It is the manifestation of the disposition to evil. David has known the grace of
God. He has tasted of the heavenly gift and of the world to come, and in the light
of truth as it has been revealed to him, as he has experienced it, he now sees the
dismal depths of the polluted disposition of his own heart.
Like Jeremiah
of old, David has al
lowed the divine X-ray technician to focus the penetrating light of truth upon the
inner cancer of his moral being to reveal the malignant nature of the disease that
had caused this sickness, and threatened him with death. "Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." David is not now content
to simply confess his sin and ask forgiveness for it. He goes to the root of the
matter and lays bare the cancerous condition of his soul that God may go beyond the
forgiveness of sin and heal the inner source of the disease, destroy the cancer;
cleanse the polluted nature.
The Penitent's Request, or Petition
It
is a request for divine mercy. Says David, Be gracious to me, 0 God." Though
he lived in ancient days when the sacrifices of animals and fowls were made for the
sins of the people, David looks beyond these types to the great sacrifice that was
to be made for the sins of the world; and with the penetrating mind of a prophet
he beholds the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, and cries out, "Have
mercy upon me, 0 God." He offers no animal sacrifice. He anticipates the day
of grace, the atonement of the Son of God, and pleads for mercy offered in the Messiah
who is to come. David was right in his request for mercy, for sinful man's only hope
is in the mercy, and not in the justice of God. Mercy is a higher court of appeal
than the court of justice. David could not plead for justice, for had justice been
administered to him he would have been condemned, separated, and doomed from the
presence of God forever. But he bypasses the court of justice and appeals to the
higher court-the court of mercy, where he may have forgiveness and not condemnation-"Have
mercy upon me, 0 God!" The measure of mercy for which he pleads, not according
to his deeds, merits, honor, position, wealth, standing- No! No! David might have
presented his position as a king, his service as spiritual leader of Israel, as the
warrior who defeated Goliath, the defiant leader of the Philistines, and thus saved
the kingdom of Israel from defeat at the hands of these pagan enemies. He might have
pleaded before God on the basis of the justice of his rule in the kingdom, of the
good name that he had among the people; that he might not be humiliated, disgraced,
and the peoples of the surrounding nations-the pagan-be given occasion to blaspheme
the name of Jehovah because of the conduct of the king, that God would forgive and
cover his sins on the basis of these merits. But, no, David had no merits by which
to present himself to Jehovah God. Rather he pled for mercy, "according to Thy
lovingkindness." The penitent king, the sinner, now awakened by the indicting
finger of God directed through the prophet Nathan, pleads on the basis of the lovingkindness
of God, for divine mercy. It is a request for the complete effacement of sin. "Blot
out my iniquities." Lie is asking that God will use the "ink remover"
on the record of his crime; not that he may turn a new page and the old record be
forgotten for the time being, only to be rediscovered by his successors and exposed
to his posterity, or that it remain there sometime to be discovered during his lifetime
and exposed. David wants the record cleared. "Blot out my iniquities" and
ompletely efface them from the records of Israel, and from the record of the Book
of God in heaven above. David seems to anticipate the promise of God, that he will
remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, and that he will bury
them in the sea of forgetfulness to be remembered against us no more forever. "Hide
Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities... Deliver me from blood-guiltiness,
0 God, Thou God of my salvation." How wise was this brokenhearted penitent sinner,
contrite, prostrate before God, in requesting that God forgive, erase, efface, remove
from the record his crime, his sin, never to be remembered against him again! This
is a request for soul cleansing. Hear him pray, "Wash me thoroughly from my
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin... Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." But someone says, Is it possible for
a penitent sinner to pray at the same time for forgiveness of sins and the cleansing
of his inner nature? We answer that that will depend upon the degree of light which
that penitent sinner has. It must be borne in mind that David had known God, possibly
even in a soul-cleansing relationship, before his fall and the consequent repollution
of his inner nature. David knows the nature of inward pollution. He well new the
source from which his evil deeds sprang. Now under the bright light of illumination
focused upon him by God, he is able to see not only the heinous crime that he has
committed, but the pollution of his nature, the dark recesses of his soul where insincerity,
hypocrisy, and deception lurk. David well knows, in the light of this revelation
of God to his soul, that it will be insufficient to have his sins forgiven. God must
go deeper than that and remove the source of the overt act of sin, cleanse the nature
that is polluted, remove the inner source that will again spring forth and bear fruit
in the heinous sins and crimes from which he is now attempting to be free. Thus,
he prays for forgiveness of his overt acts of sin and beseeches God to reach deep
into his soul and cleanse the nature in which the sin thrives, to purify the culture
in which the bacteria of sin grows and rapidly multiplies. "Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. . . Purify me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." But David also recognizes
the impossibility of living to the glory of God, though forgiven and restored, in
his fallen and broken inner moral nature. He recognizes the impossibility of simply
repairing that which God has forgiven. Looking into the deep, dark, dismal, polluted,
inner recesses of his spiritual nature David cries out, "Create in me a clean
heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Thus David recognizes
that salvation embraces the necessity and the provision of a divine fiat, a new creation.
Paul, likewise, saw this and in 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man
is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things
have come." David had a wrong spirit, a spirit of hypocrisy, a spirit of deception,
a spirit that set him a variance with God. He recognized the need of a new spirit
and thus prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a steadfast spirit
within me." A clean heart and the renewal of a right spirit should be the prayer
of every penitent sinner. This is a request for soul preservation. "Do not cast
me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me." Are we
to understand that David had not lost his sonship, that David is still the redeemed
child of God? Is God's Spirit still within him? Nay! God's Spirit still hovers about
him. God in His mercy has manifested Himself to him, giving him opportunity for repentance,
reconciliation, restoration to the favor of God, but God's Spirit no longer abides
in David. When Jesus responded to the call of his friends at Bethany on the occasion
of the sickness and death of Lazarus, he did not arrive until the fourth day. Now
there was current among the Jews (indeed no part of the divine revelation but a borrowing
from the pagan concepts of the people who had influenced Jewish thinking) a view
that after the death of the individual the spirit, the human soul, hovered about
the body for as much as four days, hoping for an opportunity to reenter and revive
the dead person. This current pagan belief allowed that any time up to the end of
the fourth day the spirit might reenter and revive the body, but that by the end
of the fourth day, the decomposition and the offensive odor of the decaying body
would become such as to drive the spirit away, and once it was gone it would never
return. Thus there would be no further hope of revival and restoration to life. When
Jesus arrived, the sister of Lazarus said to Him, in effect: "Lord, my brother
has been dead four days. Had you come earlier, then we could have believed for a
restoration, but now he has been dead four days. By this time he stinketh."
The implication is that it is too late now; the spirit is gone; it has ken its departure;
there will be no opportunity for his revival; the situation is an utterly hopeless
one: you came too late! So David, not physically, but spiritually dead, has lingered
long in the tomb of moral and spiritual putrefaction, so long in fact that there
is danger that the Spirit of the living God will be offended by the foul odor of
his immorality and hypocrisy and that the sensitive dove of heaven will take his
departure, never to return. David well knows that he has lingered too long in this
condition, that there is danger of grieving away forever the Spirit of God who had
brooded over, hovered about, longing, hoping for reentrance into his heart and life.
Now in his awakened condition, in his fearful situation, realizing the enormity of
his evil, David prays, "Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take
Thy Holy Spirit from me." Lord, be patient, continue to hover about, reenter
my heart and life. Erase my sin from my heart and life. Erase my sin from the record.
Forgive it, blot out my transgressions, cleanse my nature, purify my heart, restore
within me a right spirit; reenter the inner being and take up Your abode again. "Renew
a steadfast spirit within me. This is a request for restoration ofdivine favor. "Restore
to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit." The king
had known the joys of salvation. He had rejoiced in the manifest presence of God.
His soul had been quieted by the sacred visitations of the heavenly One. In his musical
recitals the inspiration of heaven had caused him to rise to great eminences, ecstasies
of joy and of spiritual insight, and to convey those insights and those emotions,
breathed uponl him from heaven, to his audiences, He had been instrumental in the
hands of God in awakening spiritual desires, of inspiring ideals that lifted the
morale of his kingdom. This joy is gone; long since it had departed. For long, David
has known nothing of the joy that once animated his life, of the presence of the
heavenly One. But now awakened, he reflects upon that which he once enjoyed, but
which he has lost. Like Peter of old, in his reflection David weeps bitterly. But
in confidence his soul rises up with the request, "Restore to me the joy of
Thy salvation." That Spirit that once indwelt him, that assisted him, that fortified
him, that strengthened him, is gone. He is now weakened; like Samson, he is deprived
of his power. He is as weak as any other man. That Spirit that once enabled him to
keep his composure in the presence of the jealously insane Saul; that Spirit that
once enabled him to keep his composure when the women sang, "Saul has slaln
his thousands, And David his ten thousands" (1 Sam. 18:7b); that Spirit that
once enabled him to preserve the life of King Saul when he was hounded by the jealous
king-even though David could easily have taken Saul's life as he slept; that Holy
Spirit is gone! David has lost his composure, his self-confidence. Now he prays,
"Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustaln me with a willing spirit."
In the absence of God's presence from the life of a person, moral degeneracy and
decay will soon set in. David wisely recognizes the impossibility of malntaining
moral rectitude in the absence of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God.
The Penitent's Covenant with God
This is a promise of gratitude in testimony.
"0 Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Thy pralse." If you blot
out my transgressions, if you cleanse my heart, if you renew a right spirit within
me, if you reenter my heart and uphold me with your free Spirit, David seems to be
saying, then: 0 Lord, in this restored relationship my lips will be opened, "my
mouth may declare Thy praise." I will thank you for it; I will praise you for
it; I will honor you. This is a promise of thanksgiving in song. David had been the
sweet singer of Israel, but long since his song was silenced. His oratories had been
missed in the sacred halls of Israel; his harp was silent. He now promises that if
he is restored, forgiven and cleansed, repossessed of God, that his tongue will sing
aloud of God's righteousness. Said the Psalmist, as it is recorded in the fortieth
division, "He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay;
and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. And He put a new song in
my mouth, a song of praise to our God" (Ps. 40:2, 3a). Perhaps this is the experience
of the same man of whom it is recorded in the fifty-first Division of the Psalms.
"My tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness," says David.
This
is a promise of service for God. "Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways,
and sinners will be converted to Thee." David foresees a life of usefulness
in soul-winning when he is restored to the grace of God. His life will become an
example, and his mouth will speak words of wisdom that will lead sinners to God.
He foresees a revival of religion in the kingdom-"Then I will teach transgressors
Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee." Said the Psalmist in the first
division of that book, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel
of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!"
(Ps.1:1). David, a man once blessed of God, had walked in the counsel of the ungodly
and, though not openly, in his heart he had identified himself with sinners. David
did not retrogress to the seat of the scornful. He was restored from his position
among sinners. But now he foresees himself an instrument in the hands of God to open
the door of mercy to sin-darkened hearts. He has stood in their way. He has prevented
them from entering the kingdom of heaven. He has been an obstructionist in the kingdom
of God; but now he promises to be an instructor, a director, an evangel, a messenger
of God to lead these men into a saving relation ship with God. His service as promised
here is twofold: to teach transgressors and to convert sinners.
The Penitent's
Confidence in God
Hear him cry, "A broken and a contrite heart, 0 God,
Thou wilt not despise." He has made his confession-a personal, open, frank,
full confession. He has acknowledged the depth of depravity in his life. He has prayed
for forgiveness and cleansing and the restoration of the Spirit of God to his heart.
He has made his request, multifold as it has been. He has made his promise of gratitude
in testimony, thanksgiving in song, and service for Jehovah. Now he is ready to believe.
He has opened the doors to every avenue of his soul. The spirit of hypocrisy is gone.
The masquerade is over; the mask has been torn away. Self-justification is no more.
The broken, contrite, prostrate, penitent sinner lies on his face before the Judge
of all the world, now ready to believe. "A broken and a contrite heart, 0 God,
Thou wilt not despise." Faith functions when adjustments are completed, when
full confession has been made, when the heart is laid open and bare before God. When
every reservation has been relinquished, it is not difficult to believe. The great
and holy Colonel Brengle of the Salvation Army once said that there is but one thing
in the universe that will prevent man's faith from functioning in God, and that one
thing is sin. The obstacles to faith, so frequently experienced by the individual
seeking God, will always be found to resolve themselves into some unwillingness,
some failure to open and lay bare the heart and life, some withholding, some withdrawing,
some reservation. There are no reservations in the life of the truly penitent sinner.
His heart and his mind lie bare before God. "Thou God seest me!" Nothing
is hidden; all is confessed now and faith functions naturally, as naturally as the
lungs breathe in the pure atmosphere that presses in upon them. "A broken and
a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise." He is restored; he is again
a child of God. Out of the dismal depth of sin, degradation, pollution, hypocrisy,
the king-the penitent sinner, over the road of bitter repentance, of full confession-returns
to the waiting Father, and the Heavenly Father's arms of love are thrown about his
neck. A kiss of pardon is placed upon his cheek, the besmirched robes of sin and
hypocrisy are removed, and the robe of righteousness reserved for the returning sinner
is placed upon him. The feast of joy begins. King David, the fallen sinner, is restored
to the favor of God. And so will any penitent sinner find restoration when he follows
the course of this penitent.
Spiritual Restoration Produces Effective Witness
The
forgiven penitent promises to become an instructor of transgressors in the ways of
God: "Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways" (v.31). Without a knowledge
of God's ways, men follow their own natural inclinations which inevitably lead to
degeneracy and ultimate ruin. God's ways are right because they are the revelation
of His own righteous character. That righteousness can only be known by one who knows
God personally. Such personal knowledge inevitably motivates the redeemed to witness
to God's righteousness. The restored penitent expresses his confidence in the effectiveness
of his witness: "Sinners will be converted (or turned back) to Thee." Faith
for the effectiveness of the evangelistic witness under the influence of God's Spirit
will not go unrewarded. Faith for the salvation of others flows naturally from the
person who has exercised faith in God for his own salvation.
His tongue is
now loosed in joyful songs of praise to God: "Then my tongue will joyfully sing
of Thy righteousness." There is no more effective witness to God than the tongue
that is employed in joyful songs of praise to God. It has been well said that if
Christians praised God more, unsaved men would doubt Him less. Much of the effectiveness
of the early Methodist witness has been credited to their joyful singing.
It
was said of these early Methodists that they resembled a nest of singing birds. In
the experience of this now-restored penitent, as always, the renewal of his experience
in God resulted in vital evangelism.
