1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Renew to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51: 1 - 12
King David wrote two psalms soon after he was confronted with his sin with Bathesheba. (You can ready more abou this in II Samuel chapters 11 and 12) They are Pslam 32 and Psalm 51. Above you are reading psalm 51. He actually wrote this psalm before he wrote Psalm 32. I doubt he knew these two psalms (or songs) would be published and read my you and me some 3000 years later.
I personally love both psalms. But verse 12 in Psalm's 51 touches me deeply. I have found myself in need of a "spiritual spring" more than once in my lifetime. There are times that I find myself in the desert. Dry. Thirsty. Alone. Feeling lost and abandoned. In need of renewel.
David, the man who once made the top 10 sports plays on sportscenter with his Goliath victory, suddenly found himself on CNN as the main source of controversy in his kindgdom. Truth be known, he should have been impeached. God had seen the sins that David had committed. Rape! Murder! Betrayal! Lies and more lies! David was guilty and he knew it, yet he wouldn't admit it much less own up to it. Along comes the prophet Nathan and after a brutal confrontation with his sin, we find ourselves with the brilliance of Psalm 51.
Spring is all about renewel. Brown turns to green. Empty branches turn to full bloom. Cold turns to warm. And death turns to life. So goes my soul! I need renewel. Verse 12 is the prayer that David wrote for renewel in the lyrics of his song we entitled Psalm 51. Read it again.
"Renew to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. "
Spring flowers are not the only ones that need renewel. Our sould needs this renewel as well. There is nothing wrong with praying for renewel, as David plainly shows us in Psalm 51. We need it, and God provides it.
Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6: 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
If God does this "renewel" for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, he definitely can do it for you and I. We simply need to ask. For how much more valuable are you than the same birds and flowers and trees and grass he provides renewel with each spring? I think you know the answer. Much much more.