Clean Me Up: Create, Renew, Restore!

But if we are going to be the people that God is calling us to be, we need to ask God to replace the old heart with the new heart so that our old worldly wisdom becomes heavenly wisdom, old carnal love becomes spiritual love, old slavish fear becomes Christian fear, and those old chillin thoughts become new sanctified works.

Next David prays, Lord Renew (Somebody say Lord Renew) “and Renew a right spirit within me.” Remember now that David is hurting inside when he writes this. He is literally in mourning after Nathan exposes him. So his spirit is broken, and realizing this, David knew the only way he could continue to run this race was if the Lord renewed a “right Spirit” within him.

Yeah, David prayed “Renew.” This was different than his previous request for the Lord to Create. However, once again David admits he is missing something when he asked Lord renew. And I guess what I like most about David in this Psalm is that he recognizes what’s wrong with him. In this case his spirit needed a new charge. His spirits battery had gone low. In other words, he was asking the Lord to take what was already in him and refurbish it. Take what was already in him and renovate it. Take what was already in him and repair it. A lot of us need to pray that same prayer. Lord, restore my spirit, Lord mend my spirit, Lord make good my spirit.

Oh, but some of us are too blind and stubborn to even look and see for ourselves that we have some old – tired – wrong spirits. But you ought to be sick and tired of being cold. You ought to be disgusted of being low down. You ought to be weary of being wet. And you need to cry out like David and say, Lord I’m tired of having the wrong spirit, renew in me a right Spirit. (Touch somebody and tell them to get the “right spirit”)

Yeah, that “Right Spirit” is not so much the essence of the Spirit of God, but it is with respect to the qualities of the Spirit of God. In other words, David is saying, Lord renew in me a spirit that acts and exercises the same qualities of your Spirit. Renew in me a spirit of uprightness. Renew in me a spirit of integrity. Renew in me a spirit of obedience. Renew in me a spirit free from the temptations of sin, and snares. Renew in me a spirit of Love. Renew in me a spirit of Joy. Renew in me a spirit of peace. Give me a spirit that is fixed, trusting in the Lord.

Well, the last thing I want us to see in this text is David’s request for the Lord to restore (somebody say Lord Restore) Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit. No one will ever recover their lost joy until there is a request for its return. David knew his joy was gone. He didn’t deny the reality of his conditions. However, at the same time, David would have never asked God to restore his joy if he did not believe that God would do it (somebody shout restore my joy).

But here’s the shout of this text. David didn’t ask didn’t ask for just any ole joy. He asked for the joy of his salvation. You just missed the shout right there. Let me close this thing out. You remember we talked about being happy earlier and how temporary it is.