Part 26: Getting Back To The Joy Of Jesus - Sermon 2: The Miraculous Works Of The Holy Spirit Series

Great Prayers of the Old Testament

Part 26: Getting Back to the Joy of Jesus

Sermon 2: The Miraculous Works of the Holy Spirit

Psalm 51:11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared July 8, 2025)

BACKGROUND:

*Last time we start a series of sermons to cover three great themes in Psalm 51. In this Psalm King David confessed his horrible sins against Bathsheba, her husband Uriah the Hittite, and most of all, against the LORD our God. Many of us are familiar with the dark story of David's adultery with Bathsheba, and once the King found out that Uriah's wife was pregnant, David brought Uriah home, hoping that this faithful soldier and husband would sleep with his wife. But Uriah was so loyal to the troops still in the battle, that he refused to even go in his house! Then David conspired with General Joab to abandon Uriah in battle, making sure that Uriah would be killed by the enemy.

*What a horribly sinful chain of events! But at the same time, we must remember that King David was a saved man. GotQuestions.org pointed out that 1 Samuel 13:13-14 and Acts 13:22 both tell us that King David "was a man after God's own heart." I also love what 2 Samuel 23:1-2 says about King David: "Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel: The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue." (1)

*King David was a saved man, but he was also a sinful man. And we could try to take false comfort by saying, "Oh, I'd never sin like that." But that smug attitude doesn't get us off the hook. We are all sinners. And the truth is that we are a lot worse than we usually think we are. Every moment that we spend doing something wrong is a wasted moment when we could have been doing something right. Every moment we spend not loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is a moment in sin. Every moment we spend not loving our neighbor as we love our self is a moment in sin.

*F. B. Meyer explained that "For some time after his sin, David withheld confession to the LORD, and suffered terribly." David talked about this time in Psalm 32:3-4 where he said, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer." (2)

*God's Hand was heavy on David, because the LORD was leading David to repent and confess his sins. That's why Proverbs 3:11-12 says, "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor detest His correction; for whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."

*If you can sin without a sense of guilt and shame, then you need to carefully consider whether or not your faith is real. I say this because our loving Heavenly Father disciplines all of His children. That's why covering our sin brings pain. But confessing our sin to the LORD brings peace. As David said in vs. 5, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."

*We also see the wonderful peace and power of confession in 1 John 1:8-9. There God's Word tells Christians, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Don't cover up your sins. Confess them to the LORD! But that's not the natural thing for us to do is it? -- No. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin in the Garden of Eden. And King David tried to cover up too.

*But in 2 Samuel 12:1-14, God's Word tells us that the Prophet Nathan went to King David and told the King a story about a poor man's lamb that was stolen by a rich man to provide a feast for a passing guest. David reacted instantly to that tale of injustice. He had sworn to take the thief's life and make him repay the stolen lamb fourfold.

*'YOU ARE THE MAN!' Nathan said. And John Phillips wrote, "Down off his throne came the king. The pent-up passions of remorse, shame, guilt, and anxiety were released in a flood of tears. With his heart still pounding in his chest, David wrote Psalm 51. Please think about these things as we read Psalm 51:1-11. (3)