Advent: Restore the Joy

Psalm 51:8-15

Psalm 51:8–15 (NIV)

8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.

14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.

INTRODUCTION.

Alexander Maclaren once said, “divine love can extract sweet perfumes of repentance and praise out of the filth of sin.”

We have an illustration of this in Psalm 51.

the background of this can be found in second samuel chapters 11 and 12.

David sent his armies into battle but he stayed home. One day, as he was taking a walk, he saw his friend Uriah’s wife bathing. He sent for her, slept with her, and she became pregnant.

David called Uriah home from the battle and tried to cover his sin by sending him to his wife.

But Uriah's loyalty to his brothers in combat kept him away. So, David wrote a letter to his commander and sent it back with Uriah.

Inside the letter, which Uriah never opened, were David’s instructions to place Uriah in the front line of battle, to draw back the other soldiers, and to let him die.

David committed adultery, committed murder, and went on about life. But God saw, and God knew.

pastoral pause: imagine what that year was like for David

Almost a year later, God sent Nathan with a parable to confront David about his sin.

David was struck to the heart and cried out,

“I have sinned against the Lord.” As a result, David didn’t die, but his son with Bathsheba did.

What do you do when you know you’ve done something wrong but you don’t know the path forward And can’t go backwards.

You feel helpless and lost. You can’t undo what you’ve done but you can’t live with it either.

What do you do?

You repent.

after Nathan the prophet had boldly exposed David for committing adultery with Bathsheba and for murdering Uriah.

He is Broken and convicted of his sin,

David pours out sorrow from his broken and contrite heart.

The Psalmist was Songless.

1. The Psalmist had lost his mojo, his step, his dance, his passion. In essence he has become songless.

2. No Psalms had he composed and sung, and no song could be found in his heart.

3. Matthew West is a well known Christian Contemporary musician. He describes a time in his life and career when he lost his voice. Literally he lost his voice.

He went months without being able to talk or sing.

He had to have surgery and the doctor told him there is a good chance that his voice will never be the same again...

It was the scariest time of his life because he depended on his voice.

His whole life and identity was in the songs that he sang. Without that, who was he and what did he have to offer?

But God, through that time, spoke to Matthew West and this gave him time to not just hear God but to really listen! To find his voice again.

The Psalmist is Longing for Old-Time Joy.

1. Here he longs for the old-time joy.

2. Here he longs and asks for double joy—joy and gladness.

3. Read verse 12: “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”

4. Observe:

a. He wanted and longed for God’s joy.

b. The joy associated with His salvation.

c. A joy that deepens as does our walk with Christ

Three Organs.

1. David refers to three important organs—ear, tongue, and lips.

2. Each of these relate to joy and gladness.

3. Let us take them in the order in which they are found.

I. CONCERNING THE EAR

1. It is important that he begins with the ear.

2. what we hear can have a great impact on our spiritual life. .Sin has a Sad Effect upon our Spiritual Hearing.

3. The Christian lacking Joy, doesn’t want to listen to the Word of God and do as He says.

4. The Christian lacking Joy is the one who thinks they have all the answers. They are the ones who aren’t teachable.

3. The Christian lacking joy feels out of harmony with the heavenly melody, They cannot bear or tolerate joy in others when in their own sad state.

As the saying goes “misery loves company”.

david was different though

4. Now how could David be expected to enjoy music when he was a wreck with every bone in his body felt as if it was being broken.

a. For he likens himself to one whose bones are crushed.

b. And crushed by no ordinary means.

c. He groaned under no mere flesh wounds. Like some poor sufferer, but guilt has consumed him.

5. Sin has made him hard of hearing. Sin always does. He prays for the recovery of hearing.

6. Before joy and gladness there must come:

a. Forgiveness and cleansing.

b. The recovery of hearing.

c. The mood to enjoy music.

7. Another rendering: “If you hear me I joy and i am glad”.

Joy and gladness is the result of the assurance of God hearing and answering prayer.

What a joy that brings!

II. CONCERNING THE TONGUE

1. It is clear that David has in mind the guilt of Uriah’s death.

2. Uriah’s blood weighed upon his soul.

3. Is there a condition, more awful than this, to have another man’s blood resting on us!

4. Jesus takes the concept of murder one step further

We see this played out further in the ministry of Jesus and His apostles, this concern to protect life and to prohibit murder.

5. In the sermon on the mount , Jesus says if you have hatred in your heart toward your brother or sister than you have committed murder

6. The Christian lacking joy makes a habit of tearing down others in the body of Christ and they justify it…by saying…

“It isn’t Gossip if it is true.”

or

“ I am just venting to friends”

Pastor Greg Laurie shares a story. He is from California and didn’t have a lot of experiences starting fire. So, he was trying to find out how to get a fire going.

He got it going pretty good and after a while he would take the old ash and put it in a metal bucket to make room for the new ashes.

A couple days passed and he was outside in flip flops and pajamas so he thought he’d take this bucket full of old ashes and toss them in the woods.

He thought surely the embers would of cooled off by now.

They didn’t and to make matters worse the embers were tossed on a pile of dry leaves and the wind was blowing.

In a matter of moments there were 3 or 4 little fires that have started.

Fortunately, he was able to toss some water on them and put them out.

in the book of James, is the use of one of the strongest pictures to describe the power of our words And the power of the tongue.

He says in verse 5 chapter 3, “The tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!”

Know this. More people have been damaged And died from the power of the tongue than any weapon of man ever created. It’s just that powerful.

sticks and stones may break my bones and yes our words can hurt each other.

our tongues should be used with words of affirmation and not condemnation

III. CONCERNING THE LIPS

1. Praise sometimes isn’t easy. It is spoken of as sacrifice from the fruit of our lips.

2. Only God can make praise possible.

3. How does God unlock the lips? By way of the heart. For praise is the employment of happy and thankful hearts.

A call to Holiness involves a heart that confesses. When we see our sin we cannot help but see God's Holiness.

He is perfection, he is set apart. he is holy.

No one else is like our God. Nothing can even come close in comparison to who He is! A Holy heart see's that.

4. It was sin that closed the lips of David; it was sin that caused David to lose his song and his joy. God would open David’s lips again by dealing with his sin.

5. it reminds me also of the call of Isaiah, the great prophet of the Old Testament.

He declared “Woe to me, I am a man of unclean lips” and then an angel came to him with a burning coal and touched them and said “your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for”.

6. God can do the same for us. If we are teachable.

CONCLUSION.

1. Sometimes it happens, that the older we get the more songless we become.

2. Should this be so?

3. maybe somewhere along the way, we missed it And allowed ourselves to get distracted.

3. When we live in sin and it’s guilt and shame. It will consume us but if we repent from it and turn to God for His forgiveness we will experience his joy once again.