a new beginning

Psalm 51:10–13 (NKJV)

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

51:10–13. Inward renewal

The depth of self-knowledge seen in verses 3–5 might have led to despair. Instead, it has enlarged David’s praying. (Cf. Rom. 7:18–25.)

With the word Create he asks for nothing less than a miracle.

It is a term for what God alone can do; but it can refer to a sustained process as well as an instantaneous act (cf. Gen. 2:3),

With the words heart and spirit he goes to the ‘springs of life’ (Prov. 4:23), and relates his own spirit to the Spirit of God. The prayer of 10b is given more accurately in the older versions as ‘Renew a right (or, steadfast) spirit within me’. It is parallel to the plea ‘Restore …’ in verse 12: the prayer of a backslider who has found repentance.

11. The likely background to this fear of being a castaway was the example of Saul, from whom the Spirit of the Lord had departed (1 Sam. 16:14). This verse is not concerned with the bare doctrine of perseverance but with the practice of it, as was Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:27, and our Lord in John 15:6. The word holy is, or should be, a reminder of the magnitude of such a request; cf. 1 Samuel 6:20.

12. While the prayer of verse 10 for steadfastness was obviously fitting, after so great a fall, the earnest plea for a willing spirit may strike us as less relevant. The word suggests the enthusiast and volunteer, with his eager and generous outlook. But on reflection, such a spirit is God’s own antidote to temptation: that positive delight in his will (40:8) which David had largely lost in his prosperity.

13. ‘O may I teach …’—for there is a similar eagerness here to that of verse 12, as if already the prayer of that verse is being granted. We may note the close connection between a joyous faith and an infectious one, and between experiencing restoration and leading others to that knowledge. ‘When you have turned again, strengthen your brethren’ (Luke 22:32). The words restore (12) and return (13) are parts of the same verb. But above and beyond this, the psalm itself is the richest answer to the prayer, since it has shown generations of sinners the way home, long after they had thought themselves beyond recall.

Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 15, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 209–210.