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V. 5…in sin my mother conceived me… The truly penitent will always trace back the streams of actual sin to the fountain of original sin. We always have the propensity to sin due to the indwelling original sin. The knowledge of this truth will make us to accept our sin which will lead us to repent and confess to look for restoration.
Spiritual Restoration and Renewal (6-13): The next sincere step after taking responsibility for our sin is to seek RESTORATION and RENEWAL in our inner man. Repenting, confessing and receiving forgiveness do not guarantee non-repetition of the same sin or other sins in the same area. We must take time to concentrate on restoration and renewal. The purpose of this confession is not about outward things, but about inward JOY AND GLADNESS(v.8).
Three steps are suggested here.
1. Desire a fresh sense of God’s genuine presence (8,9,11),
V. 8 Bones You have broken… The conviction gave him a crushing feeling within himself. There are 2 important elements of God caused him this crushing….
a. Displeasure and disappointment of God over his sin, and
b. The love and the favor of God over his life.
V. 9. Hide your face from my sin… …David wants God not to look upon his sin.
V. 11. Do not cast me away… …Don’t annihilate me, but restore me. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me… Absence of God’s presence is the same as the absence of Holy Spirit. Saul experienced this. Failure to take responsibility for our actions/sins and failure to repent and confess our sins will cause us fail to see the presence of God.
2. Deeper cleansing of moral life (6,10,12)
V. 6 Truth inward parts…The spirit of the LORD prompts David’s spirit to live according to TRUTH. This is to deal with the inner most or utmost part of our lives from which we obey God with our actions.
V. 10: Create in me a clean heart… Nobody can change a dirty heart. Only God can create a clean heart. renew a steadfast spirit… The steadfast spirit lost it effectiveness and our mind started swerving. That is the reason David is asking for renewal of an unswerving spirit that will stay on spiritual track.
3. Powerful witness to other (13): Only our inward sincere Restoration and Renewal can make us effective in calling for people to a righteous living through salvation.
A True Worship (14-17): A genuine worship is possible out of a clean and restored innermost being. A person who truly repented and confessed his sins to receive forgiveness is the one who can genuinely worship the gracious God of the covenant.
V. 14: Guilt of bloodshed… This may be a reference to killing of Uriah. A child of God will not go to the extent of killing someone. However, through a deeper sorrow in his inner part, David was able to receive forgiveness.
V. 15: Open my mouth… When the spirit of the LORD opens our mouth, we will be able to praise and worship HIM in appropriate manner.
V. 16 & 17: … sacrifices…burnt offering… As David was living in the OT time, these two verses do not cancel physical sacrifices.
V. 19 talks about sacrificing bulls on God’s altar. So, the real meaning of these two verses is that mere sacrifices can’t appease God. We need to offer inner heart as a sacrifice to God before we offer outward worship to God.
Do good to Zion (18 & 19): A personal spiritual health will contribute to the well-being of the city and the nation. David sees a relationship between health of the personal spiritual life and the strength of whole Body of Christ, which is the CHURCH in NT. May it be family or the Church, each of us either help or hinder the growth of the system.