Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. Sermons I. THE RECOIL OF THE SOUL FROM SIN. Many find pleasure in sin; but when once the soul is quickened, there is an end to this. Sin is felt to be vile and loathsome. Its touch is defilement; its presence is abhorrent; its effects are dreaded as the most terrible. II. THE YEARNING OF THE SOUL FOR PURITY. All things around us that retain their freshness and their purity condemn us and put us to shame. They show what we have lost; they intensify our pains and our sorrows. At the same time, they help to keep alive our hopes. While they testify that we are fallen, they testify also that sin is not of our true nature - that it is not something that rightly belongs to us, but that it should be abjured and abhorred. The more we compare ourselves with God's Law, and the more truly we realize God's will concerning us, the more earnestly shall we cry for deliverance. III. THE SUPREME TRUST OF THE SOUL IN GOD. There is the cry, "Wash me!" This implies weakness and submission. We cannot "wash" ourselves. Our tears and prayers, our penitences and endeavours, are in vain. We cast ourselves implicitly upon God. Let God, who is holy and good, do this great thing for us, and do it in his own way. It is not the priest, it is not the saints; God only can save. There is also the glad faith. "And I shall be whiter than snow." The lost purity will be restored. What God does, he does perfectly. What joy in being "whiter than snow"! - not only pardoned (Isaiah 1:18), but cleansed (1 John 1:7; Revelation 7:14). It is heaven begun. - W.F.
Make me to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. This is the language of David at a period of trouble. His soul was depressed. He was fully conscious of his sins, but he was not conscious of forgiveness. He pleads with God for pardon, and, sensible of indwelling sin, he pleads for deliverance from its dreadful power. We can readily perceive some reasons why such depressions of mind should sometimes exist.1. There are many instances of great unfaithfulness in the love and service of God. In such instances, doubts and difficulties of mind arise on both gracious and natural principles. It is a principle of grace, in God's dispensation of it, to withdraw His Spirit from those who forsake Him. He puts out their light. He leaves them to wander in the darkness of a spiritual abandonment, as an act of discipline, sometimes as intolerable to the soul as it is deserved. And such depressions arise — 2. From the difficulties of determining character. Almost anything else is more easily determined than the question of character in the sight of God. But we lay down this principle: We affirm that there is a difference between the religious doubting, darkness and depression of mind which sometimes assail a true believer, and the doubting, darkness and depression which would belong to him if he were not a true believer; we affirm that there are peculiarities of grief and fear and anxiety in the dark soul-troubles of a child of God. We aid him as far as we can.We name some of the peculiarities accompanying a true believer's depression of mind. 1. In his depression of mind, when he doubts sometimes of his piety and fears final ruin, or mourns because he has no more evidence of his adoption; a true believer finds his soul uneasy and troubled more constantly than it would be if he were not a true believer, but were only a Christian in mere name. 2. Christian depression has a kind of supremacy about it. It swallows up all other things and regards them in comparison as trifles.. A believer in his trouble is not tempted by the world. An unbeliever may be. He would renounce anything to attain that for which his soul longeth. It is supreme with him. 3. There is a deeper sensibility and a greater degree of anguish with a believer in his spiritual abandonment than an unbeliever knows anything about. He does not feel like the orphan that never knew a father; he feels like a disowned and outcast child. He has no more a father, no more a home or a hope. There is nothing for him to turn to, and no friend for him to hope in. 4. In the seasons of his sadness a true Christian will be looking very much to God for relief. The psalm before us is an example. 5. Notice the resort to this means of grace will always mark the course of a troubled Christian. Pray he will. lie will pray when, from his dark and unsoothed experiences of anguish, he finds and knows that prayer does him no good. 6. Amid the dark glooms of a believer's trouble there will be occasional flashes of light. The cloud will sometimes break away. The sun will appear, if not in its glory, at least in its glimpses. And, accordingly, you find in the prayers of depression and doubt recorded in the Bible such a mingling together of complaint and complacency — of gloom and gladness — of trial and triumph, as makes them appear to an unwise mind like inconsistencies and absurdities. Job was compelled to make one of the bitterest of all possible lamentations. But there came flashes of light. "He knoweth the way that I take." 7. In all the depression and gloom of a believer, there are very few ideas of darkness and trouble which have their origin in any uncertainty of mind in respect to the realities of religion in respect to God or any of the truths of Christianity. He knows the reality of religion. He knows the security of it. He knows the blessedness of its experience, His trouble is that he cannot get at such blessed realities for himself. He would be less troubled if he had any, doubt about the good he longs for, and if he did not set upon it such an indescribable value. (T. S. Spencer, D. D.) 1. The thing petitioned for. "Joy and gladness."(1) As there is a spiritual life, so there is also a spiritual joy, and the one follows from the other: every kind of life has its joy, Which is attendant upon it: not only the rational life, which is the highest of the life of nature; but also the sensitive, as the life of beasts; and the vegetative, which is the life of plants. These have their proportionable cheerfulness, and comfortableness, and joyfulness, which is belonging unto them; and therefore the life of grace in a more especial manner. And as in this there is joy for the principle, there is a spirit and affection of joy; so there is also joy for the object, there is matter and occasion of joy for that principle to close withal. There is joyful tidings and occurrences; there are such things as do provoke joy in those persons which are capable of it, and are fit subjects for it, as pardon of sin, and assurance of this pardon, and communion with God, and hopes of heaven: these are things which put gladness into the hearts by way of object and occasion to it.(2) The properties and effects of it.(a) This inward spiritual joy, this joy which is peculiar to religion, is an enlivening and strengthening joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength; it enables a man in some measure for those duties which God requires at his hands. It is compared to oil (Psalm 45:7). Now, we know the property of oil is to supple and qualify the parts and members of the body, and make them fit for service: so does this joy of the spirit. Sadness, and melancholy, and discontent, it is a lumpish business, it takes men off from doing their work; but joy it puts life into them, it expedites them, and makes them ready to every good work.(b) As it makes men active in doing good, so also patient in suffering evil. It carries a man through crosses and tribulations with a great deal.of support above other men (Romans 5:2, 3).(e) It is durable and lasting, a joy which no man can take away (John 16:22). This is the difference betwixt a Christian's joy and a worldling's; betwixt a believer's and an hypocrite's. As for the latter, it quickly withers and comes to an end; it is but for a moment, as Job speaks (Job 20:25). It is like the crackling of thorns under a pot, as Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:8). But the former it lasts and continues, though not always in the same measure and degree for the vigour and liveliness of it, yet for the substance of it still it does; and especially for the true ground, and matter and occasion of it.(d) It is a transcendent joy, it does transport and raise the soul after an eminent manner (1 Peter 1:8). It is such a joy as the greatness whereof is unable to be expressed unto us, especially when it is in that measure and degree as sometimes it is; as some of the blessed martyrs have sometimes had experience, when they have been so filled with joy as that they have despised their greatest torments themselves. 2. The manner and conveyance of this joy and gladness to the soul. "Make me to hear," etc. When we speak of the hearing of joy, we may conceive of it two manner of ways; either, first, by the hearing of the ear in the ministry of the Word; or, secondly, by the hearing of the heart in the application of the Spirit to the conscience: both these ways did David pray that he might hear joy and gladness. 3. The author and worker of all this in us, the spring and fountain from whence it proceeds, and that is God Himself, "Do thou make me to hear." This it may be carried respectively to all which hath been said before; and we may take notice of it in a threefold reference.(1) To the occasion. "Make me to hear joy and gladness:" that is, send me such a preacher as may speak seasonably and comfortably to me. It is God who hath a hand in this (Psalm 68:11).(2) To the performance. Make me to observe what I hear.(3) To the success. As the Word itself is comfortable, so let it have a comfortable effect upon my heart to fill it with comfort. II. THE ENLARGEMENT OR AMPLIFICATION OF THIS REQUEST, FROM THE END OR DRIFT IN PROPOUNDING IT. "That the bones," etc. The meaning of it is this; that I may receive comfort after so much terror and trouble and distraction as I have been exercised withal. These broken bones are a metaphor taken from the body applied to the soul, to express unto us the anguish and vexation of it. There are two things considerable in this clause; first, here is somewhat implied; and, secondly, here is somewhat expressed: that which is implied is David's condition, and that is to have broken bones, that which is expressed is David's desire, that these broken bones might rejoice. 1. We see here that a condition of humiliation is not always a condition of despair. Broken bones are recoverable: a soul may be brought very low through the hand of God, which it is exercised withal, and yet not in a forlorn estate; thus David here, and so other of the saints elsewhere, as Job, and Heman, and Hezekiah, and such as these, they had all a share in these broken bones, and vet for all that recovered and got them up again. 2. Observe somewhat from the order; that great rejoicing it hath oftentimes great trouble preceding and going before it: the broken bones usher in the exultation. This is God's usual method, to bring to heaven by the gates of hell; and to make great dejections proper always to great enlargements. This He does, that so He may hereby set a price upon His own comforts, and have them had in greater esteem, and so much the better relished by us, which otherwise they would not be. 3. Observe somewhat also from the opposition of state to state, a state of sadness to a state of rejoicing, and the one promoted by the other; and so there is this in it; that those who have felt most of God's terrors are most affected with His comforts: such as these leap for joy, as coming from one extreme to another, from a dark and dismal dungeon into a glorious sunshine. 4. In this transcendent expression, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice; we have this observation likewise intimated to us; how that the servants of God (occasionally and accidentally) gain by their very falls. This is that which David supposes as possible in this petition. As an arm or leg which is broken, when it is once set, is the stronger afterwards; so it falls out to be sometimes in this case with the servants of God. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) That the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice Backsliding is a most common evil, far more common than some of us suppose. We may ourselves be guilty of it and not know it. The cunning hunter makes the passage into his pits most easy and attractive, but out of them the way is difficult indeed. So Satan makes the way of apostasy to be very seductive to our natures, but the way of return, were it not for God's grace, no human soul would find possible.I. THE PLIGHT IN WHICH DAVID WAS. His bones had been broken. People speak flippantly of David's sin, making out of it an accusation against godliness and an excuse for their own sin. But they should look also at David's repentance, for if his sin was shameful, his sorrow for it was of the bitterest kind; and if the crime was glaring, certainly the afflictions which chastised him were remarkable. Children of God cannot sin cheaply. Certainly, David did not. His word here tells that his plight was — 1. Very painful. His bones were broken. A flesh wound is painful, but here was a more serious injury. No punishment was probably more cruel than that of breaking poor creatures alive upon the wheel. To such pain David likens his. 2. Very serious. 3. And complicated. It was not one bone, but many. How can they be all set again? And so with David, the greater powers of the soul were grieved and afflicted, in our spirits there are certain graces which are, so to speak, the bones of the spiritual man. Faith, hope, love are amongst them. But how they suffer when a soul is in such plight as David was! 4. Very dangerous, for where several bones are broken, every surgeon perceives how likely it is that the case will end fatally. It is a dreadful thing to be spiritually in such case — faith broken, hope broken, love broken, and the entire man) as it were, reduced to a palpitating mass of pain. It is a dreadfully dangerous condition to be in; for, alas! when men have sinned and suffered on account of it, they may yet turn again to their sins with greater hardness of heart than ever. Read Isaiah 1. And, again, the case of David was — 5. Most damaging. For even when God in His mercy heals the broken bones, it is a sad detriment to a man to have had them broken at all. But — 6. His case was still hopeful. The saving clause lies here, "The bones which Thou hast broken." For He who wounds can bind up. II. THE REMEDY TO WHICH HE RESORTED. He did not lie down sullenly in despondency, but he turns to God in prayer. And — 1. He believed that there was joy and gladness even for such .as he. And — 2. That it must come to him by hearing. The gate of mercy is the ear. "Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear and," etc. Some despise preaching, and say that prayers are everything, especially the public saying of them. But it is to be noted that nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus commission men to celebrate public prayer, but He did say to His disciples, "Go and preach." Very little is said about public worship, but the Book teems with references to preaching. The fact is, the sermon reverently heard, and earnestly delivered, is the highest act of worship. And it is the main instrumentality for the salvation of men. May the Lord "make" us to hear. III. THE HOPE WHICH HE ENTERTAINED. Not that his bones might merely 1.e quiet and at rest, but "rejoice." He had been a mass of misery, mercy shall make him a mass of music. The music is generally soft and gentle, and has much of God in it, and goes on unceasingly. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) When David's conscience was roused by Nathan's ministry, and sot upon the rack, so that he now was sensible of the terror of the Lord, and of the heinousness of his sin, the ease was altered, and that which before pleased him at the heart was now a pain to his heart, the vexation far exceeded all the former pleasures that he found. The pleasingness of sin was gone, the torment following it stuck by him, and it was no easy matter to remove it.(S. Hieron.) He had made it already in vers. 1 and 7, and now again he repeats it. Yea, we may observe how he does it in some respects confusedly, without observing any method or order at all; there is no method in a broken heart: while he is praying for one thing, he does by the bye thrust in another; and while he is praying for assurance, he does preposterously pray for forgiveness, for pardon after joy, which is a thing antecedent thereunto.1. Here is the necessity of this request of all other besides, to desire that God would pardon us our sins; it is that which we have need to put in the front of all other desires; nay, not only in the front, but in the rear; yea, and further, in the whole body of all. Whenever we draw near to God, make any suit or petition to Him, this had need to come in still, as we may say, for the burthen of the song, "Hide Thy face from my sins." The reason of it is this, because this is the groundwork and foundation of all other comforts besides: all the good which we receive from God is laid in our reconciliation with Him; and all our boldness and freedom, as to the asking of any good at His hands, so long as there is any guilt charged upon us, we cannot so easily do this; this puts an obstruction to those mercies which we expect from Him. 2. The second is the difficulty of it. Great sins make great impressions and wounds upon the conscience, which are not easily healed and made up. And this God will have to be in His infinite wisdom upon a double account: first, to put a weight upon sin; and, secondly, to put a price upon pardon; that the one may not be too easily ventured on, and that the other may not be too lightly esteemed and slighted, and made nothing of, as it would be ready to be. (Thomas Horton, D. D.) David's prayer here is for more than forgiveness, more than remission of punishment, more than abolition of sin; it is for restoration to what he was before.I. HE ASKS GOD TO FORGET IT ALL; to. forget the home left, the squandered property, the being driven in to God, unwilling and degraded. And all this to be as if it had never been! Is this possible? In one sense, yes; in another sense, no. Think only how we have altered our lives. It is said to have been the constant prayer of a very holy man, "O my God, make me what I might have been if it never had sinned!" Some of the Jews every Friday go to a place in Jerusalem, known as the Jews' wailing-place, where there are just a few foundation-stones of the old temple, and there lament their fallen greatness. There are wailing-places, it may be, and always will be, in our own lives. But a new city has risen up, and new duties and new hopes, and God has promised to forget. II. HE ASKS FOR RESTORATION TO STRENGTH, as shown in the clean heart and right spirit. The clean heart being a desire for right things in the seat of the affections; the right spirit being a susceptibility to heavenly influence in the seat of the conscience, the inner man. III. HE ASKS FOR THE COMFORTS OF RELIGION. "The comfort of Thy help." How much there is in these words! (Canon Newbolt.) People Bathsheba, David, Doeg, Nathan, Psalmist, SaulPlaces JerusalemTopics Bones, Broken, Bruised, Causest, Crushed, Fill, Full, Glad, Gladness, Hast, Joy, Joyful, Makest, Rapture, RejoiceOutline 1. David prays for remission of sins, whereof he makes a deep confession6. He prays for sanctification 16. God delights not in sacrifice, but in sincerity 18. He prays for the church Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 51:8 1065 God, holiness of Library David's Cry for Pardon... Blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'--PSALM li. 1, 2. A whole year had elapsed between David's crime and David's penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, 'My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture David's Cry for Purity January the Twenty-Seventh the Confession of Sin Unimpeachable Justice The Wordless Book Praying Saints of the Old Testaments (Continued) Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D. Some Helps to Mourning The Songs of the Fugitive. Transcriber's Note. How God Answered Donald's Prayer David and Nathan Out of the Deep of Sin. Cleansing. All are Sinners. God the Holy Spirit the Love which Dwells in the Heart. Original Sin St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh. In Fine, Supplication for Pardon, with Humble and Ingenuous Confession of Guilt... But Regard the Troops of virgins, Holy Boys and Girls... Moral Depravity. The Sinfulness of Original Sin. How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? That a Man Ought not to Reckon Himself Worthy of Consolation, but More Worthy of Chastisement Links Psalm 51:8 NIVPsalm 51:8 NLT Psalm 51:8 ESV Psalm 51:8 NASB Psalm 51:8 KJV Psalm 51:8 Bible Apps Psalm 51:8 Parallel Psalm 51:8 Biblia Paralela Psalm 51:8 Chinese Bible Psalm 51:8 French Bible Psalm 51:8 German Bible Psalm 51:8 Commentaries Bible Hub |
    |