Psalm 51:12 (NLT)
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me
willing to obey you.
Though David penned this psalm upon a very particular
occasion, yet, it is of as general use as any of David's psalms; it is the most
eminent of the penitential psalms, and most expressive of the cares and desires
of a repenting sinner. It is a pity indeed that in our devout addresses to God
we should have any thing else to do than to praise God, for that is the work of
heaven; but we make other work for ourselves by our own sins and follies: we
must come to the throne of grace in the posture of penitents, to confess our sins
and sue for the grace of God; and, if therein we would take with us words, we
can nowhere find any more apposite than in this psalm, which is the record of
David's repentance for his sin in the matter of Uriah, which was the greatest
blemish upon his character: all the rest of his faults were nothing to this; it
is said of him (1 Ki. 15:5), That "he turned not aside from the
commandment of the Lord all the days of his life, save only in the matter of
Uriah the Hittite.' [Matthew Henry Commentary]
"I was years and years upon the brink of hell--I
mean in my own feeling. I was unhappy, I was desponding, I was despairing. I
dreamed of hell. My life was full of sorrow and wretchedness, believing that I
was lost."
Charles Spurgeon used these strong words to describe his
adolescent years. Despite his Christian upbringing (he was christened as an
infant, and raised in the Congregational church), and his own efforts (he read
the Bible and prayed daily), Spurgeon woke one January Sunday in 1850 with a
deep sense of his need for deliverance.
Because of a snowstorm, the 15-year-old's path to church
was diverted down a side street. For shelter, he ducked into the Primitive
Methodist Chapel on Artillery Street. An unknown substitute lay preacher
stepped into the pulpit and read his text--(Isaiah 45:22) "Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none
else."
[Mary Ann Jeffreys. "Charles Haddon Spurgeon,"
Christian History, no. 29.]
Charles Spurgeon realized the need for God and change in
his life. I pray we all understand our need for God and the changes that need
to be brought about in our lives. We need a revival, a restoration of the joy of God's salvation in our lives.
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