Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Psalm 51:12-13
David’s great prayer of repentance and his plea for restoration also contains a commitment. He committed to be a teacher of the ways of God when God had restored his relationship with Him.
There are times that we try to bargain with God. If God will do thus and such then we will be better people but we need to understand that one does not bargain with God. We need to understand that God stands ready to forgive those who sincerely repent. God knows our heart and He knows whether we are sincere of if we are just praying for a crop failure of the wild oats that we have been sowing. If we are doing that we are in for a rude awakening.
David’s was a prayer of the heart and he was making a commitment to God to do what was right in the future. So, it must be with us. After we make a commitment to God we best be honoring that commitment.
One thing that David wanted to do in his life was to build the Temple in Jerusalem, so he prayed that God would deliver him from the sin of shedding innocent blood. God forgave him, but he still had to reap what he had sown. The Scripture says very clearly, “God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that he shall also reap.” Through the mercy of God, thankfully, we reap what we sow in this life and not in eternity.
If God would forgive him and restore him then he would sing his praises to God and would worship him.
There are times when we do not do what is wrong but we are wronged by others and we grow bitter and that anger and bitterness silences our praise and worship of God. What should we do when that happens? We must do what we have asked God to do for us so many times; ask God to forgive us. Let’s get everything right between us and God and then we can be an example to others. And, we can do what Jesus commanded us to do; “love one another.” Amen, amen and amen.
