Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
The song “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” by Keith Green, is based on Psalm 51. This psalm was written by King David after he faced up to his sin with Bathsheba. He calls upon the mercy of God to blot out his transgressions (V.1). He knew the joy of salvation, but had lost it. He was praying to have it back.
There is actually a “joy meter” to determine the level of your emotions. It is not based on your relationship with God—it is based on human feelings. It reads your happiness level, determined mainly from your circumstances. Some would separate religion and emotion, almost fearing (an emotional word) show of emotion. That takes away the love relationship with the God who so loved the world. God is definitely emotional and created us to be emotional. We may have a “high” reading on the joy meter without God. Some seek it by getting high on drugs.
Salvation is a very real state of the soul that is accompanied by joy. David knew what he was missing because he had separated himself from God by his sin. He said, “…uphold me with thy free spirit.” Notice “spirit” is not capitalized here. This is not to take away the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. David is talking here of the wonderful free spirit of emotion that comes with salvation. At this point I would ask, how is the joy of your salvation doing? You can never know it until you are saved. Maybe you once knew it but your joy has faded. You may not have committed the Bathsheba sin, but somewhere your joy has diminished. Sin ruins our walk with God. On God’s “joy meter” the needle may not jump from zero to one hundred, back and forth.
David went to the Lord in prayer with his problem. In Psalm 51 he acknowledges his sin, asks God to cleanse him (V. 2), purge him (V. 7), renew a right spirit (V. 10), etc. In verse 11 he prays, “Cast me not away from thy presence; take not thy holy spirit (not capitalized, I don’t know why) from me.
While I was at Bible College, there was a man in one of our churches they called “Whoop and Holler.” When he would get blessed he would run up and down the isles shouting and praising God. I knew of an old-time holiness preacher who would get so carried away that sometimes he would run back and forth from the front of the church to the back on the backs of the pews. Today we would probably have him committed.
Nehemiah 8:10 states, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” In Luke 7:47 Jesus spoke of the sinner woman who anointed his feet with oil, “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” We may never run the pews, but Lord, please restore the joy of our salvation so we can get out of the pew, and register on YOUR JOY METER!
