On the Way to Wonder

¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
    and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.

Psalm 51:11-13

         One of King David’s famous songs is Psalm 51.  He wrote it after being convicted by the prophet Nathan about his affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite.  During Advent we have pondered how Christians sees the birth of the Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy confirming God’s faithfulment of his promises.  The angels sing of “peace on earth” as we look forward to reconciliation resulting from forgiveness the babe will live and preach.  This week though we focus on joy.  King David is cut to the core of his being when he is caught in sin.  The God of the universe and even his prophet Nathan knew about it saw what he thought happened in the privacy of his bedroom.  The ugly, dark secret, of a man “loved of God”, had gone public and he was distraught. 

         I’m guessing many of us have some skeleton in our closet that the evil one loves to taunt us about and that we feel disqualifies us from hope or peace or joy or even love.  David pleads for restoration to “the joy of salvation.”  One of the windows into Advent is the realization that there is a power greater than our flakey selves, a power that wants to forgive and restore relationship, and that comes to us in a way we understand and are not threatened by.  God reaches out to us in a baby to restore the joy of salvation.  I would say that is worth respoonding to and celebrating next week.

         Perhaps there is some dark secret you need to put in God’s hands as he reaches out to you.  Perhaps there is a broken relationship that needs to be repaired.  Thank you Lord that we can be restored!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2023 at 7:35 am and is filed under Spiritual Vitamins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.