Please Restore My Joy

 

Restore My Joy....

I'm reading Psalm 51 this morning. David wrote it after Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.

It's, I think,  the clearest expression of confession and repentance and total forgiveness in Scripture.

It's  so universal, and yet so personal that this psalm has touched the hearts of God's people for centuries.  I have read that in the early church it was recited, as a group, at every Lord's Day service.

Look at verse 12. After his sincere confession, David is confident of God's faithful forgiveness, and now prays: "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."

When I first read this verse some years ago, I was startled by David's nerve! He is saying that even after the horrible sins he committed, 'Please, God, bring me back to that joyous relationship with You again!' 

How could he have the nerve to ask that? After all he'd done! And notice the expression, "Your salvation."....not "my salvation."

This wording appears throughout Scripture. Why? Because everything about salvation is from God. We don't initiate anything.

Beginning with our search for God, because He first loved and called us, our seeing ourselves as the sinners we are, even our very repentance  is a gift of God. 

We do nothing, absolutely nothing, to achieve His salvation, except accept the gift. It's all about God.

"Amazing grace...grace that taught our hearts to fear and grace our fears relieved."

So why do we love this psalm so much? Because it is our experience, too. We are just as hardened and sinful as David. And we also stand in desperate of God's mercy and grace.

And we have it: Remember Hebrews 4:16? "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy and receive grace to help us in our hour of need."

What Was Elijah Praying For?

 Elijah was weary and frightened. He had faithfully obeyed God and challenged the evil pagan world around him. He was exhausted. And now Queen Jezebel was going to kill him. He ran for his life into the wilderness, sat down under a bush, and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD", he prayed. "Take my life." (1 Kings 19)

But God didn't answer his prayer. God had another plan, and important work left for Elijah. Sometimes God does not give us precisely what we pray for. But He will many times give us something better -- something we would much rather have!

When God did choose to bring Elijah home it would not be in the wilderness, alone, under an ordinary desert bush. It would be in a miraculous chariot of heavenly fire with horses of fire, appearing from God's own domain, harnessed by a whirlwind -- in front of many witnesses! Certainly a more exciting way to go! That was God's plan.

Someone has said, "If God doesn't pay in silver, He will in gold. If not in gold, He will in diamonds."

When God doesn't give us exactly what we ask for, when we ask for it, be prepared for something much more exciting! Something we would rather have anyway! 

It's All About Jesus!

 "For in Him  all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, rulers, or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16).

Jesus is the goal of all things. All creation  and all history have been fashioned with Christ in mind, for they achieve their intended purpose through Him and exist for Him. All of life and all creation draw their meaning only from Jesus Christ. That includes us!

It's amazing - the hands that hold history are nail--scarred; the heart from which history beats is love-filled; and the mind that plans history is grace-filled!

And He holds US in His nail-scarred hands!

Where Is Jesus Right Now?

God gives us some information that brings us great joy! Jesus, our resurrected, glorious Savior, is in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father. Right now!

1 Peter 3:22 -- "Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand -- with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to Him." 

And Mark 16:19, "After the Lord had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven, and He sat at the right hand of God."

Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9-11 describe His bodily ascent into heaven - while the disciples gazed in wonder.

There are many other references to Jesus' presence in heaven, "seated at the right hand of God."

Acts 7:55 describes Stephen's vision of Christ in heaven as he is being stoned to death -- this one is a little different: Christ is "standing," not "seated," at God's right hand. 

(Maybe He is standing because, as Stephen is dying, Christ is getting ready to receive him into His glory and kingdom - personally greeting him, welcoming him  --- honoring him for his sacrifice.  ?)

Anyway, Jesus is in an actual place called heaven, a place of glory, surrounded by angelic hosts.

He is honored and glorified at God's right hand!

Our Savior, the tortured, mocked and crucified One, is now receiving cosmic glory. (We can only imagine!)

What joy we have! Our crucified Savior is now bring worshipped and adored -- and will be forever. 

And someday we will be there, too!

It's an Upside-Down World!

Things seem so upside-down now, so confused and mixed up. Donald Grey Barnhouse, in his book on Revelation, makes these comments --

  "There are four things out of place in the universe.

   The church is out of place. She should be in heaven.

   Israel is out of place. She should be occupying the land sworn to her and occupying every part.

   The devil is out of pace. He ought to be in the lake of fire.

   And Christ is out of place. He should be through with intercession and seated on His throne, reigning, instead of at His Father's throne, interceding.

   But in Revelation we begin to see all of these things that are out of place being put in their rightful place, right where they were meant to be.

   The church is in heaven.

   Israel is about to  be given back her kingdom and the promised land.

   The devil is going to be bound and cast into the lake of fire.   

   And Christ is about to reign."

And those in heaven know this. They are waiting, too.

And finally everything will be put back the way it was intended to be! 

And we will be where we were meant to be - with God  in our forever home!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!