Renewed, Reshaped, & Reminded

In Psalm 51, David is confronted with his sin. He's broken over it & cries out to God for mercy, grace, & forgiveness. Beginning in verse 10 David asks God to "Create in me a clean heart O God & renew a steadfast spirit within me." In this section what God's work of renewing us looks like when we come to Him with genuine, broken repentance.

"God Renews Us By Reshaping Us & Reminding Us."

When David asks God to "create" & "renew" there are a couple of things we need to understand about those words. The Hebrew word David chose for "create" was the same word used in Genesis 1 when God created the universe. David's implication is that this new heart is something only God can create. David cannot do this work for himself; he needs God to intervene & replace his sinful heart. The word David chose for "renew" was often used to describe the process of polishing stones or sharpening metal. It implies the need to file away or sand away the pieces that don't allow the stone to reflect its beauty or the metal to serve the purpose for which it was designed. 

As David continues in verses 11 & 12, he is reminded of how his faithfulness impacts his usefulness. He had experienced God's gracious forgiveness but he's still concerned about God's Spirit being taken away. What's that about? Even though David had experienced God's grace, he remembered Saul. Saul's unfaithfulness & unwillingness to trust God caused him to be useless to God. God could not use him as king as long as Saul was unwilling to follow. That's Saul's legacy, & David didn't want it to be his. David also is reminded that his joy comes from the salvation that he has experienced in God. David, like many of us, had been seduced by the temptation that he could find satisfaction, fulfillment, peace, & joy in pursuing his desires & the things of this world. On the other side of that pursuit however, David was left with an even bigger hole in his life. The only thing that could give David real, lasting joy was the salvation of God. David needed to be reminded of that joy so that it could be restored in his life.

All of us have places where we need the edges filed down or polished so that we can reflect God's work in our lives & be used for His glory. And there are many times where we need to be reminded that joy is only found in our relationship with God through Christ. The things of this world always promise more than they can deliver & always cost more than we think. God wants to do a work of renewal in us so that we can do to new places of intimacy with our Heavenly Father, but we must be broken so that He can begin to renew us by reshaping us & reminding us.