THE JOY OF THE LORD'S SALVATION

As king David was wrapping up his beautiful psalm of repentance in Psalm 51, he made this request to God in verse 12, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation?" (Psalm 51:12 NKJV). As I was reviewing this Psalm as I always do during the Passover season I was struck with a fuzzy feeling of remembrance. It took me back to a day that seemed just like yesterday. It will be six years ago this coming Pentecost that I was baptized. As I reflect on this joyous and life changing experience I've had, I can't help but remember that first initial time period of tasting "The Joy of the Lord's Salvation." Oh, what an amazing and indescribable feeling it is to have this joy. It's something that makes this 51st Psalm so much closer to home. As king David, was in anguish from the guilt he was experiencing from his sinful affair he had with Bathsheba, and the consequences it brought him, he for a period had lost this joy. Notice how he says, "Restore" which tells us it was something he previously had. I like how the New English Translation puts it; "Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance" (Psalm 51:12 NET). David knew the God of Israel, as it is said of him, he was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). But even though this is so, David was still not perfect as is seen in studying his life. But God still used and accepted him and in return, David had a trust in God that always brought him to repentance upon his stumbling. And I believe it was this joy that played a big part in bringing him back. As David had his faults, we as Christians do also. We have a lot in common with this monumental figure in the Bible. We are not perfect in ourselves, we have God's spirit, and so did David as is seen when he says "Do not cast me way from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:11 NKJV). And we have experienced "the Joy of the Lord's Salvation" or in part by being put in right standing before God and reconciled through the blood of Christ. This is something that cannot be replicated by anything. Nothing that this physical earth has can offer this feeling. The price of spiritual deliverance/salvation is something as the hymn I heard just a day ago says, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." This joy prompts us to want to know God better, obey him better, live a life that glorifies him better, and so forth. So as the feast we have just completed has reminded us once again of our deliverance, let us not forget the liberty and freedom we now have in God's salvation. Let us also always be mindful and watchful that this world, Satan and our still present carnality will always try and rob us of this feeling. No matter how hard this life is, it is all worth it because of this excitement that burns deep within all those that have tasted the freeing power of God that allows us to have THE JOY OF THE LORD'S SALVATION.