“Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:11-12
“Your presence” is a phrase where David is acknowledging that to be denied access to the earthly tabernacle of God’s mercy is the worst of all possibilities to him.
“Do not take” seems like a simple prayer. It is probably motivated by the tragic example of Saul’s rejection, which caused David to contemplate the ultimate end of a hardened heart … separation from God.
An early church father wrote, “When holy people—still having and feeling original sin and daily repenting and striving against it—happen to fall into manifest sins (as David did into adultery, murder, and blasphemy), then faith and the Holy Spirit have left them. The Holy Spirit does not permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so it can be carried out, but represses and restrains it from doing what it wants. If sin does what it wants, the Holy Spirit and faith are not present”.
“Holy Spirit … willing spirit” are names borne by the Spirit in common with the Father and the Son, and He gets these titles from His natural and close relationship … ‘Spirit of God,’ ‘Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father,’ ‘right Spirit,’ and ‘a leading Spirit’. These are all names used in Scripture for the Holy Spirit.
David desires to be forgiven by God for several reasons: (1) for his own peace, (2) for the message of hope that he could communicate to others, and (3) for the praise he would be able to give in the community of the faithful. SAME reasons that you and I desire to be forgiven through God’s grace today.
God’s blessings on your day…