When something wonderful happens in our lives, we can’t contain our joy and happiness. We want to share it with the world, with everyone around us. We get excited about it. That’s no different from when our relationship with God is restored.
Sin comes in as a destructive force to break us up. But through confession, forgiveness, and restoration, the separation is broken. It’s not as easy to praise God in the hard times. When were going through trials, and he is silent, it’s hard to continue to praise him.
But we are really good at praising God when great things happen to us. And that’s exactly how David feels as he finishes out Psalm 51. God has restored relationship because of his sorrowful repentance and confession. God responded through forgiveness and restoration. David can once again enjoy the blessings of God’s presence and his relationship.
We’ve been discussing Psalm 51, David’s prayer of confession, and how we can use it as a template in our own prayers of confession. In the final part of our model prayer of confession, David shows us how to react to God’s forgiveness and restoration of his relationship.
Spread the Joy
Even in the middle of his mourning for a baby lost because of sin, David can rejoice because God is restoring him and his relationship with David. God is the best person to walk through pain with. Only he can fully understand the depths of sorrow.
He restores us little by little. He brings us out of the fog and the darkness. Because of David’s willingness to confess his sin before God, God forgives and restores him. David feels invigorated to become a full on evangelist for God (Psalm 51:13).
Because God has been so good to him in one of his lowest moments, David wants to share God’s ways with transgressors and sinners. He will be so zealous that sinners will return to the Lord. When we not only think about the depths of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness toward us, but experience it over and over, it fills us with joy.
Take this time in this part of your prayer of confession to thank God for his goodness to you. Don’t be afraid to share what you have not only known with your head but felt with your heart as you experience God’s goodness, love, and mercy. Shout it from the rooftops.
Praise the Lord
I know there are as many different styles of worship as there are people and personalities. But when you get what God has done for you deep down inside, you can’t help but use your voice and your mouth.
David may be referring to the loss of his baby when he asks God to deliver him from blood-guiltiness (Psalm 51:14). After all, he probably blames himself because his sin cost the baby its life. But even in this hurt, David felt the weight of his sinful decisions wash away in God’s presence.
Even in this deep sense of loss, David felt God’s presence and power in his life. He is the God who not only saves us once but continues to save us. His salvation power never stops. He is always the one to come in and rescue us. His salvation has staying power.
So David can’t resist to loose his tongue and sing to the heavens for joy (Psalm 51:15). He will sing to the Lord for the Lord is good. David declares God’s righteousness and worships him. He isn’t afraid to put his whole person and being into praising God.
Praise is a powerful medicine for the suffering soul. When we release our energy on praising God instead of thinking about our situation or the things that cause our sorrow, God fills our hearts with joy. He is worthy of our praise no matter our situation.
David understands a key truth about worship (Psalm 51:16-17). We can offer all the sacrifices in the world, but God isn’t looking for sacrifices alone. He’s looking at our hearts. He can tell if our actions don’t match the attitude of our hearts.
If worshiping God was as simple as following a three-step process, anyone could do it. But it takes the heart of brokenness that truly understands the rays of sunshine God can bring into your life that makes worship God loves to see from us.
The one who’s been through the fire and seeing the fourth man in it protecting him (Daniel 3:25) praises God for his salvation and deliverance. The person who is been through brokenness and come out on the other side, only because of God’s grace, mercy, and love praises him out of brokenness.
Enjoy God’s Favor
Our contrite heart and brokenness before the Lord send up a sweet fragrance before him. In God’s good pleasure, we see his blessings poured out. Because of our willingness to confess our sin before him with a contrite heart, godly sorrow over sin and its effects, he is pleased.
David asks God to bless Israel, and especially Jerusalem (Psalm 51:18). He asks God for his blessings to continue to flow upon his people. David reminds us that only when our hearts are right will our actions in our worship please the Lord (Psalm 51:19).
How can we apply this part of the prayer? Now that our relationship has been restored we enjoy God’s blessings in our lives. They are sweeter because of the trials we went through. We ask God to pour his blessing out on us and those around us. We seek the Lord in all of his goodness.
We’ve spent a while looking at David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51 because it is an excellent prayer model to help us when we need to confess. We benefit from God’s grace and mercy. He’s always good to us, even if we sin against him.
David shows us how to approach God’s throne of grace in need of his mercy. And he always gives us his mercy and love in spades. Our God is good and though we know it in our heads in the good times, we feel it in our hearts in the midst of our bad times.
How has studying the prayer of confession from David helped you understand God’s goodness even when we let him down? Leave a comment and tell me how these prayer models are helping you.
