Joy in Trusting, Not Taking

Restore to me the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:12)

This is one of my favorite psalms. David wrote it after being confronted, and convicted, by the prophet Nathan. Nathan fingered David as “the man” in a plot that would make Hollywood drool. A king, a beautiful girl who happens to be another man’s wife, an adulterous affair, a murdered husband, and a cover up.

After Nathan calls David on it, David repents and writes this psalm. There is so much depth in this psalm, but verse 12 really struck me yesterday as I read it.

David pursued sexual pleasure, went to great lengths to acquire it, and he was joyless.

There is great joy in being saved by God, but our sin robs us of that joy. Once we’ve tasted the joy of God’s salvation, why do we then sin, and trade our joy for fleeting pleasure that doesn’t last? It’s a bad trade. A foolish one. But we do it all the time.

I think it’s because we trust our eyes instead of walking by faith. Our eyes believe the lie of sin, that its pleasure is greater than the pleasure God would have us enjoy. That’s the original lie Satan told Eve in the garden. God gave Adam and Eve everything, except one tree. And Satan told them God was withholding the best pleasure from them, a pleasure greater than all the other trees, greater than God himself. And they believed him.

The tree was there so that they would have a chance to obey, to trust their Father, to walk by faith. The tree was there to secure the pleasures of the other trees. To make sure that all their eating was faith, trusting that God knew best and was giving them the best.

But they didn’t walk by faith. They believed the lie, and took what was not theirs to take. Sin continues to tell us the same lie. And we continue to believe it, and trade the joy of faith and trusting, for the momentary pleasure of sin, that leaves us empty and joyless.

That’s where David was when he wrote this psalm. Instead of trusting God for joy, he believed the lie that he would find it in sex with a woman other than his wife. He took what was not his, and he lost the joy of faith.

But here he prays for a restoring of his joy in God’s salvation. At least he recognized where true joy comes from and sought to return to it.

My prayer for you and I, is that we would daily remember that our joy is found in trusting, not in taking.