I was preaching in a gospel meeting at a rural church in southern Oklahoma, and staying in the nice farm house of an elder of that church, and his good wife. One morning while I was awaiting the arrival of the local preacher so we could make some visits in the community, I was enjoying a cup of coffee with my hostess. I asked her if she had been reared in the Lord’s church and she said she had not. Then she volunteered the story of her conversion.

When she was a little girl, probably five or so, a neighbor lady asked her mother if she might take her to Bible school with her.  Her mother didn’t mind her going to church but she did not want to be inconvenienced by it.  So, this good neighbor would keep her Saturday night, bathe and dress her, take her to church Sunday morning, and feed her lunch before returning her to her home that afternoon.  This continued until one or the other moved away after several months, or maybe years.

After this she said she joined her family in a religion-less life, and later married a man who was also disinterested in spiritual things.  But when their first child was born, her husband decided he did not want to rear their child a heathen, and he suggested they start going to church somewhere.  He had no preference and asked her if she did.  She told him about the good Christian neighbor who was so kind to her, and had taken her to the church of Christ in their little community.  He was impressed by her story and they decided to visit the local church of the Lord.  They found a group of good, friendly people who took an interest in them. They studied the Bible and were eventually baptized into Christ.  Now her husband was an elder, and they were the backbone of that church at which I was holding the meeting.  They had several sons who were deacons in churches elsewhere, and daughters whose families were faithful workers for the Lord.

All this was the result of a good Christian woman showing love and concern for the soul of a little neighbor girl.  And the woman never knew her efforts had turned out.  This story convinced me that I should never underestimate the value of doing little things for the Lord, and then leaving it up to the Lord to make them big.  “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Have you ever experienced that time in your life when you had done wrong and were so depressed that you were close to just giving up trying?  You hated what you had done.  Do you feel as if there is no salvation for someone like you?

It was not always that way, for each of us have vivid memories of other times when we felt so close to God.  There was great joy. There was peace. There was thanksgiving. At such times, we could hardly imagine how life could get any better.

David had these same experiences.  He had great joy when those tribes who did not support him to be king came to him pledging their loyalty to him.  He then defeated the Philistines.   He had captured Jerusalem and moved the Ark of the Covenant to the holy city.   His armies were defeating all nations around them. He had joy!

All of this began to change when he failed to lead his army in battle. David stayed home and, standing on the roof of his palace, watched Bathsheba bathing.   The events which followed are well known—the “pleasure” of forbidden sin, the pregnancy, the attempt to deceive Bathsheba’s husband, the death of that husband, the period of grieving for the dead husband, and then the marriage.  Then it happened!

“Thou art the man!”  How these words must have shaken King David to the very core of his heart.  The sin which he had so skillfully hidden from men was about to become known. It was to be recorded for all of mankind to know.   He was the man—not the one whose purity of heart was like the heart of God, but one whose heart had  “…despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil” (2 Sam. 12:9).

The heading to Psalm 51 indicates that this psalm was likely written shortly after Nathan’s words, “Thou art the man.”   He begged God to “…blot out my transgressions, wash  me  thoroughly from my sin… purge me… wash me… do not cast me away… deliver me”  (Psa. 51:2-14).   But perhaps the most meaningful words showing the nature of all sin are,  “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”

There is no joy worthy to be compared to the joy in our hearts the day we became Christians.  I have seen this joy on the faces of hundreds who had just been baptized. Remember the day of your salvation and the joy you had.  David had that same joy, but sin had snatched it from him.   Is there any despair to be compared to that when we have wronged God?

Is there a way to restore that joy? Absolutely.  This is why David asked God for its restoration.   God longs for you to be in heaven.  David sinned—we all do.  David lost his joy—we all have.   David’s joy was restored—we, too, can regain that joy!