I think I’ve noted this before, but if those who put together my reading plan intended to have Romans 3 and Psalm 51 on the same day, it was a masterful move. To align “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) and “I have sinned” (Ps. 51:4) makes David’s song of repentance that much more poignant. To consider afresh God as “the just and justifier” (Rom. 3:26) alongside David’s plea that God would “blot out”, “wash thoroughly”, and “cleanse me” from “my transgressions”, “my iniquity”, and “my sin” (Ps. 51:1-2), captures something of not only the dynamic but the magnitude of grace.

But the dots which particularly connect this morning remind me that while I have been redeemed by grace I have also been redeemed for obedience. That while saved apart from the law, I am saved to walk according to the law. And that obedience too, in a sense, is a gift of God.

Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence,
and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

(Psalm 51:9-12 ESV)

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. . . Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

(Romans 3:28, 31 ESV)

Uphold me with a willing spirit . . . That’s the ask I’m chewing on this morning.

For me at least, it’s the ask within David’s greater ask which can easily get overshadowed. After pleading with God for a clean heart, a renewed and right spirit, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, and a return of the joy of salvation, I think I kind of skip over the part about being upheld, or sustained, or supported by a willing spirit. A spirit willing to do what? To obey. To not sin. To walk in a manner worthy of grace and forgiveness. To, as Paul says, uphold the law.

I need God to uphold me with a willing spirit so that I can uphold the law.

Noodle on that for a bit.

I need a clean heart, a right spirit, an ever-present Spirit, and the joy of my salvation in order to behave as I claim to believe. While not saved by works of obedience, I am saved for works of obedience. While justified apart from the law, I am justified to uphold the law. And that’s only possible as the grace which saved me from the penalty of sin includes gifting me the desire in the inner man to walk in a manner which demonstrates that I’m also being saved from the power of sin.

Uphold me with a willing spirit. Because, as the southern gospel songwriter puts it, “I can’t even walk, without You holding my hand.”

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

More evidence of His all-sufficient, sustaining grace.

The only power I have to live for His all-deserving glory.

Amen?