For Lent, I'm reading through a series of Devotions and Scriptures assembled by Holy Bible: Mosaic through YouVersion (the most downloaded Bible App). This plan has me reading through the New Living Translation of the Scriptures, and I came across something that is sticking with me, so I thought I'd share why it's sticking.
In the NLT, Psalm 51:12 is translated as follows: "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you." David's prayer is bold! David's prayer has jostled my attention. "Make me willing" is an interesting phrase, and I haven't done the study of the original language yet, but this translation has done enough to stop and make me think for a few days now. Would I pray this? Do I pray this? Can you force someone into being willing? Can God make someone willingly obedient? Would God make us obey? If He makes us, do we have a choice to be willing? Why does David pray this way?
I won't have the time this morning to even scratch the surface of this one verse, but I'll offer this one thought for now. There's so much depth to David's relationship with God that he chooses to pray this. There's so much context to this prayer that we have to understand before we can pick only this verse to chew on. David is desperate before God because of his recent past, and He's opening himself up before God. He realizes he can't continue in life without God's forgiveness and God's guidance.
I could say so much more, but I don't have the time. There are probably 15-20 sermons in just Psalm 51 alone! I'll come back with some more thoughts after studying the full context of this passage and the original language of this text.
