God’s move today is in man – He moves in Christ to come into man and move in man. God’s move in man is to deify man – to make man the same as He is in life and in nature, but not in the Godhead!
the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; Lord, do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion!
Have you ever wondered what’s the connection between “a broken and contrite heart” and “Zion”? It looks like if we have such a spirit and such a heart, we are qualified to pray such a prayer, and we desire what the Lord also desires – the good of Zion (Psa. 48:2)!
Lord, restore to me the gladness of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit!
there is a connection here between the gladness of salvation and the willingness of spirit – when we are happy in the Lord and with the Lord, we also have a willing spirit! A willing spirit depends upon the joy of salvation – when we have the joy restored to us, we are happy and willing to go along with the Lord and do what He desires. We obey the Lord because we love Him and we are filled with the joy of our salvation!
create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit / a right spirit within me
Once we confess our sins, God forgives us of our sins and He also forgets them! To forgive literally means “causing it to leave” / “sending away” (Matt. 12:31; Rom. 4:7). When God forgives us of our sins, He forgives us of our sins because of the Lord’s blood which covers us and He also causes them to depart from us!
we need to have a thorough repentance and confession to receive a full forgiveness from God
We need to confess even the small things – everything that bothers our conscience when we fellowship with the Lord. Regularly, we need to have a private time with the Lord when we confess our sins in a fine and detailed way. Just us and the Lord, fellowshipping and praying over His Word…
enjoying and ministering Christ as the sin-dealing life to bear away the inquity of God’s people
It is only after we enjoy Christ as the sin-dealing life that we can also minister Him as such to others. In Leviticus the priests were to eat the sin offering in the holy place that they may make expiation for the people of Israel before Jehovah(Lev. 10:17). As we enjoy Christ as the sin-dealing life, we have an enlarged capacity to bear away the iniquity of God’s people – by learning to minister Christ to the dear saints who are in sin
our repentance and confession marries God’s forgiveness to produce something for God’s building
In a way, if in our Christian life we didn’t have a great failure – something that we do which makes the other saints shake their head when they think about it – we cannot say we have experienced a great repentance matched by God’s forgiveness… No, we don’t want to say, Let us do evil so that good may later come. We don’t want to tempt God nor do we desire to willingly fail, but we may fail and commit a great sin – we may have a great failure – and there will be a deep repentance that will follow.