R.C. Sproul

And David was groaning and crying out in his misery in Psalm 51, pleading with God for his mercy.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, and according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

And that's where we are.

When we feel the weight of the pain of repentance, we cry out.

Elsewhere, David speaks of his pillow being soaked and saturated with his tears from crying before the Lord day and night.

But once he receives the forgiveness of God, once he experiences the pardon of God and enters into the blessedness of the forgiven,

Then his voice shouts with joy, because the bones which the Lord had broken are once again rejoicing, and God, indeed the God of his salvation, restores to David the joy of his salvation.

There's nothing that happens outside of the scope of God's ordination.

If there were anything that happened outside of the scope of His ordination, God would not be sovereign.

He'd be a spectator, wringing His hands, hoping that things turn out the way He wants them to turn out, but having no authority or sovereignty over them.

I mentioned a passage that sounds rather strange, perhaps even weird, that's found in the first book of Samuel in the Old Testament.

It's a story that has to do with the Ark of the Covenant, the throne of God in Old Testament Israel.

And when the Jewish people built their tabernacle in the wilderness and then later the temple in Jerusalem, we recall that in those sacred sites there was a certain section that was called the Sanctus Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could go one day out of the year on Yom Kippur, on the Day of Atonement, where the blood of the Lamb was sprinkled upon the throne of God.

and it also had significance to the Jews militarily.

Remember when Moses and Joshua later were involved in warring against the pagan nations, the Amalekites and other groups of Canaanites and so on, that whenever the Jewish people went into battle against their enemies, the priests would transport the Ark of the Covenant, the throne of God, and when the throne of God went in front of the armies of Israel,

the armies of Israel were always victorious.

God was on their side and ensured their victory over these nations.

Well, in the first book of Samuel, as I said, we read an account of what took place when the unthinkable happened to Israel.

where after having been defeated in battle against the Philistines and suffering something like 4,000 casualties among their troops, the returning soldiers, chagrined, rushed into the camp of the Jewish people and went to the leader, the spiritual leader, the judge, Eli,

and said, let us go back again into battle against the Philistines, only this time please let's take the throne of God, the Ark of the Covenant, because if we take the Ark of the Covenant, we will surely win.