Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
Not temporal, but spiritual and eternal; and designs either
Christ himself, who is God's salvation, of his appointing and
providing, in the view of whom, as such, David had much spiritual
joy; or the salvation he was to work out, which God the Father
had contrived the scheme of in him, had covenanted with him to
do, and had appointed his people to: salvation itself is a sure
thing, and can never fail, being founded upon the purpose and
counsel of God, which shall ever stand; and is secured in the
covenant of grace, which can never be removed; and is now
completely wrought out by Christ, and is applied by his Spirit to
the heirs of it, who shall certainly and fully enjoy it;
otherwise the glory of all the three Persons in it would be lost:
but the joy of it may be interrupted and discontinued for a
while, through falls into sin, as this case of David, and the
case of Peter, show; and therefore a restoration of it is
desired, by showing a fresh interest in this salvation; and
particularly by an application of pardoning grace and mercy; see
( Psalms
35:3 Psalms 35:9 ) (
51:8 ) ;
and uphold me [with thy] free Spirit:
or "let thy free Spirit uphold me" F14; the same with the Holy
Spirit of God; called "free", because he is a most free and
munificent giver: he gives his grace, and bestows his gifts
severally, as he pleases, and liberally, and upbraids not; and
because he is freely given of God; his graces are freely given,
as faith, hope, love and because he frees them to whom he is
given from the bondage of sin and corruption, and makes them
Christ's free men, and delivers them into the liberty of the
children of God; and so is a spirit of adoption, in opposition to
a spirit of bondage, by which they have freedom and boldness to
call God their Father; and by whom also they have liberty of soul
at the throne of grace, and can freely make known their requests,
and spread their cases before God; see ( Romans 8:15 Romans 8:16 ) (
2
Corinthians 3:17 ) ; also he may be so called, because he
makes the saints ready and willing to obey the will of God, and
to run with cheerfulness the way of his commandments; and is
moreover "a princely spirit" F15, or beneficent, as some
choose to render the words; and which becomes such who are set
among princes, and are made kings and priests unto God: and with
this spirit the psalmist desires to be "upheld", to be
strengthened by it, to do the will and work of God, that so he
might not stumble and fall into sin as he had done; that he might
be stayed, supported, and comforted with it, as the Holy Spirit
of promise; that so he might not faint and sink under his present
sense of sin, and the guilt of it; and that he would be not only
a guide unto him in the ways of God, but that he would hold up
his goings in them, that so he might walk both at liberty and in
safety. The Targum interprets this also of the spirit of
prophecy.