You’re always potentially trudging into a minefield when you draw a question mark on a popular Christian song. Even more so when the song in question is drawn verbatim from scripture.

The song I’m considering is Keith Green’s “Create in Me a Clean Heart.” And its lyrics are drawn directly from Psalm 51:10-12:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.
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KJV

Let me begin with a few caveats. Early in my walk with the Lord, Keith Green’s music was an incredibly powerful influence. I still love many of his songs, like “Stained Glass,” and “Your Love Broke Through.”

Keith Green was an incredibly gifted performer with a compelling story and an infectious faith. The Lord has and will continue to use his music for His kingdom and glory.

However—and this is true with so many of the artists like Green who emerged from the Jesus Movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s—Keith was something of a sheep without a shepherd. He didn’t have much of what you would call formal Bible training.

Moreover, the passion that makes his music so urgent and compelling also came with a pretty big dose of legalism—something Keith himself began to recognize and repent of before his tragic death in a 1982 plane crash.

Here’s another caveat: I love singing the Psalms! Since “Create in Me” comes directly from Psalm 51, I really do need to clarify that. I read the Psalms daily, pray them often, look for Christ in them. So my quibble is not going to be with the scripture itself.

But it’s important–essentially, crucially, vitally important!–for Christians to recognize the context of whatever scripture they’re reading (or in this case, singing). Especially, we must understand the redemptive-historical context of any passage. That is: Where are we in God’s unfolding drama of redemption? Because that’s going to shade how we understand any scripture’s application to believers now.

So, here’s where I’m uneasy with Christians singing Psalm 51:10-12 straight, no chaser as it were. In other words–when we see this scripture as somehow applying directly to us. My specific area of concern is in v11, when King David pleads with God: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Are believers now truly in danger of God taking His Holy Spirit away from us? I bring that up because the implications of such a thing are truly terrifying. After all, St. Paul tells us that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Romans 8:9 KJV). In other words, if someone doesn’t have the Holy Spirit’s personal indwelling, that person is not in Christ, and they are not saved.

Will the Holy Spirit up and depart from us because we’ve sinned? Will our ongoing struggles in our flesh lead to God casting us from His presence?

According to one popular brand of revivalistic preaching, this is absolutely the case. For example, Charles G. Finney, the popular New York preacher of the 19th century, asserted that:

Whenever he sins, [the Christian] must, for the time being, cease to be holy. This is self-evident. Whenever he sins, he must be condemned; he must incur the penalty of the law of God … The Christian, therefore, is justified no longer than he obeys, and must be condemned when he disobeys … [T]he sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are upon precisely the same ground.

Systematic Theology, 46

But where is the Gospel in that? That’s basically telling Christians they have to start at the beginning again whenever they sin in word, thought, or deed–like a recovering alcoholic having to get a white chip when they fall off the wagon. If Finney’s version of things is correct, I’ve needed about a dozen white chips already today. That’s hardly good news!

Even if we don’t believe that our sins automatically get the Holy Spirit yanked out of us–I don’t think even Finney actually believed that–it still puts us in an incredibly awkward position. Does one big sin get the Spirit taken from us? If we have a whole bunch of cumulative sins, does the Spirit depart from us then? If so, what’s the tolerance? At what point does a Christian get the Holy Spirit taken away from them? How would we know? Would you feel the Spirit departing?

Of course–the Bible doesn’t answer those questions. So if you want to proceed down that road, you’re just going to be speculating.

But Christians don’t base our faith and assurance on speculations and feelings. Our security is founded on the objective truth of Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection for sinners. The facts of our faith are given to us in the scriptures.

So, here is our question: What did King David mean when he prayed, Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me?

Well, what’s the context of the Psalm? Fortunately, the superscription of the Psalm tells us what it is: A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. The sordid details of the story can be found in 2 Samuel 11:1 – 12:14. David had taken Bathsheba, who was married to one of his soldiers, Uriah, and had his way with her. When she became pregnant from the encounter, David hatched a scheme to have Uriah killed on the battlefield to cover up his sin. He only confessed when confronted by his court prophet, Nathan.

Psalm 51 is King David pouring his heart out to the Lord after Nathan had drawn a confession from him for this grizzly chain of sins. That’s when David begs God not to cast him aside and not to take the Holy Spirit from him.

But here’s the thing: David wasn’t worried about losing his salvation. That’s what a Christian now would mean if they asked God not to take the Holy Spirit from them.

But David had something very specific in mind when he prayed this. You see, in those days, the Holy Spirit was given to the rulers of God’s people. The Spirit’s anointing gave them the wisdom, power, and authority to reign. 

We see this with David’s predecessor, King Saul, earlier on. Just after the prophet Samuel anointed him king of Israel, Samuel told him:

you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you … So it was, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day. When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
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I Samuel‬ ‭10:5-7, 9-10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

So we see here how God gave Saul the Holy Spirit to make Saul able to govern Israel. We are told that when the Spirit came upon Saul, that God gave him another heart, and Saul turned into another man. That’s how powerful the transformation was! The Spirit’s presence upon Saul was the sign that God was with him (1 Samuel 10:7).

But David had also been with Saul after God judged Saul after a series of sins. God told Saul He was removing the kingdom from his family. He would have no dynasty after him.

That’s when Samuel anointed David as Saul’s successor. And this is what we’re told happened. Notice the juxtaposition between David and Saul:

and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. … But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.
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I Samuel‬ ‭16:13-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Here’s the scary part: When God took His Spirit from Saul, and put it on David, it’s not like Saul stopped being king that day. Nope—he was king several more years after that. And the entire time he was depressed, agitated, and miserable. Everything he touched turned to compost, until he was finally killed in battle and his sons with him.

And David had seen firsthand the miserable downfall of Saul! He had himself been the object of the king’s blind rage. Saul would pace around in his home, with a spear constantly in his hand. On more than one occasion Saul tried to end David’s life by hurling it at him.

Imagine now a man who constantly wandered around his house, paranoid and frenzied, with his gun always drawn. Imagine that more than once he’s shot at a family friend, and only by some miracle he always missed. That’s what Saul became after God took away the Holy Spirit.

David had been there to see and experience that. And that’s what he was begging God not to do to him.

When the penitent David prayed: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me, what he was saying was: Lord, don’t do to me what You did to Saul. Don’t make me go crazy in my own house, knowing my days are numbered, and my children’s with me.

He’s begging God: Please don’t make me try and rule your people without You.

David didn’t have the same concept of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the way that Christians are promised the Spirit.

But we are ruled not by a sinful David, but by his greater Son, Jesus Christ. Christ never had to pray for God not to remove the Spirit from Him. Rather, of Christ, God says:

Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.
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Isaiah‬ ‭42:1-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The sinless Christ never had to plead for God not to remove His Spirit from Him, because He is the God-Man who came to crush Satan, sin, and death.

And now the Spirit is poured out freely to all who put their faith in Christ. We are promised: you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. What fear would we fall back into bondage to? Why—the fear that God would reject us and cast us away from His presence!

Rather, we’re told:

but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
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Romans‬ ‭8:15-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

For believers in Christ, the Spirit is God’s guarantee of our salvation. Now, and in eternity! St. Paul says that God has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians‬ ‭1:22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul further elaborates on the Spirit as God’s seal and guarantee. He says as soon as you believed the Gospel of Christ, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians‬ ‭1:13-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

The Spirit in you is God’s seal and guarantee and promise that in Christ, you can be assured of your salvation.

You are God’s child now. He loves you like He loves His Son Christ. You are secure.

New covenant believers never need fear God removing His Spirit from us!

Now, we are told that as Christians we can quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). And yet, even then we are never told that if we grieve the Holy Spirit, He will leave us. Rather, even while instructing us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, St. Paul reassures us that the Spirit is God’s seal marking and preserving us for eternal life: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians‬ ‭4:30‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

If you read the surrounding context, this isn’t a threat that God will withdraw His Spirit from a Christian for sinning too much. Rather, the Spirit grieves when believers mistreat one another (Ephesians 4:25-32). The opposite of grieving the Holy Spirit, according to Paul, is: bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians‬ ‭4:2-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

So a believer need never pray: Cast me not away from thy presence. Because Christ has promised us: All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (John‬ ‭6:37‬ ‭KJV‬‬).

And we need never beg: and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Because Christ has promised that the Father shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever … for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you (John‬ ‭14:16-17‬ ‭KJV‬‬).

I’m not sure what exactly this means for singing that Keith Green song. But it does mean that if you do sing it, you need never fear that God will take the Holy Spirit from you and cast you away.