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Backsliding is a most common evil, far more common than some of us suppose. We may ourselves be guilty of it and not know it. The cunning hunter makes the passage into his pits most easy and attractive, but out of them the way is difficult indeed. So Satan makes the way of apostasy to be very seductive to our natures, but the way of return, were it not for God's grace, no human soul would find possible.

I. THE PLIGHT IN WHICH DAVID WAS. His bones had been broken. People speak flippantly of David's sin, making out of it an accusation against godliness and an excuse for their own sin. But they should look also at David's repentance, for if his sin was shameful, his sorrow for it was of the bitterest kind; and if the crime was glaring, certainly the afflictions which chastised him were remarkable. Children of God cannot sin cheaply. Certainly, David did not. His word here tells that his plight was —

1. Very painful. His bones were broken. A flesh wound is painful, but here was a more serious injury. No punishment was probably more cruel than that of breaking poor creatures alive upon the wheel. To such pain David likens his.

2. Very serious.

3. And complicated. It was not one bone, but many. How can they be all set again? And so with David, the greater powers of the soul were grieved and afflicted, in our spirits there are certain graces which are, so to speak, the bones of the spiritual man. Faith, hope, love are amongst them. But how they suffer when a soul is in such plight as David was!

4. Very dangerous, for where several bones are broken, every surgeon perceives how likely it is that the case will end fatally. It is a dreadful thing to be spiritually in such case — faith broken, hope broken, love broken, and the entire man) as it were, reduced to a palpitating mass of pain. It is a dreadfully dangerous condition to be in; for, alas! when men have sinned and suffered on account of it, they may yet turn again to their sins with greater hardness of heart than ever. Read Isaiah 1. And, again, the case of David was —

5. Most damaging. For even when God in His mercy heals the broken bones, it is a sad detriment to a man to have had them broken at all. But —

6. His case was still hopeful. The saving clause lies here, "The bones which Thou hast broken." For He who wounds can bind up.

II. THE REMEDY TO WHICH HE RESORTED. He did not lie down sullenly in despondency, but he turns to God in prayer. And —

1. He believed that there was joy and gladness even for such .as he. And —

2. That it must come to him by hearing. The gate of mercy is the ear. "Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear and," etc. Some despise preaching, and say that prayers are everything, especially the public saying of them. But it is to be noted that nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus commission men to celebrate public prayer, but He did say to His disciples, "Go and preach." Very little is said about public worship, but the Book teems with references to preaching. The fact is, the sermon reverently heard, and earnestly delivered, is the highest act of worship. And it is the main instrumentality for the salvation of men. May the Lord "make" us to hear.

III. THE HOPE WHICH HE ENTERTAINED. Not that his bones might merely 1.e quiet and at rest, but "rejoice." He had been a mass of misery, mercy shall make him a mass of music. The music is generally soft and gentle, and has much of God in it, and goes on unceasingly.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

WEB: Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.