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Dr. John M. Asquith

Psalm 51 and the Lowercase Spirit {thy holy spirit}


Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me, Psalm 51:11.

David's lament and genuine remorse over his sin is well known to most bible readers. David had committed two sins for which there was no remedy under the law. Perhaps no one has ever explained that better than Peter Ruckman. He was the first I ever heard explain Psalm 40:6 in the light of David's plight. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Why didn't the Lord require burnt offering and sacrifice for David's two terrible sins? Because under the law the only remedy for either was death. Not only did his two sins of adultery and murder require death, but David identified one other aspect of his crime that called for death. When he pronounced judgment upon the fictional thief in Nathan's story, he judged the thief worthy of death because he had no pity.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity, 2nd Samuel 12:5,6. As James the Apostle tells us; For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment, James 2:13. There is no room in God's kingdom for people who have no mercy. There is no room in a family, a church or a nation for people who have no mercy and cannot show pity.

David realized this and also realized that there was no sacrifice or offering that he could ever bring to God to alleviate his sin. He cried out, take not thy holy spirit from me. King James Bibles have rendered that with a lowercase "s" and a lowercase "h" from such time as modern orthography began to be used in King James Bibles. Before we look at that doctrinally, we need to take another look at the use of capital letters in the English Language.

I will ask three distinctly different questions that are differentiated only by changing the case of a couple of letters.

1. What is the State of New York?

A perfectly plausible answer would be that it is a Mid-Atlantic state, one of the 50 states of the United States of America.

2. What is the state of New York?

State has been changed from a proper noun to an improper noun. I have enquired into its current state of being. A plausible answer would be that New York has been surrendered to a vile group of politicians who support infanticide called late term abortion. It is in a terrible state.

3. What is the state of new York?

Here, I am no longer inquiring into how the State of New York is doing. I am apparently asking about the City of York and acknowledging that it has a new state of being. A plausible answer would be that despite its new state of being and the changes that wrought it, York is doing fine. It is in a fine state.

My readers can easily see that by just changing a word from an uppercase to a lowercase form in its first letter can change the entire meaning of a sentence. As has been discussed in a prior post, it would sound the same to anyone hearing it read, but on paper it is radically different. Why should we expect that kind of accuracy from an 6th grade student, but we don't believe a King James Bible is capable of making such distinctions? I would not call myself a bible believer if I didn't trust my bible any more than that.

Perhaps the many variations that editors have introduced to various editions of the King James Bible has convinced you that capitals don't matter. After all, if you go down to your local bible correcting church, that is their excuse for not believing that any particular bible could ever be perfect. They see all of the various bibles and conclude that it is impossible for a bible to be perfect. If you can't see that capitalizations matter, you are in the same boat. Even though upper and lower case letters are valid devices for communicating, you don't believe that God could give you that kind of accuracy in an English Bible. (He didn't promise to preserve his word down to the jot and tittle level did he?)

We have established in many prior posts that when a lowercase spirit is used in a text, and when that spirit is obviously deity, it is the personal spirit of Jesus Christ whether we are reading it in the New or Old Testament. David asked that Jesus Christ, Jehovah God not take his holy spirit from him. Why? To understand that, we need to look at John Chapter 1.

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, John 1:9. When any given person is born, the light of God works in his or her Adamic nature. It is called God consciousness. It is Jesus Christ working in that man through his holy spirit to make that person aware of God and his debt to God. When a man becomes reprobate, that light is turned off from inside of him. The holy spirit that was there to make him aware of God is taken away from him.

He has become a reprobate. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, Romans 1:28. Never again will that person desire a relationship with God. Never again will that light guide him into the truth of the Gospel. Never again will the holy spirit chide with him over his sin. He will not care. From time to time I have had people fear that they were reprobate. The very fact that they fear being reprobate proves that they are not. A reprobate person has had the light shut off. The holy spirit has been taken away and they just won't care.

Therein was David's fear. He knew that he had committed two sins for which God had made no provision under the law and that he had done it without pity. David feared that God would take away his holy spirit. He feared that that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world would be taken away. Fortunately for David, God had a plan. Nathan told him; The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die, 2nd Samuel 12:13.

You will note that God did not put his "sins" away from him, he put away his "sin". God went farther than pardoning his three sins. He put away his very nature. God did for David what he does under the New Testament Gospel. He went farther than just the forgiveness of sins. He made provision for David's entire sin nature. That does not equate to eradication of sin or sinless perfection. It means that such a man is given a new nature though he will still struggle to not live in the old nature.

How could a man be pardoned through a sacrifice that had not taken place yet? Peter explains that. David was given a sneak preview of the cross. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption, Acts 2:30,31. Peter says that David saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

David had access to the cross of Jesus Christ 1000 years before it happened. If God can show a vile sinner the cross 1000 years before it ever happened, how much more can he show a repentant sinner that same cross 2000 years later!

Capitalizations matter to a true bible believer. In their own right, capitalizations can make a difference. Get a perfect King James Bible.

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