The Spirit of Truth

No further argument is necessary to prove that men do not understand the mind of God in the Scripture in a due manner, than their supposal and confidence that they can do so without the communication of a spiritual understanding unto them by the Holy Ghost. This self-confidence is directly contrary unto the plain, express testimonies of the word. --John Owen

In other words, “you’re crazy if you think you can get anything from the Holy Bible without the help of the Holy Spirit.” It is the present-day work of the Holy Spirit help Christians understand the truth, re-orient us to its heavenly “gravity,” and empower us to walk in its paths. We need God’s help to see God’s truth.

John Owen, a Seventeenth Century pastor, wrote a lot about the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers to:
• reveal: teaching us the meaning of scripture, helping us to remember the words and promises of Christ when they are most needed, and convincing us that they apply to us because we are God’s dearly loved children
• refine: helping us to pray correctly and effectively and leading us in the ways of God
• empower: serving as a sign that someday we will live in the presence of God without sin and sorrow, bringing joy to our hearts, and comforting us in our affliction


In times of affliction, we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is with us and at work in us, often invisibly and undetectably but always effectually. He helps us to see, helps us to walk, helps us to change, and fills us with God’s love and joy. That’s not to say we won’t be filled at times with sorrow, bitterness, and fear. It is to say that the affliction will be overcome by God’s salvation and interrupted, often unexpectedly, with peace and joy “that passes all understanding.”

So, what does this look like in real life? I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you what it looked like in my own life a few weeks ago when I was reading Psalm 40, which begins:

I waited patiently for the Lord; and
he inclined to me, and heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock, and
established my steps.

Charles Spurgeon commented on the opening of Psalm 40: “Neither Jesus the head nor any one of the members of his body shall ever wait upon the Lord in vain.” Next to Spurgeon’s words, I wrote:

But Satan will accuse and threaten us all the while, and he will accuse God. He reminds us that is was our own sin that brought us to the pit and, for that reason, he says, God will not save us. This is an insult to God’s character and an assault upon his grace. The chief business of God in the sacrifice of his son and the present work of his Spirit is the saving of sinners.

Today, I am in a miry pit. Every step slips. Every foothold inspires confidence before giving way, as if designed to discourage. In the depths of this horrible pit, this day, Satan says there is no God; all my hopes have been misplaced.

For me, this affliction has been a time of faith assaulted by doubt. Of strength and weakness—God’s strength and my complete weakness. Of long periods of pain shattered inexplicably in moments of complete peace, faith, and joy—like a man sitting in heavenly places—moments that give way too soon to the dull ache and dread of affliction.

In 2 Samuel 16, we read about a time of great affliction in the life of David. In Psalm 63, which was written by David during this time of affliction, we see how his sorrow was shattered by truth from the Holy Spirit.

A Divine Revelation: O God, you are my God!
David’s son, Amnon, raped David’s daughter, Tamar. Tamar was the half-sister of Amnon and the full sister of Absalom. Absalom was furious with David’s failure to take action against Amnon, so he took matters into his own hand, murdering his half-brother, and running away. Again, David failed to act. He didn’t punish Absalom or forgive him, but just ignored him for three years.

Even after David’s friend, Joab, convinced David to allow Absalom to come home, Absalom lived in Jerusalem two more years without seeing his father. One day, Absalom decided he’d had enough. He evidently didn’t think he’d be able to work things out with David, so he decided to go through Joab. To get his attention, Absalom set fire to Joab’s fields.

This got his attention.

Joab spoke to David for Absalom, telling the king that his son wanted to be reconciled with his father. David agreed. Absalom came to the king, bowed down before him, and David kissed his son, but the relationship was never restored. Some time later, Absalom decided to overthrow his father and sit in his place as king of Israel. He was a powerful man with lots of influence. Much of the army sided with Absalom, so David fled into the wilderness of Judah.


On the way, David met a relative of Saul named Shimei who came out to meet David, “cursing continuously as he came. And he threw stones at David…”

David’s daughter had been raped by one son, who was then murdered by another son. David was running for his life from the murderer who was now trying to take over David’s kingdom. On the way, he met the curses and stones hurled by Shimei. These are the circumstances surrounding David's flight into into the wilderness of Judah.

At this point in his life, David wrote Psalm 63, which opens with words that are startling when you consider the setting:

O God, you are my God!

Like those two feet splashing through the streets of Wayne, New Jersey, David speaks a truth in the wilderness of Judah that changes the way we understand everything we read in 2 Samuel 16.

David contributed to his own problems. He should have done something about the rape of Tamar. He should have done something about the murder of her rapist and half-brother, Amnon. He should have addressed the many major problems with his son, Absalom. David had plenty of reasons to blame himself for his troubles.

He was running away to the wilderness, and being cursed by an enemy as he went. There was no outward evidence of blessedness or divine favor.

But the Holy Spirit is with us in our time of affliction. The Holy Spirit helped David to look beyond his failures, beyond his troubles, beyond the wilderness of Judah, to see a God who was HIS God.

A few weeks ago, I wrote this in my copy of The Treasury of David:

I don’t often doubt the truth of scripture or the promises of God that are found there. But I often doubt that they are true for me. For a long time, Psalm 54:1 was a puzzle to me: Save me, O God, by thy name. How can anyone be saved by a name?

But now I see that God’s name can be said to save because he tells us his name. The attributes revealed in the various names of God make him someone who is well able to save. But he tells his name to those he is saving. I am the Lord, thy God… We learn that God isn’t just a mighty savior, a helper, a shelter, but he is my savior, my helper, and my shelter.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to teach us to cry out, like David, “O God, you are my God.” Charles Spurgeon wrote that David “…has no doubts about his possession of his God; and why should other believers have any? The straightforward, clear language of this opening sentence would be far more becoming in Christians than the timorous and doubtful expressions so usual among professors.”

David had many reasons to believe that God might no longer be his God. His cry, claiming God as his God, shows that David had a point of view that was aligned with the horizons of heaven. Creating this point of view within us is the work of the Holy Spirit. In times of affliction, it is a precious work.