Psalm 51:11 (NKJV)

Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Eisegesis: 

“Be careful of sinning against God, He may take His Holy Spirit away from you.”

Exegesis:   

This prayer by David does not apply to believers today who are promised the permanent indwelling the Holy Spirit. This verse was written in a different era of God’s dealing with humanity where the Spirit was temporarily given for God’s special servants (judges, kings, prophets, priests) for a specific task.

This psalm records David’s personal lament and confession of sin where in recognizing the seriousness of it, he prays for God’s forgiveness which included a request to retain the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, divinely anointed kings received a temporary indwelling of God’s Spirit with the condition of faithful obedience.

Some commentators suggest that David (in grieving of his own sin) may have had Saul’s demise in mind. Because of Saul’s repeated disobedience, the Spirit departed from Saul and came upon David instead (1 Sam. 16:13–14). In addition, Saul was permanently denied any further prophetic guidance (1 Sam. 15:35; 28:6).

Saul had the Spirit come upon him (1 Samuel 10:10), but then the Spirit left him (16:14) on account of his blatant disobedience to God’s commands (13:8–15; 15:10). David knew that his wicked behavior, having committed adultery and murder, was grounds for the Spirit’s departure, but he pleaded for mercy so that he might continue to serve faithfully as king of Israel.

How does this apply to Christians today?

Well it does not, believers today are in a different era (New Covenant) where God now deals differently with humanity. Psalm 51:11 is exclusively a “Before Christ (B.C.)” prayer, that was limited to a period of salvation history when God’s Spirit temporarily equipped God’s special servants (that is, judges, kings, prophets, priests) for a specific task.

Christians today receive the Holy Spirit as a permanent indwelling presence for the purpose of empowering them for spiritual growth and ministry which cannot be taken away (Ephesians 1:13–14).

While there are certain New Testament texts that speak of grieving (Eph. 4:30) or quenching (1 Thess. 5:19) the Holy Spirit they are simply stating that we can lose His effective ministry in our lives but is not an indication that believers are able to drive the Spirit out of their lives. Today under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit indwells believers permanently (John 14:16-17). Therefore, Christians do not need to fear losing the Holy Spirit entirely or pray David’s exact prayer in this sense.

Lastly, while we do not want to directly associate our selves with the prayer of David we should not however disregard the appropriate example that this Psalm has to offer in showing us how to confess our sins before God, and plead for his forgiveness and restoration.