Psalms 51:11

The upright "behold God's face" (Psalms 11:7): He admits them to His presence for ever (Psalms 41:12). The spirit of Jehovah came upon David, as it departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:13-14). Did David fear that he might share the fate of Saul, banished from God's presence and deprived of His favour, deserted by that Spirit which is the source of all right desire and action?

It is pointed out by the advocates of the national interpretation of the Psalm that the phrase of the first line is always used of the rejection of the nation and its banishment from the holy land (2 Kings 13:23; 2Ki 17:20; 2 Kings 24:20; Jeremiah 7:15): and that the phrase -God's holy spirit" is found elsewhere in the O.T. only in Isaiah 63:10-11, where it is mentioned (along with -the angel of His presence" Psalms 51:9) as the mediator of His presence in the midst of the nation of Israel. But both phrases are equally applicable to the individual.

Although the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is not taught in the O.T., passages like these, which imply that in the spirit Jehovah personally acts, prepare the way for the N.T. revelation concerning Him, and can be used in the fullest Christian sense. See Oehler's O.T. Theol., §65.