Psalms 51:12

12. Uphold me with thy free Spirit The idea of “uphold,” here, is to confirm, render permanent. David desires that the restored state be sustained and abiding. This is the point of the petition. But he has not in himself the elements of this stability. God only can “restore the joys of salvation,” and he alone can cause him to stand firm in this restored life. The word “free,” in the Hebrew, is often used as a substantive to denote a prince, noble, grandee; and thus the Septuagint and Jerome understood it. This gives the sense of a governing, or princely Spirit, with the idea of liberality implied, (see Isaiah 32:6; Isaiah 32:8,) and this meets the point of the request: By thy governing Spirit establish me. If we understand by “free spirit,” “not the Holy Spirit, but the human spirit made free from the dominion of sin by the Holy Spirit,” (Delitzsch,) still the doctrinal recognition of the Holy Spirit’s influence upon the heart is the same. But the sense we have given more naturally connects with Psalms 51:11 and the parallelism, and is sustained by usage.