What a curious phrase - "let the bones you have crushed rejoice."  Bones are hard.  They give basic structure to our bodies.  They enable us to move around.  They are the most basic structure around which the other systems of the body organize themselves.  Without bones we are a pile of mush on the floor.  How could crushed bones be a positive thing that results in rejoicing?

In Psalm 51 David is dealing with the effects of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and arranging her husband's murder to cover his failure.  Just a little out of character for "a man after God's own heart"! (I Samuel 13:14)  Although one could well say that his response to his sin being exposed by the prophet Nathan shows what his heart was really made of.

It's in this context that David says "let the bones you have crushed rejoice".   Thinking metaphorically, bones represent that which is hard around which one's body is given shape.

That's a lot like our belief systems, right?  Our belief systems give shape to our lives and everything else takes its place around them.  

I heard of a woman some years back who referred to men as "hemorrhoids."  As I heard it, the story is that she believed that before she got married.  I heard they were having trouble in their marriage and that she thought she would be better off without him (not unlike hemorrhoids) and neatly assigned all the problems in their marriage to him.  

Of course she developed that belief from somewhere, but the point I am trying to make is how powerful that belief became in her life, rendering her powerless to honestly look at herself and change into the person God made her to be.  If nothing changed, her identity stayed "the wife of a hemorrhoid" - not anything I would think anything would want to claim as their identity!

Many of our beliefs are just plain wrong, but we tend not to deal with that reality until we encounter significant suffering that is a natural result of the belief.

We could speculate what beliefs David may have had that got crushed in this experience with Bathsheba.  He may have been believing that he could sin and get away with it - that he would not be found out.  That one got crushed.  He may have been believing that with all he had accomplished he was entitled to a little extra pleasure or excitement on the side.  That one got crushed, too.  He may have believed he was beyond the kinds of sins other men would commit.  That belief was crushed into pieces.

And it was all good.  He was grateful that he got found out, grateful that his wrong thinking was exposed, so that he could heal - and rejoice!

Sometimes it takes awhile, but when our calcified faulty beliefs come to be exposed for what they are we may feel like we are falling - like there is nothing to stand on. In fact we are being let down into the comfort of the Truth, and there is the place of rejoicing.

"Lord Jesus, continue to expose what I believe that just ain't so, even though believing it makes me feel strong and in control. Break those hard places in me that represent beliefs I hold onto for a sense of security instead of You.  You are enough for me.  Amen"
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I work with individuals, couples, and families to identify the ways of life and death in their lives and help uncover the motivation to choose that which leads to life, whether it be through counseling or spiritual direction.  - Sheldon Swartz, MA/LMFT