From the earliest days of the church’s witness believers were persecuted and punished for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. No sooner had the Lord returned to heaven following His Resurrection than His disciples took up the Lord’s message and began to preach it widely and boldly in Jerusalem. Sometimes thousands were converted in a day and the church grew rapidly. We are told the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

In John 13, prior to the passover, the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples of his impending betrayal, arrest, death and departure. He told them, ‘Whither I go ye canst not follow me now’. This was a great puzzle to the disciples and a very great disappointment. They still expected the Lord to overthrow the Roman empire, restore the glory of Israel, reign in power and establish an earthly kingdom in which they, his followers, would be highly honoured. Peter, spokesman for them all, insisted he was ready to die to make it happen. 

David teaches us what all believers discover in this life: iniquity curtails our spiritual joy and unconfessed sin deprives the soul of fellowship with the Lord. This was David’s experience. It seems likely David had not known the joy of the Lord for some time, perhaps a year. For sure, the Lord never wholly removes His Spirit from a believer or cuts him off from union with Christ, nevertheless, the felt gladness of grace can be lost. When the Holy Spirit convinced David of his sin the beloved psalmist began to feel the cold state of his soul.