diff --git a/.changelog/4294.txt b/.changelog/4294.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1ca050ea9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/4294.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:bug
+spanner: fixed an issue in `google_spanner_database` where multi-statement updates were not formatted correctly
+```
diff --git a/google-beta/resource_spanner_database.go b/google-beta/resource_spanner_database.go
index 78eccca3a9..24fe4c21a8 100644
--- a/google-beta/resource_spanner_database.go
+++ b/google-beta/resource_spanner_database.go
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 	"reflect"
-	"strings"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/v2/helper/schema"
@@ -475,7 +474,7 @@ func resourceSpannerDatabaseUpdateEncoder(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface
 		updateDdls = append(updateDdls, newDdls[i].(string))
 	}
 
-	obj["statements"] = strings.Join(updateDdls, ",")
+	obj["statements"] = updateDdls
 	delete(obj, "name")
 	delete(obj, "instance")
 	delete(obj, "extraStatements")
diff --git a/google-beta/resource_spanner_database_test.go b/google-beta/resource_spanner_database_test.go
index c43dc0aadf..01a4fea4c6 100644
--- a/google-beta/resource_spanner_database_test.go
+++ b/google-beta/resource_spanner_database_test.go
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ resource "google_spanner_database" "basic" {
 	"CREATE TABLE t1 (t1 INT64 NOT NULL,) PRIMARY KEY(t1)",
 	"CREATE TABLE t2 (t2 INT64 NOT NULL,) PRIMARY KEY(t2)",
 	"CREATE TABLE t3 (t3 INT64 NOT NULL,) PRIMARY KEY(t3)",
+	"CREATE TABLE t4 (t4 INT64 NOT NULL,) PRIMARY KEY(t4)",
   ]
   deletion_protection = false
 }