Psalm 51:16-17
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Even though it’s a familiar psalm, I still find these verses
surprising. Why would David say 'you do not delight in sacrifice'? He can't mean that the whole temple sacrificial system displeases God - it was God's idea in the first place. Making the Old Testament sacrifices and burnt
offerings was an act of obedience to God's commands, not a man-made religious system.
And why would God want David to be 'broken' in spirit?
Surely the whole point of forgiveness is to heal his broken spirit? It feels like we’ve suddenly rewound to the beginning of the psalm, where David was mourning
over his sin and pleading for forgiveness. Isn’t this section, from v.13 onwards, all about David’s response to having been forgiven? Shouldn't he be 'fixed' now, rather than
broken? Full of rejoicing and evangelistic zeal, no longer weighed down by his sin? If I was writing this psalm, I'd have put these verses nearer the beginning, imagining that the 'sacrifice' of a 'contrite' (i.e. repentant) heart was a good thing to bring to God, to convince him to forgive me. 'Look, Lord, how sorry I am!' And then my psalm would get progressively more upbeat, with a spirit and heart that bounce back to pure joy!
However, we know that David is writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so obviously he is right to put these verses here in the psalm! The fact that they feel out of place shows that I’m misunderstanding something
important. Actually, I’m misunderstanding 2 things….
Firstly, David's contrite heart is NOT the sacrifice that
brings about God's forgiveness. His sin is not washed away by the volume of his own tears. His transgressions are not wiped away in proportion to how sorry he feels about them. His forgiveness is utterly and completely the result of Jesus' sacrificial death in his place. The only sacrifice that David can bring is one of thankfulness. And, secondly, the point of forgiveness is not, primarily, to make David feel better. Why would I expect that a forgiven sinner wouldn't still mourn over their sin? He's not weighed down by it in the same way he was at the start ... He knows his guilt is taken away so he won't live permanently crushed by it. But a humble heart, aware of its own weakness and need for God's constant help, is the right thing for a Christian to have ALL the time. Joy at having been forgiven doesn't completely remove our sorrow at having needed forgiveness. We, like David, can
know both the complete assurance of having our sins washed away AND the reality that we are permanently 'poor in spirit' before a holy God. Let's pray that God
would give each of us an appropriately contrite-yet-rejoicing heart, today.
