Broken and Contrite

Psalm 51

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The problem with our current Christian society and the plague of false teaches is that no one wants to be told they are sinful. They preach Jesus doesn’t judge us after we are saved. Wrong! No matter when we sin and no matter that we are saved and made righteous before God, we will stand before Him and answer for our sins. Many do not preach this from the pulpit anymore, or should I say stage, as most of the false teachers I see put on a stage production where man is the center of the message. Jesus is a wimpy God who needs our glorification, is desperate for our relationship with Him, and is not a God of wrath but one that only projects love. Jesus is not a blonde-haired shampoo model, and his hands are those that worked hard. All of this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesus came to divide with a sword. I think the best description of Jesus is found in Revelation 19:11-16 which reads:

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

This is my Jesus! King of Kings, Lord of lords, who wins the cataclysmic battle with Satan.

And so I digress. If you read Psalm 51, David tells us about sin. We should remember that David wrote this psalm a year after the sins against God, Uriah, and Bathsheba. When we sin, we still retain a mental picture of our sins. They don’t just go away, especially sexual immorality. Sexual sins haunt many forever. Anyone who tells you that when Christ saved them the memories of their sins disappeared is still sinning because they are liars unless they had a head injury and suffered from amnesia.

David asks to be cleansed. In this, he uses a religious term which means to be made holy again, that he may again be worthy of serving God. David tells us that his sin is ever before him. The memory of his murder and adultery is still in his mind. He is asking God to blot out his sin. Like we blot a piece of clothing with a stain, David, and we, are stained with our sin, scarred, and though we are saved and have repented, we remain scarred.

What is important is that David is not saying he sinned against Uriah or Bathsheba but against God. Yes, he sinned the man in his murder of Uriah, but Uriah was a creation of God; therefore, his sin was against God. Bathsheba, a valuable daughter of God, was sinned against as well, but ultimately David’s adultery was against God here as well.

David acknowledges he is a sinful creature and full of iniquity from birth. But like us, David asks to be cleansed of his sin. Hyssop is a branch used to spring sacrificial blood on a person or altar, and like dirty clothes, David asks to be washed and made clean again. Asking not to be cast away from God but restored so he may again serve God.

What is so important in this passage is that David tells us that no sacrifice can make atonement for his sin; only a broken spirit and broken and contrite heart can satisfy God’s anger against his sin. It sounds like someone else I know, like a foretelling of Christ. Jesus was broken for our sins, He was separated from God, and his penitence was ours.

We should be broken in our sins. If we are indeed children of God, we should sin less as we grow in sanctification. When we sin, we are convicted by the Spirit, and we should be broken in our failures.

There are many brothers and sisters, me being one, that regrets and is broken by much of their life. If you spoke to these brothers and sisters, they would tell you they carry the stains and scars of their previous sinful life. Be broken in your sin, and remain faithful because you have the assurances of forgiveness bought for you in the blood of Christ.

Remember, we will all stand before an almighty and all-holy God and answer for the good and bad things we have done. God does love you no matter what you have done, but you have to decide to place your faith in Him and repent your sins. If you don’t know Jesus, open your heart to Him and find his goodness and patience waiting for you.

Peace and Grace.