A Broken Spirit
Psalm 51
“It’s okay.”
How often do we respond that way to those who come to us repenting? All. The. Time. We don’t like the feelings of guilt and shame just as much as being the source of it for others. It’s much easier to brush it off. Yet, this psalm is one of painful repentance. David is clothed in guilt and comes before the throne of grace weepy with tears of shame. This is not a psalm of “its okay.”
God is mad, like really really mad, at David. David had forsaken his covenant with his God and turned to take a wife that didn’t belong to him which turned to shame fueled murder and the death of a baby. David is then confronted by Nathan the prophet and this is where Jesus call us to be like David - to let our guilt take us to the cross where He had nailed our sin and to the grave where he buried our shame. We now like David get to approach the throne and say, “Let these bone You have broken rejoice.”
God over and over again reminds us that he wants us to know him and out of knowing him offer sacrifices to him. When we know Jesus our sin breaks out hearts. David later on in the psalm says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God wants us to recognize our continued brokenness and wants us to truly repent. It is not okay when we sin, it is not okay when we belittle the weight of our sin. Or the weight of the lost, the weight of our broken world.
To be a good and faithful servant is to be one ready to denounce sin seriously, forgive lovingly and to be ready for the enemy who Peter says is, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour…”(1 Peter 5:8). Church, will you be faithful to come into the throne room truly repentant. Do not let your guilt lead you to shame and to hide away or brush it off. Let your built lead you to your King’s throne which is made of grace.
Can we be a people who instead of saying, “it’s okay” say “you’re forgiven and there’s grace for that”? Let us take sin serious, and grace even more seriously.
