Brokenhearted: How Psalm 51 Teaches Us to Mourn Our Sin

Brokenhearted: How Psalm 51 Teaches Us to Mourn Our Sin

How you respond to sin in your life is one of the strongest indicators of your spiritual maturity. Your response also sets your trajectory for spiritual growth or spiritual setback. A biblical response to sin prepares us to move forward, experiencing increased intimacy with God. An unbiblical response hampers spiritual growth and sets us up for even greater sin in the future. But what is involved in a biblical response to sin?

Yielding a Broken Heart

 Psalm 51 is David’s great psalm of confession and repentance following his sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. David’s attitude is summed up in verse 17: “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

The entirety of the Psalm, in fact, is a commentary on what a broken heart looks like. David opens up his broken heart to show us how such a heart thinks and feels. Such a heart is fully aware of its own sin. It does not hide it or excuse it. Nor does a broken heart pretend that sin is anything less than a disgusting, putrid evil, the exact opposite of all that God seeks for and that is beautiful and holy. Indeed, a broken heart is one that is worn out with sadness – all the emotional ‘bones’ have been ‘broken’ (v. 8).

Recognizing the True Victim

David observed that his sin was not ultimately against Bathsheba, or even against Uriah – despite how brutally it intersected with their lives. Rather, God was the great victim of his sin. “Against you,” he declared, “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” (v. 4).

By recognizing that sin is ultimately against God, the evil becomes apparent. Now it is clear that the offense was against the very same God who kindly granted us our very lives. Sin is an affront to the one who shared His Son with us. It is an insult to the one who gives only good and perfect gifts.

Offering Right Sacrifices

It may have been unclear in ancient times, but today we can be certain that God doesn’t want us to slaughter a cow after we sin. Even in David’s time, those who truly understood were aware that God was more interested in righteous living than in sacrificial victims: “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering” (v. 16). Even if David will go on (in verse 19) to speak about an appropriate use for sacrifices, the lesson remains clear: God intends his people to live righteous lives.

We can, of course, live such lives because we are reconciled to God. We are reconciled through Jesus Christ. He is the sacrifice who restores humanity’s relationship with God. At the same time, He died so that we would live righteous lives before God. The aim is not to continue sinning and repenting, but rather, to pursue holiness, “without which no one will see the Lord.”

Conclusion

Psalm 51 introduces us to the essential elements of confession and repentance. In these three elements – yielding a broken heart, recognizing the true victim, and offering right sacrifices – the poem introduces us to the biblical elements of response to sin. It is the heart-cry of one who has sinned greatly, and who needs mercy desperately. Thankfully, such mercy is found in God through Jesus Christ!

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