Songs In The Night

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:17

A Broken Heart

Have you ever honestly asked yourself, “What does a broken heart look like?”  I am not talking about the teenager who is in the dumps because the love of their life (however they define that) broke up with them after two weeks of dating.  Nor am I talking about the widow who just buried the love of her life after sixty years of marriage as sad as that is.  We will all experience difficulties.  We will all bury loved ones.  As much as these things will pain our hearts and make us grieve and leave us heart broken, they are not the same as being broken hearted.  This type of grief is a natural emotional reaction to external circumstances.  When we are heart broken, we often see ourselves as victims of circumstances.  Not so the person with the broken heart.

Humbled

We live in an age of incredible pride.  With our chests sticking out and our heads held high and our fists raised towards heaven we demand our rights.  The world owes us and we are going to make sure we get what we have coming to us.  It is not a matter of what we have earned, but instead it is a matter of entitlement.  This is what I too often see.  This is why I ask the question, “What does a broken heart look like?”  We are so busy scanning the horizon to make sure we don’t miss out on what we want, that we don’t take the time to look deep within ourselves to recognize what we are missing.  In this regard I am afraid that most of us are more like Lot than Abraham.  When it came time for them to separate, in his pride, Lot lifted up his eyes and chose the land that appealed to him.  Abraham, by contrast, in his humility had his eyes lifted up by God and God chose for him.  Like Abraham’s, a broken and contrite heart is humble.

Repentant

When David penned the fifty-first Psalm, he was broken hearted.  He had terribly sinned against God.  He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed.  If that wasn’t bad enough, he tried to cover up his sins.  Never works.  God used Nathan to call David out, and David was forced to confront his sin.  He did not make excuses.  He did not make denials.  Nor did he blame anyone else.  He admitted his guilt, and sought out forgiveness from God. Look at David’s plea.  This is no insincere confession.  These are the words of a man who is devastated.  David is crushed by the weight of his sin.  His sins are a stench to God and he knows it.  A broken and contrite heart is greatly sobered by the guilt of sin and is repentant.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ 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.

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.

Sacrifice

Along with a broken spirit, David says a broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice of God.  Through David’s writing, God is contrasting the sacrifice He will delight in with one He will not.

¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

I am sure as David penned these words his mind went back to his predecessor, King Saul.  Saul had been instructed to completely wipe out the Amalekites but did not obey.  Instead he spared King Agag and the best of the livestock.  When confronted with his disobedience, Saul justified his actions by saying he wanted to save these spoils to sacrifice to God.  God wasn’t impressed.

²² Samuel said,