Psalm 51:14-17
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips
that my mouth may declare Your praise.
16For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it.
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken spirit and a
contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
David recognized he was a sinner.
He understood God as loving, kind, merciful, great of compassion, and
omnipotent. David realized he sinned against God and only He could cleanse him
from sin and guilt. He pled with God and asked for Him to purify him ceremonially
and wash him spiritually. David asked for his joy and gladness be restored to
him. He asked God to create a clean heart and renewed spirit within him. In the
last devotional (vs. 11-13), David realized he was unworthy to live in God’s
presence or to have His Spirit live in him. He asked God not to cast him away
from Him and not to remove His Spirit. Besides asking for a re-created heart
and renewed spirit, David pled to God to restore the joy of his salvation. He
wanted to live his life knowing he did not deserve God’s forgiveness, but could
know and have hope he was God’s child and would forever be with Him.
What came next, in verse thirteen,
begins a multi-verse reaction to God’s forgiveness, re-creation, restoring, and
renewing of David. David, out of love for God, stated what he would do. He would
teach others who rebelled against God about Him and His ways so they would be
converted – turn back to God from their rebellion against Him.
With verses fourteen through
sixteen David told God he would show his love to Him through specific actions. Because
of God’s delivering him - rescuing him and snatching him – from bloodguiltiness - from sin and its death
penalty, he would joyfully sing of God’s righteousness, declare His praise, and
offer his humble and broken being for God’s plans and purposes. David said he would
sing and tell everyone about God and His righteous being, justice, and
forgiveness. He would declare his own salvation from sin, guilt, and death by
God (vs. 14). We read David did this in Psalm 35:28 and 71:15. In both these
verses he declared God’s righteousness and salvation, both of which he was
unable to fathom the depth. Do we show our love of God? Is it a visible
testimony so others can know God, too?
Next David continued to state what he
would do because of God’s righteousness, justice, and forgiveness (vs. 15). He
asked God to open his lips to declare His praise. David wanted to express what
God did for him and who God is. This speaks of the literal interpretation. Metaphorically,
“lips” refers to the shore or edge of rivers and seas and “mouth” refers to a
river, sea, or well. From this, we realize David’s praise and declaration of
God would have no end. What he said would be just the beginning and did not
encompass the entirety of Who God truly is. God is boundless; David loved Him
and could spend each of his days praising and telling about Him and still would
never finish speaking of God. In Psalm 71:15, he could not know the sum of God.
Do we run out of things to say about God? Can we talk about God every day and
never get to the end of who God is? Are we willing to spend our days praising
Him?
With verse sixteen, David
recognized no ritual animal sacrifice was acceptable to God for providing permanent
salvation from sins. God does not delight in the death and sacrifice of
animals, otherwise David would have given it. What we own - our possessions -
will not testify to our realization of our smallness and unworthiness of
righteous, forgiving, and saving God. To make an adamant point, David repeated
this and said, “You are not pleased with burnt offerings.” Do we today try to
offer something physical and fleeting to God hoping it is enough to show our
gratefulness to Him?
David recognized nothing he could
give God would be enough. He realized only by giving himself – his whole being
created and restored by God – to God could his gratitude, love, and devotion be
most shown to Him. This requires recognition of God worthiness and our
unworthiness. It compels us to give that which is most dear to us – our lives,
that which is eternal because of God’s forgiveness and salvation given to us.
David acknowledged this in verse seventeen when he said, “The sacrifices
acceptable to God are a broken spirit; a broken spirit and contrite heart, O
God, You will not despise.” “Broken spirit and contrite heart” speak of David’s
sorrow for sin and humble and thoroughly penitent approach to God. This broken spirit
is a person’s crushed will, that which a person uses to decide, one’s temperament,
and one’s choices - right or wrong. The person realizes what he or she has done
or thought is crushed because of recognizing God and His ways. That person
renders him or herself crumbled by his or her sin in the presence of almighty God.
The contrite heart speaks of a broken or crushed inner man because of
recognition of sin and unworthiness. Both these phrases refer to a person who
is broken with sorrow for sin and humble and thorough penitence before God.
This person recognizes God’s greatness and salvation as opposed to his or her
sinfulness and finiteness. The person realizes he or she has nothing worthy to
give to God in gratitude and love that is sufficient for what God did in his or
her life except to give back his or her greatest possession – his or her life.
The sacrifices we give to God, all we
own, came from God. They are fleeting and nothing more than possessions. God
owns the cattle on a thousand hills and everything in the created world. Our
God-made saved and eternal selves are greater than anything we have to give
back to God in thanks and praise. David said this; his life was the greatest
sacrifice he could offer, and he chose to give it back to God as a living
testimony of word and action.
Have you come to the place where
you realize there is nothing you can give God that is adequate to free you from
sin, guilt, and death? Sin requires justice. Penitential confession recognizes
God, His greatness, and His power to forgive and save forever. Our response to
Him should be love for Him. David shows us love for God should lead us to live
out in word and action praise and worship of God and obedience to His ways. How
has your walk with God been today? Did your words and actions speak of God so
others would note it and learn more about and praise Him, too? True love for
God should be evident in our obedience to Him.
What do your words and actions say about
God today? It may be time for you to return to God and let Him re-create your
heart and renew your spirit.
What will you choose
to do? Will you live sacrificially today?
