The Sacrifice of God is a Broken Spirit — Anton Bosch

Psalm 51, as we continue to look at Psalm 51, and we got up to verse 6 last week, but let's read the whole of the chapter again, or at least read verses 1 through 17. I'm not going to deal with verses 18 and 19.

There's a long story attached to those two verses, but let's read from the beginning. To the chief musician, the Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went into him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God. The God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it.

You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. So we introduced the chapter last week in terms of speaking about the background to this, how that David killed Nathan, one of his valiant men, and took, sorry, not Nathan, Uriah, and took his wife Bathsheba.

And as a result of this, Nathan, the prophet, goes to David and tells him the story, a parable. David's response is the right response to the parable, but he doesn't get it that he, in fact, the parable is about him.

Nathan says to him, you're the guy. And so David then responds with complete repentance. And so that's what the psalm is all about, is David's response to the fact that Nathan had pointed the finger at him.

David’s Repentance Compared with Saul’s

We have been comparing David's response to that of Saul, and I'll make a couple of comments on that again this morning. But the issue of repentance is a very important one, and I need to restate this again.

These days, the idea of repentance is not only ignored in most churches and not preached in most churches. You won't hear much of it on Christian radio or television. But not only is it ignored, but a whole theology has been designed around making repentance as not something which is part of the New Testament, which is just totally crazy.

And we spoke about that sometime a couple of years ago, 18 months, I think, when we were still outside during COVID, speaking about the two-gospel heresy. And so there is a whole doctrine which is becoming more and more popular, saying that repentance is not part of Paul's preaching, it was only part of Jesus' preaching and part of the Old Testament.

Of course, we know that's not true. You can revisit that video. But Paul is very clear three times in the book of Acts when he defines, he gives his testimony, he's very specific that he preached repentance, both to the Jews and to the Gentiles.

And of course, the whole idea of repentance, and we'll see the idea of brokenness this morning, are all part of the New Testament. So let's begin in verse 7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Hyssop, Blood, and the Cleansing of Sin

David does not make reference to the blood of Jesus in this passage, in this psalm. But also, you'll notice that he doesn't make reference to the sacrifices of the Old Testament. In fact, he makes a reference, he says, you don't want those sacrifices, you want a broken and a contrite heart.

David understands that there is no sacrifice in the sacrificial system that will deal with his sin because it is a willful sin. We're going to see some of that in the book of Hebrews in a few weeks' time again.

And so the only thing he can appeal to is God's grace and God's mercy. But here is a reference to the blood because, and you say, well, I don't see blood in this verse. Well, the hyssop, remember, was that which they used to brush the blood onto the doorposts and the lintel of the houses when the angel of death passed over.

And so the hyssop is that, it's just a little shrub, a little bush, and they would use it as a brush or a broom, and you could use it and paint the doorposts. And remember that they offered Jesus vinegar and they put it on hyssop.

And so there's an oblique reference here to the blood, referring obviously to the Passover. So purge me and I shall be clean. So David, even though he does not have the New Testament, even though he's living in the Old Testament under the law and under the sacrificial system, understands that God can cleanse and wash away sin.

In spite of the fact that he cannot bring a sacrifice, in spite of the fact that his sin was willful, purge me, wash me, and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. And this is amazing how that a man in the Old Testament can have such a complete grasp of the efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is able to not just cover sin, as we've been saying over and over in the book of Hebrews, but is able to wash and cleanse and is able to not remember their sins and iniquities anymore, as we saw in the last verse of chapter nine in Hebrews.

So he says, Lord, clean me and cleanse me and I will be clean. Notice he says, I shall be clean and I shall be whiter than snow. So his faith was greater than people in some religions today who say, well, I just hope that everything's okay.

I just hope that somehow my sins have been washed away. No, David says, if you wash me, I will be clean. And he says that twice. Verse 18, make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

So David, you'll see over and over in the psalm, speaks about the fact that he wants God to restore the joy of his salvation. Make me hear joy and gladness. David knows there's an issue between him and God.

He knows that his sin has come between him and the Lord. Remember the Lord says concerning Israel that he says, his arm is not short that it cannot save. His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, but your sins and iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.

David understands that outside of the presence of God, there is no joy. Over and over in the Psalms, as we read through the Psalms, Sunday after Sunday, we see how that David expresses the fullness of joy that is to be found in the presence of the Lord, in a right relationship with the Lord.

Outside of that relationship, when we walk in disobedience, when we walk in rebellion, when we walk in unconfessed sin, the relationship is broken. And outside of the Lord, there is no joy. There is no peace.

And so make me hear joy and gladness. So Lord, deal with the issue, deal with my sin so that I can know how it feels to be joyful in your presence again. And then he says that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

He's going to speak about brokenness again at the end of the chapter. And we'll speak more about that at that point. But I want you to notice that he feels his guilt in a physical way. This is not just—you see, the problem is that sometimes when we mess up, sometimes when we sin, we have just a twinge of conscience, but, you know, it's there and we shrug it off.

David says, no, you've broken my bones. This has broken me physically. And, folk, that tells me why God so loved David. Because he was not like Saul, who trifled with sin. But in fact, sin was something that affected him physically, that broke his bones.

And obviously we understand that he doesn't mean physically that his bones were actually broken. But you have afflicted me in a physical way, not just in a spiritual and an emotional way. And, folk, wit to God that we had the same sensitivity that David had, that when we displease the Lord, when we sin, when we do what we ought not to do or don't do what we ought to do, that that would affect us physically, that we feel physically broken.

Because the Lord is displeased with us. Because the Lord has been dishonored in our lives. And so that the bones you have broken may rejoice. And then in verse 9, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

God’s Blotting Out of Sin

Now, it may seem in the first part of that verse that he is saying, Lord, just look the other way. That's not what it's saying. In fact, that's what we pray many times. We say, well, Lord, just look the other way.

The same way as you hope that the policeman will just look the other way when you don't stop at the stop sign or something like that. God cannot look the other way. We know that. We know that by the very fact that when Adam sinned, God could not just look away and say, well, you know, it didn't really, I didn't see that.

God has to send his son Jesus to die because of Adam's sin. That's the degree to which God cannot just look the other way. So when he says hide your face from my sins, how is God not going to see his sin?

There's only one way God cannot see his sin, and that is if the sin is removed. That's the only way. Until the sin is dealt with, it is in God's face. You know, it may not be in our face because as I've said, we have an amazing skill set at ignoring the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit, at somehow living with an evil conscience, at somehow being able to deceive ourselves into believing everything is fine when it's in fact not okay.

So how's God going to hide his face from my sins? By blotting out my iniquities, by blotting out my iniquities, by purging them, by cleansing them. I suppose in a modern translation, we would probably use the word delete because that's the language we understand in computers and stuff today.

You hit the delete button and it's gone. In fact, it's not a good illustration because as you know, even if you hit the delete button, it's still somewhere on the hard drive or somewhere in the cloud.

But when God blots it out, it's gone. The sins and iniquities I will remember no more. He's just said, wash me and I will be whiter than snow. What an understanding. And folks, here's the thing, is that when we look at the psalm, and I think that sometimes we avoid the psalm because it seems so dark, it seems so heavy, as David speaks about brokenness and speaks about confessing his sin.

And yet all through, the magnitude of his sin is offset by the greatness of God's grace, that God's grace in fact is greater than all his sin. And so even though he is heavily burdened and he is broken, he understands that there is grace.

He understands that if he comes to the Lord, the Lord will cleanse him and will purify him and make him new in that sense. Verse 10, creating me a clean heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A Clean Heart and a Right Spirit

You see, again, we saw that earlier in the chapter, David understood that his sin was not just an external thing. It wasn't just something that he did out of character or something that he did, which wasn't that that just happened to be a little hiccup.

He understood that this was endemic. This was an issue of his heart. And again, he's crying out and he says, Lord, don't just forgive me, but make me clean. Give me a clean heart. Give me a heart that is right before you.

And then he says, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. So earlier he had said that the sin is an inward thing. You desire purity, I think he says. Verse six, behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.

And so he says, Lord, deal with the sin, deal with the consequences of that sin, but deal with the source, deal with my heart and create in me a clean heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit. Now, here I prefer the King James, the old King James.

It says, and renew a right spirit. That's the best way I understand that Hebrew word. And I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but when he says a steadfast spirit, it doesn't connect to the Hebrew, but the word right, and it is a complicated word, but the word right spirit seems to capture it better.

My spirit was wrong. I had a wrong spirit. I need a right spirit. And so David understands that it's an inward issue. God needs to deal with his heart. Verse 11, here it gets really scary. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

The Holy Spirit and the Fear of Banishment

Now, I know there are people who say, well, God would not have done that. Well, God did do that with Saul. Remember that God takes his spirit from Saul and gives Saul a demon. I don't think we spoke about that when we looked at the history last week, but if you read the story of Saul, you'll find that God gave him an evil spirit, gave him a demon.

And so a very, very sad situation that Saul ends up in. If this wasn't a possibility, then why does David say so? And so David understands that there is the potential of being thrown away. Paul says, I keep myself under control, lest having preached to others, I myself may be cast away.

Same words that David's using here, that I do not cast me away from your presence. Don't banish me from your presence. David, as a king, understands the authority that God has. As the king, David could banish someone, not just from the palace, but from the country.

He could kick them out and say, you can't live in Israel. And we know that that used to be the most severe punishment that the early colonies here had on the East Coast, the New England colonies, that if they didn't like you, if you misbehaved, if you broke the law, or if your religion didn't match what they wanted, they could banish you, and you could not live in the colony.

So David understood what banishment meant. He had that power and that authority, and he understood that God had the same power to banish him from his presence. But he says, do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

When I looked at this verse, one of the things that really struck me was the difference between David and Saul again. And I reread, when I came to this part, I reread the chapter again to see if there was anywhere in this psalm that David shows any concern about his position as the king.

And there is nothing. Not at one point does he say, Lord, you know, please keep me on as the king. Please don't let me lose my throne. That is the last of his concerns. Saul, that was his only concern.

Saul couldn't care, could care less whether God banished him from his presence, as long as Saul got to sit on that throne, as long as he got to wear that crown, as long as he got to be respected by his people.

And you remember how he says to Samuel, now go with me so we can make sacrifice, so the people can see that I'm still okay. That was his only concern. David has no concern for his position whatsoever.

He doesn't ask about his throne. He does not ask about his descendants even. His concern is one thing only, and that is his relationship with the Lord. And folk, that really shows a true heart, a true repentant heart, because so many times we are more concerned about the consequences of our sin in the sense of how will it make me look?

How will it affect my position? David says, no, there's only one thing, and remember he begins and he says, I've sinned before you and you alone. That's the only issue that matters. It's my relationship with you.

And folk, again, here is true repentance. False repentance is only concerned about how will I look. True repentance is only concerned with how do I stand before God. That's the only issue. Everything else is by the way.

The Joy of God’s Salvation

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Again, he comes back to this idea of joy, and he understands that there is joy in the Lord's salvation. Now, again, I want you to see how that he living in the Old Testament understands salvation.

When you read the Psalms and he uses the word salvation and save me, many times it has a political or a military context. Save me from my enemies. Save me from famine and from pestilence. But here he's not using this in that sense.

He's using this in the sense of salvation, the way we use that word salvation, in the sense that God is able to save our souls, that God is able to save us from condemnation and from damnation. And so restore to me the joy of your salvation.

He again understands too that this is not up to me. It's not, I cannot save myself. It's not my salvation. It's not Israel's salvation. It's God's salvation. It's God who made the plan. It's God who will ultimately, from David's perspective, send his son to die on the cross and to pay the price for our sin and shed the blood.

And so it is God's salvation. And he says, I find joy in the salvation you provide. You see, when our salvation is self-made, we find joy in ourselves. Remember the Pharisee. Thank you God that I'm not like other people, like this man over here.

He found joy in his own merits, in his own good works. David says, no, it's not about me. It's not about what I, it's about your salvation. And in your salvation, the salvation you provide, there is joy.

And he says, I remember what that was like. So please, Lord, restore me. But here's the thing. If you're walking in disobedience, if you're walking in rebellion, if you're dealing or living with unconfessed sin, you can remember how things used to be.

You can remember how it was to be right with God. The joy of serving the Lord, the joy of having no condemnation, that should be an incentive to say, Lord, I want that back again. I want to be in that place again, where there is joy in serving you, where there is joy in worship, where there is joy in reading my Bible.

Folk, when we find reading the word becomes hard, when we find meditating on the word, when we find prayer becomes hard, when it becomes a job, there's a problem. Because there is joy in serving the Lord.

There is joy in his word. There's joy in prayer. There's joy in fellowship. And so he says, I remember what it was. Please restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

Generous spirit here, I think is a good translation for a difficult word, speaking about the fact that God gives the spirit without measure, the New Testament says. He gives his spirit without measure.

He is generous in his spirit, in giving us his spirit. So God is not a mean or a stingy God. God doesn't give us his spirit in measure, but he gives us abundantly, not just his spirit, but his grace. Now, I want you to see that he is now moving into another phase in his prayer.

And he says, Lord, you need to help me and deal with my sin. You need to deal with my heart. But now, moving forward, you need to uphold me. David has now come to understand how weak he really was, how deceived his heart was, how easily he fell into the severest of sin.

And he says, Lord, you need to hold me up. You need to keep me. Because remember, as the prophet says, unless the Lord keeps the city, they that keep watch, keep watch in vain. Unless the Lord builds the house, they that build labor in vain.

So the Lord is the one who needs to hold us. Paul says, I am assured that that which I've committed to him, he is able to keep until that day. So Paul, even in all of his understanding and wisdom and knowledge, doesn't feel that he can hold himself.

But he says, the Lord is able to keep what I've committed to him. And David is here committing himself and committing the future to him. And he says, Lord, you need to hold me up. You need to protect me.

Repentance, Consequences, and Restoration

You need to help me. You need to strengthen me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. Now, I thought long and hard about this verse. Is David saying, well, I'm going to start preaching the gospel once this has all been dealt with?

And remember, this wasn't going to just go away overnight. David's relationship with the Lord would be restored when he confessed and when he repented, God restored him. But the consequences of his sin continued.

And so that child that was conceived by Bathsheba would die after it was born. And so there was still a long way to go, many months, maybe a year and a half, two years to go before this would all be concluded.

So there was still a long way that David was going to. And of course, that's just the reality is that God deals with the sin. But sometimes the consequences of what we have done, what we have done to others, linger on, and they take time to work out.

And sometimes it takes years. So, but is he saying, I'm going to go out preaching the gospel? No, I think that he's speaking about his life. And because what David did was not hidden. It wasn't something that he did behind the scenes and nobody knew what he did.

Everybody knew when he sent the servants and he said, go and fetch her for me. They said, but that's Uriah's wife. They knew what was going on. They knew what he had done with Uriah. When Uriah goes back to the battlefront with the letter, the general knew what this was all about.

In fact, he's given a code. David says to him, look, you know, send message, send me word how the battle is going. And in the, what we would call a sitrep, situational report in the army, in the sitrep, you need to say these words, Uriah's dead.

We attacked and we were overcome and Uriah died. So that David could, so everybody knew it was, it was not a secret at all, but his forgiveness and his restoration would be the message that God is able to forgive.

And David still teaches us today about God's forgiveness. How does he teach us? Not just by his words, but by the very fact that God forgave him, that God restored him, that God establishes his kingdom forever.

And that while some of the consequences were there, the child dies, the kingdom is eventually divided. Two generations later, Judah and Israel would be separated. That's part of God's judgment on David's deeds.

Sin has been forgiven. The consequences are still there, but David is restored. David is not just slightly restored. David doesn't, he doesn't get into heaven and sit there in the outer perimeters of heaven.

David will be upon the throne in the new Jerusalem in the millennium. David is 100 restored. And that's the lesson that he teaches those who sin. There is restoration. There is healing. There is forgiveness.

There is cleansing. If we only come to him with a repentant heart, and again, contrasting that with Saul, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. I wonder how many people over the centuries have been saved as a result of Psalm 51.

Powerful Psalms speaking about how we really need to repent. And so I will teach transgressors through my testimony and people will be converted. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation.

Deliverance from Guilt and the Response of Worship

Again, that idea of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Deliver me from the guilt. Interesting word again. He doesn't say, cleanse me. He's used that word. Forgive me, but deliver me from the guilt.

You see, what is it that we need to be delivered of? We need to be delivered of something that ensnares us, that captures us, that locks us up. We always use the word deliverance in the sense of someone being set free.

Now, David's not asking to be delivered from the judgment of God. He's already asked about that, but from the guilt. You see, here's the thing. It's one thing for God to forgive us, which he does, but it's another thing for us to get rid of the guilt, even once we've been forgiven, because we remember the things that we did.

And God says, I don't remember them. I've forgiven them. And yet we remember, we remind ourselves of them. We remind God of them. And we're ensnared and entrapped with the guilt of stuff that has been dealt with by the blood of Jesus.

And he says, Lord, set me free from a guilty conscience, which does not need to be guilty. Remember, there's always this issue. If I have reason to be guilty and I've not dealt with a sin, then obviously, how's God going to set me free from a guilty conscience?

He's given me a guilty conscience for a reason. But if I have a guilty conscience over something that has been dealt with, something that happened before I got saved, I need the Lord to help me to be set free from that guilty conscience, because the sin is not there.

So if the sin is not there, if the sin has been washed and cleansed and removed, and he's made me whiter than snow, what's the point of, why am I feeling guilty? I'm feeling guilty over something that doesn't exist, because his blood has dealt with it.

And so Lord, help me with my guilt, because I understand your grace. I understand the completeness of your forgiveness. And so deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

You can see again how that he connects the forgiveness and the deliverance that comes from the Lord with worship. Remember, Jesus tells that parable, and he says, he who has been forgiven much will love much.

If we have really been forgiven, it must generate praise within our lips. It must bring about a heart of living a life of gratitude and of worship and of adoration, because of what he has done, because he has forgiven us, because he has cleansed us, because he's made us new creatures.

And so my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. And in fact, David does that over and over in the Psalms. He sings about God's goodness. He sings about the forgiveness that comes because of the Lord and of his righteousness.

If we've truly been forgiven and we've understood our forgiveness, we cannot live disgruntled, miserable lives. We must live lives of worship and of praise, because we've understood what he has done for us.

And so my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Verse 15, Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise. So he understands that he can't speak at that, up to that point, because the sin is an issue, but Lord deal with the sin.

And now help me to be grateful. Help me to be worshipful and to praise you. Now here comes verse 16, and he says, do not desire, you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. And of course, he understood there was no sacrifice as I've said for willful sin.

Why God Desires Obedience Rather Than Sacrifice

Remember that it's interesting, the parallels again, between David and Saul. Samuel says to Saul, the Lord's not wanting sacrifice. He's wanting obedience. He's wanting obedience. David understands also, it's not about sacrifice.

It's about the heart. This connects back to the efficacy of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, the inability of the sacrifices in the Old Testament to really deal with sin. All they were really doing was not just covering, but pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, pointing to Jesus who would make that complete and that finished sacrifice.

And so he understands it's not about sacrifice. The Lord's looking for a heart. And that's all he's always been looking for. It's never changed between the Old Testament and the New Testament. God's looking for a right heart.

Sometimes we, even in the New Testament, say, well, Lord, I've messed up, but I'll do this for you. No, it's not about doing this for you, or I'll do better, or I'll read. Instead of reading one chapter, I'll read two chapters, or whatever bargain we want to make with God.

God's not interested in those sacrifices. You do not desire sacrifice, else I would give it. And remember, David knew about giving sacrifices. Remember, at one time he counted Israel against God's instruction.

He did a census, and God judges that and sends pestilence across the land. And he begins to do a survey. He travels around the land looking at the damage, and thousands of people are dying, and it's a terrible time.

And he comes to the threshing floor of Arona, the Jebusite, and he says, I need to make a sacrifice. And the Lord accepted that sacrifice, incidentally. And so Arona says, well, you're the king. Here's the threshing floor.

You can use this to make it as an altar, and you can use the cattle that I'm using, the oxen. You can sacrifice them. You can use the threshing implements as wood and make a sacrifice. And David says, no, I won't take it from you.

I'll buy it, because I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing. David understood what sacrifice was all about. He understood what a proper sacrifice was about. But he says, this is not the issue here.

Brokenness as the Condition for Spiritual Healing

This is not what you're looking for. And here's verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These are God you will not despise. And folks, here's the thing. It does not change from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

You see, here's where we get ourselves into trouble. We say, well, you know, David was Old Testament. We're in New Testament. Jesus died, and so everything's fine. So we continue in sin that grace may abound.

No, God is still looking for a broken spirit. God is still looking for repentance. And we say, well, brokenness is not something, and here's another subject we don't like to talk about these days, and that you will hear no preaching on, the idea of brokenness.

And we say, well, you know, that's not, you know, I don't want to be broken. I want to be whole. I want to be fixed. I want to be right. I want everything to be cool. I want to be healed. But God is still looking for a brokenness.

And this is not a fake crying crocodile tears, as you often see at altars. This is a real inward brokenness. The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit, a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These are God you will not despise.

You see, because it's in brokenness that his healing can flow. You remember in the second letter to the Corinthians in chapter four, Paul makes reference to Gideon in the Old Testament. And remember that in the Old Testament, Gideon goes and attacks the Amalekites.

They whittle the people down. They're down to about 300 men against an army of 20 ,000. And they have pictures. And inside of these pictures, not pictures, pictures, vases, vessels, and inside is a lamps.

And so they surround the army of the Midianites and they break the pictures. And of course, there's a great noise as they break these pictures, and they bring out the lamps and there's light all over.

And the Lord sends his fear upon the Midianites and they begin to kill one another and they in haste to get away and they run for their lives. And God gives them a great victory that day. But in second Corinthians chapter four, Paul makes reference to that.

And he says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, in pictures, in earthen clay pots. The treasure is the gospel of the Lord Jesus is the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have that in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.