Psalm 51: Going to God with Contrition

V.17 – The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  I think this passage tells a lot about the kind of attitude that we’re to have when we come to God, after we’ve sinned.  Often we come to God with our head held high, saying “I’ve sinned and I won’t do it anymore.” We realize that we’ve sinned and must ask for forgiveness, but sometimes I think we do it with great confidence, thinking that out of our own resolve we will not sin anymore.  Here David says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, not a confident spirit.  It’s important then that we understand the nature of sin.  It’s much greater and stronger than we are.  It’s like a lion prowling around, waiting to devour (1 Peter), and it’s crouching at our door with a desire to own us (Gen. 4).  These days when I come to God in repentance, it’s not with confidence anymore, but with contrition, and with an understanding that I am not greater than my sin.  I need help. I need help desperately, and with that attitude I come to God.  What kind of a father would deny a contrite request for help from his son or daughter who’s been kicked around by sin?  If I place confidence in my own resolve then I am setting myself up for failure.  (Wasn’t it my own resolve, or the lack thereof, that got me into sin in the first place?)  The best thing I can do, when I’m repenting, is to go to God, humble and contrite, and ask Him for help and to place the burden of my repentance on Him.  God is one who does the cleansing.  He’s the one that creates the pure heart.  So go to God, not with your own resolve, but with His.

~ by williamkang on September 24, 2008.