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Psalm 51:16-17
Excerpted from: Psalm 51 (Part Four): Psalm 51:13-19David once again shows his deep knowledge of God here. He knew that animal sacrifices and offerings were not effective for truly covering sin. That is why he says "You do not desire" those things necessarily. He is not opposed to them, neither David nor God is opposed to them. If God had been opposed to them He would not have given them to Israel to do. But David knew that God meant them as types. They were types that foreshadowed the reality of Christ's sacrifice for sin. They pictured that sin had to be paid for with a life, with the life of that animal in its blood, shed and poured out so that a covering of sin could be made.
As the writer of Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 10:4, "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin." David knew that. And also seven verses later, the same writer says, "Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." That is verse 11. It takes the blood of someone greater than a man to pay for a man's sins. And so the Creator Himself gave His life, He offered His blood to bear the sins of many, as it says in Hebrews 9:28. So David knew this.
Verse 17 here may contain a slight mistranslation that puts a different spin on what David is saying here. The first word in Hebrew of verse 17 is zebach, and it means sacrifices. But with only a slight emendation of the text, which is a different vowel at the end of the word that is there in in Psalm 51:17, it would not read the sacrifices of God but my sacrifices, O God, which is very interesting. Let us read or let us think of the flow of this thought because it fits very well if the emendation is correct. "You do not desire animal sacrifices of burnt offerings. My sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart."
For what it is worth, I think it makes a greater point here: "I know that you do not necessarily want animal sacrifices because they are just a type. What You want to see is my broken heart. You want to see my broken spirit. That I am going to kneel down before You and humbly do Your will—and quit sinning."
That is what He wanted to see from David, this rich man who had dealt so arrogantly with his people. He wanted to see him humble himself. That was a great sacrifice for a proud man. To become aware of his sinfulness and become poor in spirit, as it says in Matthew 5:3. Because the first step in spiritual renewal is humility. Realizing that we are weak and evil, that we are not God. That we are not so wonderful as we think we are. And because of that we feel crushed when we finally realize it.
That is what the word contrite means there back in Psalm 51:17. It is a blow. It is an emotional blow, and it makes us feel so little and pounded into the dirt because we are such a terrible person. That is a sacrifice for a proud person, to do that. To know that we have disappointed God again and again! And we are so petty and wicked and self-centered, and that the only reason we live is through God. And so we surrender. That is what this broken spirit and contrite heart is all about, that we surrender to God. That we know that the only reason why we should live is through His mercy. And we live to be corrected and to change.
So we sacrifice our self-will and our self-importance and say to God, "Do what You can with this hunk of junk." That is what a living sacrifice is all about (Romans 12:1-2).
And as he says here, such an attitude of total surrender God will not spurn. In fact, it is the human attitude He can work with. Someone who looks at himself and sees someone so low that he will do anything that is right and good to please God.
Psalm 51:16-17
Excerpted from: More Excellent SacrificeA contrite heart is a crushed heart. It is a repentant heart. So Abel, I think, like David, had a very repentant heart. And the gifts spoken of here that God was testifying of, were the deeds, the fruits, the works that were evident in Abel's life. And God imputed these as righteousness, not necessarily the offering.
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