A Contrite Heart

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps 51:17).

Have you ever considered the life of David? Here was a man who had so many struggles with sin, yet he was so amazingly close to God. He has been termed a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), the anointed of the God of Jacob and the "sweet psalmist of Israel" (2 Sam 23:1). He was so anointed, in fact, that Saul had him minister to him to drive his demons away (1 Sam 16:23)!!

How could a man of such apparent carnality be so mightily used and anointed of God at the same time? This goes against the very core of our whole "church paradigm"! Simply put, it was because of the condition of David's heart. He possessed a contrite heart.

The word "contrite" means, "to crumble, to beat to pieces, crushed, to collapse". It also means "to break into pieces, to reduce into splinters, to beat out thin." How opposite this condition is to a "proud" heart. Proud means, "to swell, to enlarge".

How did David display this sort of heart-attitude? Let's observe some of his intense sin recorded in 2 Samuel 11-12. His sins include:

1. Idleness - he remained idle at "the time when kings go forth to battle" (11:1). Clearly, he had other desires to tend to.
2. Lust - he spied on Bathsheba bathing and lusted after her (11:2).
3. Fornication - Such lust quickly turned into fornication (11:4).
4. Deception - when David discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant, he tried to cover his sin by calling Uriah (Bathsheba's husband) back from war. He hoped he would return to his wife, lay with her, and suspect the child was his own (11:5-8).
5. Murder - But when Uriah nobly stays away from his wife (11:9-11), David must think of another solution. He decides to have Uriah put in the "hottest battle...that he may be smitten, and die" (11:14-15). He carries his own death warrant all the way back to the war, and is killed in battle.
6. And to top it all off, David acquired the new widow as his own wife.

WOW! He committed more sin in one day than many will commit in an entire lifetime! How would we respond to a man caught in such gross sin? How would he be treated? What would he be called in our modern church vernacular? Certainly not "the anointed of the God of Jacob", or the "sweet psalmist of Israel", that's for sure! He would be burned at the stake.

But what ends up actually happening? In reality, he was he pardoned of such gross atrocity. But why? Again, it's because of the condition of his heart toward his sin, and toward the Lord.

When the prophet, Nathan, brings judgment to David he immediately repented: "And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man... And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die" (2 Sam 12:1-13).

He didn't shift the blame, he didn't refuse Nathan's rebuke in pride. Rather, he fasted, prayed, fell submissive to the earth, and cried to God from the depth of a genuinely broken heart! His heart was truly contrite - and God will never despise such!

On the contrary, we see men (such as Saul) whose sin does not seem near as grotesque, yet who were not pardoned. Why is this so? Because Saul did not possess the same heart as David. His heart was unrepentant. In 1 Samuel 13, we get a glimpse into this man's heart. His sin was:

1. Disobedience to the prophet of God - he did not wait for Samuel to offer a sacrifice, but acted presumptuously instead (13:8-10).

Does this seem like significantly less of a sin than David's? Indeed. Yet Saul was not pardoned. This act of disobedience caused the kingdom to be taken away from him! "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee" (1 Sam 13:13-14).

Even though the sin appeared less significant, the reason for such judgment was the response of Saul's heart. He was completely unrepentant. He didn't accept the blame himself, but rather blamed the people and the prophet (13:11). He did not humble himself under the hand of God, but rather retained his pride and continued to try to be king. His heart was puffed up, and therefore God resisted him!

The grossness of our sin has no bearing upon our forgiveness. Of course we do not use such a truth as an excuse towards lasciviousness, but the truth remains nonetheless. The primary thing God asks of us if we sin is genuine repentance from a CONTRITE heart. A contrite heart will cause God's judgments to be blended with His MERCY! Toward the humble, He is the very personification of mercy! But to the proud, such mercy is frustrated.

1 Pet 5:5 "God resisteth the proud (Saul), and giveth grace to the humble (David)"