What is a Broken Spirit and a Contrite Heart?
In David’s Psalm of repentance after his sins regarding Bathsheba says… ‘O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’
David could’ve sacrificed all that he had but it wouldn’t have pleased God without true conviction and repentance. It was the heart behind the sacrifice that was important to God. They could offer sacrifices all day but without true repentance and faith it was worthless.
So what is ‘a broken spirit and a contrite heart’?
Broken here means ‘shattered, quenched or crushed.
Contrite means ‘to collapse, break or crouch.
There’s a total undoing of self.
A broken vessel can’t hold anything. So self can’t be held onto in a truly broken heart.
Nothing left of self just a crushed, broken vessel offered up to God with repentance, in faith for Him take and mould into a vessel fit for the Master’s use and fill with His Spirit to use for His glory.
In the Old covenant sacrifices it was not the life but the death, the giving up of the life of the animal and then offering it to God that was required.
So the death of self, the crucifying of our will and our desires, and the offering of it to God with true repentance and faith is what pleases Him.
‘And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’
‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.’
‘For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?’
With Love
