Bird's-eye view
In this latter portion of his great penitential psalm, David moves from the depths of personal confession to the glorious results of divine forgiveness. Having been undone by his sin and having pleaded for a new heart, he now looks forward in faith to what God will do in and through him. This is the logic of the gospel. True repentance does not terminate on itself in a pool of morbid introspection; it flows outward in joyful witness, heartfelt worship, and a radical reorientation of what pleases God. David understands that a restored soul is a soul commissioned. Forgiveness is not a private transaction that leaves a man unchanged. It makes him a public witness to the grace he has received. The passage climaxes by contrasting the external sacrifices of the Levitical code with the internal sacrifice that God has always truly desired: a spirit broken of its pride and a heart crushed under the weight of its own sin, ready to be remade by God.
This is David the king, a man who could offer thousands of bulls and rams, recognizing that all the livestock in Israel would be a stench in God's nostrils if offered from an unrepentant heart. He learns, and teaches us, that the entryway to renewed fellowship and acceptable worship is not through the temple gates first, but through the narrow gate of a broken heart.
Outline
- 1. The Vows of a Restored Saint (Ps 51:13-17)
- a. The Evangelistic Fruit of Forgiveness (Ps 51:13)
- b. The Joyful Song of the Pardoned (Ps 51:14)
- c. The Divine Enablement of Praise (Ps 51:15)
- d. The Inadequacy of External Religion (Ps 51:16)
- e. The One Acceptable Sacrifice (Ps 51:17)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 51 is David's response after the prophet Nathan confronted him over his heinous sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. The first twelve verses are a model of profound repentance. David does not make excuses. He pleads for mercy based on God's character (v. 1), acknowledges the depth of his sin (vv. 3-5), and asks God for a radical internal cleansing and renewal, a new heart (vv. 7-12). The section we are considering here, verses 13-17, is the direct consequence of that plea. It is written in faith, looking ahead to the restoration he has just prayed for. It answers the question, "What happens after a sinner is truly forgiven?" This movement from private confession to public praise and witness is crucial. It shows that Old Testament faith, at its heart, was not a matter of mere ritual but of a personal, covenantal relationship with God that transforms the entire person.
Key Issues
- The Link Between Personal Forgiveness and Public Witness
- The Nature of "Bloodguiltiness"
- God's Role in Enabling True Worship
- The Old Testament Understanding of Sacrifice
- The Meaning of a "Broken Spirit" and "Contrite Heart"
The Sacrifices of a Restored Sinner
When a man has been to the bottom, when he has seen the absolute filth of his own heart and the treason of his sin against a holy God, and when he has then been lifted out of that pit by sheer, unmerited grace, he does not just quietly dust himself off and go about his business. The experience of such a salvation changes everything. David here lays out the blueprint for the restored life. It is a life that testifies, sings, and worships, not on the basis of external performance, but from a heart that has been broken and then healed by the God of salvation. This is the central transaction of the Christian life in every age. We bring our brokenness, our sin, our inability, and He meets us there with His grace. Everything else flows from this.
Verse by Verse Commentary
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.
Notice the "Then." This is gospel logic. First comes repentance and cleansing (vv. 1-12), and then comes effective ministry. David, the forgiven adulterer and murderer, vows to become an evangelist. This is not presumption; it is the natural fruit of grace. The one who has been forgiven much, loves much, and the one who has been shown the way out of the darkest pit is the best qualified to show others the way. He will not teach them his own clever techniques for self-improvement. He will teach them Your ways, the ways of mercy, judgment, and grace. The result is that sinners will be converted, turned back, to God. This conversion is God's work, but He uses the testimony of forgiven sinners as His instrument. The most powerful witness is not the man who boasts of his strength, but the man who can point to his scars and boast in the God who healed him.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
David gets specific. He is not guilty of "a poor choice" or "a mistake." He is guilty of blood, the shedding of innocent blood. The Hebrew word is plural, bloods, perhaps indicating the gravity and multifaceted nature of his crime. This is a capital offense from which no human court could deliver him. He needs a divine deliverance. So he cries out to God, whom he rightly identifies as the "God of my salvation." His only hope is in the God who saves. And again, notice the "Then." When this deliverance from the objective guilt and penalty of his sin is granted, the result will be joyful song. He will not sing of his own remorse or his own newfound resolve. He will sing of Your righteousness. This is astounding. The guilty sinner, when pardoned, is freed to celebrate the perfect justice and righteousness of the God who pardons him. This is a foretaste of the doctrine of justification, where God's own righteousness is credited to the sinner who has none of his own.
15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.
The forgiven sinner, eager to teach and sing, recognizes his utter dependence on God for even the act of worship. Sin shuts the mouth. Guilt silences us before a holy God. David knows that he cannot praise God rightly in his own strength. He needs the Lord Himself to "open his lips." This is a prayer for enabling grace. True praise is not something we gin up from within; it is a gift that God must give before we can offer it back to Him. The mouth that is opened by God will not speak of its own merits; it will, by definition, declare God's praise. This is the cry of a man who knows he can contribute nothing to his salvation, not even the praise that follows it.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.
Here David turns a corner and gets to the heart of the matter. He is anticipating an objection, or perhaps searching his own heart for the right response to his sin. What does God require? The law prescribed sacrifices for certain sins, but for high-handed sins like adultery and murder, the penalty was death, not sacrifice. But David's point is deeper. He knows that even if he could, piling up thousands of animal carcasses on the altar is not what God is truly after. If a mere external ritual was the price, David the king could easily pay it. But God does not delight in the ritual for its own sake. This is not a repudiation of the sacrificial system, which God Himself ordained. It is a repudiation of using that system as a substitute for a repentant heart. It is a prophetic statement, in line with Samuel, Isaiah, and Amos, that obedience is better than sacrifice.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
This is the central thesis. If God does not want animal sacrifices from a rebellious heart, what sacrifices does He want? The answer is plural: the sacrifices of God. The true sacrifices are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. A "broken spirit" is a spirit that has been shattered of its pride, its self-reliance, and its rebellion. A "contrite heart" comes from a word that means to be crushed or ground into powder. This is the heart that has been pulverized by the law of God, a heart that has no illusions left about its own goodness. It is a heart that has given up all attempts at self-justification. And this, David says, this posture of utter humility and brokenness, is the one thing that God will not despise. He may despise the proud man's bull, but He will never turn away the broken man's heart. This is the only sacrifice we can bring that God will always accept, because it is the only sacrifice that truly honors His holiness and our desperate need for His grace.
Application
The message of this psalm is a timeless diagnostic for the church. We live in an age that is terrified of being broken. We value strength, wholeness, and self-esteem. But the way of the gospel is the way of brokenness. God cannot heal a heart that does not know it is sick. He cannot fill a hand that is already clenched full of its own righteousness. The temptation for modern Christians is to offer God the sacrifices of verse 16. We offer Him our church attendance, our volunteer hours, our tithe, our doctrinal precision, our moral effort. And if our hearts are proud and unrepentant, God takes no delight in any of it. He is not pleased.
What God wants from us is the sacrifice of verse 17. He wants us to come to Him with our pride shattered, acknowledging our spiritual bankruptcy. He wants us to agree with His verdict against our sin. A broken and contrite heart is not a state of perpetual gloom; it is the fertile ground in which the seeds of grace can finally take root. It is the prerequisite for everything else. When we offer God our brokenness, He gives us back a new heart. Then, and only then, are our lips opened to truly praise Him. Then, and only then, does our life become a credible testimony to His ways. We must learn to stop offering God our strength, and begin by offering Him our weakness, our sin, and our broken hearts. For that is the only offering a holy God will not despise.