All In Devotional - Matthew WestSample

Broken Things – Matthew West

In one of our most beloved Psalms, King David writes, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Considering the context, David’s words here are pretty radical. He wrote this Psalm after the prophet Nathan confronted him regarding his adultery with Bathsheba.

The psalm opens in anguish. David knows his sin is great: “For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). And, he knows that God sees his sin: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:4). 

If grace was a kingdom

I stopped at the gate

Thinking I don’t deserve to pass through

After all the mistakes that I’ve made

It is hard to face the reality of our own brokenness. It is harder still to do so before God. But David, while he understood the depths of his sin, also understood the depths of God’s love. He opens the Psalm with these words: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1). 

Because of God’s unfailing love, because of his great compassion, we do not have to fear being cast out of God’s kingdom. In fact, we will experience the opposite. We will be welcomed with open arms. And not in spite of our brokenness, but because of it, for God does not despise a broken and contrite heart. 

But if it’s true

You use broken things

Then here I am lord

I’m all yours

We are all broken, so if God uses his people, he only has broken ones to choose from. For this reason, believers can live free from the shame of our sinful past and our sinful present. We are not measured by our good deeds or our lack of sin. We are measured by God’s unfailing love and great compassion.