It’s OK to be broken.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

David wrote these words in the broken experience of being confronted in his sin, in a season of repentance, still carrying fresh in his thinking the consequences of muliple sins for which God was forgiving him. And on the human scale they were really big sins: adultery, murder, lies, and conspiracy. And God assured David of deep forgiveness of these sins. Yet the consequences would still continue to make big waves the rest of David’s days.

Still, at this point, David knows that the broken feeling, the powerlessness, the waiting, the enormity of the sins revisiting him, and the need to cast his soul on a merciful God were all the right state of mind for him. He needed to keep expressing a broken spirit before God. This was not unbelief, but rather an expression of belief and his need for only God to bring relief. His raw, painful awareness of his offense before God and his desire for repentance were a kind of worship, as important as the offerings of sacrifices to atone for these sins under the law.

I have known broken seasons where the Spirit of God and the Word of God confronted me on the seriousness of my sins. I know what it is to grieve the sin and still have to grieve the consequences of sin at the same time. And God’s mercy and grace never feel closer to me than those times... and they may last for days... a season of brokenness that soaks my soul in mercy. God’s nearness is known in repentance. He is the Father that runs to the broken, repentant prodigal. God welcomes the broken-hearted sinner because He sent His Son as the friend of sinners to put an end to their sin by suffering death’s consequences for them! Amen! It is great to find such grace when broken.