THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE;
OR,
THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART.
'THE SACRIFICES OF GOD ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT: A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE
HEART, O GOD, THOU WILT NOT DESPISE.'—Psalm 51:17
This psalm is David's penitential psalm. It may be fitly so called, because it is a psalm by which is manifest the unfeigned sorrow which he had for his horrible sin, in defiling of Bathsheba, and slaying Uriah her husband; a relation at large of which you have in the 11th and 12th of the Second of Samuel. Many workings of heart, as this psalm showeth, this poor man had, so soon as conviction did fall upon his spirit. One while he cries for mercy, then he confesses his heinous offences, then he bewails the depravity of his nature; sometimes he cries out to be washed and sanctified, and then again he is afraid that God will cast him away from his presence, and take his Holy Spirit utterly from him. And thus he goes on till he comes to the text, and there he stayeth his mind, finding in himself that heart and spirit which God did not dislike; 'The sacrifices of God,' says he, 'are a broken spirit'; as if he should say, I thank God I have that. 'A broken and a contrite heart,' says he, 'O God, thou wilt not despise'; as if he should say, I thank God I have that.
[I. THE TEXT OPENED IN THE MANY WORKINGS OF THE HEART.]
The words consist of two parts. FIRST. An assertion. SECOND.
A demonstration of that assertion. The assertion is this, 'The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.' The demonstration is this,
'Because a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.'
In the assertion we have two things present themselves to our consideration. First. That a broken spirit is to God a sacrifice. Second. That it is to God, as that which answereth to, or goeth beyond, all sacrifices. 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.'
The demonstration of this is plain: for that heart God will not despise it. 'A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' Whence I draw this conclusion: That a spirit rightly broken, a heart truly contrite, is to God an excellent thing. That is, a thing that goeth beyond all external duties whatever; for that is intended by this saying, The sacrifices, because it answereth to all sacrifices which we can offer to God; yea it serveth in the room of all: all our sacrifices without this are nothing; this alone is all.
There are four things that are very acceptable to God. The