Just This Offering

The cross is the sacrifice that creates a broken and contrite heart

Leading the gathered through Psalm 51 this Ash Wednesday, I noticed something as I followed along with the responsive setting. David’s indulgent confession of sin in Psalm 51 ends with this startling moment of recognition:

“…for you [God] have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give you a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is [only] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Surely this is a stunning epiphany to anyone who knows the Old Testament wherein sacrifices are frequent, systematized, and not only a delight to the Lord but prescribed by the Lord himself from Mt. Sinai.

Consider the remarkable dissonance. I realized on Ash Wednesday, only because my Bible was open flat on my lap, that immediately preceding David’s judgment against sacrifices is the contrary:

“Those who bring their thanksgiving sacrifice [as commanded in Leviticus] honor me…”

Declares God, in Psalm 50.