Forward Day by Day is great because the writers are able to say my complex thoughts of the day’s lessons into simple terms. Today’s meditation is awesome and I offer it without comment.
Psalm 51. Make me hear of joy and gladness, that the body you have broken may rejoice.
Here’s this moment where David brings his crushed and sinful heart before the living God—his exposed adultery with Bathsheba. It has to be the Mount Everest in the long Himalayan range of psalms.
Nobody believes it or wants it, but Christ’s brokenness calls us to brokenness. Here a strange joy begins to sing when we are flat-foot in the ashes of our selfishness and bring it to Christ. As Samuel Chadwick wrote, “It is a wonder what God can do with a broken heart if God gets all the pieces.”
We seem to believe that we are happiest when we make life into some painless vacation cruise. The “crushed spirit” offered to God in confession of our own sin sounds archaic and damaging to our self-esteem. Psychologist Richard Erickson puts it this way: “The cult of self-esteem attempts to substitute disclosure and acceptance for repentance and forgiveness.”
But it is in brokenness and confession—nowhere else—that the burden is lifted, the truth is told, our cover is blown, and joy forcefully rushes in, because the mercy of Christ is birthing a renewed and clean heart. Amazing. Don’t waste your brokenness.
Pursuing Call 