My Sin, Ever Before Me - Psalm 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise. - Psalm 51:17

    Perhaps one of the most well known of David’s psalms, Psalm 51 brings the ultimate hardness of the human heart into focus. David not only confesses he is a sinner but even a sinner before his birth. This is the finest example of self-rebuke to man’s sinful nature among all the psalms. Think about it. Can we even for a moment imagine anyone coming forward to us in complete and utter confession and repentance, in complete and total admission of their darkest sins? In certain instances pastors hear some pretty volatile confessions as do some psychiatrists, but how many times have we ourselves heard such stunning admissions of sin? Yet here is the larger question: have we ever made such a confession ourselves? More important - have we ever made such a confession to God? “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”  - 1 John 1:6.
    A false devotion or piety put on among the churched audience is not what God wants. In fact, He hates religiosity. How many times did Christ call out the scribes and pharisees for their false piety? Our religious pretensions mean nothing to our heavenly Father - “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.” - Psalm 51:16.    With our sins ever before us there is but one offering God wants from us. “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” - Proverbs 28:13.  Confession and forsaking (turning away from our sins, i.e., repentance) is what our Lord wants. A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart is all the sacrifice God desires.
    Each and every night before I close my eyes to sleep I ask my Lord and Savior for the forgiveness that only His blood could purchase for me. It is, after all, for my sins that Christ died. It is for my inequities that His holy blood flowed!  How now then could I dare go forth with pretension, pride, or presumptuousness?
     Lord, may I never forget in my lifetime that there is no good in me but by Your grace alone I was saved from perdition. Amen.