The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Nathan's rebuke roused David from a spiritual torpor into which he had sunk for a long time. Seeing the magnitude of his guilt, he turns to God's infinite mercy as his only ground for hope, knowing he deserves multiplied condemnation and might justly be cast off forever.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 51:1-19
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. All sacrifices are presented to thee in one, by the man whose broken heart presents the Saviour's merit to thee. When the heart mourns for sin, thou art better pleased than when the bullock bleeds beneath the axe.
I. David prays against the guilt of sin, and prays for the grace of God, enforcing both petitions from a plea taken from the glory of God, which he promises with thankfulness to show forth. 1. He prays against the guilt of sin, that he might be delivered from that, and promises that then he would praise God, Psa 51:14.
Commenting on Psalm 51:14-19