Confession and Brokenness (Psalm 51) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Some days begin with surprises that bring joy. Other days so affect us that we can barely move. The latter describes Monday. Who would have thought when retiring on Sunday night that we would wake up to the shocking news that a gunman had killed nearly sixty, including a graduate of Union University from just down the road, and injured over five hundred more spectators at a Las Vegas’ concert? The news dumbfounded us—and still does. One question over and over seems to be on everyone’s mind and tongue: “Why did he do such a horrible thing?”

While theories continue to expand to give the killer’s demented rationale for the horrific actions of Sunday night, one thing is certain. The killer knew no restraint from his impulse to sin. What he did came out of the core of his being. The darkness of sin that affected everything about him burst forth like a broken dam holding back a raging river. With no restraint he did the unthinkable.

The pictures from Las Vegas give us a clearer glimpse of evil—more specifically—the potential fruit from an unregenerate heart. While that certainly doesn’t imply that every unbeliever walks the road toward becoming a mass murderer it does make clear that within the human heart lies the capability of committing any sin known to man.

The Genevan Reformer John Calvin states it well: “We have no adequate idea of the dominion of sin unless we conceive of it as extending to every part of the soul, and acknowledge that both the mind and heart of man have become utterly corrupt” [Calvin’s Commentaries, 5:291]. Calvin simply parrots Paul who quotes from the Psalms and Isaiah. “There is none righteous, not even one; . . . there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom 3:10–18).

Yet, the confession in Psalm 51 is not written by an unbeliever but one who knew God intimately, even called a man after God’s heart (1 Sam 13:14). Sin’s power to do all manner of evil lurks even among the regenerate so that we must learn to live with brokenness over sin and repentance from it. “The best of men,” wrote William Plumer, “need to be warned against the worst of sins” [Geneva Series: Psalms, 565]. David, who had walked with God for years, who gave us so many psalms of worship that expand our understanding of God, fell prey to horrific sin. The superscript of this psalm identifies the narrative in 2 Samuel 11–12 as its background, when David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, and probably some other men to make it appear just as part of war, to cover his tracks. Numb to the weightiness of his sin, David continued in spiritual stupor until the prophet Nathan uttered those stinging words, “You are the man!” This psalm follows that confrontation. Psalm 51 numbers chief among the seven penitential psalms [Derek Kidner, TOTC: Psalms 1–72, 189].

Christians through the centuries have found healing and joy through the message in this psalm. Here we discover with renewed confidence in the power of the gospel, broken, sinful people find mercy in the Lord. How are sinful people brought back to joy in the Lord? Let’s think about it by considering how brokenness leads to repentance and restoration follows repentance.

I. Brokenness leading to repentance

When we succumb to sin we feel paralyzed. Despite knowing the grace of God we struggle to approach Him for grace. That demonstrates a sense of brokenness regarding our sin. For broken people do not presume upon the grace of God but rather long for it.

1. May broken, sinful people approach God?

This psalm shows us the basis for approaching God when under the[...]