(Psa 51:17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The Psalmist says that God is near to those who exhibit a broken and contrite heart. James tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. A broken heart is one that is crushed or shattered; contrite means powder or dust. Therefore, a person who has a broken and contrite heart is one who is broken below their pride even to the point of dust.
Today there is so much about self-esteem and finding out who you really are; the real person inside all the years of rejection and abuse. There is need for this is many cases, but it has been brought into the church and used in a spiritual way that has proven detrimental to the spirituality of people and the church as a whole.
When God says that He is near to those who are of a broken heart, He is not meaning primarily those who have suffered loss and are in deep grief (although He is near to those). The broken and contrite ones are those who are so over their personal sin and waywardness. Too often people cry and make a big display of tears and “sorrow” over their sin, but in reality they are simply sorry they were caught or that they are suffering the consequences of their sin.
Christians are to regularly examine the condition of their heart through reading and studying the word and through spiritual events in their life – revival services, Bible study and regular worship services. Paul says “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. . . But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” The Psalmist understood this when he prayed “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: {24} And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When David sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband murdered, and then he was exposed, he acknowledged his sin with a broken heart. When we recognize our sinfulness and sin in light of our gracious heavenly Father we will be broken and contrite. The sinful woman that stood behind Jesus and washed His feet with her tears was broken because of her sin and received forgiveness -- so will we if we are broken before God for our sin.
Another reason for being of a broken and contrite heart is over the sin of others – perhaps a spouse, child, other relative or even that of the country or church. Revivals of the past were the result of many people bring broken for the sins of others and praying fervently for God to intervene. We see not only their sin but the consequences and penalty of that sin and it breaks our heart to know that unless there is repentance and conversion people will experience the consequences of their sin and also the punishment of their sin in eternity.
The opposite of a broken and contrite heart is a hard heart. A hard heart is one that refuses to hear and heed God’s word. Jesus told the parable of the sower and the seed and the soil by the wayside represented those who had hard hearts – they refused to heed or hearken unto God’s word, especially when it went contrary to their sinful living. Israel hardened their hearts and God challenged them with it through the prophets – “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted . . . Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets:” There are many people like that today who refuse to hear what God says or they try to twist it to their own perverted way of thinking and living – “ . . .speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” Jesus said when we do this it is easy for the devil to steal the word away.
The consequences of a hard heart are that we are unable to understand the word because we refuse it. We are unable to be saved since we cannot be saved if we continue to reject God’s word. We are unable to know God’s ways and so we accept the ways of man as right and proper. The hard hearted will experience the wrath of God one day – “therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.” “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;”
A broken and contrite heart is developed by those who spent much time in the word and prayer. Those who do not reject or chaff against God’s chastening when we do wrong or the developing circumstances of life that alter our life and we do not understand it. If we accuse God and refuse to be instructed or guided by those unpleasant circumstances we can develop and hard heart. If we get bitter and angry over the criticisms of others and refuse to fellowship with those anymore we can develop a hard heart.
We need a revival in the church today of brokenness and humility by all – then perhaps we would see a mighty moving of God once again.