Psalm 51, a psalm of David’s repentance and confession, ends with his asking for God to accomplish His goal – Zion and Jerusalem. What a high conclusion and end of such a psalm!
This whole week we have been enjoying and praying over Psalm 51, making this psalm our prayer and our experience – but we need to remember that right at the end, David concludes by asking for God to do His good pleasure unto Zion, and that He would build the walls of Jerusalem! Even our repentance and confession should be unto the building up of the Body of Christ!
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
Psa. 51:17 says, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. God considers a broken spirit as being more precious than sacrifices or anything else.
What is a broken spirit? It is not “a spirit that is broken”, but it is a spirit that repents, that feels very sorrowful for any sinfulness – a repenting spirit.
We may be people who don’t usually sin or make mistakes, but even when we sin, we need to have such a spirit of repenting to the Lord for the thing we did.
To be broken means not to be whole – that is, to see that you are not perfect, you are not complete. Even with the highest revelation and the deepest and most enjoyable experiences of God in His house and in our personal experience, we are still not perfect, not complete.
We can fail and sin at any time. This is why we need to cultivate such an attitude, such a spirit – a repenting spirit, a broken spirit, a contrite heart.
Some tend to be “stubbornly whole” even though they sin, they think they are perfect and they are OK, so they won’t repent… But we should learn to have a broken spirit, a spirit ready to repent and confess…
Do good in Your pleasure unto Zion
Have you ever wondered what’s the connection between “a broken and contrite heart” and “Zion”? It looks like if we have such a spirit and such a heart, we are qualified to pray such a prayer, and we desire what the Lord also desires – the good of Zion (Psa. 48:2)!
Zion today is the overcomers in the church – we need to pray that the Lord would gain the overcomers, even that He would make us – sinful people saved through grace, those with a broken heart and spirit – His Zion, His overcoming ones.
This is what the Lord’s recovery is today – the Lord’s recovery is for the producing of Zion, for the producing of the overcomers!
“Today in the church age, the God-men who are perfected and matured are Zion, the overcomers, the vital groups within the churches” (Practical Points Concerning Blending, Witness Lee).
Today we are learning to overcome and be Zion, but there will be one day when the entire New Jerusalem will be Zion – the very Holy of Holies, where God dwells!
It will take 1000 years for most of us to be produced as the overcomers, but today we can learn to cooperate with the Lord through repentance, confession, and prayer, that we may be produced as His overcoming saints (Dan. 2:34-35)!
We reach the high peak of Zion through prayer
The only way to reach this high peak, the only way to become Zion, is by praying (cf. Rev. 21:12 – beseech God to build the walls of the city for absolute separation unto God). We may be in the church life in a general way, enjoying the goodness of God, the fatness of the house, and the river flowing… – but where is Zion today?
Where are the overcomers? These overcomers are those whom God calls through the speaking of the Spirit in Rev. 2-3. Even our experience of repentance and confession is for this – for the building up and the gaining of Zion!
If we are those who repent, confess our sins, and ask God for His purging, we will have the enjoyment of God in Christ in the church as His house and in His city as His kingdom (Psa. 51:19).
[sharing inspired from, The Practical Points concerning Blending, and, Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms (both by brother W. Lee), as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (1)]
Lord, grant us such a spirit and such an attitude. Save us from being high-minded or stubborn. O, Lord, have mercy on us. May we have a repenting spirit, a willing spirit, a spirit that is ready to return to You and repent at any time. Lord, make us Your overcomers. Make us the stronger part, the ones who live in the reality of the Body of Christ. We are not satisfied until You gain Zion, the more elevated and strengthened part of Jerusalem today!
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This is very rich. We appreciate this sharing!
Yes, I enjoyed and appreciated this article. I heard Dr. Charles Stanley and others on tv, on radio, and from local pastors and teachers talk about a broken spirit. But no one ever fully explains what it exactly means to have a broken spirit. Thank you for allowing God to put it upon your heart and spirit to "break it down and make it plain" for individuals such as I to understand so I can get closer to what God would have me to become. Bless you and this online ministry. 🙂
Thank you for your kind comments. It's one thing to emphasize on "being broken by God", but it is so much better to see that this process of being broken is for God's building, for Zion, for God to gain what He desires! Nothing in our life happens by accident, and if we are open to the Lord communicating with Him in all this time, He can have a way to work Himself into us and obtain what He is after in us. He wants Zion, the overcomers, the reality of the Body of Christ – Lord, keep us open to You in all kinds of circumstances, until You produce us as Zion!
This is very rich. We appreciate this sharing!