Bringing God Joy

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CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 51:16–17 NIV

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart,
    you, God, will not despise.

CONSIDER THIS

As we explore the theme of joy this Advent, we must go beyond our own experience of joy and ask an important question: What brings joy to God?

The psalm reveals that we, as human beings, can actually do something that pleases the God of the universe.

If we hadn’t just read these verses and I had asked you what you thought brings joy to God, many of us would likely have pointed to practices and spiritual disciplines. We might have said things like reading Scripture, praying, worship, loving our neighbor, giving to the poor, sharing the gospel, or other outward demonstrations of our faith.

While these are good and meaningful in our following Jesus, Psalm 51 names two things God delights in: “a broken spirit” and “a broken and contrite heart” (v. 17).

This isn’t an exhaustive list of the things God delights in, but it’s an important start to making one.

This is equal parts refreshing and jarring (depending on the day). In a world that celebrates achievement and getting it right all the time, this shocks our entire operating system and confronts many of our assumptions about God.

If many of us were honest, we’d say that it’s in brokenness and failure we feel God is actually least pleased with us. If we’re really, really honest, we’d acknowledge that this is the fruit of projecting the way we love onto the way God loves. But God does not rejoice in our self-sufficiency or our lack of need. What brings joy to His heart is far simpler and sometimes more difficult: honesty. He rejoices in our honest admission of how crushed we are and how desperately we need Him.

Much of the Christian journey involves unlearning the patterns of striving, earning, and performance. We are formed out of the ways of doing the right thing in an effort to earn approval or acceptance and formed into the freedom of dependence on God. Why? In brokenness and need is when the joy of salvation is realized.

Psalm 51 is the prayer David prayed after a significant major moral failure as a leader became public knowledge. We began with a small excerpt, but I want us to read the whole psalm together now, listening for what the Spirit might want to teach us about what it looks like to offer the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart to God:

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and
    blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Open my lips, Lord,
     and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would
    bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt
    offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

May it please you to prosper Zion,
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
    in burnt offerings offered whole;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

In arguably the greatest failure of his lifetime, David brought God delight. Not because of his sin, but because of his posture: one of brokenness and need. This is a tough pill for many of us to swallow, but it’s the essence of grace. Despite our biggest failures and mess-ups, and all the pain that we cause ourselves and those around us, God loves us and always invites us to turn to Him. He delights when we come to Him in this posture of need. And we find that we rediscover the joy of our salvation in the process.

David’s words in verse 19 highlight a third item to the list of what brings God joy: “the sacrifices of the righteous.” Acts of worship—prayers, songs, and disciplines—do bring God joy, but only when they flow from a heart that has been laid down, broken and needy, before Him. These acts are not in an effort to earn God’s love or approval, but come from a place of response to His love.

So what brings joy to God? It’s not our striving, achievements, or performance. It’s the honesty of a broken and contrite heart that acknowledges our need for Him. When we come to God in this posture, He doesn’t turn away; He delights in us. Then and only then, with hearts made right through His grace, do our acts of worship—our sacrifices, prayers, songs—truly bring Him pleasure.

RESPONSE PROMPTS

What brings God joy? Do you know of any other passages of Scripture that answer this question? Is there anything you need to confess to God today? Is there a sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart you can bring before Him?

PRAYER