Let the Bones that You Have Broken Rejoice

A Meditation on Psalm 51:8

Nobody likes having a bone break. In my lifetime I have had two broken bones. The first was a high school football thumb injury in spring practice. The second was a bone in my foot that broke during an adult basketball game. (Perhaps you see a theme.)

Neither of these small bones that were broken caused me as much discomfort as did God breaking the metaphorical bones of my sinful body.

As part of my Bible reading schedule, I daily work my way through the Psalms one by one (except for Psalm 119 which requires several days). Recently I found myself at Psalm 51. I have several psalms that I love to read, but Psalm 51 seems to always produce both an eagerness and a little trepidation to read.

I am eager because of the wonderful description of God’s forgiveness of sin, even heinous sin. But it is also a reminder that like David I sinned according to the flesh in a manner that almost was the end of me.

As you probably know this song is what we call a penitential psalm. It is the account of David’s prayer after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and subsequently had her husband Uriah killed.

As I opened my Bible this week to Psalm 51, I joined David in crying out to God for mercy and cleansing, my mind and heart zeroed in on the theme of joy. To be honest in all my times of reading this psalm, joy has usually not been at the center of my thinking. Normally, I am smacked in the face with how sinful my sin has been.

Perhaps this time when I read, I was thinking of the preaching from this past Lord’s Day by my pastor Landon Dees. As our church focused on the meaning of joy this Advent season, the preaching from Isaiah 35 was hammered home.

Speaking of the wilderness, Isaiah begins this section,

The desert shall rejoice…

…and rejoice with joy and singing.

—Isaiah 35:1-2

Isaiah then ended this section speaking of those ransomed by the Lord with,

Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

—Isaiah 35:10

This morning I received an early text from my dear brother in the Lord, Scott Leger. He spoke of the intensity of his recent Bible studies and that he was finding great fulfillment and happiness in the text of Philippians 4. Here is the ending of that text,

I have been living on minimal sleep and coffee, around 4 hours at night. And still I went to bed happy. Said that to say to remember Paul’s words, Rejoice in the Lord always, I said rejoice.

Back to reading Psalm 51.

The 8th verse rang out in my mind and heart, as did the 12th verse.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

—Psalm 51:8

Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

—Psalm 51:12

In the midst of his guilt, David was crying out for joy. You see, that is what the gospel is all about. We who are sinful and broken can experience great joy or a joy unspeakable in the gospel. Christ died for sinners.

But don’t miss the truth embedded in Psalm 51:8. Our broken bones that need to be healed so that joy appears were broken by the Lord himself. Our faith is not some Willie Wonka life of gumdrops and lollipops. Our sin is ugly. And our bones are broken by our good shepherd. But with repentance and faith, the Lord mends those broken bones so that we have joyful use of the limbs that had been shattered.

Now don’t misunderstand. It is far better had we never sinned. Sometimes folks seem to relish in sinning because it helps them to minister to others. Yet our chief example was Jesus. He never sinned and he ministers to us just fine.

We are sinful and we have sinned. God may break our bones for a season (sometimes a long season) to drive us to repentance. When He restores us, we can finally rejoice.