“A Broken and Contrite Heart”
Read Psalm 51:15-19
Tears of penitence and gladness can flow from the same ducts. Contrition before God is not a fearful cowering of the kind we observe in an abused animal, but an honest openness that is confident of mercy. Penitence and praise are integrated in a single act of devotion.
PRAYER: “Broken, humbled to the dust by Thy wrath and judgment just, let my contrite heart rejoice and in gladness hear Thy voice; from my sins O hide Thy face, blot them out in boundless grace.” Amen. (“God, Be Merciful to Me,” The Psalter, 1912)
By Eugene Peterson, “A Year with the Psalms” p. 65