Five-minute study · Day 295 · Psalms 51
Psalm 51:17
A word worth stopping on: broken שָׁבַר shavar
'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' The word translated 'broken' is shavar. To break, to shatter, to smash into pieces. The same shavar appears in Psalm 147:3: 'He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.' One psalm says God heals the shavar. Another psalm says God requires it. The two claims sit side by side in the same hymnal, and both are true. What God repairs in Psalm 147, he asks for in Psalm 51. David wrote Psalm 51 after Nathan confronted him about Bathsheba and Uriah. The superscription is explicit. David had taken another man's wife and arranged for that man's death. When he finally opened his mouth to God, what he offered was not an animal on the altar. It was the shavar itself.
Word study: broken
- Hebrew
- שָׁבַר
- Pronounced
- shavar
- Strong's
- H7665
- Definition
- To break, to break in pieces, to shatter, to smash, to crush. Used for breaking physical objects (vessels, bones, idols, gates) and metaphorically for breaking the spirit, the heart, or a person's strength.
Shavar appears 148 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB provides a broad semantic range: to break, break in pieces, break down, shatter, crush. The word is used for breaking pottery (Jeremiah 19:10-11, Jeremiah shattering a clay jar as a prophetic sign), breaking bones (Exodus 12:46, the Passover lamb's bones must not be shavar), breaking idols (2 Chronicles 34:4, Josiah destroying the altars of the Baals), breaking gates (Psalm 107:16, God breaking gates of bronze), and breaking ships (Ezekiel 27:26, the east wind shattering the ships of Tyre).
Goldingay's commentary on Psalms 42-89 (Psalm 51 falls in Book II of the Psalter) examines the use of shavar in verse 17. The psalm's superscription places it after Nathan's confrontation with David (2 Samuel 12:1-15). David's sin was double: adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite. Nathan's parable of the rich man stealing the poor man's lamb provoked David's outrage before Nathan delivered the verdict: 'Thou art the man' (2 Samuel 12:7). Psalm 51 is David's response.
Goldingay notes that verse 17 comes after David has stated what God does not want: 'For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering' (51:16). The statement is bold. The sacrificial system was operating in Jerusalem. David, as king, participated in it regularly. And here he says: that is not what God is after. The next verse provides what God does want: a shavar spirit, a shavar and dakka (contrite, crushed) heart. Goldingay observes that shavar carries the violence of its literal usage into the metaphorical realm. A shavar heart is a heart that has been smashed like pottery, crushed like bone, shattered like a gate hit by a battering ram. The image is not gentle. David is not describing sadness or remorse. He is describing destruction, the total structural failure of the self-protective apparatus that kept him from seeing his own sin.
The connection to Psalm 147:3 ('He healeth the broken [shavar] in heart') creates a theological circuit. God heals what he requires. The shavar that God asks for in Psalm 51 is the shavar that God repairs in Psalm 147. Goldingay treats this as characteristic of the Psalter's overall theology: God is both the surgeon and the physician, both the one who insists on the wound and the one who closes it.
Historical context · David's reign from Hebron and Jerusalem approximately 1010-970 BCE; the adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11); Nathan's confrontation (2 Samuel 12:1-15); the composition of Psalm 51 in the aftermath
David, Nathan, and the Sacrifice God Actually Wanted
The events behind Psalm 51 are recorded in 2 Samuel 11-12. David remained in Jerusalem while his army besieged Rabbah (the Ammonite capital, modern Amman, Jordan). From his rooftop he saw Bathsheba bathing. He sent for her. She conceived. To cover the pregnancy, David recalled Uriah from the front lines and tried to get him to go home to his wife. Uriah refused, sleeping at the palace gate with the servants, unwilling to enjoy domestic comfort while his comrades were in the field (2 Samuel 11:11). David then sent Uriah back to the front with sealed orders to Joab: 'Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die' (11:15). Uriah carried his own death warrant.
Nathan came to David with a parable about a rich man who took a poor man's only lamb. David, furious, declared the rich man worthy of death. Nathan's response, two words in Hebrew: 'attah ha'ish.' You are the man. The consequences Nathan pronounced were severe: the sword would never depart from David's house, his wives would be taken publicly, and the child conceived with Bathsheba would die (2 Samuel 12:10-14). David's response was immediate: 'I have sinned against the LORD' (12:13).
Goldingay places Psalm 51 in this aftermath. The sacrificial system in David's Jerusalem included burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sin offerings. The sin offering (chattat) prescribed in Leviticus 4-5 required specific animals for specific offenses. For a king, the requirement was a young bull (Leviticus 4:3). David knew the system. He had resources to bring any sacrifice the law required. Psalm 51:16-17 bypasses the system: God does not desire sacrifice. God desires the shavar heart. Goldingay is careful to note that this does not abolish the sacrificial system (verse 19 says 'then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,' suggesting the external sacrifices have their place once the heart condition is met). The point is priority. The shavar comes first. The altar comes after. The internal destruction precedes the external ritual.
Archaeological evidence from the City of David excavations (begun by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and continued by Eilat Mazar and others) has revealed the Jerusalem David would have known: a modest hilltop settlement above the Gihon Spring, with a large stone structure that some identify as David's palace. The rooftop of such a structure would have overlooked the lower terraces where residential houses, including Uriah's, were located.
For reflection
Shavar. Shattered. Smashed like a clay jar, crushed like bone under a wheel. David offered it to God after Nathan said four words: 'You are the man.' Goldingay notes that David, the king, had access to every sacrifice the system prescribed. Young bulls, rams, the finest grain. And he said: that is not what you want. What you want is the shavar. The demolished interior. The self-protective machinery in pieces on the floor. Psalm 147:3 uses the same word: God heals the shavar in heart. The word that describes what God requires is the word that describes what God repairs. You do not bring a polished heart to Psalm 51. You bring the wreckage. And Psalm 147 says the wreckage is exactly where the healing begins. Where in your life have you been bringing the polished version when God is asking for the shavar?
Shavar: to break, shatter, smash, crush. BDB: 148 occurrences, covering pottery, bones, idols, gates, and hearts. Goldingay connects Psalm 51:17 (God requires the shavar) to Psalm 147:3 (God heals the shavar). The superscription ties the psalm to Nathan's confrontation with David.
Sources: BDB; Goldingay, 'Psalms 42-89'