The Works of God

I’m going to guess that this verse is familiar to you:

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

But the verse that immediately follows contains a surprising conclusion:

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.  Psalm 51:8

Bones God has broken should rejoice?  How is that helpful?

From Matthew Henry’s commentary:

Note, (1.) The pain of a heart truly broken for sin may well be compared to that of a broken bone; and it is the same Spirit who as a Spirit of bondage smites and wounds and as a Spirit of adoption heals and binds up.

(2.) The comfort and joy that arise from a sealed pardon to a penitent sinner are as refreshing as perfect ease from the most exquisite pain.

(3.) It is God’s work, not only to speak this joy and gladness, but to make us hear it and take the comfort of it.

Jesus himself said it was better for us to disable ourselves than have our sin send us to hell.  Anything that exposes the horror of sin and reveals the beauty and sufficiency of Jesus Christ, even God himself breaking bones, is an undeserved grace.