Speaking of texts that seem, at first blush, to downplay the importance of sacrifice in the Old Testament, Catholic theologian Dom Wulstan Mork wrote:
Individuality in the context of sacrifice is beautifully expressed in two psalms. First, in David’s psalm of repentance: “For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51:16-17). The meaning here is that a sacrifice which is not prompted by sincere interior dispositions is useless. But note the personal, individual dispositions which God demands! The following passage from Psalm 40 is applied by the author of Hebrews to Christ: “Sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire; but thou hast given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required. Then I said, ‘Lo, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart’” (Ps 40:6-8; Cf. Heb 10:5-7). The sacrifices of the people of God simply because they belong to that people, have no meaning apart from the fundamental union of the individual’s will with the will of God. The mentality carries right on down to Christ, who is the perfection of biblical man. (Dom Wulstan Mork, The Biblical Meaning of Man [Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1967], 11; emphasis in original)
