From the book "The Fingerprints of Providence"
by Pastor David M. Atkinson

Brokenness - by Pastor David M. Atkinson (Edited by DSB)

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth them out of them all" (Psalm 34:18-19).


"... both Dr. F.B. Meyer and his friend came down and came out to the station on the train and walked up to Moriah Church...While they were in the meeting Evan Roberts came in and the place was crammed up, and Evan rose now as if he was going to speak. But instead of speaking he broke down to cry, and he wept in the pulpit. So Dr. F.B. Meyer's friend gave him a poke and said, "I told you, that's just the Welsh people. "NO" said Dr. Meyer, "I have been in ministry for so many years and I knew there was something missing in my ministry and that man has it. That man has been broken by God and I have never submitted to that kind of breaking."

"The flowers smell sweetest after a shower; vines bear the better for bleeding; the walnut-tree is most fruitful when most beaten; saints spring and thrive most internally when they are most externally afflicted. Afflictions are the mother of virtue. Manasseh's chain was more profitable to him than his crown." 

Thomas Brooks.

"God is a jealous pruner,
For He knows–
Who, falsely tender, spares the knife
But spoils the rose." – Joyn Oxenham

"the difficulties of life are intended to make us better – not bitter.”As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst."
William Jenkyn

"If you have gained the wisdom to know how to lose your life, your service to God will be wrapped up in making winners out of losers.”

"Broken vessels reveal their contents." – James O. Phillips

"It is God's way to set people aside after their first start, that self-confidence may die down. Thus Moses was forty years on the back side of a desert. On his first start he had to run away. Paul was three years also, in a desert, after his first testimony. Not that God did not approve the first earnest testimony. We must get to know ourselves and that we have no strength. Thus we must learn, and then leaning on the Lord we can with more maturity, and more experientially, deal with souls." – John Darby

"There was no part of…holiness, that I had so great a sense of its loveliness, as…brokenness of heart and poverty of spirit; and there was nothing other that I so earnestly longed for."
– Jonathan Edwards

"In one respect at least a man is like a horse. He's not really of much practical use until he's broken...A wild horse out on the mesa may be thrilling to watch...but he never carries a rider or pulls a load. All his energy, strength, speed and beauty are WASTED ON HIMSELF...UNTIL HE IS BROKEN.

A man is that way too. He may be quite exciting and attractive when wild and untamed...but he doesn't pull a load! He needs to be BROKEN FOR HARNESS! He may hold great promise: purebred pedigree, intelligence, strength, drive...but until he is broken, all these qualities are squandered in self-service." – Richard Halverson

"Do you know the trouble with the average Christian? He is only broken on one side. He will do this, but he will not do that. He will go here, but he will not go there. He will sing in the choir – if he can sing the solos. He will work in the foreign field, but he refuses to work in the home field. He still wants his own way. God wants us to be broken – absolutely and unconditionally." – Oswald J. Smith

"It is doubtful whether God can greatly use a man until He has deeply hurt him."
A.W. Tozer

"Success and suffering are vitally and organically linked. If you succeed without suffering, it is because someone else has suffered before you; if you suffer without succeeding, it is that someone else may succeed after you." – Edward Judson

"It's the defeat more than anything else that hurts you! Defeat is always the hardest thing for you to stand, even in trifles. But don't you know that we have to be defeated in order to succeed? Most spend half our lives fighting for things that would only destroy us if we got them. A man who has never been defeated is usually a man who has been ruined."
J.L. Allen

THE FRAGRANCE
The scent of precious ointment – how it lingered
Long after all the guests had gone away;
And Mary's hands, how sweet where she had touched it,
The alabaster box she brought that day.

It filled the empty room with love's anointing,
Reached to the neighbors on the busy street
And ministered in many deeds of kindness
To friend and stranger whom she chanced to meet.

In every task she found the fragrance with her –
The pitcher that she carried bore the scent,
The coins exchanged for food within the market –
She took the blessing everywhere she went.

The box, UNBROKEN, could have kept its treasure
And pleased the fancy of a dinner guest;
But Mary broke the box, and IN THE BREAKING
Her Lord, and all the world beside were blest. – Rugh Gibbs Zwall


BROKENNESS – HOW IT IS BORN
Psalm 34:18-19
The word "broken" in the authorized version is the English translation of the Hebrew word "shaw-bar" which means "to burst, break up in pieces, crush or tear."

The word "contrite" is the English translation of the Hebrew word "dak-kaw" which means "to crumble, bruise, humble or smite."

The Christian's most difficult and delicate task is to be broken without being bitter. David said, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted" (Psalm 119:71).

The Bible teaches that no one is born with a contrite or humble spirit. Some come to possess the contrite spirit quicker than others. Some spend a whole lifetime and never come to possess a contrite spirit.

There is a process which leads to the contrite spirit. The process which leads to the contrite spirit is the breaking process.

That is why the broken heart and the contrite spirit are, by parallel grammatical construction, virtually equated in our text, Psalm 34:18. It is significant to note that the very same words appear in Psalm 51:17 with the adjectives and nouns interchanged. The "broken heart" of Psalm 34:18 is the "contrite heart" of Psalm 51:17. The "contrite spirit" of 34:18 is the "broken spirit" of 51:17. We must conclude, then, that the terms "broken heart" and "contrite spirit" are virtually synonymous.

There is a very simple reason for this. A broken heart is the necessary preparation for a humble, contrite spirit. The contrite spirit has had the back of self or "flesh' afflicted (Psalm 34:19a) or broken. The contrite spirit sorrows regarding self and self's sins (Psalm 119:67, 71, 75).

Thomas Watson said, "The vessels of mercy are first seasoned with affliction, and then the wine of glory is poured in. Thus we see afflictions are not prejudicial, but beneficial, to the saints."


THE CONTRITE (BROKEN) SPIRIT IS BORN
Psalm 119:75b
1. It is born of God.
The contrite spirit comes from God. Let us not make the mistake of ascribing the credit for brokenness to Satan. Satan is rather the father of hard rebellion. Who broke Jacob in Genesis 32:25? It certainly was not Satan. It was the Lord! Satan buffets us to make us hard. God permits the buffeting in order to break us and make us tender (Psalm 119:51)!

2. The contrite spirit is born – not in the heart of one who is out of fellowship with God – but rather, in the heart of one who is basically right with God and therefore despised and derided by those who are not. It is only the upstream, against-the-tide Christian who ever knows brokenness.

Job is an illustration of this truth (Job 1:8). So is Joseph (Genesis 37:6, 7, 9-11; 42:6). Joseph was right in the prophecies he made as a young man. He was "right" before God, but he was not broken before God. Brokenness is God's method of adding the dimension of grace to the law-keeper's life. Brokenness has grace for its lesson and mercy for its theme. Broken people become mercy-oriented people (Psalm 51:1).

3. The broken spirit is born in the heart of one who is "horrified", outraged by sin – especially the sin of those who "profess" to know God's law but actually "forsake" its principals. The contrite spirit is created in the heart of a person who breaks or grieves over double standards, hypocrisy, spiritual decay and erosion (Psalm 119:53, 104).

4. The contrite spirit is born when a believer continues to sing even when it seems that he is a "pilgrim" – alone and isolated (Psalm 119:54). The contrite spirit exists in the heart of a person who can honestly say, “This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through, My treasures are laid up Somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me From heaven's open door, And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.” – Albert E. Brumley, arr.

5. The contrite spirit is born in the heart of the believer who "remembers" or focuses upon the person ("name") of God in the blackest of nights (Psalm 119:55).

The "when I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" spirit always gives birth to the contrite spirit (Psalm 56:3).

Note carefully where one's focus should be – especially during the time of trouble or isolation. The focus should be on God – His Statutes, His customs, His decrees, His ordinances, His methods, His love, His past record, His trustworthiness, His sufficiency to be our all in all! The one going through troubles or loneliness will only deepen his own discouragement by focusing on himself.

6. The contrite or broken spirit is born by focusing and resting upon the Word of God when affliction comes.

7. The contrite spirit is created in the heart of one who is committed to principled, obedient living – one who lives according to the Word of God, not by the word of man (Psalm 119:56, 60, 61, 63, 72, 77, 78).

Young Joseph possessed a broken spirit. He determined to live by principle or precept regardless of the cost. He refused and rejected the advances of Potiphar's wife saying "Thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God" (Genesis 39:9).

8. The broken spirit is born in the heart of the believer who is "robbed" (Psalm 119:61).
One may be "robbed" of:
a. The esteem and good-will of others;
b. Reputation; for example, Joseph in prison;
c. Cherished relationships and friendships; for example, Joseph was "sold" away from everyone he loved.

God will often touch that which we hold dearest in order to break us.

Samuel Rutherford was the deeply sensitive and intense pastor of a church in Anworth in Great Britain during the time when free spirited men of God were "dissenting" against unscriptural practices of the high church. The high church officials became angry over the truths Rutherford preached-and they knew just how to hurt him. They banished him from his parish and people. They "robbed" Rutherford, and their robbery broke his spirit.

In 1637 in Aberdeen, Scotland, during the period of his forced exile from his beloved church in Anworth, Rutherford wrote the words: "He (God) knoweth all that is done to me, how that when I had but one joy and no more, and one green flower that I esteemed to be my garland, He came in one hour and dried up my flower at the root, and took away mine only eye and my only crown and garland."

The significant truth is this: Rutherford recognized the hand of God in the robbery of men. He recognized that God was allowing his spirit to be broken.

We have observed how the broken spirit is born. Now let us look at another aspect of The Broken Spirit.

One of the saintly Puritans of many generations ago prayed, "Lord, give me perpetual broken-heartedness." Now why would a man pray that kind of a prayer? Why would anyone open himself up to constant brokenness? I was talking over the counter with a business woman on one occasion. It seems that there is just no end to her family problems. As she stood there in the depths of lonely frustration, she exclaimed in exasperation, "Oh God, I am just so tired of hurting all the time!"

One thing is absolutely certain. It would take a man or woman totally yielded to the purpose of glorifying God to ask God for perpetual brokenness. It would take a person who has had an enlightening taste of what The Broken Spirit can accomplish. And this is what we are going to consider next.


BROKENNESS – WHAT IT DOES
1. The Broken Spirit makes a believer mercy-conscious (Psalm 119:64, 76; Luke 17:10).
It makes a Christian aware of God's great grace. The unbroken spirit is an ungrateful spirit – a spirit not conscious of mercy or grace. Willian Jenkyn, the Scottish covenanter said, "Such is grace that it shines… most glorious (appears most wonderful) when (the circumstances are ) most clouded."

He who sees the depravity of his heart and the gravity of his sin the most appreciates grace the most. See Luke 7:37-48 . . . [vs 47] “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Brokenness of spirit makes a Christian mercy – conscious. Brokenness of spirit makes a believer grateful for grace!

2. The contrite Spirit makes the believer teachable (Psalm 119:64, 66, 108 ("Teach me")).

Thomas Brooks said, "God's house of correction is His school of instruction."

Stephen Chamock said, "We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us." Hebrews 12:10 promises us that God “disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.”

3. The Broken Spirit gives the believer "good judgment" or good discernment regarding sin and the issues of life (Psalm 119:66, 80).

The Broken Spirit is wise because it does not work against wisdom by defending itself. The Broken Spirit is free to make good decisions because it is no longer married to subjectivity (judgment based on individual personal impressions, feelings, and opinions rather than external facts). The breaking process frees the spirit to look at life objectively – through the eyes of God.

4. The Contrite Spirit establishes right priorities and orders or organizes the life of a believer correctly. (Psalm 119:72, 103)

John Bunyan wrote the immortal Pilgrim's Progress. Remember that previously we saw that a person with a broken spirit feels like a pilgrim. Well, John Bunyan was a tinker (repairman) whose broken spirit longed for the celestial city. Bunyan, like Abraham, "looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10).

The earthly, or terrestrial, could not satisfy the priorities of the thirsty Bunyan. He once asked, "Do not even such things as are most bitter to the flesh, tend to awaken Christians…to a sight of the emptiness of this world, and the fadingness of the best it yields?"

Bunyan's broken or contrite spirit rightly established eternal priorities for him. Like the Psalmist, Bunyan could say, "The law of [God's] mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."
The Broken Spirit is able to make wise comparisons between the good, the better and the best, and between the short-term and the long-term. The person with a broken spirit has been weaned and no longer puts his roots down too deeply on earth or pins his expectations on temporal things or relationships. His priorities rise out of a value system which is based upon what is eternally better and what is eternally sweeter.

The Broken Spirit is able to say what an emaciated cancer patient in South Carolina whispered just a few weeks before he passed away. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

Show me a man's priorities, and I will tell you whether or not the spirit of self and the world has ever been broken in that man!

5. The Contrite Spirit sheds a previously unseen light upon the meaning of life (Psalm 119:105 . . . “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path”).


BROKENNESS – HOW GOD VIEWS IT
God views spiritual brokenness as the result of His own "well"-doing in man and man’s humble response to Him (Hebrews 12:3-13; Isaiah 66:1-2).

H.G. Spafford who lost all of his daughters in a shipwreck wrote: “Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say; It is well. It is well with my soul.”

In Genesis 50:20, Joseph spoke about how God views difficulty and brokenness saying, "you intended evil against me; but God meant it for good.."

God knows the selfishness of the human heart. God knows that spiritual brokenness is what the heart needs to rid it of its selfishness. He knows that "the only good heart is a broken heart" (Jeremiah 17:9). So, God searches our heart, tries it and purifies its motivations with brokenness (Jeremiah 17:10).

The broken, contrite heart is the only kind of heart that God does not despise (Psalm 51:17). Do not fight or buck the broken heart.

The story is told of a donkey who once fell down while crossing a river with a pack-load of salt. When the donkey fell down in the water, some of the salt dissolved, and his load was lighter. After that the donkey thought he had learned how to out-smart his master. He would deliberately fall down in the river hoping to lighten his load.

However, the donkey tried this trick on his master once too often. One day he deliberately fell down into the river with a load of wool upon his back. To his surprise, he discovered that his load was not lighter, but much heavier.

God sees spiritual brokenness as a good, healthy thing for us. Do not fight it or try to out-smart God – lest you be like the donkey. "It is doubtful whether God can greatly use a man until He has deeply hurt him." – A.W. Tozer


BROKENNESS – WHAT WE CAN DO WITHOUT IT
Nothing. Nothing worthwhile. Nothing of value to God.

The unbroken, proud spirit is despised by God (Proverbs 6:17). God actually hates the proud look. The self-reliant spirit can never please God (Psalm 51:19).

"Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God [God's hand is at work in your life as it was in Joseph's], that he may exalt you in due time" (I Peter 5:5,6).

Jesus said, "For without Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). The way to releasing Christ within us for the sake of working through us is the way of brokenness.


BROKENNESS – THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUPERFICIAL AND THE LASTING
In his book, A Pot of Oil, George D. Watson describes the difference between what he calls "thorough gentleness" and "mere mental or superficial gentleness." Much of what George Watson writes about gentleness can be applied to the subject of brokenness.

It (gentleness, or superficial brokenness) consists of mentally putting one's self on the altar, and then mentally saying that the altar sanctifies the gift. Concluding that one is therefore sanctified, such an one goes forth with a happy, flippant theological prattle about the deep things of God: but the natural heartstrings have not been snapped, and the Adamic flint has not been ground to powder, and the bosom has not throbbed with the lonely, surging sighs of Gethsemane, and the beautiful self-constructed air castles have been crushed to pieces….

"We must not only lie on the alter when we are sanctified, we must submit to the kind of dying that makes way for death to be carried out in the little hidden details of life. This involves a longer more drawn out process of dying than most think necessary. It involves a vast amount of quiet suffering, the silent bearing of a thousand pains, and the speechless enduring of secret crosses, told only to God though private midnight tears. But if we want to be filled with a (gentle or broken) spirit we must be filled with death to self…there is a vast and tedious stretch of weary and painful progress in having the mind of Jesus…"

Now how is Watson describing the difference between that brokenness which is genuine and lasting and that "brokenness" which is only superficial?

He is saying that the hurt which is only a temporary bruising will soon be seen to be only a brief blip on the cardiogram of a generally unaltered attitude and lifestyle.

The tenderness which is the result of the bruising does not last. The life-changing effect of the bruise does not last.

The limp of the genuinely broken Jacob follows him for the rest of his life! So will God’s breaking follow you – if you will be broken.

Like a bird that trails a broken wing,
I have come home to Thee;
Home from a flight and freedom
That was never meant for me.
And I, who have known far spaces,
And the fierce heat of the sun,
Ask only the shelter of Thy wings,
Now that I’ve been undone. – Pastor David M. Atkinson