Psalms For The Broken Spirit

When your heart feels weary and your spirit is broken, the book of Psalms offers comfort, hope, and honest prayers that draw you closer to God. Discover how Scripture, a little humor, and the faithful love of the Lord can restore joy to even the heaviest heart.

Transcript

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Welcome to Sela and Psalms, a place where you can pause, reflect, and find hope. And now, here is your host, award-winning author, Bible teacher, and evangelist Jane Morin.

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Hi friends. Today I want to speak to you about Psalms for the Broken Spirit. Have you ever had one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong? You burn your toast, you spill your coffee, the dog gives you a look that says, I'm disappointed in your life choices. Then you open your email and discover someone has replied with the dreaded words, pur my last email. By lunchtime, you're wondering if moving to a cabin in the woods with no Wi-Fi in a family of squirrels might be a reasonable life choice. We've all been there. Life has a way of bruising our spirits, and sometimes the wounds come from loss, sometimes from disappointment, sometimes from church hurt, sometimes from our own mistakes, and sometimes it's just Monday. Thankfully, God knew we would have days like these. That's one reason he gave us the book of Psalms, which is a collection of honest prayers from people who knew what it meant to have a broken spirit. One of the most comforting verses in scripture is in Psalms 34, 18, which reads, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. However, here's the beautiful part. It doesn't say God waits until you get your act together, nor does it say he only comes after you've smiled for three consecutive days. It simply implies He comes near. When your heart is fractured, God doesn't back away. He actually steps closer. This is the opposite of what the enemy wants you to believe. If anyone in Scripture understood what it meant to have a broken heart, it would be David. David wrote many of the Psalms, and if anyone had reason to feel overwhelmed, it was him. After all, he was hunted by King Saul, his own son betrayed him, his very friends turned against him, and David also experienced failure, grief, regret, and deep sorrow. Yet over and over David chose to bring his brokenness to God instead of hiding it. Listen to his prayer in Psalm 511. David says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David didn't pretend everything was fine, and neither should we. After all, faith isn't pretending you're okay. Faith is trusting God while you're healing. In those moments when our spirit feels crushed, Proverbs tells us something profound in Proverbs 1722, for it says a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. A broken spirit doesn't just affect emotions, it steals energy. In fact, it not only steals energy, it steals joy and it steals hope. We often try to patch up a weary spirit with busyness, distractions, or another cup of coffee. Those things may help us feel better for a little while, but they can't reach the deepest places of the soul. Only the Lord can breathe fresh life into a weary heart and restore what exhaustion has stolen. What I love about the Psalms is that they teach us to talk honestly with God. One of my favorite things about the Psalms is that nobody seems concerned about sounding overly spiritual. For instance, David cried, he questioned, he rejoiced, he even worshiped, and in some moments of his life, he did all of these in the same chapter. If social media had existed back then, David's followers might have been confused. For instance, his morning post says, God is my refuge. His afternoon post stated, everyone hates me. Yet his evening post proclaimed, Praise the Lord forever. Sound familiar? The beautiful thing is God never rebuked David for bringing him honest emotions. God can handle your questions. He's not intimidated by your tears or outburst of honest questions and emotional instability. In Psalm 42, David is encouraging his own spirit by saying, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. David actually talks to himself. Now don't be alarmed if you've ever talked to yourself. Sometimes the wisest sermon you'll hear all day is the one you preach to your own heart. David wasn't spiraling, he was reminding his soul of what was true. In the midst of this verse, we can detect great wisdom here. Instead of listening to despair, David preached truth to his own heart. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what God has already said, and that is that hope isn't a feeling, for we know that hope is a person. The Psalms ultimately point us to the Son of God who is Jesus. Isaiah prophesied that he would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Friend, Jesus understands rejection and he understands betrayal. Jesus also understands loneliness and suffering. With this knowledge in hand, we can further understand for ourselves that there is no broken place in your life that he cannot enter without compassion. Let me encourage you with this. Your story isn't finished. Perhaps today your spirit feels bruised. Maybe you've been carrying silent burdens that no one else sees. Take heart. The same God who comforted David is comforting his children today, for we know that God still restores. We can see that God still heals hearts and that God sings over his people. A day is coming when every tear will be wiped away forever. Until then, I encourage you to keep opening the Psalms. Read them slowly, pray them honestly, and let them remind you that even broken hearts can still sing. I'm reminded that at the funeral of my brother and my mother, that I was asked to sing. At the age of 15, my heart was indeed broken, but it was my hope to fulfill my mother's request that I would sing at her funeral. With God's help, singing always comes in the morning. Maybe today isn't the day to fix everything. Maybe today is simply the day to rest in the presence of the one who heals what no one else can. So take a moment to pause, to breathe, and read another psalm. When you do, you will witness the great shepherd carry what has become too heavy for you. You have never been beyond his watchful eye or his faithful care because Jesus is the good shepherd. Salah.