Brokenness Of Spirit

by Jarvie, G. | Category: General | Nov 1954

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51.17).

David had sinned, and what sin it was! He was guilty of murder and adultery. For some time he tried to hide it, and it seemed as if it might never come to light. But the LORD laid it bare in all its blackness, and before Nathan the prophet David stood a convicted sinner. His repentance was real and the LORD'S mercy was granted to him. But the effect of his sin remained, and from among his own sons, some became murderers and adulterers. The iniquity of the father came down to the children. Sin has an entail, and how dreadful it can be!

But out of that sad experience of David's life has come, for our sake, Psalm 51, the psalm of the broken in spirit. What an eloquent plea David makes in this psalm, not only for mercy, but for cleansing from the awful effect which his sin had upon him! His mind and his heart had been defiled and his joy had vanished. Sin comes from the inwards, and cleansing must be. as deep as the sin. So David pleads for " a clean heart" and " a right spirit."

What sacrifice can he bring to God that a clean heart and a right spirit may be granted to him. Shall he bring a sin-offering according to the law? Will God accept the confession of his lips? Will much prayer suffice to cleanse his mind and his heart? Oh no! The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. It is this that God looks for in the sinner.

We may not be guilty of the terrible twin-sins of David, but we are none of us guiltless of all sin. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1.8). Unclean thoughts are sin. Pride in the heart is sin. A secret grudge against another is sin. These things are not always seen outwardly, but they defile the heart. If we yield to them, the joy and power of the Holy Spirit will leave us. Even though we continue in fellowship with the disciples, our lives will be fruitless because we are out of touch with Christ.

Then there is the failure to love the Lord as we ought to love Him, and to love the disciples as we ought to love them. The failure to yield our lives to Him who gave His life for us, this also is sin. There is the sin of selfishness, and of keeping back what we ought to give to the Lord, and the sin of carelessness in God's service. We may sin in failure to witness about Christ to those who are perishing. The failure to pray without ceasing is sin. We are commanded concerning all these, and to fail is sin.

David, the man after God's heart, was a man of a contrite spirit. Earlier in his life he had written

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,

And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34. 18).

God knows our hearts, but we don't! He knows our pride and blindness. We can see outward sin and failure, but the Lord tries the hearts. We need Him to search us and to try our thoughts. We need these revealed to us, and only the broken and contrite spirit will accept this searching. Let us quote again from David, the man of God

"Search me, 0 God, and know my heart:

Try me, and know my thoughts:

And see if there be any way of wickedness in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139.28, 24).

We read about the saints in the church in Laodicea, that they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. What a condition! But they did not know it! They thought they were rich and in need of nothing. Their thoughts were not God's thoughts. They were lukewarm because they were proud. They lacked the broken spirit, and they never listened for the Master's voice. So He stood at the door and knocked, saying, "If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to Him, and will sup with him, and He with Me." But only the contrite and humble spirit can hear that Voice, and enjoy that fellowship.

Jarvie, G. | Nov 1954
General