A Broken and Contrite Heart — Keith Malcomson

Here this morning, I want you to turn with me to Psalm 34, Psalm 34, and we're continuing. I started last week with the dangers of a hard heart. I believe a very important message, the dangers of a hard heart.

That was an introduction to what we're dealing with on these Sunday mornings. And I want to convey to you over a few Sunday mornings, a heart for God. That's our mini-series, A Heart for God. What does a heart for God look like?

What does it mean to have a heart for God? What sort of heart is God looking for? I'm not saying what the church looks for, what you look for, what I look for. I'm not saying that. What does God actually look for?

The Inward Heart God Desires

And the heart isn't the outward, the heart is the inward man of the heart. Your thoughts, your desires, the intents, the decisions, who you are. That's your heart. Who you are is your heart. And either that heart will repel God, make God draw back, or that heart will draw God.

And so this morning, I want to continue with this, A Heart for God, in part two. We're living in a very interesting hour. We see Russia at the center of world news. We see China just yesterday making known to the global governments, don't you interfere with us in our dealings with Taiwan, giving a warning.

We see Iran almost hitting an American base in Iraq over the past day or two. And so you see all of these things and much, much more on the world scene. Do you know the only safe place is to be walking with God in this hour?

The only safe place is to be in God. This whole world is going to start falling apart. The Bible reveals what's going to happen in the years ahead. And I assure you, you are on very dangerous ground, unless you're walking close with the Lord.

In the days ahead, either you're going to be forced to run there, or you're going to be found in a very dangerous place. My message this morning, as we embark on the heart that God is looking for, a broken and a contrite heart, read them from Psalm 34 and verse one.

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. They looked on to him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

And the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him.

The young lambs do lack and suffer hunger. But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good?

Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good and seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry.

The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all of their troubles. 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 him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servant and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. Let's pray together here this morning. Father, I do thank you that we have the authority of your word. In an hour that's chaotic, in an hour that is dangerous, in an hour when we are hearing of wars and rumours of wars, when we're seeing nations be set into their position, into their place for the fulfilling of Bible prophecy that was given thousands of years ago, we stand in awe and Lord God we make our stand on the written scriptures.

I pray this morning, Lord God grant us to be of a broken and a contrite heart. It's this heart that you look for. It is this heart that you will not despise. It is this heart that you'll manifest your presence to.

And Lord God, we want to cultivate a broken heart in this church. We want to cultivate, we want to seek after, we want to nurture within our own spiritual life a contrite spirit. Lord God, I'm asking for your grace upon us this morning.

Lord God, anoint your word, let the power of God come. Lord God, use your word as a hammer. Lord God, break these hard stones of our hearts. Now Lord God, we pray for the grace, the mercy, the love, the kindness, the goodness of God to woo us, to draw us, to soften us.

My God, to make us to run after you in this hour. Lord God, will you circumcise our heart. And Lord God, as we come to your word, we humble ourself, we bow ourself at your footstool, at your feet. That your name might be glorified.

Come and sanctify our hearts in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. It says here in Psalm 34 in verse 18, The Lord is nigh or near unto them that are of a broken heart. And he save us such as be of a contrite heart.

Notice just before this in verse 15, it says the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. We know the Lord sees everyone. We know the Lord continually all the times knows everybody, sees everybody and knows everybody's heart.

Everybody. And yet the Bible is very specific. It says his eyes are upon the righteous. He looks at the righteous in a way he doesn't look at any sin. He ignores sinners. He ignores the hypocrite. He ignores the wicked.

He ignores the pride. But the righteous, what does it say? The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. There's a certain kind of heart that you can have that makes you righteous. In fact, in these verses, we see that a broken heart and a contrite spirit is the mark of a righteous man or woman.

This marks them out from everybody else. In the church, in the world, in religion. The righteous have a certain kind of heart and that heart God looks at. The eyes of the Lord actually looks upon that heart.

And this is my message this morning. I believe we need a broken heart, a contrite spirit. This is to be the mark of this church. This is to be the mark of your life. In fact, I believe this is such an extraordinary thing.

I think there's rarely anything else that carries as many promises, as many blessings, as many benefits as having a heart like this. I want to show you over these weeks what sort of heart brings the blessings down upon your head.

I mean, they get poured out. Do you realize God makes hundreds and thousands of promises to individuals who have a certain kind of heart? I mean, He can't lie. He cannot break His word. He said, if I see or if I can find such a heart, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this.

Now, my eyes are upon you. Do you want God's eyes to be upon you this morning? Then I want to exhort you. You need to be of a broken heart if you want God's eyes to be upon you. If you want to draw God's attention to you this morning, you ought to be of a broken heart.

And further than that, a contrite spirit. There is something about a broken heart and a contrite spirit that draws God. What does He say here? The Lord is nigh or near unto those who have this heart. You can't keep Him away.

Do you hear me? If you get a church that has this heart, you can't keep Him away. You can't chase Him away. Have you ever had one of those people you can't get rid of them? Maybe you haven't. You try to outrun them.

You try to pretend you're not there. You hide behind your curtain, but they are going to come to your door. I can tell Karen knows someone like that. She smiles. There are certain people that you try to avoid them.

They'll chase you down the street. Can I assure you a broken heart has the guarantee, the sovereign divine guarantee, God is near you. He's at your shoulder. He's beside you. His eyes are upon you. Do you want God to follow you?

Do you want God to walk with you? Do you want His presence to manifest around you? Then you need a broken and a contrite heart. And I want to tell you, it's very rare in my lifetime that I can meet someone and I say they're of a broken heart.

Very rare. Two things here before I go into this. Broken, contrite, what's the difference? Is it the same? Is it different? Is it a continuation? Let me define here at the beginning of this message what a broken heart means and what a contrite spirit means.

The word broken that's used here means to break into small pieces, into separate distinct pieces. It means to shatter, to be fragmented within your heart. It means to rend your heart or to separate your heart.

This word broken is used 148 times in the Bible, in the Old Testament. So we understand what it means. The first time that it is used, it's talking about the Sodomites trying to break in the door of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah.

They wanted to break in that door. They wanted to shatter that door. They wanted to open that door. You see, if a door is closed, you can't get in. And an unbroken heart, you can't get into. God actually can't move into that life when the heart isn't broken.

You know what? You have it all together. You are shutting out the presence of God. That's what an unbroken heart is like. You see, we're trying to keep ourselves together. We're trying to have everything in order.

And yet God won't say broken heart. I mean, it's shattered. It's in bits so that he can move in. If he can find a broken heart, then he will be nigh you. He will come in in power. You know that the word broke or to break is used of a horse.

I had a friend, I think I mentioned him a few weeks ago down in Corpus Christi in Texas, tried to get me. He had this young black horse. I'm not an expert on horses by any means, but I knew enough. He tried out and said, brother Keith, we want you to get on our horse this time.

I said, I ain't getting on any horse. That horse isn't broken. And he would laugh at me. And we used to banter a bit. And he said, if I can just get you on that horse. I said, you couldn't pay me enough money to get on that horse.

You know why it wasn't a broken horse? Do you know what to be broken means with a horse? That you submit to the rider. That you have gone through a process of breaking. You see, before that breaking, you go, you're not gonna ride on my back.

You're not gonna tether me. You're not gonna steer me where you wanna go. I'm a free spirit. I do whatsoever I desire. That's an unbroken horse. But a broken horse, someone has mastered that horse. Someone has managed to break that horse.

You're not trying to destroy the horse. You're not trying to do that. You're not trying to merely buy, you don't wanna do that. But you wanna tame that horse that it's usable. And if that horse is broken, it's safe for Keith Malcolmson to get on its back.

Not every person is broken. Not every person is broken by God. And yet, if you do not have a broken heart, you're gonna miss out on much that God promises. What about the second word, contrite? What does that mean?

That is an extension of brokenness. When you're broken, you're in bits. You've got different parts of you. You would say, wow, that's a real place with God. No, there's more. To be contrite is more than that.

The word contrite means to be crushed to powder. When the broken bits, you're gonna go further now. You see a broken vessel, you can put it back together again. You've got the different bits, they fit back together.

You could repair that. You could try to put yourself back together again. But if you're contrite, that means to be crushed. You take the separate bits and you crush it into powder. Now try to put the vessel back together.

It means to be beaten down into dust or powder. This word contrite is used five times in the Old Testament in four different verses. And we will look at them, or at least some of them. We're told in Jeremiah chapter four and three.

And this Jeremiah speaking, he says, for thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns. He's speaking about their heart condition. He's speaking to people in Judah and Jerusalem in the church.

You would say they don't need to be told that. Yes, you do. You need to be told, break up your fallow ground. Do you know what fallow ground is? It is ground. You know, a farmer, he's got fallow ground.

It's a bit of ground that's been ploughed up lots of times in the past, but not recently. There was a day that ground was ploughed up and ploughed up and it was good ground and a harvest grew. But fallow ground means you've left it one year, two years, three years, four years, 10 years, 30 years.

I once preached in a church in another country and an old Norwegian brother come knelt in the altar and he said, it's been years for my knelt in an altar like that. Break up the fallow ground. Jeremiah says, it is no time.

You and the church need to break up your fallow ground. He's talking about their heart. Your heart is very hard. That's why you need a broken heart. We dealt with the hard heart last week. You need to break it up.

What have you done with your heart the past week? We preached on the hard heart. What have you done with that heart this week? Did you just say, well, God, I hope you do something. You're looking in the wrong direction.

God says, break up your fallow ground. And it says, and so not amongst thorns. You've got all these thorns growing. You haven't even plowed up the ground. All these thorns, bad attitudes, bad habits are growing up and you're trying to sow good seed.

Why does my daily reading not have any effect on my life? Why does sitting in church on a Sunday morning and a Wednesday night, it doesn't seem to affect me. It affects others, but not me. Is there something different?

You know what? You're sowing amidst thorns. You never broke up the ground. You never disturbed those thorns. All you're doing is throwing very good seed in amongst the thorns and your ground, your heart is hard and all of these weeds are growing up.

You know, when you break up that fallow ground, you're disturbing all the bad growth there. When you break up your heart, it says also in Hosea 10 and 12, sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and reign righteousness upon you.

Again, Jeremiah chapter 23, 29. Listen, he's given explanations about the word of God, spiritual pictures to describe the preaching of God's word. Listen how he describes it. He says, is not my word, this is God speaking.

Is not my word like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Do you know God's word is meant to be like a hammer at times that breaks the hard rock of your heart. It's meant to be like that, like a hammer.

God make his word a hammer again in the church. I've got three points for you this morning and I'm just laying in. This is where we're going from. A broken and a contrite heart, broken in bits then crushed into dust.

It's an extension. Not everyone makes this journey. Not everyone wants to make this journey and yet God is nigh unto such, his eyes are upon such, his presence is drawn to such and we're gonna see some of the blessings of this.

A Broken Heart Is Not Always Good

But number one, mark this very carefully before I go into this further. I've got to give you this first point. A broken heart is not always good. I've just told you it's essential, it's vital, it's important.

I've told you you've got to cultivate it, a broken heart. But before we go there, you've got to have it settled. A broken heart is not always good. There's a certain kind of broken heart you do not want.

It will not benefit you. It is not nice. You're not to pursue it and in fact, if you have this kind of broken heart, believe me, you want to get out of it as quick as you can. There's a certain kind of broken heart you want to ask God to heal this morning.

It says in Proverbs 15 verse 13, a merry heart or a happy heart maketh a cheerful countenance face. But by sorrow of the heart, someone who has a lot of sorrow, the spirit is broken. That's a broken, you don't want that broken heart.

Sorrow, sadness around you can break your heart. This is not the heart you want. This is not the heart you cultivate as a spiritual lifestyle. It says also, you know, one of my teachers in primary school and you children, you listen carefully.

I had a teacher at primary school, in fact, several. And you know what they used to say? And maybe some of you's heard it. Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt me. You know, when I was seven and eight, I had a terrible time at primary school.

It was awful. I hated primary school. They didn't mess with me at high school when I got into high school. Not a one of them. But in primary school, I got bullied, tormented, names called. And I'd hear the teacher, sticks and stones will break my bones.

I said, how can teachers be so stupid? They're so intelligent and they know all this information and they don't know that names hurt. You can have your heart broken, I can assure you. It says in Proverbs 17, 22, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth up the bones.

A broken heart, a broken spirit can literally affect your physical body. Your heart could be so broken, it could start affecting your entire physical body. It says in Proverbs 18, 14, the spirit of a man will sustain him in his infirmity or his troubles, but a wounded spirit, who can bear?

You know, if your spirit is wounded, if your heart is broken, you can't walk through any trial. You just faint at the beginning. But if you have a heart that is free from that, you can face any trial.

It says in Psalm 69, verse 20, reproach has broken my heart. And I am full of heaviness and I look for some to take pity upon me, but there was none. And I look for comforters, but I found none. His heart was broken.

This is real believers walking with God and their heart was broken. This isn't the heart I'm talking about being broken. The other is commanded, this isn't. When you get it, you begin to pray and say, oh God, help me.

God, get me out of this. God, don't leave me with a broken heart where I am depressed and I am discouraged and I don't have the courage to stand for another day. I go, what am I gonna do? That's a broken heart.

And friends, a broken heart is not always good. You must settle that. It says in Psalm 109, 22, for I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me. You ever had your heart wounded? Have you ever hurt bad because of circumstance or people or situations where your heart was so wounded, you were hurting so bad inwardly, nobody else may have seen it or understood it or been able to help you.

Your heart was so wounded. You go, I can't survive this. I'm finished. A wounded spirit's real. It's not a good thing. God wants to work in the midst of it. It says in Psalm 147, he healeth the broken in heart.

You see, there's a certain kind of broken heart he wants to heal. He wants to rectify. He's not saying, I want you to be broken hearted. I am drawn towards being broken hearted. There is a type of heart he says, I want to heal your broken heart.

Are any of you's broken hearted here this morning? Any is online broken hearted this morning? Are any of you so faint and you go, I can't even handle life anymore? That's a broken heart. Who can bear it?

But what the Bible says is, God heals the broken hearted and he binds up their wounds. Like a doctor, like a nurse, do you know that God can come to you and he can fix your heart? Do you know that? Maybe you're here and you go, there's things in my heart.

I feel I'm so broken. I can never be right again. I am in bets. I am broken in a bad way. I can't even be normal. I don't even know how I'll put myself back together. You know what God says? I can bind up your wounds.

No man can, no preacher, no church, but God can if you cry onto him, he can heal your wounds. Isaiah 61 verse one. Remember it's a prophecy about the Messiah when he comes. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted.

You remember Jesus read this in Luke chapter 4, 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. That's usually where we stop. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted.

Do you know it's a part of the gospel? Not only to preach, repent. Do you know we're commissioned to preach Jesus Christ will heal your broken heart. There's a lot of broken hearts in this city. There's a lot of broken families in this city.

There's a lot of broken marriages in this city. There's a lot of broken children in this city. Do you know what part of the gospel is? That Christ was anointed to heal such broken hearts. He has come.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Have you felt like you're in a prison? I can't get free. I feel tormented in my mind. My heart is a mess. Oh, if only you knew what went on with me when I'm alone.

Jesus come to preach deliverance for the captives. A setting free and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised. Have you been bruised emotionally in your mind, in your heart, in your circumstance?

Are you bruised? Do you feel like you've been beaten up and left at the roadside? I know someone who can heal you. I know that. And you know what? I'm not talking about inner healing ministry. I'm not talking about healing of memories.

I'm not talking about breaking curses or breaking soul ties. All that is heresy. It's not the gospel. Deliverance of Christians from demons, all of that is heresy. It's not a biblical teaching. But Jesus has a mighty ministry to heal your broken heart.

And that's why I said I wanted to explain this because I'm giving you a message on, you must have a broken heart, but not this sort of broken heart. You don't want this. Jesus will heal this broken heart.

Jesus will deliver you. He'll bind you up. He'll help you. He cares about you. You know God understands if you've got a broken heart where you're fainting and you can't manage. He understands and He cares and He loves you and He knows and He's here to touch you.

Here in this meeting, in Japan, there's a thing called, my Japanese isn't very good, okay? So it's called Kintsuji. Kintsuji, do any of you know Kintsuji? Kintsuji is an art form that was created several hundred years ago.

It's a Japanese art of mending broken vessels. It's a very ancient tradition and it started with a shogun. He was the top general of Japan over its entire military force against all of their enemies. He was like a tyrant.

Well, one day he broke his tea bowl. He was a tea drinker like me. Tea drinkers get these problems. One day he broke his bowl. It was his favorite cup. He enjoyed drinking tea only from that cup. I identify with him.

Candice, not that cup. That's my favorite. Not that one. I've had about seven go that way in the past year. I understand the shogun. And so he spent a lot of money sending this broken vessel all the way to China to get specially mended.

When I come back, they hadn't done a good job. All that money, all that distance, all that time and the vessel come back and it was strapped together with bits of metal stapled together. It didn't look good, didn't look beautiful.

He was very disappointed. And so he commissioned his people. You've got to do a better job than this. And so they created this art of Kintsugi. How to fix a broken vessel and put it back together and make it beautiful again.

They take something called lacquer and the word lacquer comes, here's what it means. You may not know this. Lacquer means a hundred thousand. Why does it mean a hundred thousand? Because the lacquer is made from a hundred thousand little tiny insects.

And when they're killed, scarlet secretion comes out of it. And that is used for actually mending these vessels. So this new art for fixing broken vessels was created. And what they done with this red secretion, they added gold dust to it or some other precious metal.

And so you had this liquid gold that mended all of the cracks in that broken vessel. And the broken vessel got put back together. And when you looked at it, it had lines of gold going all through it. This is called golden joinery or golden repair.

And you know what the Japanese in this art, you know what their philosophy was? There was no attempt to hide the damage. There was no attempt to repair or to hide it in a way that you couldn't see what had happened in that life.

In fact, the repair, putting gold in there, fixing it, heightened the awareness that this is a broken vessel that has been fixed at great expense. No money was held back. And in fact, it looked more beautiful than it was before it got broken.

And in fact, it was more valuable than before it was broken. And yet it's got the marks of brokenness. But look, the care of the master in fixing it and not sparing any expense has now restored a broken vessel.

And it is broken. It was broken. It's got the marks of being broken. And yet it is absolutely stunning. And it is beautiful. You know what God has done with lice in this room? I assure you, we have the marks of brokenness from that world broke my heart.

And you know, I can look around this room and I know testimonies in this room. Your heart was broken and you were thrown on the heap. And yet the master shogun come and says, I want my teacup back again.

Brokenness in Times of Trouble

And so that's the first point. A broken heart is not always good. And so the Lord fixes it again. Number two, when to have a broken heart. And I just want to give you two points here. When should you have a broken heart?

And there's many times, but I only want to give you two and give you the scripture. The first time is when you're facing trouble. Here in Psalm 34, where we are. Look what it says. I'm not sure what it says at the top of yours in your Bible, but mine says, a Psalm of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed.

Do you know what this Psalm was written in commemorating? It wasn't written at the time, it was written after. When David thought back to that incident and that time he wrote this Psalm. He wrote about a broken and a contrite heart.

This entire Psalm with this at the heart of it, talking about the heart that God will not despise and the heart that God is near. It was written at this time. When was it written? It was written when David is fleeing from Saul.

He has to leave his own country, his own people, his own family. And he flees over into the land of the Philistines to Gath. And you remember the story. It is actually in 1 Samuel chapter 21. You remember when he goes to the king of Gath and he's there surrounded by Philistines.

And you remember he is hiding from being chased by Saul. And when he's there, the generals of the king begin saying, that's David. He killed his thousands. He killed Philistines. He's an Israelite. He's one of them.

And they start saying, let's kill him. David's in trouble. I mean, he's surrounded by trouble. They're gonna kill him. He's gonna have to think fast. Remember what he done? He fell down on the ground and start frothing at the mouth.

And what would you have done? And he started rolling on the ground. He wasn't being a fool. He wasn't scared. He's just being wise. He's going, I am in serious. I am in the camp of my enemies. I am surrounded by my enemies.

I'm a young guy amidst all these brutish Philistines uncircumcised. And they're now talking about killing me. And he pretends to be mad and froths at the mouth and rolls about in the dust. And you know what they say?

They say, this man's mad. He's crazy. There's something wrong. I mean, who would do this? So they let him go. Don't worry about him. Just leave him. After this, right after this, in the next chapter, the first verse, we read that David goes to a dullum.

And he starts gathering the despised, the rejected, those that have no money, starts gathering them. And his family come to him. And you know what? That's a time when Saul is trying to hunt him with 3 ,000 soldiers and they kill him.

What a terrible time in his life. That's in the light of this. I believe it was written in the cave of Dullum, this Psalm 34. I believe it was after the events. And he's there. And he's thinking back to that day.

Boy, how did I escape? Do you know how you escaped that, David? The Lord is nigh unto him of a broken heart. David was a young man with a broken heart. I mean, a broken heart. It wasn't his frothing at the mouth got him out of that.

It was the Lord being nigh unto him. He had a heart within him. I am broken. You see, I know Christians will try to mimic David. I'm going to act like I'm a madman. And the Philistines devour them. You should have had a broken heart.

That's what you actually needed. It says in verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ear open to their cry. Verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. This word nigh, listen to what it means.

It means to be near at your very hand. But it means more than that. If you've got a broken heart, God is nigh unto you. But it means more. It means to be allied with God, joined in intimate fellowship and relationship with God.

It means that God is your kin or God becomes your family. If you've got a broken heart, God is your family. He's going to be joined to you. You won't be able to get rid of him. He's going to be by your side.

He's going to be there in the midst of trouble. When are you to have a broken heart? In the midst of trouble, walk through your troubles, your trials, your suffering, the opposition of the enemy, whatever you're going through.

I'll tell you the key of it. Have a broken heart. You want to bring God into that situation. You're praying, you're begging. You're saying, oh God, I can't manage this. Do something. If you have a broken heart, if you allow your heart to be broken, broken.

Lord, do anything with me. Do you realize God is near you, at your side, in that situation? You say a broken heart. A broken heart can think God's far away. When your heart's broken, contrite, when you're on the ground, you think God isn't there.

I can't see him. I can't feel him. I can't hear him. Do you have a broken heart before God? Is your heart broken, rent before him? I'm telling you, God's right in the midst of that situation. He is right there.

In verse 16 and 17, the cry of the righteous, God heareth and delivereth. There are advantages to having a broken heart and a spirit that is contrite. I am dust, my spirit within me, my breath, the spirit, the life-giving spirit within me.

I am in dust. I can't even put myself together again. Do you know there's a place of brokenness and contrition before God that has advantage that you ought to desire? I want to be a broken vessel. I want to be broken in separate bits.

I want a dealing from God's hammer. I don't want to have myself all together where I've never been dealt with God. But I want to be broken under the hammer of God's word. But I want more than that. I want to be crushed and made usable.

Verse 19, many of the afflictions of the righteous. Oh, the righteous aren't going to suffer, really? If I'm righteous and live for God and serve him and follow his word and obey him and come out of sin, I won't have to suffer.

Where'd you read that? I know that's first imaginations. Some Christians have that book in their Bible. The afflictions of the righteous, but your bones won't be broken. Isn't it amazing that it says, not one of your bones.