Introduction.

Three times David asks: ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why so disquieted within me? (Psalm 42:5, 11& 43:5.) Every time he puts these questions to his heart and soul he confesses that he has a broken life. Every time he asks these questions he supplies no answer, but gives a statement of how he would like the state of his heart to change. David turns deliberately and purposely to the Lord. He tells himself to hope in God, for I shall praise him. For the help of his countenance. The help of my countenance and my God.' David is looking for security in the Lord that is so solid that praise will flow from his heart and lips. David longs for the assurance of knowing that the smile of God is upon him so that the wonder of the Lord in his heart would shine from his face. As you read these two Psalms you get a picture in your mind of a man who is troubled, worried, sad and unmotivated. If you could see David's face you would see that he was miserable and weighed down by his troubles, it would have been obvious that he was a man with a broken life. If your life is broken, it will always show on your face. The person with a broken life looks drawn, haggard, troubled, perplexed, confused and introspective. The person with a broken life tries to hide away so that others will not ask them: ‘What is wrong?'  The person with a broken life may hide away in their room or behind an appearance of being happy. When our lives are broken we do not want others to know, nor do we want others to help us fix our brokenness, we simply want to be left alone to wallow in our troubles, fears, anxieties and self-pity. When you have a broken life, you convince yourself of three things; (a) Nobody has ever had the trouble and problems you have. (b) Nobody can help you overcome your problems. (c) If others simply leave you alone you will be alright. If David was a world leader today the media would make a great deal about the fact that he was depressed. David was depressed emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

David was suffering from a condition that has plagued mankind since the fall. Cain in Genesis 4 becomes depressed because his offering was not accepted by the Lord. Listen to Genesis 4:4c-6,

‘And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?' Cain had the face of a broken man. Today it is estimated that over 850,000 Australians are plagued with depression. I do not like the term depression; I prefer the term broken-life. The Scripture is not silent on this matter and therefore we need to know what God's Word teaches us on this troublesome condition.

1. The devastation of living with a broken life.

1. The person with a broken life not only looks and feels as if they are carrying all the world's problems on their back, they are also emotionally battered. In Psalm 42:3 David reveals that tears have been his food day and night, he was continually crying. This was not a blue mood, nor simply a bout of sadness, but an emotional meltdown. David says, ‘My tears have been my food' indicating that he had completely lost his appetite, food was repulsive to him, he was sustained by his tears. A person with a broken emotional life operates totally on feelings. They are tossed to and fro by their feelings like a boat without a rudder in a storm at sea. When your feelings take control your face is filled with sadness or sullenness, you are tearful and weep excessively, you do not want to see others, do not want to eat, want to sleep but often cannot, you are so preoccupied with your misery you struggle to think of anything else. Outwardly you present a picture of a person who is filled with darkness, doom and gloom. A person like this obviously becomes antisocial and reclusive. When you speak to people with broken lives you soon get the sense that they are numb to life, and really do not care about anyone or anything, nothing has importance to them.
   
   
2. A person with a broken life is on a very slippery slope that is like a downward helix spiral. The downwards spiral is oiled by four sinful responses to a problem or an incident that has shaken the foundations on which the person has built his life. Your foundations can be shaken by something as small as getting behind in your work or as big as loosing your spouse. Things like jealousy, envy, disappointment, embarrassment and anger can lead to a broken life; it all depends on how you respond to what causes your uneasiness. The way you respond to a problem can lead to solving the problem or to compounding and complicating the problem and making your situation much worse. There are four sinful responses that can quickly put us on the downward spiral.
   
   
   1. Excessive sadness. There are many things in life that can leave you with a sense of deep sadness and sorrow. Excessive sadness arises when you begin to feel that others are not giving you the appropriate support or care. You become angry because others do not see how deeply you have been saddened by the disappointment, betrayal or loss. In response to this perceived lack off support or understanding, sadness is expressed more and more strongly.
      
      
   2. Painful thinking. Breaking an arm is painful, but emotional pain is worse. Fixing a broken arm is relatively easy; fixing a broken heart is very complex and very difficult. We need to accept that by temperament we are either an extrovert or an introvert. Introverts have a bigger problem with painful thinking than extroverts do. Introverts need far less stimuli to have them return to past mistakes and beat themselves up emotionally for those mistakes. Painful thinking looks at past mistakes and recalls the sense of guilty and shame inflicted by those mistakes. ‘Everything is my fault' is often a recurring thought in painful thinking. Painful thinking feeds itself and promotes derogative and self-debasing thoughts. The conclusions painful thinking wants you to draw are ‘I am deficient in character, I am stupid, I am immature, I am no good, I am hopeless, useless, worthless and cannot change I will be like this forever, I am in a mess and it is all my fault.' It ought to be obvious that such a person quickly feels unlovable and unloved. As Christians we need to be aware that Satan and the sin that dwells within us will exploit painful thinking for all its worth. Sin by nature of what it is, is very cruel. It will hold out the promise of happiness and pleasure, but inflict deep pain, confusion and a state of misery. The cruelty of sin to a person with a broken life is devastating. While painful thinking will lead to the conclusion that you are a nobody who is worthless, helpless and useless, indwelling sin assures you, that you are not a nobody, as you are your own god able to discern for yourself what is right and wrong. The person who believes that he is his own god and able to discern what is right or wrong for himself makes it very difficult for others to help him, as he believes that he knows what is best even when the clear evidence of his life shows that he is making very poor decisions and judgements. A confusing conflict arises between the concepts of being a nobody and being their own god. This conflict is seen in the defensiveness of a person with a broken life. It's almost as if the person with a broken life says, ‘Its OK for me to beat myself up, but watch out if you dare say anything that judges or upsets me.
      
      
   3. Anxiety and agitation. The person with a broken life frets over everything and often over reacts to situations and circumstances. What in the eyes of others is a mole-hill becomes a mountain in the eyes of the person with a broken life. Remember that the feelings are out of control and therefore anxiety will bring waves of anger, frustration and a sense of futility.
      
      
   4. Delusional thinking. Delusional thinking is simply the pattern of thinking according to feelings and drawing conclusions and then giving those conclusions factual status. Statements like, ‘nobody loves me, everybody is talking about me, everybody is out to get me, everybody thinks that I am stupid, everybody is against me' are common among those who have broken lives. Reasoning along logical lines is often a fruitless exercise with a person with a broken life.
      
      
3. Living with a broken life is devastating as the person has a real sense of being trapped and that others are turning against them. It is like a mosquito in a spiders web, the more it struggles the more it gets entangled in the web. We need to understand that the sinful nature promotes thoughts and actions that pull the person deeper and deeper into a pit of slippery clay. The downward pull is exacerbated by the development of habitual ways of responding in an excessive way. A habit is exceedingly difficult to break because it becomes second nature; it is done without thinking and reinforces itself every time it is done. It's like a well used dirt road; the ruts from the tyres get deeper and deeper.
   
   
4. Our Creator made us wonderfully with body, mind, will and soul fully integrated and operating in unity as a whole. The turmoil inside a person with a broken life affects his body, real changes occur. Chemical changes in the brain change the pattern and quality of sleep. The appetite changes and so weight gain or loss may occur. Headaches become more frequent and last longer. A sense of a dry mouth is very common. The body seems to move in slow motion and all the joints ache. Listen to David in Psalm 22:14-15, ‘I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.' Living with a broken life is devastating, full of pain and misery. It is vital to understand that sin and Satan would want you to remain in this condition, and fill you with a sense of being trapped without a way of escape. It is like being on a fast moving merry-go-round you want to get off, but you are afraid of getting off therefore you sit it out.
   
   
5. It makes no difference whether you are an extrovert or an introvert the cycle and the feelings are the same. The introvert however has a greater struggle with depression due to their temperament. Listen to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, ‘We all agree that we should examine ourselves, but we also agree that introspection and morbidity are bad. But what is the difference between examining oneself and becoming introspective? I suggest we cross the line of self-examination to introspection when, in a sense, we do nothing but examine ourselves, and when such self-examination becomes the main and chief end in our life. We are meant to examine ourselves periodically, but if we are always doing it, always, as it were, putting our soul on a plate and dissecting it, that is introspection. And if we are always talking to people about ourselves and our problems and troubles, and if we are forever going to them with that kind of frown upon our face saying: I am in great difficulty-it probably means that we are centred upon ourselves. That is introspection, and that in turn leads to the condition known as morbidity'. The temptation for an introvert to slip into introspection is greater than for an extrovert, but both can and do develop the destructive habit of introspection. Living with a broken life is a dreadful burden that slowly but surely drains your life away. A broken life is a miserable, unmotivated, withdrawn and lethargic life.

2. What causes a broken life?

1. Psychologists used to categorise depression as endogenous or reactive. Endogenous depression comes from chemical imbalances in the brain caused by things like a brain tumour, haemorrhage, fatigue, food allergies or a reaction to medication. The dominant form of depression is reactive depression which develops after an incident in life. Your response to an incident in life usually determines whether or not you will suffer from depression. Some have dismissed the category of reactive depression and claimed that all depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. We all know the debate about whether the chicken or the egg came first. In the matter of a broken-life the issue is about which came first the chemical changes in the brain, affecting the nervous system and the body or the sense of sadness and futility? Do changes to the chemicals in the brain and other physiological changes bring about a broken life or does the broken life act as a catalyst to change the body's chemical balances? I believe Genesis 4:6-7 gives us a clear indication of the sequence, listen to what the Lord tells Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?^ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." Cain's response to not having his offering accepted by the Lord is anger and a fallen countenance indicating depression. Excessive anger and self-pity resulted in Cain killing Abel. God warned Cain before he killed Abel that sin was lying in wait to ensnare and entangle him and to rule over this aspect of his life as a dictator. On this verse Jay Adams says, ‘God offered Cain help by saying that he could reverse the spiral and rule over sin by breaking out of the sinful pattern through repentance and a subsequent change of behaviour.' Cain refused God's counsel and complicated his life even more by killing Abel. His actions increased the brokenness of his life. The way you respond to things either sinks you deeper into the pit or pulls you up and ultimately out of the pit of despair. Genesis 4 clearly deals with what has been labelled as reactive depression.
   
   
2. Cain's problem really was his fractured relationship with the Lord and the rebellion that resulted from that broken relationship. What caused Cain's depression? Cain chose not to submit to God and not to be reconciled to God. Cain chose to be his own god and do what he deemed right. Listen to Jay Adams, ‘Sin leads to guilt and depression, sinful handling of sin further complicates matters leading to greater guilt and deeper depression, ad infinitum. In the downward cycling the depression certainly contributes to further failures, as it often becomes the excuse for a faulty handling of the sin itself.' If you respond sinfully to an incident in life and follow it up with additional sinful responses you will keep on sliding into a depressed state. If you respond to incidents in life God's way, you will avoid being depressed. Can the solution to reactive depression be so simple? Am I oversimplifying the matter? I am not oversimplifying the matter, but diagnosing the problem from a Biblical and spiritual perspective. Depression is essentially a spiritual problem that manifests itself physiologically. Being reconciled to God and fighting sin and old sinful habits is never a simple matter.
    
3. Scripture deals extensively with reactive depression and gives the answer for overcoming this terrible plague that makes life miserable and debilitating. Psalms 42 & 43 reveal how David dealt with his broken life. We need to note that David because he was a believer was never totally overwhelmed as he descended the downward spiral of a broken life. We could say that David had a divided mind, on the one side there was the confusion that comes with a broken life and on the others side there was a clear understanding that he needed to draw near to the Lord. Listen to David expressing his desire in Psalm 42:1-2, ‘As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?'Psalm 23 delight and secure his heart because his eyes are on the Lord the Great Shepherd of the sheep. David knew the answer was restored fellowship with the Lord. The most important thing to notice about these two verses is that David longs for the Lord more than he longs to be free of his problems. David's focus was not on himself, nor on his problems, but on the Lord. What he longed for is the joy of knowing the presence of the Lord. The thirsty deer has a strong and urgent need to satisfy its thirst. David's heart was gripped with an urgent need to spend time with the Lord to enjoy his love, grace, mercy and comfort. In a real sense David is saying that he needs to be restored to the place where the great and glorious truths of.
    
4. It is vital that we grasp that David's deep longing to enjoy fellowship with the Lord was his highest priority, the thing he desired and needed more than anything else. Restored fellowship with the Lord would not have ended David's depression in an instant. God never promises that, nor does the Bible teach it. To overcome his depression David would have had to pick up all the common threads of life, face all it's responsibilities and duties and by the grace and the power of God start doing what God had given him to do God's way. David had slid down the spiral helix on the oil of his sin, now he needed to depend upon the Lord and walk up the spiral to meet and deal with all the problems God's way. David's confidence in God needed to smother all doubts about not doing things God's way. He had to face life trusting the Lord's rule, wisdom and love.

Conclusion.

Nothing in life is more important than the state of your relationship with the Lord. If you are a believer take time to draw near to the Lord and pray that he be your first and foremost love. If you are an unbeliever I urge you to seek your Creator and find in him life and peace.