Broken Girl

Matthew West's “Broken Girl” is written for a young woman who has been hurt by someone who “didn't care.” The opening lines speak straight to her: “Look what he's done to you, it isn't fair. Your light was bright and new.” He describes a girl whose heart was made to “grow up too fast,” so that words like innocence mean nothing to her now.

The song stays with her pain before offering any answer. She hears the music play but can't sing, and the pictures in her mind keep her locked inside her past. The chorus then speaks directly to those who feel worthless: “You're not the worthless they made you feel. There is a Love they can never steal away.” The second verse reverses how she sees herself. What she calls damaged goods, love sees as perfection. The bridge invites her to let tears fall and lay her shattered pieces down, and to be amazed by how grace can put her back together. West sings it as a plain, tender appeal and not as a lecture. The title is repeated at the end with the line that she does not have to stay the broken girl, which leaves hope open for anyone who has been wounded.

God near to the brokenhearted is Psalm 34:18. Healing the brokenhearted is Psalm 147:3, and binding up the brokenhearted is Isaiah 61:1.