Psalm
34:17-18 (NLT)
The righteous cry and the Lord hears and
delivers them out of all their troubles. The
Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are
crushed.
The emphasis of Psalm 34 is the fact that
the Lord is a Provider and a Deliverer.
In verse 4, it says “I sought the Lord and He answered me, and delivered
me from all my fears”. Verse 7 says “The
angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.” Verse 10 says, “….they who seek the Lord
shall not be in want of any good thing.”
And then verses 15 through 19 give such wonderful promises that bring hope
and relieve anxiety to whoever reads and believes these words:
The
eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
And
His ears are open to their cry
The
face of the Lord is against evildoers
To
cut off the memory of them from the earth.
The
righteous cry and the Lord hears
And
delivers them out of all their troubles
The
Lord is close to the brokenhearted
And
rescues those spirits are crushed
Many
of the afflictions of the righteous
But
the Lord delivers him out of them all
I would not think that there is any reader
of these words who has not suffered a broken heart, whose heart has not been
torn apart by certain experiences in your life.
The possibilities are endless at what causes a broken heart. Usually hearts are broken because of actions
of other people, although hearts can also be broken through personal
failures. Short of major illness or
death, there may be nothing in life worse than an event that breaks your
heart. Indeed, as Scripture states,
broken hearts are spirits that are crushed.
Broken hearts and crushed spirits lead to severe depression and loss of
hope. Broken hearts are so painful
sometimes that recovery might never occur.
Pastor Scott Luck asked a great question during one of his sermons
---“What has happened in your past that you still cannot get over?”
The old saying,
“God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable” might have been based
on Job 36:15 that reads: “But those who
suffer He delivers in their suffering; He speaks to them in their affliction.” Very
few people suffer as much loss as Job suffered yet. His 10 children were killed in a storm that
God allowed to happen. He lost most of
his possessions. Then he himself was
afflicted with painful boils all over his body. You need to read Job chapters 1 and 2 to
gain the context for why God allowed all this to happen.
When you are
suffering, you must trust these promises from Psalm 34:17-18 and Job
36:15. God promises both to deliver you
and to speak to you in your suffering (misery, poverty) and affliction
(oppression, mistreatment). Always remember that the Lord made you, knows you,
and loves and cares for you (see also Psalm 55:33 and I Peter 5:7). He makes significance promises here that give
great hope and comfort to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. However, note the use of the words “the
righteous”, mentioned three times in Psalm 34:15-19. Righteous sounds too pious for most of us,
but it simply means “rightness”. Without
Christ in your life, it is impossible to be righteous or right with God, but
through Christ, you are given initial rightness (justification before God) and
for the rest of your life you keep developing your rightness in Christian
character and conduct.
The Lord promises to heal the
brokenhearted. He will not prevent the
causes of brokenheartedness from happening, but He promises to hear your cries
and to deliver you via hope and healing.
Losing a loved one especially produces a broken heart and a crushed
spirit. May these words bring
significant comfort, strength, and hope to you.
Might they also be used by you to bring comfort strength and hope to
others in your life who you know are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.
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