Sermons

God Is Near To The Brokenhearted

September 22, 2024 Speaker: Reid Strahan Series: The Psalms

Topic: Gospel Living Passage: Psalm 34:1–22

There is no inner experience you’ll ever have that is not expressed in the Psalms in some way. And we’re given the way to walk through them all. We’re shown how to get back up from our lowest moments, to sing again, and rejoice again. In Psalms, God turns our mourning into dancing. For me, it has been my book of spiritual and psychological health. It directs me back to the goodness of God, the love of God, and restores my confidence in God.

Verse 19 from this Psalm says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers Him out of them all.”  That promise has sustained me through a lot of problems, it’s restored my joy and courage time and time again. 

The Psalms direct us to a life of praise and joy, but they also talk about our lowest feelings, the times we feel most broken or devastated. And they promise us that God comes near to us, and helps us ESPECIALLY in those times. 

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 147:3 “The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 113:7 “Who is like the Lord our God? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.”  That is who God is! And it’s what He does!

In Psalm 34 David sees himself as a poor and needy man, facing many fears, and with lots of troubles. But he testifies that the Lord came to him precisely IN those conditions. Verse 6  “This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.”  

Before David was king, for 7 years he was on the run, fleeing from Saul, who sought to kill him. He was in the most humiliating circumstances, hiding in caves, living among the outcasts of society. He wrote this Psalm about the time he was hiding among the Philistines, very much afraid, pretending to be insane to keep from being killed by the king of Gath. 

YET he writes to praise the Lord for His help!  Verse 1 “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” In danger and in his fears, he saw how the Lord had been with him and taken care of him. So he determined in his heart that he would praise the Lord continually, ALL the time!


And he writes this to bring encouragement to God’s people who are in the SAME condition. Verse 2 “I will extol the Lord at all times;..let the humble hear and rejoice.” “Let the afflicted and the oppressed hear and rejoice.” Let people in situations like me, hear and rejoice!

Verse 3 “Oh, magnify the Lord WITH me, and let us exalt his name together!” He’s not content to exalt the Lord by himself!  And his message is that ALL who go to God in their troubles and fears will find relief, and joy and vindication.  And their faces will become radiant with the presence of the Lord. Verse 4 “I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all MY fears.  5 (Indeed ALL those) who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” He invites all of us to look to God in our fears and experience the deliverance and joy and radiance he found!

In verses 17-19 he assures us all that “When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” 

*In this Psalm, the wounded, the brokenhearted, the afflicted are people who fear the Lord, they are “the righteous”. Righteous people, at times, have their hearts broken, or are crushed in spirit, oppressed, and afflicted.  We all want a picture perfect life, perfect families, kids marriage, job, but that is just not the way it is in this present world. This Psalm say, “Many are the afflictions of the RIGHTEOUS!” 

*But it also says the Lord hears their cry and delivers them!  Then verse 18 says that the Lord is especially near and especially acts for us when we feel the MOST the broken and crushed and needy!  In one of the last emails 

Cindy sent out, she said, “I am in a very needy place.  I am very weak. I need His strength.”  God is near to us when we feel like that.  In some marvelous way, he is MOST near. His presence is MOST felt and experienced.  

At that same time Cindy wrote that she was “in very needy place” to one person, to another person she texted “God has shown me such kindness in all this.” She felt God’s kindness and nearness, IN her pain. We lived with a powerful and precious sense of God’s presence through all that.

Things may be rolling along just fine for you and I hope they are! We’ve all had times when they are.  Thank God! But how good is it to know that when things go terribly wrong, when something breaks our heart, God will come to you in THAT situation, and be the most near to you, RIGHT then.  

In much of our culture there is a certain kind of safety and shelter for many of us as children especially in good families. That’s not the way it is in many homes, and in many countries. But for many of us, it is. Still, in the growing up process, inevitably we encounter some pain, and hurts. For some that happens pretty early on, mommy and daddy get divorced. There’s kids that battle cancer.  My sister Linda was in a car accident as a little girl, she had back surgery and has suffered physical problems all her life from that accident.  

Somewhere along the way most of us learn that life hurts. We experience some pain and disappointment in love and marriage, or with children, with failure in things we try to do, sports, school, work, or rejection in a relationship that really mattered to us.  There are times we feel utterly crushed by life.  Those are times we need this truth: 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

The first promise is that the Lord is near.  What matters most when you are brokenhearted, is that God is near to you. And in a sense that’s all that matters. His presence ALONE really is the solution. The Lord said, “When you pass through the waters I will be with you!”  

In his final days, Jesus told his disciples, you will be hated, they will cast you out of the synagogues, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is serving God. But then He left them this promise, “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And that was it! That’s the ultimate answer to every sorrow and suffering in this life.  

In Psalm 73, Asaph said he came close to stumbling badly! He was frustrated, bitter, over how hard and painful his life was, until he came into God’s sanctuary. But there in the LORD’s presence, he found assurance that God would take care of his enemies. But the main thing he found there was that the best thing in life was simply to be near God. So he said, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good.”  That truth has been such a blessing to me.  EVERYTHING else can be lost and yet to have God near, is the blessing that makes life good!   

It broke my heart to watch Cindy suffer in the last months of her life. I still have moments where I feel the pain of those memories. And I still shed tears over that. But in those times,  I’ve experienced such deep comfort, and powerful awareness of God’s nearness. And it’s the best thing in the world. I really can’t explain it, but HE IS JUST THERE.  And that’s enough. More than enough.  

The Lord said many times, “Do not fear, for I am with you.”

There is NOTHING in life to fear, because nothing will come to us without the nearness of God.  There will never be any heartbreak now or in your future, that is not met with an overwhelming comfort of God’s presence. God is enough for us. More than enough. I know that in a deeper way than I ever have! 

*But that verse goes on to says, the Lord SAVES those who are crushed in spirit. He saves, he rescues us from those situations that have crushed our spirit.  He doesn’t leave us crushed and broken. He HEALS the brokenhearted. He BINDS UP their wounds. He RAISES UP the needy. 

In Isaiah, the Lord said, “When you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” In SOME WAY the sorrows, the dangers, the flood of problems, will NOT overwhelm us.  God Himself promises that!

The specific WAY God will do this, is not given to us. That is partly because God never does the same thing twice. No one knows, including yourself, just how God will lift you up, how he will save you, heal you, relieve you.  But you have the promise of God, that He will. And that’s enough.  Verse 17 “When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” 

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And one of the ways the Lord helps is through the unseen help of angels. Verse 7  “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.”  The angel of the Lord moves in next door to you, he sets up his camp, right there beside you.  

Verse 8 “O taste and see that the Lord is Good! How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”   You taste the Lord’s goodness by taking refuge in Him when those troubles mount up. You believe God is your answer and you go to Him. Those who trust Him “taste” or experience how good God is!  How happy, and how blessed are those who do that!  

9 “Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD Lack no good thing.” The Lord’s goodness is promised, in this verse, to those who fear Him.  He will satisfy their hunger and meet their needs. They’ll lack no good thing!

David spoke about his tears, and his troubles, often! But that was never the MAIN story to him. He said, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” and “I will see the goodness of the Lord right here in the land of the living!” We can confess that same faith too.  

He pushes this truth even father in verse 11, “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. “Whoever desires to love life and see 

good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; Let him, turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. For The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”  

David’s been talking about affliction and troubles, being brokenhearted, YET he boldly proclaims that the “good life”, and “good days” come to those who fear the Lord.  For the Lord watches over and hears the cry of people who fear Him.  He steps into their lives with good things and good days. You can cling to that when things look the most hopeless!

The very next thing David says is this wonderful promise we’ve already focused on. Verses 17-19 “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. MANY are our afflictions but the Lord delivers us out of them all!” When the enemy comes in like a flood, those promises are mighty weapons you can pull out and overcome anything that happens to you in life. 

Verse 20 ‘He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” I immediately thought of Gwendolyn when I read that. And we know godly people who have broke an arm or leg. So what is the point.  Well ultimately we know God moved David to say that because it’s a prophecy about Jesus. At the cross, the soldiers saw Jesus was already dead so they didn’t break his legs. John said, these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of His bones will be broken."   So this was literally true of Jesus. Probably literally true of David too.  But it’s meant to teach that the righteous are under the special protection of the Lord.  God IS watching over us, and does protect us in so many ways from so many things.

Final summary: verse 22 “The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”  If you are the Lord’s servant, no matter how much trouble you’re in or how much your heart may be broken the Lord WILL redeem you. You WON’T be condemned.  God will not lift His hand against you to condemn you, but He will save you.

How do you get into this life of God’s protection, and God’s favor? It’s through the Lord Jesus Christ. This Psalm is describing the kind of life we can have through Jesus. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Him. If you want to love life and see good days, come to God through Jesus. 

*Take away: Do not surprised when you find yourself brokenhearted by loss or failure, or sorrow. Or afflicted. That IS part of the experience of the righteous.  

*Second: Always remember when you are most afflicted, God will come to you and be the most near to you, precisely at that time. 

*SEEK God in your neediness. David said, “I SOUGHT the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5Those who LOOK to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6This poor man CRIED. “TASTE and see that the Lord is good.”  SEEK, LOOK, CRY, TASTE.  

Some people go through some really deep things, troubles, sorrows, loss and they just kind of park there. And seem to remain unhappy, bitter, and broken.  Others find such sweetness in the Lord. What is that difference?  I think the answer is in this model we have from David.  I sought. I looked. We have some responsibility to look for and receive this precious gift. 

*Learn to boast in the Lord!  My soul will makes it’s boast in the Lord! Faith is a boast. David boasts that the Lord delivers, saves, and heals.  We miss out on so much victory by not boasting in the Lord! Boasting that He is our strength, and our rock and our fortress! 

*Bless the Lord at all times, Praise him continually with your mouth.  Magnify the Lord! Exalt His name. David gave us a really important example right here. We need to practice a continual inner worship, pouring out praise and gratitude to God.  No matter what happens, never stop praising, never stop speaking highly of God. 

We tend to think of praise as a kind of intermittent thing. We do in Sunday morning or during a quiet time. But David said, no, I want his praise to continually fill my mouth. That means day and night, every day of the week. When people run into you they find that you are praising the Lord because you are continually doing that! 

David calls us into that! He urges us to join him!  Come! Magnify the Lord with me! Let’s exalt His name together. Let’s all enter into this life of continual praise! No matter what happens!  Never stop praising.  

It is hard to overstate how important continual praise is to the well-being of your soul. But it’s also for the benefit and encouragement of others. And that’s really Davids purpose in this Psalm.  He wants you to look to the Lord and have your face to be radiant with joy and to magnify the Lord with him.

A lot of us want the Lord to use our lives, or have a ministry, to bless others. But it’s really impossible for that to happen if we are not living a life of praise. This is foundational to ministry and blessing other people. Praising the Lord and magnifying His name – in many ways that IS our ministry.  We’ve been saved for that purpose.  

 

More in The Psalms

September 15, 2024

Pursuing One Thing

September 8, 2024

The Steadfast Love of God

September 1, 2024

Dwelling In The Shelter of the Most High

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