Dear all at IPC,

Psalm 34:18 – ‘The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.’  

I recently spoke at a difficult funeral and took these words in speaking to the family who were in the midst of heartbreak and crushed spirits. But these words are not just for the sorrowful, they are for us all.

Psalm 34 is taken from that time in David’s life which is explained to us in 1 Samuel 21. It recounts when David changed his behaviour because his life was in danger as he was being pursued by King Saul. He escapes, and this Psalm is written as a thanksgiving to that and testimony as to how God has dealt with him. It is an acrostic Psalm so each line begins with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  In verses 1-10 we have the thanksgiving and v11-22 he tells us what he has learnt from his experience. 

He begins the Psalm with a pledge that he ‘will bless the LORD at all times; his praise will be continually in my mouth’. He goes on to recount that the Lord answered and delivered him. He recounts what God has done in hearing and saving him. He talks of the angel of the Lord who is near to those who fear him.

He calls on God’s people to taste and see that the Lord is God, to take refuge in him and they will be safe, and satisfied. 

In verses 11-22 the language is similar to what we have in Proverbs – there is a fatherly tone. He addresses our speech. We should keep our tongue from evil. He instructs us in our behaviour – turn away from evil and pursue peace in relationships with others.

Then in verses 15-16 the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. He knows everything about us, and a contrast is made with enemies of God – the face of the Lord is against them.

In v17 David speaks of the righteous crying for help and the Lord hearing, delivering them out of their trouble. In v19 he tells us that ‘many are the afflictions of the righteous’ and again the Lord delivers them out of them all. Verse 18 is obviously still addressing the righteous. It isn’t a generic promise for all people going through difficulties, but it particularly speaks to those who know God and are counted righteous.

In his most famous work, ‘Christianity and Liberalism’, J Gresham Machen writes ‘Christianity is the religion of the broken heart’. He goes on to specify that although Christianity does not end with a broken heart, it does begin with a broken heart because there is a consciousness of sin in the world. One day our hearts will be healed because of Jesus did. We know that now our sins have been: dealt with at the cross of Christ; hurled in to the sea (Micah 7:19); put as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12); put behind his back (Isa 38:17). And yet our hearts are not completely healed…yet.

Authentic biblical Christianity and the authentic Christian church is marked by this brokenness of heart:

  • God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5, James 4:6)
  • God cannot and will not inhabit a proud, rebellious, stubborn heart but he inhabits by his Holy Spirit, a submissive, believing, contrite heart. That is God’s dwelling, where he delights to be.
  • He is near to all who call on him (Psalm 145:18), he is near to those who seek him (Isa 55:6) but wonderfully he is near to the broken hearted. 

The God who is infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth is also near. David in his repentance in Psalm 51 tells us that ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ (Psalm 51:17). He is not only near but he saves those who are crushed. When we describe someone as being crushed, there is a sense in which we are are admitting there is very little we can do. We and they sense their desolation and sadness.

The picture here in Psalm 34 is of having to be broken in order to be healed, the breaking of bones in order to be healed. 

Who is the healer? 

The Lord Jesus wonderfully goes to the synagogue in his home town  Luke 4 and he quotes from Isaiah 61:

‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,’

Jesus is in the business of mending broken hearts, we see that again and again in his ministry, particularly though not exclusively to women. 

He does not and he will not heal the self righteous and the proud. He brings people down in order to raise them up. We see him healing broken hearts. He breaks in order to mend.

He is still doing that work he promised Isaiah 57:15

‘For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.‘

It may be this is the reason so many will not come to him as they refuse to break their hearts.  There is no other way to God than a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The church of Jesus Christ is wonderfully full of the broken and the crushed, who have looked to him for healing. The Christian life is this paradox of a joyful and broken heart.

‘And from my stricken heart with tears
Two wonders I confess:
The wonders of redeeming love
And my unworthiness’

Your Minister and friend,