The Lord is near
to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
(Psalm 34:18, Berean
Standard Bible)
This psalm of David shows us, the readers, his praise of and
thanksgiving to God for rescuing him from his enemies. The story behind this
psalm tells of why David has joy and thanks; God freed him from his enemies.
David feigned insanity in front of Ahimelech, the king of the Philistines in
Gath. Gath’s hero had been Goliath, the giant who David slew with his sling and
stones. David realized the Philistines’ anger might have continued to boil
because he defeated their champion. He decided his best way to escape the
clutches of the Philistines in Gath was to act insane. If David seemed insane,
Gath's king and people would not view him as a threat. They released David
because they believed he was an insignificant threat, since he was insane. David
praised and thanked God in Psalm 34 as he recalled his experience.
David often praised God in his psalms.
He shared his inmost feelings with God and people who would listen his psalms. Christians
and Jews often quote Psalm 34 in sermons, meditations, and songs. This psalm
encourages people to hope and wait, for God's faithfulness. God is faithful and
almighty.
This devotional does not walk readers through this psalm
verse by verse. To help individuals focus on God, this study examines the last
six verses, disregarding the problem. Circumstances do not dictate who God is;
God dictates the circumstances. God uses circumstances to show Himself.
Verses seventeen through twenty-two highlight the why and who
that David wrote about in the psalm. In verse seventeen, David wrote, “The
righteous cry out, and the Lord hears; He delivers them from all their
troubles.” In this verse, he reiterated God’s actions in verses four and seven.
He exalted God because God hears and delivers the righteous. God answers their
cries for help.
I sought the
Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to Him are
radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man called out, and
the Lord heard him; He saved him from all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord
encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them. (Psalm 34:4-7, BSB)
Notice in verse seventeen, God hears and answers the
righteous. These righteous are those who “look to” God and “fear” Him, the ones
who follow and revere God (vs. five and seven). The righteous whom God answers
follow and obey Him out of reverence. They relate to God as His children and
choose to be His people. These people, the righteous about whom David wrote,
are the ones from whom God hears their cries and delivers. God does this because
He counts them as righteous—dedicated—unto Him.
The Lord is near to the
brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.
(Psalm 34:18, BSB)
In verse eighteen, David further emphasized how God answered
when He heard his cries for help. He wrote that God was near him when he felt
brokenhearted and crushed with fear because of his enemies. The fear David
expressed is the kind that comes from deep within a person. That fear makes a
person depressed and despair. Depression and despair weigh heavily on a person
so that he or she can barely move his or her feet and arms. The person can
become immobilized with the weight of it. This can lead to a lack of desire for
basic activities such as eating, bathing, and talking.
Brokenheartedness weighs a ton, like a boulder sitting on a
person’s chest. It occurs when a person carries the weight of their
circumstances within him or herself. It can break the spirit of the person and
crush him or her, leaving no hope of which to hold. Yet even having felt this
and because of it, David exclaimed and praised God. He praised God because He
is mightier and delivers (vs. 17). David proclaimed about and praised God
because He is near and saves people crushed by their circumstances (vs. 18).
David knew God hears the righteous because God is faithful
to be near and save them. David praised God because God heard and delivered him
from Ahimelech, the Philistines, and his earlier enemies. He knew from other
times in his life that God provided and protected Him. David, having a history
with God, knew Him to be deserving of proclamation and praise. He praised God
because he himself followed and revered God.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivers him from them all. (Psalm 34:19, BSB)
Again, in verse nineteen, David wrote God delivers (saves).
In verse seventeen, he said God delivers from troubles. Verse eighteen expanded
to include the effect within a person of those troubles—crushing weight, causing
a heavy heart and downcast spirit. In verse nineteen, David said the troubles
he faced caused him to have afflictions. The troubles in which David found
himself caused him mental anguish. They came from persistent evil. Yet, David
learned to revere the Lord more than fear the troubles. He knew, because of his
relationship with God, that God is mightier than the evil that beset his
physical body, heart, and mind. David recalled God’s faithful nearness to him and
His might, then resolved to continue to follow and revere the Lord. God
delivered David from his enemies in the past and would continue to deliver him
because His God was almighty and faithful Yahweh. God dictates the
circumstances; circumstances do not dictate who God is.
He (God) protects all his (the righteous person) bones; not one
of them will be broken. (Psalm 34:20, BSB)
David continued in verse twenty by using a metaphor. He
wrote, “He protects all his bones: not one of them will be broken.” Verse
twenty does not mean the righteous will not have broken bones. David meant no
part of God’s child shall be utterly destroyed—annihilated like Sodom and
Gomorrah. In the end, God preserves and delivers His child. God assures him or
her of his or her place in His kingdom for eternity. Evil does not defeat God
and His child. God is near, protects, delivers, and saves His people. God
dictates circumstances; circumstances do not dictate who God is.
Satan cannot destroy righteous people—those who follow and
revere God. Paul taught people this basic tenet in 2 Corinthians 4:17. He wrote,
“For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight
of glory that is beyond all comparison” (BSB). Peter contributed his thoughts
about this in 1 Peter.
Beloved, do not be surprised
at the fiery trial that has come upon you to test you, as though something strange
was happening to you. But rejoice, you share the sufferings of Christ, so that
you may be overjoyed (rejoice) at the revelation of His glory. (1 Peter 4:12-13, BSB).
Expect to suffer evil in this world; it is not abnormal. As
a person is afflicted, brokenhearted, downcast, and suffering, remembering who
God is, what He has done, and what He promised will help that person stand
strong in his or her faith. That will help him or her to endure whatever
physical, mental, and emotional pain he or she experiences. God protects the
person whom Jesus saved by belief in Him as Lord and Savior. This person made
righteous by Jesus follows and reveres God. God calls them His own children and
protects them.
Evil will slay the wicked and the haters of the righteous
will be condemned. (Psalm 34:21, BSB)
Satan cannot grasp and utterly destroy the child of God. God
allows the evil to slay the wicked. The wickedness they do catches them in
their own web from which they cannot extricate themselves. Only Jesus can
remove them by their belief in Him. The time a person has on earth is their
chance to believe in Jesus. Later, he or she will be judged for their wicked
actions. That judgment will be punishment, a condemning to hell. Hell is a
place of perpetual and inescapable torment. The wicked will slay themselves, wrote
David. He meant they will cause their own eternal death because of the evil they
did in life.
The Lord redeems His servants, and none who take refuge in
Him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22, BSB)
With verse twenty-two, David emphasized God’s protection but
used a stronger word than in verses seventeen and eighteen, a word not used yet
in this psalm. He wrote “God redeems” His righteous child. The connotation of
this word goes beyond the words he used earlier in the psalm—delivers, saves,
and protects. “Redeems” would have led the Jews to recall the Old Testament
understanding of redemption by offering the sacrificial lamb for sins they committed.
The lamb paid, with its lifeblood, the judgment for that person’s sins. “Redeems”
also reminded the Jews of the redeemer-protector of the family who safeguarded
a family’s or person’s future. That redeemer-kinsman redeemed a person by
paying the ransom to buy back the family land/home or to pay the debt of the
person who sold him or herself into servitude. The redeemer-kinsman is the one
who paid the ransom—the cost—for his kinsman to be free from bondage or to have
his land/home returned to its God-given owner. The Jews sacrificed the lamb to
pay the cost for their sins. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection expanded the
Jewish understanding of redemption to include eternal freedom from death and
evil. The redemption Jesus gave goes beyond a debt incurred because of
financial hardship or to cover sins. Peter and John spoke of the sin-ransom
Jesus provided in 1 Peter 1:18-19 and Revelation 5:9.
For you know it was not with perishable things such as silver
or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from
your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish
or spot. (1 Peter 1:18-19, BSB)
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the
scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased
(ransomed) for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Revelation
5:9, BSB)
David wrote a psalm to praise God and proclaim about His
goodness and rescue of him. He wrote to lead others to know how near God is to
His children. His psalm told of God’s faithfulness and might. It declared God
hears his children. Through this psalm, David rejoiced in God. He recalled how
God had rescued him. David gave metaphors by which to live faithfully following
God. He concluded the psalm by giving a final admonition to praise God.
David wrote Psalm 34 to lead readers and hearers to revere
God and grow in their faithfulness to Him. He reminded righteous people that
they need not fear the wicked. In Psalm 34:21, David stated the wicked will
fall by their own evil. The traps of the wicked will catch them. Unrighteous
individuals face destruction due to their choices. So, God’s children need not
worry about their actions towards you. Instead, faithfully continue to follow
and revere God. Verse twenty-one reminds people of what Paul taught in Romans
8:31-39, too.
What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is
for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up
for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is
there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised
to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall trouble
or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is
written: ‘For Your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep
to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans
8:31-39, BSB)
Fear not the wicked and their deeds. Instead, revere God and
what He can do. Who should we praise? We praise God. Why should we praise God? We
praise God because He is almighty and omniscient. We should keep our focus on
God and not on our circumstances. Why? Circumstances do not dictate who God is;
God dictates circumstances.
Be a righteous person by believing in Jesus and He will redeem
you from your sins, then follow and worship God. Praise and proclaim about Him.
Remember, the “momentary afflictions” you face are nothing compared to the
glorious riches God has in store for you in heaven. Be like David and praise
God during your troubles. He is still in control.
I will bless the Lord at all
times; His praise will always be on my lips. (Psalm 34:1, BSB)
