How is the Lord near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18)?

If the Lord sees such a broken heart, He says to such: "I am near." The disciples on their way to Emmaus asked the Lord: "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent" (Luke 24: 29). Considering the condition of His testimony on earth, don't we have to say, "it is toward evening" and the day of grace is "far spent"? Is there not the same desire in our hearts, to ask: "Lord, abide with us, be near to us." This verse shows that the attitude of a broken heart has the assurance of His nearness.

David's experience at the court of Achish had been deeply humiliating, for the dignity which God had conferred upon him had been compromised by his behavior. His heart was broken and his spirit overwhelmed because of this, but under this discipline he had learned to know himself and to know the Lord in a more intimate way, and what more could he desire? “Jehovah is nigh to those that are of a broken heart, and saves them that are of a contrite spirit” (v. 18).

Now you come to the fourth section of the Psalm, which is an experience I have no doubt that the blessed Lord Jesus knew full well. "The righteous cry, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit" (Ps. 34:17-18). What kind of man could God walk with? With the man of a contrite spirit. If you want to secure the presence of the Lord, what must there be? A broken, and a contrite heart. In plain language, there is a moral state that engages the company of Christ.

(Verses 15-18). So walking we shall find that the eyes of the Lord are upon us and His ears are open to our cry. He is against them that do evil, but delivers the righteous out of all their troubles, and is nigh to them of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. If our hearts are broken by all that is around, and our spirits contrite by reason of what we find in ourselves, we shall discover that it is still true that "the Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit."

But though the righteous are not cut off with the ungodly, yet it is necessary that they should be tried. In their trial they cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles (v. 17). Thus, the trial itself serves a good purpose, — that of casting souls dependently on the Lord to prove the value of His deliverance. We learn also through trial to "have a broken heart" (v. 18), which is so precious to the Lord that He is specially near to us in such experiences. Does it not also have deep effect on us to be reminded of the Lord Jesus in His facing the unspeakable sorrow of the cross, when He said, "Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness"? Only when we have a broken heart will we properly value such words of the blessed Lord of glory. The trial of faith also leads to "a contrite spirit," a spirit that will save us from many pitfalls.

In the seven closing verses of this chapter (Isaiah 57) we have a beautiful presentation of grace. God speaks of Himself as "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell," says He, "in the high and holy place," but He adds, "with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." What is evident here is, that God's dwelling is in harmony with His own nature. He is high and holy, and He dwells in the high and holy place. But He dwells also with him "that is of a contrite and humble spirit," for He finds there that which is suited to Himself. The highest place in heaven is dignified by the presence of Him who yet condescends to make the lowly heart His throne. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (Psalm 51:17.) The God whom the highest heavens cannot contain is the God whom we may make our Guest, but only by ourselves getting down into the lowest and lowliest place. Thus, if we have never met Him, it is because we have never got down so low as that level of self-judgment on which He is found in grace. But when He takes up His abode in the humble and the contrite, it is in the sweetness of His love, and the tenderness of His mercy, that He may revive the spirit of His humble ones, and revive the heart of His contrite ones. How blessed to be thus humble before Him - lowly enough for the lofty One to dwell with us, contrite (or rubbed down) enough for the Holy One to revive us! The really humble are those who can never be humbled; such, in His own peerless perfection, was the Master Himself.

He is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see to whom be glory for ever and ever” (1 Tim. 6:15-16). Yet “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” (Ps. 34:18). “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones ” (Isa. 57:15).

For our comfort and assurance this unconditional promise comes to us with all the absolute authority of His own word. It is no prophet or apostle who speaks the word; no messenger from the Lord that brings it. No angel or archangel is equal to breathe such words of comfort into forlorn and sorrowing hearts. It is none other than the Lord Himself who draws near to us in our desolation, and with infinite tenderness, we hear Him say, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." The binding of broken hearts shall not be in other hands than His. No hands so tender, so gentle, so skilful, to bind a broken heart as the hands once bruised and pierced in love upon the tree. And seeing the Lord 'has said', faith, rising above a world of sin and sorrow and death, can 'boldly say': "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear."

Their confidence in Him had received a rude shock, and yet they loved Him, and were sadly reciting the doings of the past week when "He drew near and went with them." He drew near in more senses than one; there was no sudden display of power and splendour to fill them with awe, but the exercise of that compassion that fills His heart for the ignorant. He came close to them in their sorrow and woe in all that gentleness that had always marked His dealings with them. They were the bruised reed and the smoking flax, which He would not break nor quench. They were broken of heart and sore of spirit, and needed the balm of the great Physician, and He was there to tenderly point out the sickness and to apply the remedy. Such is He who is the Master of all His servants, and thus does He prepare them to take up His service with boldness and joy.

But there was no appeal from the widow of Nain. Whatever her sorrows, exercises and desolation, they are all unrevealed, save in her circumstances. They are left to be gathered from that one pathetic word, "The only son of his mother, and she was a widow." But this one word is enough. It is a living picture of unequalled sorrow and heart-breaking grief. Divine sustainments there may have been; but if we speak after the manner of men, it is a picture of dark and hopeless desolation. Knowing therefore something of the heart of Christ, we do not wonder that it says, "When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not" (Luke 5:13.) We have said that this poor widow made no appeal to Christ. Nay, her hopeless sorrow, her total bereavement, constituted her appeal. The Lord saw her, estimated as no other could the depth of her need, and thus, moved by His own heart, He went to her relief. We do not sufficiently understand this. All can comprehend that the Lord should listen to the cries of His people, but how many of us live in the power of the blessed remembrance of the fact, that our own griefs and sorrows find an answering response in His heart? "In all their affliction He was afflicted." (Isa.43:9.) "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are — without sin" (sin apart). (Heb. 4: 15.) If a parent bends over his suffering child with yearning pity, "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." (Psalm 103:13.) Some who read these lines may be lying on beds of pain and affliction; others, bereaved, may be weeping over their dead; and others again may be mourning over those who are dead in sins. Surely, then, it will be a comfort to all such to remember, that He who, when He saw the widow of Nain following the bier of her only son, had compassion on her, has the same heart for their griefs; that He stands by them with infinite tenderness, waiting both to succour and to console.