The God of the Brokenhearted
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Psalm 34:18
Psalm 34:18
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
“Paganism is optimistic with regard to unaided human nature, whereas Christianity is the religion of the broken heart.” - J. Gresham Machen
I hear many preachers these days exhorting their congregations of their need to ‘position themselves’ to receive God’s favour. By this they mean that one has to adopt a particular attitude or condition of the heart in order to attract the favour of God, be it audacious faith, hunger for the miraculous or purity of soul. But rarely do you hear them exhort their congregations to be more broken hearted, or more crushed in spirit. But it is these two qualities that David says attract the nearness of God!
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.
So much of preaching these days serves to puff up the ego rather than bring it low. So much the world has gotten into the pulpit.
“A ship on the water is good - but water in the ship is bad.”
The order of the day in the world is self empowerment, self expression, self promotion, self celebration. It’s a message that appeals to every natural born human, and it’s the image of the self-made man that the world loves; successful, powerful, triumphant, strong. And this is the message that has gotten into many pulpits today - it’s a sermon written in the world, all power, pride, riches and glory and nothing of the cross, nothing of brokeness, nothing of meekness.
God is near to all - it’s in Him that we all live and move and have our being, but He is especially close to the broken and contrite.
2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
The Hebrew word for ‘humble’ here can mean suffering one, and the word contrite has the idea of being beaten down, crushed. So God is looking especially to those who the world is not!
“A bird with a broken wing, an animal with a broken leg, a woman with a broken heart, a man with a broken purpose in life — these seem to drop out of the main current of life into shadow. They go apart to suffer and droop. The busy rush of life goes on without them. But God draws nigh.” (Meyer)
Remember David’s plight - He is writing this Psalm likely in the cave of Adullam. He was forced to flee from Saul, and in his desperation he ran to Gath, the hometown of Goliath. Miraculously he manages to escape the clutches of King Achish and finds shelter in the caves. And here in the wilderness many men come to him, men who have been overlooked by the world, men who had been forgotten.
1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.
Here are these men all huddled in a cave - outcasts and has-beens and yet David by inspiration of the Holy Spirit says - The Lord is near to the broken hearted, he saves the crushed in spirit.
“Contrary to what we expect to be the case, the deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it.” - Dane Ortlund
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
The blessing of God is upon the meek, upon the broken, upon the poor in Spirit. Some translations make verse 5 ‘blessed are the gentle’ but gentleness is different from meekness. I think meek is the correct translation - meekness is an internal quality; it’s about not pushing yourself forwards or drawing attention to yourself. It’s the opposite of self-assertiveness and self interest.
“Meekness is one of the brightest graces which can adorn the Christian character.”
— J. C. Ryle
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
It’s impossible to be a Christian without first being broken, without first being crushed and humbled. Someone who is self-satisfied, perfectly happy and whole in themselves will never come to the cross! They might be attracted by a crossless type of Christianity, the sort of preaching that appeals to the flesh, but not to calvary, not to the rugged old cross of Jesus.
Have you been broken? Have you been crushed before God? Job was all arguments and defensiveness when confronted by his friends, but in the presence of God he was humbled. Have you been humbled before God? Have you been brought to the end of yourself? Is the Cross your hope, is it your glory?
God is near to the brokenhearted - what does God’s nearness mean for you?
His nearness is his strenth to deliver, to save!
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
His nearness is his compassion to heal.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
His nearness is his love which brings comfort
9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.