Psalms 34:17-19 (NIV)
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.”
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Let’s first of all define what a “righteous” person is. And here’s a definition that I think fits almost any reference: a righteous person is someone who maintains a growing friendship with God. So when we read, for example, that “the righteous shall live by faith”, it makes sense to me to understand those words like this: someone who maintains a growing friendship with God only does so by trusting in God.
With that in mind let’s have a look at these verses.
And right away let’s be clear on this, David certainly can’t be saying that God will always protect a “righteous” from hardship. No, it is undeniably clear in scripture that both God’s friends and enemies face stuff in life that no one in their right mind would ever want.
I suggest to you that what he is referring to is the effect those troubles could have on the righteous person’s inner life, specifically, that person’s friendship with God.
God will always help them stay true to what it means to be his friend in the middle of the storm.
We have to be completely convinced about this point or much of what the Bible says regarding our life’s difficulties will make no sense to us. Unpleasant circumstances have no power in and of themselves to draw out of us a certain reaction.
What trouble ultimately is in the eyes of God is a heart that does not trust him and seek to pleasing him in the middle of ugly stuff. Now that’s trouble.
We are the ones who decide how we will react towards what’s going on around us or to what’s happening to us.
And what the Lord completely delivers the righteous person from is a reaction of fear, frustration, anger, resentment, rejection, discouragement, hostility, unforgiveness, disobedience, defeat, outrage, revenge, bitterness, sadness.
But consider the verse that’s sandwiched between those two virtually identical assurances.
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Now allow me to sound cruel as we get to the bottom of this, all right? Based on all I’ve said so far I could actually confront the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit.
“Why are you brokenhearted? What happened to you didn’t break your heart — it’s you, you reacted poorly!
Don’t blame your circumstances. You’re the one who allowed that nasty deal to crush your spirit. That’s why you feel the way you do!”
But when nasty things happen to us and we’re overwhelmed with the pain of it all, noticed what God does — he comes up close to the broken-hearted and saves those crushed in spirit. In another passage we read, “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.” (Ps 147:3)
Why, because we not only aspire to be his friend, he’s our friend too, tender hearted and full of compassion.
He gets us back on our feet — delivering us from staying stuck in a poor reaction to difficulty, helping us refocus on our friendship with him, to trust him, and stay loyal to him, in view of his love and loyalty to us.
