King David was called a man after God’s own heart and yet he was no stranger to suffering. On a particular occasion – when he was experiencing his own inner battles with brokenness, despair, and fear – he wrote a beautiful song expressing what he’d discovered in God’s response to his fragility. In Psalm 34:18, David writes…
“The LORD is close to the broken-hearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
The Hebrew word for ‘broken-hearted’ is a powerful word, potent with emotion. It’s describing someone who literally feels like their life has been, or is being, broken into pieces. Seemingly irreparable. Someone who has got to the end of themselves, and yet in that place, has humbly reached out to God.
This is the cry of David’s heart…
“My life appears to be wrecked, God. My heart is broken to pieces. HELP!”
And David finds that at the very end of himself is the wonderful beginning of God.
As someone once said, “circumstances may appear to wreck our lives, but God is not helpless amongst the ruins.”
David discovers that God always responds to those prayers.
He is closer than the very breath we breathe.
And He doesn’t come to us with condemnation, He comes to us with kindness.
May you know the comfort of His kindness today, and may that kindness flow from you to others who are feeling broken and fragile.
