www.bible.com/111/psa.34.18.niv
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.-Psalm 34:18
What is David saying here? What does he mean by saying God is close to those who are broken-hearted and that he will save those who are crushed in their spirit? Is David saying that God is only close to those who are going through hard times? No, he is not but he is saying that those who have been through the hard times and have seen the power of God to get them through know something that those who have not been through those times do. What is that they know? For the answer to that we have to look at Paul’s letter to Corinthian church. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul says this: “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” David and Paul would have both agreed that it is only when you are at your weakest and you realize that you cannot save yourself from whatever you find yourself in, that is when God’s power is the strongest in your life. That is what God’s answer to Paul meant when he said, “my power is made in weakness”. God is telling Paul that is only through his perceived “weakness” that God’s power is able to be manifested totally and completely in his life. That is what the word perfect means there. And that is what David meant when he wrote the words of today’s Psalm.