Through days of toil when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you;
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. (Ps. 34:18)
David begins this Psalm with praise to God for His protection and victory over his enemy. He proceeds to exhort the reader to trust God, to be beware of sin. The Lord is near to the humble and opposed to the proud. David testifies that when he sought the Lord, He answered him and delivered him from all his fears; He saved him out of all his troubles (v. 4, 6). God hears the deep inner moaning of His child’s heart, a cry that often conflicts with the words of their mouth. When one’s inner being is crushed, humbled by sin, and emptied of self, the Great I AM is nearby. He is ready to deliver, able to save, willing to be whatever one needs Him to be. He is the Fountain of all life, the Foundation of all hope, the Source of all true blessings. He wants to fill His children with Himself, reviving their heart and spirit when they call on Him. God is not slow to respond to His child’s pain. Rather, His children are slow to yield to the call of their Father. When they do, I AM raises them up to a new life on the ruins of the old.
When we are bruised and broken, when our burdened heart and crushed spirit plague us with a guilty awareness of our sin, we begin to reevaluate our life. We become tender, willing to surrender to our Lord. When we do surrender, victorious praise and fulness of joy spring forth. Acknowledging our sin is like confronting the foreboding dark and threatening clouds. We want to avoid them. We know they bring rain, they bring wind, they bring a storm. We also know that without the rain to nourish, the wind and the storm to strengthen, there would be no fruit to harvest. We need the ominous and troublesome clouds of affliction, for without them we would not grow.
Have you been crushed under the guilt of sin? Is your spirit burdened and oppressed with shame and remorse? Are you living under a load of cares, troubled in spirit, in thought, in understanding? Are you standing under the clouds of affliction, the rains of guilt pelting down on your troubled heart? You will encounter many storms in your lifetime. God promises you that when you trust Him, when you yield to Him, you will find joy. He will strengthen you; He will nourish you. God cannot lie. “Through days of toil when heart doth fail, God will take care of you.”