Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 34:18
The LORD [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
18. nigh &c.] Cp. Psa 119:151; Isa 50:8; and the contrast, Psa 10:1. The broken in heart and crushed in spirit are those who have been broken down and crushed by sorrow and suffering (Psa 147:3; Isa 61:1; Jer 23:9); in whom, it is implied, affliction has borne fruit, and all self-asserting pride has been subdued and replaced by true contrition and humility.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart – Margin, as in Hebrew: to the broken of heart. The phrase, the Lord is nigh, means that he is ready to hear and to help. The language is, of course, figurative. As an Omnipresent Being, God is equally near to all persons at all times; but the language is adapted to our conceptions, as we feel that one who is near us can help us, or that one who is distant from us cannot give us aid. Compare the notes at Psa 22:11. The phrase, them that are of a broken heart, occurs often in the Bible. It refers to a condition when a burden seems to be on the heart, and when the heart seems to be crushed by sin or sorrow; and it is designed to describe a consciousness of deep guilt, or the heaviest kind of affliction and trouble. Compare Psa 51:17; Isa 57:15; Isa 61:1; Isa 66:2.
And sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit – Margin, as in Hebrew: contrite of spirit. The phrase here means the spirit as crushed or broken down; that is, as in the other phrase, a spirit that is oppressed by sin or trouble. The world abounds with instances of those who can fully understand this language.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 34:18
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken ,heart: and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit.
The broken heart and its Divine Restorer
The Lord is nigh. Now to be nigh to one object is to be more or less distant from others. So is it with men, and human language is employed to represent what is here told us of God. He cannot really be far from any heart. But, in a very deep sense, He is nigh the broken heart–to help, to comfort, to save.
I. Look at the broken heart and contrite spirit. A broken heart, a crushed spirit, what is it? The heart before us may be Considered to be like a piece of fine mechanism disordered, or some work of art fractured–some work of art made of exquisitely delicate material, and of very fine workmanship; or like flesh when worn and bruised. We selfish men like to look on things that are pleasant, and we frequently turn our faces away from that which is unpleasant. You always find Gods face turned towards objects like unto these broken hearts and crushed spirits.
II. now to such a heart God is nigh, and such a spirit God seeks to save.
1. He is nigh in knowledge, He knows all its history.
2. In ministration. He saveth such, etc. When God heals the broken heart, it is none the worse for having been broken. An angel could not do this; God can, and does.
III. learn the lessons of this truth.
1. DO not morbidly crave for creature help and fellowship. You can do without them, for God Himself is nigh.
2. Do not think, feel, or act as if He were far off. He has all along known how you would be placed, and He is nigh.
3. Remember that the resources of God are available in the hour of greatest need.
4. Do not despond or despair. You may be broken in heart, or crushed in spirit, without despondency, or despair, being elements of your sorrow; you may either cherish these feelings or fight against them. Now the feeblest fighting against them is victorious, if this struggle be carried on in the name of the Redeemer of men. If you find yourself sinking into some horrible pit of despondency and despair, it is your most sacred duty to cry importunately unto Him.
5. Look a little further by the light of this text, and observe that a broken heart and a crushed Spirit are named not as uncommon things. These are not uncommon things in human life; and you who are accustomed to look beyond surface, and beyond curtains, and draperies, and shams, and masks, know this as well as I.
6. But look once more at the text, and mark, that God being nigh is mentioned as something ordinary. A broken heart is common–Gods saving is a common thing. Some of you need this text. You need it as a word of warning. You seem to have set yourselves in a kind of morbid obstinacy to cherish a broken heart and a crushed spirit. You seem to have determined to perpetuate your misery. Now this text tells you where to turn for help. You cannot find it apart from God. No man ever yet healed his own crushed spirit, never will. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Your fellow-Christians, religious books, consolatory hymns–all these are good so long as they lead you to God, but if they come between you and the Great Helper, you are better without them. These books cannot do the work you require to be done for you. (Samuel Martin.)
A broken heart
I. This heart feels that it deserves to be broken, deeply humbled, yea, crushed with anguish. The source of its sorrow is conscious delinquency, undeniable guilt, the abuse of many a mercy, and a heedless indulgence in many an evil passion. The sorrow thus produced is oftentimes unspeakably severe. Poverty may depress, persecution may harass, disease may prostrate, and bereavement produce painful blanks in the domestic circle; but a sorrow, more intense than is felt in all these has a place in the broken heart.
II. A broken heart is thankful that it has been broken. It feels that a power has been put forth upon it altogether foreign to itself, and apart from any means for this purpose that it could employ; and hence its adoring gratitude for the change effected.
III. A broken heart desires to be more and more broken. Washington Irving is represented to have said that sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open; this affliction we cherish, and brood over in solitude. Such language is, no doubt, very beautiful, and touchingly expressed. But how did this amiable student of the common sympathies of humanity forget that broken heart, of deepest interest, which refuses to be divorced from its sorrow on account of sin?
IV. A broken heart surveys with amazement the innumerable mercies with which it is encompassed. These mercies are like the stars of heaven for multitude; and there stands in the midst of them the gift of Gods Son, like the king of day amid the lesser luminaries of the sky. What a mercy is the Word of God! It testifies of Christ, and brings life and immortality to light. What a mercy is a throne of grace! I have sins, and I can go there for pardon; I have a polluted nature, and can go there for purity; I have enemies, and can go there for help; for weakness I can go there for strength; and for sickness, I can go there for health.
V. A broken heart is a tender heart–affectionate, forgiving, forbearing.
VI. A broken heart is an acquiescing heart.
VII. A broken heart triumphs in the assurance that all its sorrows shall issue in rivers of pleasure and a fulness of joy. Upon what does this assurance rest? It rests upon the fact of its own existence. Why has God broken this heart? That it may never be healed? No, no. Let us not, then, invest it with gloom, and sullenness, and sorrow. Let us invest it with joy. (Thomas Adam.)
A broken heart
A gentleman, having broken his watch glass, entered a jewellers to have a new one fixed. When the watch was returned, he inquired how much they would allow for the broken pieces. On being told that broken things were of no value, he said, I have a book at home that says something is no good till it is broken. That must be a strange kind of book, said the jeweller. Yes, said the other, A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. I see you are talking religion, was the reply. (Newton Jones.)
The obdurate heart softened
Go into a cast-iron foundry and witness the extraordinary process by which fire conquers the solid metal, until it consents to be cast or stamped or rolled into the form which the artificer requires. This is a type of Gods moral foundry, when an obdurate heart is first so softened as to feel the truth, then to weep over sin, then to be ductile, then so flexible as to be formed into a shape that pleases the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. A broken heart] nishberey leb, the heart broken to shivers.
A contrite spirit.] dakkeey ruach, “the beaten-out spirit.” In both words the hammer is necessarily implied; in breaking to pieces the ore first, and then plating out the metal when it has been separated from the ore. This will call to the reader’s remembrance Jer 23:29: “Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord? And like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” The breaking to shivers, and beating out, are metaphorical expressions: so are the hammer and the rock. What the large hammer struck on a rock by a powerful hand would do, so does the word of the Lord when struck on the sinner’s heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. The broken heart, and the contrite spirit, are two essential characteristics of true repentance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Nigh; ready to hear and succour them; though by the severe course of his providence towards them he seems to themselves and others to stand afar off, as David complains, Psa 10:1.
Such as be of a contrite spirit; by which he understands either,
1. Those whose spirits are oppressed, and even broken, with the greatness of their calamities. But this may be, and frequently is, the lot of wicked men. And therefore in this sense, and to such persons, this proposition and promise is not true. Or rather,
2. Those whose hearts or spirits are truly and deeply humbled under the hand of God, and the sense of their sins, and Gods displeasure for them, which was Davids case, Psa 6:1, &c.: Psa 32:3,4, whose proud and self-willed hearts are subdued and made obedient to Gods will, and submissive to his providence; for to all such, and to such only, this promise is verified.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The Lord [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,…. Who are pressed and bore down with afflictions, by the sorrow of heart under which their spirits are broken, Pr 15:13; or with a sense of sin, and sorrow for it, for which their hearts smite them, and they are wounded by it, and broken with it: to these the Lord is “nigh”; not in a general way only, as he is to all men, being God omnipresent, but in a special manner; he comes and manifests himself to them in a gracious way, pours in the oil and wine of his love, and binds up their broken hearts; yea, comes and dwells with them: he does not pass by them and neglect them, much less make the breach worse; he does not break the bruised reeds, but he heals their breaches;
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit; not in a legal, but in an evangelical way; who are humbled under a sense of sin, and melted down in true repentance, under a view of the love and grace of God; and are poor and mean in their own eyes: to these the Lord has respect; the sacrifices of a broken and contrite spirit are not despised by him, but accepted through faith in Christ; and such he saves with an everlasting salvation in him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18. Jehovah is nigh to those who are broken of heart. David here exemplifies and extends still more the preceding doctrine, that God is the deliverer of his people, even when they are brought very low, and when they are, as it were, half-dead. It is a very severe trial, when the grace of God is delayed, and all experience of it so far withdrawn, as that our spirits begin to fail; nay more, to say that God is nigh to the faithful, even when their hearts faint and fall them, and they are ready to die, is altogether incredible to human sense and reason. But by this means his power shines forth more clearly, when he raises us up again from the grave. Moreover, it is meet that the faithful should be thus utterly cast down and afflicted, that they may breathe again in God alone. From this we also learn, that nothing is more opposed to true patience than the loftiness of heart of which the Stoics boast; for we are not accounted truly humbled until true affliction of heart has abased us before God, so that, having prostrated ourselves in the dust before him, he may raise us up. It is a doctrine full of the sweetest consolation, that God departs not from us, even when we are overwhelmed by a succession of miseries, and, as it were, almost deprived of life.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 34:18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart God is near to all men: for in him they all live: but he is near to the broken in heart in a peculiar sense, as he is ever ready and always able to help them; as men are much more capable of assisting those whom they value when present with, than when absent from them; from which the form of speech, as applied to God, is taken. Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 554
THE BROKEN AND CONTRITE IN HEART ENCOURAGED
Psa 34:18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
THE objects of Gods favour are very frequently designated by the exalted title of The righteous: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous: Many are the afflictions of the righteous: They that hate the righteous shall be desolate [Note: ver. 34:19, 21.]. But, a person of an humble spirit finds it difficult to assume to himself this character, because of the innumerable imperfections of which he is conscious; and, consequently, he is backward to claim the promises assigned to it. But the terms whereby the Lords people are characterized in our text are such as the most humble may appropriate to themselves without vanity: and whatever is promised to them under that character, they may regard as their legitimate and assured portion.
The words before us will naturally lead me to shew,
I.
What is that spirit which the Lord approves
There is a brokenness of heart which God does not approve, because it proceeds altogether from worldly sorrow [Note: Pro 15:13.]: but that which is associated with contrition is truly pleasing in his sight.
Let us more distinctly see what the spirit here designated is
[It is called a broken heart, and a contrite spirit. It is founded altogether in a sense of sin, and in a consciousness of deserving Gods wrath on account of sin. It is, however, no light sense of sin, but such an one as David had, when he said, Mine iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burthen, they are too heavy for me [Note: Psa 38:4.]: Mine iniquities have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up: they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart faileth me [Note: Psa 40:12.]. Nor is it merely on account of the penalty annexed to transgression that they are so oppressed, but on account of its hateful nature, as defiling and debasing their souls. Hence they lothe themselves, as vile, and base, and filthy, and abominable [Note: Eze 36:31.]: yea, to their dying hour do they retain this humiliating sense of their own corruptions, notwithstanding they have a hope that God is pacified towards them; and even the more on account of that very mercy which they have experienced at his hands [Note: Eze 16:63.].
Shall it be thought that such a sense of sin can become those only who have been guilty of some flagrant enormities? I answer, It befits the most moral person upon earth, no less than the most abandoned sinner. I say not that the moral and the immoral are upon a perfect level, either in the sight of God or man; for, beyond all doubt, all are hateful in proportion to the greatness and multitude of their iniquities: but there is no person so virtuous, but that he needs to be humbled before God in dust and ashes. Let any man, however virtuous, look back upon his past life, and see how far he has been from God, and how entirely he has lived to himself. Let him consider how little sense he has had of his obligations to God, especially for all the wonders of redeeming love and how often he has done despite to the Holy Spirit, in resisting his sacred motions, and in deferring that great work which he knew to be necessary for the salvation of his soul. We quite mistake, if we think that guilt attaches only to flagrant immoralities: the living without God in the world is the summit and consummation of all guilt: and where is the man who must not plead guilty to that charge? I suppose that no one will be found to arrogate to himself a higher character than that of Job, who, according to the testimony of God himself, was a perfect and upright man: yet did even Job, when led into just views of himself, exclaim, Behold, I am vile! I repent therefore, and abhor myself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 40:4; Job 42:6.].]
This is the spirit which God approves
[This, how unamiable soever it may appear in the eyes of men, is most pleasing in the sight of God. And well it may be so: for it honours Gods Law. The man who is not thus abased before God, declares, in effect, that there is no great evil in disregarding Gods Law, and that there is no occasion for those who have transgressed it to be ashamed. But the truly contrite person who lothes himself for his iniquities, acknowledges that the Law is holy, and just, and good, and that every transgression of it is a just ground for the deepest humiliation.
Moreover, the contrition here spoken of justifies Gods denunciations against sin. The unhumbled sinner says, in effect, God will not execute judgment: nor have I any cause to tremble for his displeasure: and if he were to consign me over to perdition on account of my sins, he would be unmerciful and unjust. On the contrary, the man whose heart is broken bears a very different testimony. He acknowledges that he deserves Gods wrath and indignation; and that, whatever sentence the Judge shall pass upon him, he will be fully justified as not inflicting more than his iniquities have deserved [Note: Psa 51:4.].
Above all, the contrite person manifests a state of mind duly prepared for the reception of the Gospel. What shall I do to be saved [Note: Act 16:30.]? is his cry from day to day: and, when he finds that the Gospel makes known to him a Saviour, O! how gladly does he embrace the proffered mercy! how thankfully does he renounce all hope in himself, and put on him the unspotted robe of Christs righteousness! The unhumbled sinner can hear the glad tidings of salvation without feeling any deep interest in them: but the truly contrite person regards the Saviour, as the man who had accidentally slain a neighbour regarded the city of refuge: he knows that in Christ alone he can find safety; and he has no rest in his soul till he has fled for refuge to the hope set before him.
Thus, whilst the person that is whole feels no need of the physician, the sick and dying patient commits himself entirely to his care, and thankfully follows the regimen he prescribes. Well, therefore, may God approve of him, since he, and he alone, appreciates aright the gift of Gods only dear Son to be the Saviour of the world.]
But it will be proper to inquire,
II.
In what way he will testify his approbation of it
A person bowed down with a sense of sin is ready to fear that God will never shew mercy to one so undeserving of it. But God promises, in our text, that,
1.
He will be nigh unto them that are of a broken heart
[God, being everywhere present, may be supposed to be as near to one person as another. And so he is, if we regard his essence. But there are manifestations of the Divine presence, which the world at large have no conception of, but which are experienced by all who follow after God in the exercise of prayer and faith. The Apostle spoke not in his own person only, but in the person of believers generally, when he said, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are taught to expect, that if we draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to us: he will lift up the light of his countenance upon us: he will shed abroad his love in our hearts: he will enable us to cry with holy confidence, Abba, Father; and will witness with our spirits that we are his.
Is any one disposed to ask, How can these things be? How u it that God will manifest himself to his people, and not unto the world? This is the very question which one of the Apostles put to our Lord; who, in reply, confirmed the truth he had asserted; saying, If any man love me, ho will keep my words: and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him [Note: Joh 14:21-23.].]
2.
He will save those that be of a contrite spirit
[Many are their fears in relation to their final happiness: but God will never suffer so much as one of his little ones to perish. The contrite in particular he will save: for he looketh upon men; and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light [Note: Job 33:24; Job 33:27-28.]. Their temptations maybe many; but He will not suffer them to be tempted above that they are able; but will with the temptation make also for them a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it [Note: 1Co 10:13.]. However numerous or potent their enemies may be, he will deliver them out of the hands of all [Note: Luk 1:74.], and make them more than conquerors over all [Note: Rom 8:37.]. In a word, He will save them with an everlasting salvation; nor shall they be ashamed or confounded world without end [Note: Isa 45:17.].]
But the text leads me rather to shew you,
III.
What present encouragement the very existence of it affords to those in whom it is found
The contrition which has been before described is the fruit and effect of Gods love to the soul
[The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. There is no work of divine grace more difficult than this. The taking away of the stony heart, and the giving a heart of flesh, is a new creation; and discovers as clearly the operation of Omnipotence as the universe itself. It is the very beginning of salvation in the soul. A person under a deep sense of sin is apt to imagine that God will not have mercy upon him: but his very contrition is a proof and evidence that God has already imparted to him his grace. What a reviving consideration is this to the humble penitent! God is nigh thee: he is in the very act of saving thee. Why, then, art thou cast down? Why art thou saying, The Lord hath forsaken and forgotten me? Does the greatness of thy guilt appal thee? Who shewed to thee thy sins? Who opened thine eyes? Who softened thy heart? Who disposed thee to condemn thyself, and to justify thy God? Is this thine own work, or the work of any enemy? Does not the very nature of the work itself constrain thee to say, He that hath wrought me to this self-same thing, is God?]
It is also the earnest and foretaste of your eternal inheritance
[Would God have done such things for thee, if he had designed ultimately to destroy thee [Note: Jdg 13:23.]? These are only as the first-fruits, which sanctified and assured the whole harvest. He has expressly told us, that the gift of his Spirit is an earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession [Note: Eph 1:13-14. See the whole of these assertions confirmed, Psa 91:14-16; Psa 145:18-19.]. You are aware what an earnest is: it is not only a pledge of future blessings, but the actual commencement of them in the soul. And, if you will survey the heavenly hosts, you will find that this very abasement of their souls before God is a striking feature in their character, and a grand constituent of their bliss. They all, with lowliest self-abasement, fall on their faces before the throne of God, whilst, with devoutest acclamations, they ascribe salvation to God and to the Lamb [Note: Rev 5:8-10.]. Learn, then, to view all your feelings in their proper light; so shall you from the eater bring forth meat, and from the strong shall bring forth sweet.]
Let me not, however, conclude without addressing a few words,
1.
To those in whom this spirit is not found
[You, alas! have no part or lot in the blessedness which is prepared for the broken in heart. Look at the Pharisee and the Publican: the one was filled with self-complacency, on account of his own fancied goodness; whilst the other dared not even to lift up his eyes to heaven, on account of his own conscious unworthiness. But it was the latter, and not the former, who found acceptance with God: and in all similar characters shall the same event be realized, as long as the world shall stand. Humble yourselves, therefore, whoever ye be; for in that way only have ye any hope that God shall lift you up [Note: Jam 4:7-8.].]
2.
To those who are dejected by reason of it
[Forget not, I beseech you, for what end the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world: Was it not to bind up the broken heart; and to give to those who mourn in Zion, to give, I say, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness [Note: Isa 61:1-3 and Luk 4:18.]? And, if the greatness of your past sins appear an obstacle in your way, has he not told you, that where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound [Note: Rom 5:20-21.]? Yield not, then, to desponding thoughts, nor limit the mercy of your God: but know assuredly, that he will heal the broken in heart [Note: Psa 147:3.], and that all who come unto the Saviour heavy-laden with their sins shall be partakers of his promised rest [Note: Mat 11:28.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 34:18 The LORD [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Ver. 18. The Lord is nigh unto them, &c. ] More nigh than the bark is to the tree, for he is with them and in them continually; pouring the oil of his grace into these broken vessels, quorum corda peccata eorum non amplius retinent, sed, ut vas fracture, effundunt, saith Aben Ezra here, whose hearts retain not their sins any longer, but pour them out as water before the Lord.
And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
is nigh: Psa 75:1, Psa 85:9, Psa 119:151, Psa 145:18, Isa 55:6
unto them: etc. Heb. to the broken of heart, Psa 51:17, Psa 147:3, Isa 61:1, Luk 4:18
such as: etc. Heb. the contrite of spirit, 2Ki 22:19, Isa 57:15, Isa 66:2, Eze 36:26, Eze 36:31
Reciprocal: 1Sa 26:24 – let him deliver 2Ch 34:27 – thine heart Psa 109:16 – slay Pro 16:19 – to be Jer 44:10 – humbled Joe 2:13 – rend Mat 5:3 – the poor
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 34:18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart Ready to hear and succour them; though, by the course of his providence toward them, he may sometimes seem to themselves and others to stand afar off. God is near to all men; for in him they live: but he is near to the broken in heart, in a peculiar sense, as he is ever ready and able to help them; as men are much more capable of assisting those they value, when present with them than when absent from them; from which this form of speech, as applied to God, is taken. Chandler. And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Those whose spirits are truly humbled under the hand of God, and the sense of their sins, whose hearts are subdued, and made obedient to Gods will, and submissive to his providence.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:18 The LORD [is] nigh unto them that are of a {l} broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
(l) When they seem to be swallowed up with afflictions, then God is at hand to deliver them.