God is near our broken hearts!

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

The heart breaks so easily. It can shatter into a thousand precious shards. Some ways the heart breaks:

• Shattered dreams. They could be relational, vocational, or aspirational. But what we hoped to do or be is often broken by brutal reality. It is just not our experience. Our hearts break for the dream that is lost.
• Broken relationships. This is all too common in a day and culture where selfish visions screaming “Fulfill me!” hoist heavy sinful expectations on relationships. That will guarantee a broken heart eventually. But relationships don’t always break from a selfish overload. Often they break from the actions of the other person. Sinners who love sinners will inevitably hurt one another.
• Loss. Hearts will break in grief. We can grieve a hurt or an imperfect situation. We can and should grieve the death of someone we love. And a string of these can leave a person feeling alone, vulnerable, and broken-hearted.

Enough of these experiences can crush a person’s spirit. Some soul-crushing examples:

• Homes dealing with abuse, divorce, or desertion.
• Diseased bodies and minds struggling to get through each day.
• Cultural or societal upheavals like poverty, epidemics, war, famine, political instability, or persecution.

All these heart-breaking, soul-crushing experiences are all too common. But take heart… God is not distant! He is near! 

Jesus suffered with broken-hearted, soul-crushing agony for us, carrying all our sins and sorrows on His cross… wrongs we have done… wrongs done to us. He then rose again over death and death-like experiences. God is near in His Son and in His Holy Spirit. He saves us and mends broken hearts! God rebuilds and refills crushed souls!

It is written

But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 4:4

“It is written…”

those three words

make the devil turn

when the tempter lied

Jesus strongly replied

with “It is written.”

“It is written…”

the Word of God

from the Son of God

silenced temptation

Bringer of salvation

trusted “It is written.”

“It is written…”

So we must

confidently trust

scripture’s power

in our trying hour

believing “It is written.”

“It is written…”

will form our souls

will make us whole

in truth we live

victory He gives

because “It is written.”

watching and waiting safely

O my Strength, I will watch for you,

for you, O God, are my fortress.

My God in his steadfast love will meet me;

God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

Psalm 59:9-10

In times of trial, as we wait for the Lord to deliver us, to make His strength known in our weakness, to hide us in His fortress, we will know a faithfulness even as we wait. The waiting itself becomes sustaining. I have known this in ways deeper than I ever thought possible. God is near in the waiting. That nearness produces confidence in our faith.

David wrote this psalm from a specific circumstance. It was composed during that awful time before David’s kingship, when Saul was bent on killing him. The jealous rage of a commander-in-chief who had become unhinged had put David’s home under military surveillance. David thus could not go home. He had to hide. But David hid not in caves or the wilderness alone, but in the protective care of God. He fell back in faith into the fortress of His God. 

This was not a retreat of defeat. This was a turn to trust that hoped for the future triumph of God over anything that opposed David. David believed God Who had already anointed him king and made promises to David. He let God handle the details of his defense even as it looked like the system was irreversibly stacked against him.

Saul’s mania and minions would all run their course. The jealous king would eventually die by his own hand, wounded in battle against Israel’s foes. Saul would fail in his campaign against God’s plan. And in God’s timing, the forces aligned against David fell in one day. David’s wait, in faith, was well worth it when God’s timing came.

And so when we watch for God to work, let us take heart from this psalm of praise. God will surround us with His protection as we do so. God’s grace and power will lead us beyond the trial if we only stay faithful and lean in!

the well-pleasing Son

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

Matthew 3:15

When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized, John first prevented it claiming it was he who needed to submit to baptism by Jesus. But Jesus, the greater authority, explained to John, the lesser authority, just why he needed to do so. Jesus and John would “fulfill all righteousness” by Jesus’ baptism. There was something big going on. It wasn’t that Jesus was out of place to be baptized by John, rather it was that both of them would obey an even greater authority, God the Father.

The was immediately known after Jesus was baptized. The Spirit of God rested on Jesus like a dove. The voice of the Father from heaven proclaimed Jesus as “my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mathew 3:17). All righteousness was fulfilled as Jesus began His public ministry, confirmed by John the Baptist, by the Holy Spirit’s presence, and by the Father Himself.

Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. He did every righteous act revealed by God and demanded by the Law. His baptism showed the Father’s approval from the very beginning. This was going to continue all through His ministry in His teaching, healings, and by His miracles. It would culminate in His crucifixion to die for our sins to satisfy God, defeating death and sin by His obedient victory over sin’s curses forever! Jesus fulfilled all righteousness so that all who trust now in Him receive His righteousness by faith and come to the Father by the well-pleasing Son.

In His temple

The LORD is in his holy temple;

the LORD'S throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

Psalm 11:4

The Lord is in His holy temple

enthroned above

yet moved by love

He sees me

He redeems me

He frees me

The Lord is in His holy temple

from Holy place

He gives His grace

He sees us

He redeems us

through Jesus

The Lord came from His holy temple

life from on high

came here to die

to be here

draw us near

to break fear

The Lord returned to His holy temple

victory won

salvation done

free from the grave

our souls to save

no longer enslaved

The Lord dwells in His holy temple

His Spirit He gives

as in us He lives

He dwells within

He helps us win

no longer in sin

The Lord is in His holy temple!

God’s justice is poetic justice.

The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;

the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

Psalm 9:16

The best justice is poetic justice and that is exactly how God’s judgment of the wicked works. The wickedness ends by the consequences playing out. The wages of sin is death. The justice is meted by the way in which evil falls by its own fatal actions. It burns itself out of fuel. It pushes limits until disease, derailment, derangement, downfall, or detonation end things inescapably. God’s justice prevails.

What bothers us as those whose lives must bear witness to evil events is that our perspective is limited. We do not see how the trap has been laid. We might live to see evil ensnared by a just set of ironies. We might not. But we must still believe that a merciful God gives every chance for the wicked to repent before they are brought to hell-bound ruin by their own actions. When it happens though, they will fall into pits dug for others and slip in forgotten nets hidden by their own deceit.

Lord,

I trust Your ways (Psalm 9:18-20). I wait for Your poetic justice. I know You will not let man prevail because all nations will answer in judgment to You. The needy are not forgotten by You and the hope of the poor shall not perish no matter what governments, communities, or hate groups will do. You let the nations know they are mere men and in ironic justice they will fall in their own sinful traps.

Amen

One named Jesus

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1:21

It was Joseph who was instructed to name Jesus. The righteous and just Joseph, who would be asked to be earthly father to the Son of God was given this honor to name Jesus, with the revelation that this was no mere child. Jesus was the Savior of His people. This saving work was unlike that of any previous king, judge, or deliverer from Israel’s past. Jesus would deliver from sin… a task no other earthly king could ever do.

Jesus is named a Savior while still in the womb of Mary. He is revealed to save from sins even as His earthly home is being pieced together in order to prepare for Him. The Son of God is already going to save before His first breath would be drawn in that Bethlehem manger. And his parents had to accept the enormous gift and responsibility for that coming salvation even as the fearful task of raising a sin-savior-son came to them.

Lord Jesus,

Joseph called Your name Jesus as the angel instructed him because he believed the Word of the Lord… that You would save Your people from their sins. This morning as I pray in grateful wonder because I am one whom You have delivered, I realize that although You are the world’s Savior, You are uniquely my Savior. I wrestle with my constant reminder of my need for You. I am indeed a sinner. I am a believer too. I trust You for saving grace. And I am still sadly quite broken. Honestly, a fitful night tossed around in that brokenness has me right where I need to be in appreciation for Your saving work. I am so broken that I screw up even my closest relationships with selfish nearsightedness that wounds others. And I am blind to it. It hurts when I realize I have done it. I need saving from myself. I need You, Jesus, to save me from myself… to save me from my sin. Thank God there is One named Jesus!

Amen