Near to the Broken-Hearted

Two of the most quoted lines in the Psalter live in this Psalm, and they belong together. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" and "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Notice the order. The invitation to taste is offered to those whose mouths are bitter. The promise of nearness is for those whose hearts have been broken. The Psalter does not require us to be whole before we come; it tells us that brokenness is the very thing that puts us close to God. The broken-hearted are not far from Him; they are near. The crushed in spirit are not abandoned; they are saved. Whatever else this Psalm does, it tears down the suspicion that God only meets the people whose lives are tidy.

There is one Heart in human history that knew the full taste of the goodness of God, and that Heart was broken on a cross. The Lord Jesus was crushed in spirit in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. And it is in His broken-heartedness for us that He is nearest of all — near enough to be in our skin, near enough to be in our death. The apostle Peter remembered Psalm 34:8 and wrote, "If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" — and the Lord he meant was Jesus. To taste the goodness of God is now to taste the bread of His body and the cup of His blood; to see that He is good is now to see the wounds in His hands. So when you come to this Psalm broken, you come to the right Christ. He is near. He is the goodness you are invited to taste. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; the table of the Lord is its banquet.