Sovereign Grace Church Toronto

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. Psalm 34:18-19

There are many things that can break our hearts. When we suffer loss of those things we love and consider precious, our hearts break. This is especially true when these losses are not recoverable. It is interesting that John chooses this section and applies it to Christ’s sufferings (John 19:36 from Ps 34:20). The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit by being broken and crushed on the cross that He might draw near. The nearness of our God to us came at a terrible cost.

He was crushed that he might comfort. He was broken that he might bless. And that blessing does not guarantee the absence of afflictions, for we are promised MANY afflictions. Rather the blessing is that the afflictions are not the last word. God’s action on our behalf is always the last word! (Isa 43:2)

Pastor Tim Kerr

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 34:4-5

The deepest recesses of many hearts are governed by fear. Many fears. Fear is a debilitating captivity. Anxious thoughts torment the soul. They rob us of sleep. Fears lie underneath many actions and reactions of the mind, mouth, and life. Fear motivates more of what we do, and don’t do, than we think. It’s like a rudder for the ship of the soul.

We seem to be unable to address this area of our lives. It lies too deep and secretly in the heart (Jer 17:9-10). We need saving from the outside.

This profound mercy is available to each of us if we pray about it! Christ is the great fear-crusher (Heb 2:14-15). Have you told Him about your fears? If not, why not? Why not “look to him” for deliverance? “ALL my fears”—Wonderful to contemplate isn’t it!

Pastor Tim Kerr

Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. Psalm 31:19-21

It is disconcerting to know that there are some who spend their time planning the misfortune of others. They “plot” the downfall of believers. They speak evil against them with “the strife of tongues”. They seek to “besiege” them so that they are living on the defensive, unable to carry on with their lives. These people live for others—but in the wrong way. Not to love but to hurt them. They are the human captives and instruments of evil spirit beings.   (Eph 6:12).

But there is good news in this war. While the war is raging, God is protecting and giving out his ample supplies of goodness and steadfast love. While the enemy is hating us, God is loving us. And just as light always overcomes darkness, so love always triumphs over hatred! (Rom 12:21)

Pastor Tim Kerr

I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Psalm 31:7-8

Note the 4 occurrences of “you have” in these two verses. Now note the response of “I will”. Joy is a choice toward God resting on God’s prior choices toward us. Our obedience always flows from God’s prior provisions! Yet we must choose to rejoice. God does many things for us, but rejoicing for us is not one of them!

Pastor Tim Kerr

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Psalm 30:5

Let us put to rest forever the idea that God is some sort of irritable deity, upset and disappointed with his children most of the time with only momentary glimpses of kindness or care. This is such a false view of God, especially in light of the cross! We are guilty of making God in our image and defining him by our tendencies rather than by Scripture’s revelation of him.

Think of the difference between a moment and a lifetime. Which option would you choose for the time span of experiencing God’s anger? Which would you choose for the time span of experiencing God’s favour? Why are we so slow to believe that God is like this? Does our distorted view speak more about God’s character, or our own? What does it reveal?

Pastor Tim Kerr

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. Psalm 27:10

To experience rejection is hard but to be rejected by one’s own parents is devastating. Yet even if we experience life’s most bitter rejection there is One who will “take us in”. He was despised and rejected by men (Isa 53:3) and therefore is able to sympathize with the pain of  rejection (Heb 4:15-16). There is nothing better than to be accepted and welcomed by God! So we also are to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God” (Rom 15:7)

Pastor Tim Kerr

Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. Psalm 25:8

This verse is puzzling because it tells us what we would not expect. We might expect it to say “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs the good and upright” or “good and upright is the LORD; therefore sinners better beware!”. But instead of that we find something counter-intuitive—BECAUSE God is good and upright, he moves toward sinners and instructs them! Even sinners are repelled by sinners. Separations of friendships, of families, of spouses, of churches, of denominations, of even countries, are because sinners are repelled by each other.

But God is so different. Part of his goodness is that he moves toward and instructs and helps those which have no rightful claim on him. Every time we open the Scriptures, we can come with the confidence that God will instruct us—for he is good and upright and we are sinners. Both qualifications are met each time we look to him for instruction. What a promise!

Pastor Tim Kerr

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6

Here is another example of God’s generous heart. Because the Shepherd is ever present with us, goodness and mercy are always in the picture. The promise says “all” the days on my life. Not some. Not even most. All means all. This very day. But how can this be? What about the days of blackness, sorrow, and heartbreak? What about when sin clouds the day, whether our sin or other’s? What, then, of this goodness and mercy?!

Especially then. Surely the darkest day in all of history, the greatest act of injustice, was the day Christ was executed as a criminal—as a blasphemer. Surely a day with no mercy and no goodness. Or perhaps the greatest door to mercy and goodness the world has ever known!

Pastor Tim Kerr

You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. Psalm 18:36

God is never stingy. Never ever. One of Satan’s biggest lies is that God is trying to squeeze us but never bless us—that he loves to hammer us, but is a stingy miser when it comes to giving anything to us. We imagine God is like the man described in Proverbs:

Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Proverbs 23:6-7

This is at the heart of so many of our problems—we have a miserly view of God. The reality is that God is the kindest and most generous person you will ever meet! What are some clear proofs of God’s wide and generous heart? (see Gen 1:27-28, Isa 55:6-9, Romans 8:31-32, Rev 21:4-6)

“A wide place” is another way of speaking about God’s grace—abundant grace. Enough provision for every trial and temptation. If our eyes are on the path we will find it is always enough to carry us to safety.

Pastor Tim Kerr

For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness. Psalm 18:28

A lamp is useless without light. It is made for light—that is its purpose but it cannot make its own light. It is just a carrier of light. It must be lit from outside itself. Darkness always yields to light. We never turn on the darkness. Darkness is simply the absence of light. Where light is present, darkness is absent. There is no struggle—darkness always yields to light. There is no volitional button that we can activate to produce light. We can only be lit. Therefore we are dependent creatures. But remember this, He who lights looks at what is being lit. Attentive enablement!

Pastor Tim Kerr