The Comfort of God’s Name
I have a number of friends and family members who are artists. Going to an art gallery with them is an education. They help me to see things and understand things that are there for all to enjoy, but they have developed the eye to see them. Fortunately, they can show me the way. God reveals himself in His names. His names are like an art gallery where He displays the glory of his character and ways. Each name, another exquisite painting hanging in the context of a Bible narrative to give us a glimpse of the most beautiful being in the universe—God Almighty Himself. Think of the Bible as the L’ourve Museum of God. In its pages, He, the grand artist paints masterpiece after masterpiece with the words and grammar of three different languages as His brush and the mixed-mediums of 66 different contexts as his canvases.
When His word declares in Psalm 34:18 that
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit”
ddddddddddddd ddddddddddddddddddd it is a word that tells us that God is compassionate and aware of our situation. He is aware of the tears running down our cheeks in the darkness when we are alone with our losses and disappointments, our bereavements and experienced betrayals, our reversals and abandonments. Broken hearts do not repulse Him. He is not like us. He is not awkward in the presence of tears. He is drawn to the brokenhearted. He is near to them. Jeremiah 23:23 is another window into this truth. The LORD declares it in the form of a question, “Am I a God who is near . . . and not a God far off?” The point is, that He is both a God who is near and a God who is at all places we might go or have ever been. No place is too far for Him not to draw near.
So when He says to us in Psalm 58:6 . . .
You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
Ppppppppppppppppppppppp it is more than a metaphor. It is God declaring with a picture, a painting if you will, of His compassion that no matter where we have wandered in life, no matter how our wandering has broken us and hurt us and saturated us with sorrow and longing, He has been near. He has been there for us and sought to draw us near to Him.
And being near to Him is to know that “. . . God is my (our) helper; The LORD is the sustainer of my (our) soul (Psalm 54:4). It is an encouragement to “trust in Him at all times,” and to “pour out our hearts before Him” because we know “He is a refuge” we can trust (Psalm 62:8). And we learn to say “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the LORD God my refuge,” with the result being that we delight “tell of all His works” (Psalm 73:28).
Let us be a people who remember, always remember . . .
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
And let us always cultivate what Paul exhorted us toward in Philippians 4:5:
5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
And let us call on Him, for . . .
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth. (Psalm 145:18)
Everywhere in Scripture, God is painting pictures for us, inviting us to His nearness in all the sorrows and joys of life. What we all need to learn is how to view the art gallery that will show us the way,
to Him.
I want to invite you to study and meditate on the word of God. It will change your life. It certainly has changed mine. Perhaps my last book will help. The Ultimate Book of Names is available on Amazon at this LINK.
ChosenRebel's Blog 