Nearness and Consolation in Sorrows (Verse 19)

Ps. 33:19. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and will save the humble in spirit.

Holy David intensifies the expression of God’s favor toward the righteous. To one thinking that God sees and hears, it may still seem that He is far away and the righteous man remains alone, surrounded by what is hostile to him, and therefore cannot be free from fear and agitation. The holy Prophet says here: do not fear, the Lord is near! You are under His shelter; His right hand covers you, and no enemy can come near you. This is what the Lord Himself says through the prophet Jeremiah: I am a God who draws near, and not a God from afar (Jer. 23:23). He promises the same in the ninetieth psalm, saying of the righteous man: I am with him in his tribulation (Ps. 90:15). So a mother comforts a fearful child, saying: I am with you, do not be afraid!

The Lord is near everywhere, as the omnipresent One! But here a special nearness of His to the righteous is indicated. And this special quality depends on the special way in which the hearts of the righteous turn to the Lord. It is their broken and humble heart that draws the Lord near and draws from Him an abundance of mercies. The self-assured, self-reliant person makes even the near Lord far from himself; and therefore all his supports break like a broken reed. “God is high,” says Blessed Augustine, “let the Christian humble himself therefore! If you wish the high God to be near you, abase yourself and be humble. A great mystery is here! God is above all. However high you raise yourself, you will not reach Him. Be humble, and He Himself will descend to you.” Saint Basil the Great puts these words in the mouth of David at this point: “the Lord is near! To you I say this, you who are humble and have broken your self-conceit—to gladden you and to lead you into patience. Whoever is free from all pride and takes no glory in any human thing is both brokenhearted and humble in spirit.” Blessed Theodoret likewise sees in the brokenhearted those who are governed by modest thoughts about themselves; for which the Lord especially shows Himself near to them and with favor receives their prayers.

Brokenhearted is also the one whose heart is shattered by grief—and humble in spirit the one whose spirit is lowered by the weight of afflictions. Taken together, both terms signify the person who sees everything around and within himself in ruin, who finds no support for himself either within or outside himself. Therefore in brokenness and humility, having cast all his hope upon the Lord alone, he cries out to Him day and night for help. It is precisely this complete casting of all hope upon the Lord alone that draws the Lord near to him and makes Him especially close to him, swift to help; for a broken and humble heart God will not despise (Ps. 50:19). The Lord is near, and saves. I will shelter him, He Himself says, I will deliver him and glorify him (Ps. 90:14–15); showing that in the hour of oppression and persecution, when righteous people cry out to Him in brokenness of heart, God does not abandon them, but remains with them unceasingly by His grace, granting endurance and tempering it with heavenly consolation, so that they may bear courageously the sufferings that have come upon them; and at times He delivers them altogether from all oppression and affliction and, after the darkness of sorrow, illumines them with the light of joy (Irenaeus, Archbishop of Pskov).

Since our sins become the partition wall that separates us from God, and since this wall is broken down by penitent contrition and humble confession of sins, when it is said that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted, nothing prevents us from thinking here also of the nearness to which the penitent are made worthy. We depart from God when we give ourselves over to sin and passions. We return to Him when we repent, humble ourselves, and mourn our sins in contrition. Then the merciful Lord comes out to meet us, receives us into His fatherly embrace, kisses us, and restores all that was lost. To those who are contrite over their sins one must especially remind that the Lord is near them, because in moments of strong contrition the enemy often sows thoughts of despair: you are lost; the Lord has rejected you. And so it is said to such a one: as soon as you have been contrite, the Lord is already near you. Do not despair. Beginning in repentance, contrition of heart does not afterward leave one who has come to fear the Lord, on all the paths of a corrected or well-ordered life. Therefore Saint Basil the Great says: “contrition of heart is the destruction of human thoughts. Whoever has despised the present, surrendered himself to the will of God, and consecrated the ruling part within himself—the mind—to thoughts that are above human and divine, will have a broken heart and make it a sacrifice not despised by the Lord.”

It is not out of place here to adduce the observation of Saint Basil the Great regarding the strange order—or disorder—noticed in human thoughts: “properly speaking, the one who walks in sin is humble (abased), because nothing humbles so much as sin. Those who have lost the loftiness of soul and have been cast down by sin to the earth and as it were nailed to the earth, who bend like a crawling serpent and are no longer able to come to an upright position—these are properly humble (abased, trampled upon). Yet they themselves are all the while high-minded and will by no means consent to acknowledge their abasement. On the contrary, those who have been delivered by grace from the captivity of sin and have advanced in goodness—those who have consequently recovered their true dignity—these humble themselves voluntarily, calling themselves with the Apostle servants of every person in Christ (2Cor. 4:5), the offscouring of the world, all men’s refuse (1Cor. 4:13). Yet these, being last in their own feelings about themselves, are first in the eyes of God. And the Lord calls them blessed, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3).”