John Calvin Commentary Psalms 34:18

"Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, And saveth such as are of a contrite spirit." — Psalms 34:18 (ASV)

Jehovah is near to those who are broken of heart. David here exemplifies and further extends the preceding doctrine: that God is the deliverer of his people, even when they are brought very low and are, as it were, half-dead.

It is a very severe trial when the grace of God is delayed, and all experience of it is so far withdrawn that our spirits begin to fail. Indeed, to say that God is near to the faithful, even when their hearts faint and fail them and they are ready to die, is completely unbelievable to human sense and reason.

But by this means his power shines forth more clearly when he raises us up again from the grave. Moreover, it is fitting that the faithful should be thus utterly cast down and afflicted, so that they may breathe again in God alone.

From this we also learn that nothing is more opposed to true patience than the loftiness of heart of which the Stoics boast. For we are not considered truly humbled until true affliction of heart has humbled us before God, so that, having prostrated ourselves in the dust before him, he may raise us up.

It is a doctrine full of the sweetest consolation that God does not depart from us, even when we are overwhelmed by a succession of miseries and, as it were, almost deprived of life.