THE LORD HEARS

Psalm 34:4, 6, 15, 17 NKJV 

4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, 

And delivered me from all my fears. 

6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, 

And saved him out of all his troubles. 

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 

And His ears are open to their cry. 

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, 

And delivers them out of all their troubles. 

One of the most beautiful things about God's Word is how alive it is. With the scriptures, you can read them over and over, and different things will stand out to you. Today, the theme that stood out to me was the Lord hears. This is one of my very favorite psalms that I have committed to memory, and yet I never focused on the fact that the Lord hears. 

"I sought the Lord, and He heard me. And delivered me from all my fears." A couple of things stand out. As we seek the Lord, He hears. And not only does He hear, but He delivers me from all my fears. This verse provides comfort on many levels. We do not seek God in vain. We are not wasting time. He hears us when we seek Him. And He delivers us from all our fears so we can bring our fears to Him. The things that strike dread in our hearts are not coming from God. Instead, He is there to hear and to help. 

"This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Another comfort verse is the Lord hears us when we call on Him and is there to save us out of all our troubles. We have to like the words 'all our troubles.' I don't believe the word poor is necessarily referring to material poverty but rather, a poor condition. But money troubles do count as troubles, and He can save us out of money troubles also. 

"The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry." This should take away the idea that the Lord does not see us. The righteous being those in right standing with Him. When we made Jesus our Lord and Savior, we became righteous in His sight, and His eyes are on us. And His ears are open to our cry. It's good to know that the Lord sees us, and the Lord hears us. And regardless of whether we feel it or not, we are living in His presence with His Holy Spirit living in us. We are never far away from Him. 

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles." This is the fourth time we are told that the Lord hears. And the third time, we see that He saves and delivers us from all our troubles. So, we can walk away from this Psalm with a strong sense of the Lord's ability to hear us and deliver us. 

APPLICATION 

Whenever we see a theme repeated, we know the Lord is emphasizing a point. In our case today, the point is that He hears and delivers. Now, we are to mix faith with this Psalm and declare in our own lives that the Lord hears us when we pray. He hears us when we seek Him. He is receptive to us. 

And we can declare that the Lord is delivering us from all our fears. All of us have been touched by fear in our lives. Some of those fears have become deep-rooted. But the Lord knows how to deliver us. 

We are delivered by the Lord who hears out of all our troubles and all our fears. 

PRAYER 

Thank You, Lord, that You hear me and help me. I am not alone.