"This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." (Psalm 34:6) Here a man gives testimony by the Spirit of God that he cried out to God and God heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Oh to be heard of God and delivered by God! Who was this man? He was a "poor man." His poverty was a poverty of spirit. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt.5:3) The Psalmist continues in vs. 18, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." The most earnest and continued cries to God come from His people in the poverty of their afflictions, trials and persecutions. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" that bring them to great depths of spirit; but from this deep they cry out to God and "the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Charles Spurgeon wrote, "There is no cry so good as that which comes from the bottom of the mountains; no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depth of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions." From a "horrible pit" or "out of the depths" they cry and the Lord hears. He hears with the ear of compassion, with the heart of love, with the mind of wisdom and with the hand of power and He delivers us. We wait in that confidence and cry out to Him and Him alone to rescue us. In the depths we are stripped of all confidence in self and in the arm of the flesh. There is no other help, no other god but the Lord God. He sends His angel and the "angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." We cry out to God in the depths, He delivers and we praise Him; that is why He in His wise providence brings us to this deep. In Psalm 34 we are made to know the reality of the sufferings of God's people. But we are also assured that His deliverances are equal to them! Where are you child of God? In great poverty of spirit? Cry out to Him who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, the throne of grace. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." Cry out to God from where you are. With broken heart and contrite spirit continue to cry out. He hears and will deliver you from all trouble!

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: