The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the broken-hearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
    but the Lord delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
    not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked;
    the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord will rescue his servants;
    no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. NIVUK

As in earlier verses, the closing paragraphs of this psalm give more than ample encouragement to ‘take it to the Lord in prayer.’

‘The onset of trouble must be matched by the onset of prayer and the prayer of the righteous summons the God of deliverance to our aid (17).’ Alec Motyer

Tom Hale writes, ‘Nowhere does David (or the Bible) promise that the righteous will be free of trouble. What David does teach is that God will be present with the righteous in their troubles, and that in due time He will deliver them from their troubles…In verse 20, David says that the Lord protects all the righteous man’s bones, not one of them will be broken. This is a way of saying that the Lord will protect and care for the righteous man’s body. In a literal sense, this protection was also given to Jesus, the most righteous man who ever lived; not one of his bones was broken (John 19:32-33,36).’

We can take comfort from verse 18. What a precious truth. God is not distant from us in our troubles. His ‘watching’ and ‘hearing’ (15) are not from some aloof position. The word ”close” apparently suggests a ‘Next of Kin’ relationship. We need to hold these truths about God ‘in tension’: that He is transcendent (high above and beyond us) yet also immanent (close and nearby).

”For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

Another hymn that comes to mind as I read these verses is, ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’ by Frances Ridley Havergal. I think, seeing the stark alternatives spelled out in our text, who not want to respond with these sentiments?

”By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Saviour, we are Thine!”