Psalm 34
" The Lord is nigh to them that are of a contrite heart and will save such as be of an humble spirit ". 

" Near is the Lord to the broken-hearted and the crushed in spirit he rescues "  ( Alter) 

The poet articulates here a moving vision of hope for the desperate.  Part of the spiritual greatness of psalms, part of its enduring appeal through the ages, it that this book of the bible profoundly recognises the bleakness,  the dark terrors, the long nights of despair that shadow most lives and, against all this, evokes the notion of a caring presence that can reach out to the broken hearted. 

In our own time Charlie Brown that famous figure of the in the Shultz cartoons put it this way :
" The daytime is so you can see where you are going.  The night so you can lie awake worrying. 


