They are many

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He keeps all his bones, not one is broken."

-Psalm 34:18-20

As I lay in my bunk the other night en route from Vegas to Albaquerque, I opened up my bible app (hah) on my phone and that was the first passage I saw. Again, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all." I don't know how things progress in your walk, but for me, it helps to be reminded, actually, that I will face many afflictions, because I most certainly do. The big battles, the small battles, they are all intertwined in my pursuit of my savior. That was the key verse for me. Verse 19. That no matter what, we have the promise of deliverance from those trials through the saving graces of our heavenly father. Now for David, the author of this particular Psalm, it was written in leaving one dangerous situation and arriving at another. In 1 Samuel 21, it speaks of how he was fleeing from Saul in fear of his life, and fled towards the Philistines. Upon arriving there, the Philistines said, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?" At this point, David has got to be thinking... crap. I ran from one man and my reputation here precedes me, this men want to kill me. The key here is that David, in recognition of his futile attempts of evasion, finally let go of trying to do it himself and prays to his God, to our God. Thus, God delivers him from the Philistines. And, thus, the source of his praise in Psalm 34.

God is near to you, to me, when our spirits are crushed. If you think this life is a cakewalk, especially the christian one, you are drastically incorrect. But God promises deliverance, and he is aware that your afflictions are many. Also, think of the perfection of our savior, not one bone is broken, he keeps them all. Think of that. That prophecy is fulfilled, Christ walked this earth and never broke a bone, and there is a strong significance to me in that. It speaks to the purity of Christ, and the impurity of us. The depravity we are born into. Don't misinterpret me. I am not bashing humanity and saying we are worthless. I am simply recognizing the fact that due to the nature of this earth and due to our own nature, affliction, sin, despair... is an inevitability. And as David had to, you and I must be reminded to see that God delivers us FROM THEM ALL. Not one, not many, but all. What a reassurance!